[Bennyboy71]

A colleague at work recently went to The Gadget Show Live (for those of you who live outside the UK, this is a real-life exhibition that takes place in Birmingham over a weekend, based on the Channel 4 UK programme of the same name that features a demographic cross-section of black man / hot chick / bald geek / old fella presenters). She knows how mentally obsessed I am with earphones and music and when she came back to office she commented on the huge range of earphones that were on display.

This got me thinking about the huuuuge growth in popularity of portable music players in recent years, and how thats obviously lead to a concomitant interest from audio companies in launching whole ranges of competing iems, aimed at all sorts of different music listeners, from bassheads at the lower-end of the market to serious audiophiles at the top.

You only have to look at Monster's ridiculously named range of iems to realise we're witnessing an unprecendented choice these days.

But, my question is this: is this a good or a bad thing? Can one ever have too much choice? Will sites such as head-fi be diluted by kids asking if the new Miley Cyrus Aural Pleasuraz are a great buy for $8.60? Will competion drive prices down and quality up? Will there be an Inner-Space Race amongst producers to patent newer, ever-more fanciful technologies? Will this inevitably lead to the likes of Apple and Sony buying up smaller companies (a la Logitech and Ultimate Ears)?

I havent got a clue to be honest, but I'd be interested in your thoughts. Perhaps we should launch an international conference with symposia and keynote speakers from the industry and the geek world to discuss all of this? Or maybe we should all just lie back and enjoy the music and stop thinking?

 

[syn_fx]

Competition has historically lead to faster innovation, there is no reason to doubt this will not hold in the field of IEMs.

The only real issues is that reviews and preferences have a degree of subjectivity due to the fact that people like different things, and sometimes hear differently - this means that it's more difficult to single out winners. This means profit incetives might not be as strong as in some other markets.

 

[Aeneas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bennyboy71 /img/forum/go_quote.gif A colleague at work recently went to The Gadget Show Live (for those of you who live outside the UK, this is a real-life exhibition that takes place in Birmingham over a weekend, based on the Channel 4 UK programme of the same name that features a demographic cross-section of black man / hot chick / bald geek / old fella presenters). She knows how mentally obsessed I am with earphones and music and when she came back to office she commented on the huge range of earphones that were on display. This got me thinking about the huuuuge growth in popularity of portable music players in recent years, and how thats obviously lead to a concomitant interest from audio companies in launching whole ranges of competing iems, aimed at all sorts of different music listeners, from bassheads at the lower-end of the market to serious audiophiles at the top. You only have to look at Monster's ridiculously named range of iems to realise we're witnessing an unprecendented choice these days. But, my question is this: is this a good or a bad thing? Can one ever have too much choice? Will sites such as head-fi be diluted by kids asking if the new Miley Cyrus Aural Pleasuraz are a great buy for $8.60? Will competion drive prices down and quality up? Will there be an Inner-Space Race amongst producers to patent newer, ever-more fanciful technologies? Will this inevitably lead to the likes of Apple and Sony buying up smaller companies (a la Logitech and Ultimate Ears)? I havent got a clue to be honest, but I'd be interested in your thoughts. Perhaps we should launch an international conference with symposia and keynote speakers from the industry and the geek world to discuss all of this? Or maybe we should all just lie back and enjoy the music and stop thinking?

Were the earphones available to try on - for more than a few minutes?
Trying out IEMs is near-impossible in the UK!

 

[Marcus_C]

I agree, there is far more choice than even one year ago, although the gadget show is on channel 5 not channel 4!

I think, unless you want to make a quick decision, it's got to be a good thing, I doubt head-fi will get many more requests like that though as I think there are two distinct markets in budget earphones; fashion, and slightly better than stock buds. Also people tend to care less about quality the less they spend.

I hope that the more people who care about the quality of their portable audio, the more money will be spent on research/products but it doesn't always follow and the buying up of small companies is not something i'd want. There's something not quite right about Apple ES3X and Sony 13pro

 

[Jack Kontney]

IMO, there is precious little innovation going on. The expansion of choices is really about marketing hype at this point, especially in universal fit. I see this proliferation of brands and models as little more than a rich source of confusion. Many of these products are differentiated mainly by cosmetics and packaging; audio almost seems like an afterthought. Still, should be good for the price-conscious.

 

[Galatian]

It is really no surprise that many manufactors jump on the IEM wagon, especially when you look at full customs, you can see how much money a firm can own on those. I mean using a laser to scan in your impressions and then put in some actually fairly cheap balanced drivers is not expensive to produce. Take in the fact that there has not been a real technical invention in IEMs lately meaning you really only have two choices on the drivers and then you might spice it up with a frequency switch on the more expensive models, but still production and research cost should not be very high, so all manufactors are earning big time on IEMs. Does it come as a surprise now, that more firms
are making IEMs now? I think not. One can only hope that the overall price range will drop as the market should be fairly saturated soon.

 

[syn_fx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Kontney /img/forum/go_quote.gif IMO, there is precious little innovation going on. The expansion of choices is really about marketing hype at this point, especially in universal fit. I see this proliferation of brands and models as little more than a rich source of confusion. Many of these products are differentiated mainly by cosmetics and packaging; audio almost seems like an afterthought. Still, should be good for the price-conscious.

I'm not sure I follow you at all. Drivers using new technology are being made, the products that have benefited them (like the Ortfons) have had a lot of people prasie them for their sound quality, even before they knew that the driver were different (most people who listen to them still don't know what driver they use - they like them for the sound). That is a direct example of innovation, not marketing.

That's just one example. There are plenty of others.

 

[semisight]

Quote:

Originally Posted by syn_fx /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not sure I follow you at all. Drivers using new technology are being made, the products that have benefited them (like the Ortfons) have had a lot of people prasie them for their sound quality, even before they knew that the driver were different (most people who listen to them still don't know what driver they use - they like them for the sound). That is a direct example of innovation, not marketing. That's just one example. There are plenty of others.

I agree, although it isn't happening at the rate it should be (the only two hybrid drivers I know of are in the Grado GR8 and the Ortofon E-Q7).

The other benefit to competition and diversity is the subsequent reduction in prices. The detail freak usually had only a few real options, generally etymotics or customs. Now you can get all sorts of IEMs from the RE0s on the cheaper end to Ortofons and the MTPC on the high end for universal fit, two of which actually use dynamic drivers which were previously considered inferior to the resolving power of a good BA phone. To add to this, bargain IEMs have seen huge improvements with the introduction of the Me-electronics series and its competitors.

 

[v2p]

Another thing to add to this (im only sure about the UK) is that the high range of choices of IEM's are not easily available in real life and are much more easier to obtain on the internet. Do you think one day whole ranges of higher quality/ expensive IEM's will be comercially available in most stores.

 

[LFF]

Greater choice means better prices and better innovation through out the industry. Just look at the DBA-02 from Fischer Audio. They are under $200 and kill the SE530's which are more than double the price. These are really exciting times for headphone/IEM lovers.

 

[rawrster]

Well I wouldn't buy the SE530 at anywhere near $400 since they are much cheaper elsewhere and closer to $250 but that's another story..

I'll say this about this topic. The more competition the better. It may be harder for those new to this scene to find a good earphone but the more competition the better. That means things are getting better and cheaper. If you look at iem's a few years ago there was a clear top tier in 3 or 4 iem's. Now look at the market and there's a ton and I mean a ton of them. You have more choices and lower cost. What more could you want as a consumer? It's a great time to be a iem consumer imo.

Just look at this..a couple years ago you got TF10, SE530, UM2, ER4P with all of them being in the $300 range with the exception of ER4P. Now look at the market and you got those with UM3X, W3, e-Q7, CK10, Golds, Coppers, MD's..you get the point by now don't you and the best part is that the majority of them can be under $300.

 

[sadhanaputra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bennyboy71 /img/forum/go_quote.gif But, my question is this: is this a good or a bad thing?

Generally a good thing for the consumers, a bad thing for the producers, and confusing for the audio stores

Quote:

Can one ever have too much choice? Will sites such as head-fi be diluted by kids asking if the new Miley Cyrus Aural Pleasuraz are a great buy for $8.60?

Increasing variety of threads? Sure. Not necessarily a bad thing, though.

We'd probly have to make another subforum based on price, tho, so the guys 'higher up' won't have to be annoyed by the questions about the lowly Pleasuraz

Quote:

Will competion drive prices down and quality up?

That is the trend, yes.

Quote:

Will there be an Inner-Space Race amongst producers to patent newer, ever-more fanciful technologies? Will this inevitably lead to the likes of Apple and Sony buying up smaller companies (a la Logitech and Ultimate Ears)?

Well, I don't think the technology would be the focal point as much as the utility of that technology and (the thing that makes waves lately) the pricing of the products.
The DBA-02 caused an upstir IMHO mainly because:
1. It is from a previously unknown company. We love stories like this, from Luke Skywalker and his Jedi abilities to the Fischer Audio and their Eterna and DBA-02. It is (what every marketer dreams of achieving) exciting

2. The quality

rice ratio is much better than the encumbent's offerings.

About the acquisition, well, it is a messy business. Added with the 'legend' that technology companies' M&A usually don't end well, I don't think we're gonna see a lot of M&A.

Quote:

I havent got a clue to be honest, but I'd be interested in your thoughts. Perhaps we should launch an international conference with symposia and keynote speakers from the industry and the geek world to discuss all of this? Or maybe we should all just lie back and enjoy the music and stop thinking?

I vote for lie back and enjoy the music

 

[koonhua90]

More choices and competition is generally good, as companies will have to compete in a more intense market, and to do so, they have to produce better product. To build better product, they have to do more R&D. As the market blooms, more and more players will chip in and introduce their own IEMs. But at a certain point, it will saturate, and when that happens, the less competitive players will lose out or ended up being swallowed by bigger companies. The whole thing is like a chain reaction, or sort of like a cycle.

Who knows, with the advent of technology, maybe there will be a day where IEM is not needed anymore. Everyone can just enjoy whatever music they like by just having wires hooked up to their body

 

[Young Spade]

It's going to get better and better. I remember joining almost two years ago and there not being nowhere near as many choices as there are now. Now we have all of those top tier threads along with extensive reviews, charts, and shoot outs.

If things keep going the way they are now, there's no telling what will happen in the future. I'm just waiting for the 4 driver universals

 

[TheGame21x]

Competition is indeed a wonderful thing and it looks like things are just going to get better from here!