NiToNi
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2004
- Posts
- 96
- Likes
- 60
The inflation in headphones prices is running amok. It's not that long time ago that "flagship" headphones, like HD600 and its predecessors, cost below $500... and that was considered quite rich for a pair of cans at the time. Sure, Stax was the odd one out, with some of its offerings costing an order of magnitude more, but they were always more of an exotic singularity than a real-world alternative. And there were some other pricey offerings, such as K1000 and the various hardwood cupped Denons, but the median price for a pair of high-end cans was still solidly anchored to earth.
It was around this time that the mainstream interest for headphones started to grow exponentially. This was of course driven in part by the younger generations affinity for portability and convenience but in no small part also for budgetary reasons. Young people tend to have less money (I know, it's unfair) but I don't think this is the only reason because most MP3 youngsters couldn't give a rat's arse to the quality and experience afforded by high-end audio. Instead, I think there was also a mass exodus of audiophiles and enthusiasts from traditional home audio that for a decade or so had experienced a tremendous inflation in hi-fi gear (e.g. compare the cost of a pair of B&W 801 Matrix to the same mfg's flagship today, in real dollars... not to mention those +$1m offerings from other more "exotic" producers...). This development, not saved for long by the attempt to migrate and reignite the interest of the crowd over to home theater (which quickly got even more costly if you wanted to maintain quality), IMHO played a big part in if not killing then at least decimating the interest and potential consumers in the high-end home audio space. The flight to the headphone space was I believe very much a reaction to this development, this feeling of abandonment, inaccessibility and greed by the audio manufacturers.
This is also why it worries me so much that we have been seeing the same development in personal audio of late. Since the HD650 (which was a more acceptable price increase over the HD600), it's just got ridiculous, with big jumps in price (typically 50-100% for each new generation, every 12-24mo) first with $1,000-1,500 offerings (Audeze's and HifiMan's first models being good cases in point), "forcing" also Senn to follow suit with the HD800 (because you don't want your offering to come across as inferior based on price alone, now do you?). Consequently, the others had to up their game so to speak (price-wise at least, quality-wise is debatable) with another step-up in prices, now approaching the $2k mark (e.g. LCD-X). Now the latest "must-have flagships" (LCD-4, Focal Utopia, WM1Z etc) are about $3k!!
I'll be the first one to appreciate the R&D, craftsmanship and incremental improvements that go into these products but these things are supposed to come with time anyway, without a huge premium increase annually, at least in a competitive market economy. That very economy which pretty much has been non-inflationary since Lehman by the way....
I think the headphone industry is becoming a victim of its own success, attracting more suppliers (not only cans but also amps, DACs, cables etc), all trying to come across as better than peers by price positioning their latest offering just above everybody else's. Sure global demographics and the emergence of a middle class with strong purchasing power in countries like China, India, Russia etc means a bigger market potentially, but I'm afraid that the little bang-for-the-buck haven that this space has been for audiophiles for some time will face the same decay as that experienced by home audio hobbyists due to ramping inflation for the best products. Sad but true.
It's got to stop. Massdrop can't save us all...
It was around this time that the mainstream interest for headphones started to grow exponentially. This was of course driven in part by the younger generations affinity for portability and convenience but in no small part also for budgetary reasons. Young people tend to have less money (I know, it's unfair) but I don't think this is the only reason because most MP3 youngsters couldn't give a rat's arse to the quality and experience afforded by high-end audio. Instead, I think there was also a mass exodus of audiophiles and enthusiasts from traditional home audio that for a decade or so had experienced a tremendous inflation in hi-fi gear (e.g. compare the cost of a pair of B&W 801 Matrix to the same mfg's flagship today, in real dollars... not to mention those +$1m offerings from other more "exotic" producers...). This development, not saved for long by the attempt to migrate and reignite the interest of the crowd over to home theater (which quickly got even more costly if you wanted to maintain quality), IMHO played a big part in if not killing then at least decimating the interest and potential consumers in the high-end home audio space. The flight to the headphone space was I believe very much a reaction to this development, this feeling of abandonment, inaccessibility and greed by the audio manufacturers.
This is also why it worries me so much that we have been seeing the same development in personal audio of late. Since the HD650 (which was a more acceptable price increase over the HD600), it's just got ridiculous, with big jumps in price (typically 50-100% for each new generation, every 12-24mo) first with $1,000-1,500 offerings (Audeze's and HifiMan's first models being good cases in point), "forcing" also Senn to follow suit with the HD800 (because you don't want your offering to come across as inferior based on price alone, now do you?). Consequently, the others had to up their game so to speak (price-wise at least, quality-wise is debatable) with another step-up in prices, now approaching the $2k mark (e.g. LCD-X). Now the latest "must-have flagships" (LCD-4, Focal Utopia, WM1Z etc) are about $3k!!
I'll be the first one to appreciate the R&D, craftsmanship and incremental improvements that go into these products but these things are supposed to come with time anyway, without a huge premium increase annually, at least in a competitive market economy. That very economy which pretty much has been non-inflationary since Lehman by the way....
I think the headphone industry is becoming a victim of its own success, attracting more suppliers (not only cans but also amps, DACs, cables etc), all trying to come across as better than peers by price positioning their latest offering just above everybody else's. Sure global demographics and the emergence of a middle class with strong purchasing power in countries like China, India, Russia etc means a bigger market potentially, but I'm afraid that the little bang-for-the-buck haven that this space has been for audiophiles for some time will face the same decay as that experienced by home audio hobbyists due to ramping inflation for the best products. Sad but true.
It's got to stop. Massdrop can't save us all...
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