[JohnnyCakes]

I have a lot of hobbies... but none of them compare to the headphone game in the sense that i am LOOKING to give my money away and there are precious few vendors willing/able to take it.
 
In the past month, i have tried to buy:
 
Focal Utopia - called all around, nobody has it.  understandable, it's the new, hot thing.  i am 9th on the list at headphone.com and they have no idea when more will come in.
 
MrSpeakers Ether C Flow - so i tried to quell my thirst for a TOTL headphone until the Utopia is available with my first planar magnetic.  nope!  tried to purchase from the MrSpeakers website and was told it would be 3-4 weeks minimum.
 
Cavalli - i thought it'd be a good idea to get a great DAC/amp for my upcoming headphones.  went to the Cavalli website.  EVERYTHING is labeled as "Sold Out - Out of Stock".  why even have a website?!?  are there THAT many people dropping $3G's on headphone amps?  or is this company comprised of one individual in his garage?
 
AudioQuest - okay, TalkingMuffin, at least get yourself a nice respectable portable DAC/amp to take on the road.  aw man the reviews on this little AudioQuest Dragonfly Red are insane!!!  and reasonably priced and super-convenient!  let's pounce!  No..... no.... no...... not available.  not from the website, not from Amazon.  nothing.
 
 
is this a recent thing or has it always been this way in the audiophile industry?  i don't remember it being like this.  nobody has stock/inventory.  is the hobby getting more popular or are the manufacturers getting lazy?  SCALE, people, SCALE!!!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Cavalli - i thought it'd be a good idea to get a great DAC/amp for my upcoming headphones.  went to the Cavalli website.  EVERYTHING is labeled as "Sold Out - Out of Stock".  why even have a website?!?  are there THAT many people dropping $3G's on headphone amps?  or is this company comprised of one individual in his garage?

 
It's a little bit of all of those. Cavalli is a very small company and they have lifetime warranty on the amps, so some of the available manpower could be servicing some amps that did develop some issues. At the same time they basically make a production run and then sell all of that as opposed to having a huge warehouse perpetually getting filled by a factory that makes the gear non-stop.
 
You know how if you call Lamborghini or Ferrari for a new model and they'll tell you you'll be on next year's production run, because the initial run for the new stuff are spoken for, because for some models even the dealer orders count for the run despite the fact that it's going to go on the showroom floor and then you have a lot of people lined up who have customization options? It's kind of like that, but without the leather and suede colors and carbon fibre vs aluminum options.

 

[Currawong]

The demand from those particular manufacturers has been insane.
 
Focal can't keep up with demand, something that they had zero idea going in what it would be. Mr Speakers already had a hit in the Ether and Ether C, so the Flow models, after a bunch of very positive reviews and meet comments I don't doubt easily overwhelmed them. Dan has already begun swallowing extra space for manufacturing. Cavalli Audio is in the process of manufacturing their cheaper models, including one new one. The more expensive ones are made in batches, many of which IIRC are EOL. Audioquest: I have no idea. I guess it's the same thing, with too many positive reviews causing them to become overwhelmed.

 

[wolfjeanne]

Plus, I do think that this... hobby of ours is getting more popular. In a sense we have a combination of hipsters and Dr Dré to thank for that

 

[JohnnyCakes]

Plus, I do think that this... hobby of ours is getting more popular. In a sense we have a combination of hipsters and Dr Dré to thank for that

haha... well competition is good and benefits the consumer. man, what a great industry to enter as it's rare to find supply so much higher than demand.

 

[Currawong]

Personally, I've waited over 2 years collectively for various products (3 if a pre-order I sold on to another person is included).