Late coming to this thread. Thanks
@ahofer for putting together the most comprehensive picture we have of the situation so far.
I think we're getting a bit lost in the weeds here. The main thing I'd say is that audio as a whole does not represent a single competitive market. The various segments do not compete with each other. Off the top of my head, audio is split into these areas:
- Consumer (supermarket/retail)
- Consumer custom home integration
- Audiophile (boutique)
- Pro for studios
- Pro for sound reinforcement (large and small scale, inside and outside)
- Pro for commercial settings like restaurants, offices, malls
Each of these has relatively little idea what the other is doing. They represent different customer demographics (not just different people with different income levels and wants, but also businesses and corporate entities). The main thing to recognize here is that each of these customer bases required different information and shaped the marketing to suit them. I think what we're experiencing is some admixture of them all. What was once separate is now, crudely, coming together. There's a level of convergence happening that's exposing these markets to demands, informational and otherwise, that they haven't needed to address before.
There's one other market (or multiple specialized markets) to consider, and that is "Pro for manufacturing", which would include all the various companies and suppliers which help produce all of the above. This one would probably be less distinct since there are many parts and machines that aren't unique to audio (screws, cases, PCBs, chips, wiring, components, cnc machines, ovens and robotics) and ones that are (analyzers is what really comes to mind; I don't know the manufacturing side well). This supply-side market would have a very different set of informational, buying and selling demands. But in general its view would likely be the most comprehensive in the sense that they would have the broadest customer bases with the widest overall, but not very deep, insight.
I think that, ideally, we should get to the point where manufacturing and production capabilities are better understood, with real data on pricing. As Amir has said many times in reviews, the economics of certain gear make no sense from our standpoint. Once we have a better contextual picture and a comprehensive understanding of how these markets interact, the sources of the various exchanges and disparities we see on the buy side (inclusive of advertising) will become clearer. For comparison think of informationally developed markets like oil & gas and finance (credit), where the best players and analysts can trace effects in price to political events, sentiment and technology shifts, major and minor, and know roughly who particpates, from types individuals to large multinationals and governments.