Is h-fi cheap or expensive

[Yorkshire Mouth]

I was just thinking back to the first 'proper' hi-fi system I bought in 1987. Linn Axis turntable, Audiolab 8000A integrated amp, and Epos ES14 speakers.

Considered pretty decent at the time, and whilst not the most expensive system, not budget either. It cost me roughly £1,000, which was c.£300 for each of the components, plus c,£100 for stands and cables. I'll come back to that later.

My current set up is a WiiM Ultra streaming pre amp (£360), Topping PA5 (ii) amp (£210), Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 speakers (£225), stands (£65) and a B&K XLS2000 subwoofer (£320). That's c.£1,200.

But going back to my original £1,000 set-up from '87, using an online inflation calculator, in today's money that's over £2,800, almost 2.5x as much.

It's not to difficult to find approximate measurements from the time, and even using the manufacturers' own specs, they don't even come close.

I had a Phillips CD player too, which cost maybe £300 (£850 in today's money).

 

[Sokel]

Are hobbies cheap or expensive in general?
That applies to all.
I have a friend really proud about the golf clubs he got a long time ago.I don't play golf,so anything more than 10 euro would be expensive in my eyes so doesn't really matter if they cost 5k euro or 50k euro.
So...

 

[Berwhale]

Expensive - One Hi-Fi is 2.5x cheaper, but I now have 5x as much Hi-Fi in my lounge, family room, study, kitchen, bedroom and my garage

 

[sergeauckland]

Proper (i.e. good enough for transparency) HiFi is cheap, Artisanal and famous designer brand HiFi is stupidly expensive, and rarely as good (technically) as the inexpensive stuff.

But then, High End anything has been associated with price (that's what makes it High End) rather than performance.

S.

 

[Oddball]

HI-FI gear has never been cheaper or better performing. But speakers are still the weakest link. Great speakers have never been more expensive.

I would also challenge the inflation calculator. 1K of any currency was pretty significant sum in 1987, while 2.8K of any currency now is quite underwhelming.

 

[solderdude]

Is hi-fi cheap or expensive​

It can be anything you like from cheap to obscenely expensive.
Will depend on what one finds 'hi-fi' enough.

 

[Ropeburn]

HI-FI gear has never been cheaper or better performing. But speakers are still the weakest link. Great speakers have never been more expensive.

I would also challenge the inflation calculator. 1K of any currency was pretty significant sum in 1987, while 2.8K of any currency now is quite underwhelming.

Even speakers as a whole have become cheaper overall. You can now get excellent pairs for 500-1000 moneys the pair (€$£), and adjusted for inflation, you just couldn't 20 years ago. You'd have had to spend double that for comparable quality.

Speaker technology itself hasn't improved all that greatly (but still noticeably), but the biggest improvement in terms of performance for money has been supply chains and manufacturing in East Asia. That easily halves the price for speakers, when compared to made in Europe for example.

"Great" speakers of higher categories are still very expensive of course. That's because "made in the UK" or "made in Germany" simply costs a lot of money, now more than ever.

 

[Oddball]

Agreed - my emphasis was on great speakers.

But again, I do challenge the inflation calculations as they have little to do with real life pricing of not only HI-FI products.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Even speakers as a whole have become cheaper overall. You can now get excellent pairs for 500-1000 moneys the pair (€$£), and adjusted for inflation, you just couldn't 20 years ago. You'd have had to spend double that for comparable quality.

Speaker technology itself hasn't improved all that greatly (but still noticeably), but the biggest improvement in terms of performance for money has been supply chains and manufacturing in East Asia. That easily halves the price for speakers, when compared to made in Europe for example.

"Great" speakers of higher categories are still very expensive of course. That's because "made in the UK" or "made in Germany" simply costs a lot of money, now more than ever.

As an example, my £225 Diamonds measure better than the old Epos ES14s, which were £300 in '87, would be £850 today.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

I would also challenge the inflation calculator. 1K of any currency was pretty significant sum in 1987, while 2.8K of any currency now is quite underwhelming.

It's the BoE calculator.

Inflation calculator

Use our inflation calculator to check how prices in the UK have changed over time, from 1209 to now.

www.bankofengland.co.uk

 

[Flaesh]

depend on what one finds 'hi-fi' enough

We need a definition of [enough] hifi!

 

[ta240]

You can now get excellent pairs for 500-1000 moneys the pair (€$£), and adjusted for inflation, you just couldn't 20 years ago. You'd have had to spend double that for comparable quality.

As an example, my £225 Diamonds measure better than the old Epos ES14s, which were £300 in '87, would be £850 today.

I think one thing that has made it more expensive is back (90's and earlier) most people bought their setup and that was it, they didn't look much for what else came out. Some might stop into an audio store or see what Circuit City had from time to time but if they didn't encounter a top notch salesperson they likely wouldn't feel the need to 'upgrade'. When a friend got something new they might for a short time feel like they needed to also get something new but usually that would fade. Nobody was going to measure your equipment to tell you that it wasn't as good as you thought. Now the top notch salespeople are with us 24/7, we've got an unlimited number of 'friends' to tell us how amazing their latest purchase is and even if we like our current setup that may not survive being told it doesn't measure well.

It sometimes seems like our economies survive on the fear of missing out that the internet creates.

 

[Oddball]

It's the BoE calculator.

Inflation calculator

Use our inflation calculator to check how prices in the UK have changed over time, from 1209 to now.

www.bankofengland.co.uk

Have a feeling it does not work that well. Don’t want to get into specifics but should look into what these inflation assumptions include and exclude.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Have a feeling it does not work that well. Don’t want to get into specifics but should look into what these inflation assumptions include and exclude.

Well, as it's from the Bank of England, I'm going to take it as a very good ballpark figure.

 

[Timcognito]

The price of music has gone way down overall, except new LPs. Have 1200 CDs many new and many used. Not sure but lets say $8 each -> $9600. But with streaming my consumption has fallen quite a bit. I didn't buy my hardware as a decoration. Qobuz $144/yr.

 

[Mart68]

Have a feeling it does not work that well. Don’t want to get into specifics but should look into what these inflation assumptions include and exclude.

It's based on the price of 'goods and services' then and now. I'd guess it doesn't include property prices which along with power and local tax are the main things that have increased way beyond inflation rates.

I don't think there's any doubt that hi-fi is cheaper now in real terms than it was in the 1980s, suspect mainly due to massively lower labour rates in China, India, Indonesia etc.

 

[Power Pop 23]

In general I consider the cost of reproducing sound to be cheap and the experience of live music to be expensive.

 

[Timcognito]

I don't think there's any doubt that hi-fi is cheaper now in real terms than it was in the 1980s, suspect mainly due to massively lower labour rates in China, India, Indonesia etc.

And advances in digital electronics and switching power supplies.

 

[Bleib]

Electronics is easy to get rather cheap and great. Loudspeakers can be more difficult but the data to find objectively good speakers is more vast. And there's more used stuff..
So, hi-fi hobby is not superexpensive

 

[Mart68]

You can get some great bargains for loudspeakers on the secondary market, especially for bigger models as most don't want big speakers. In the UK, anyway.