I agree with your sentiment. Many years ago I was the Australian distributor of a Japanese mineral fibre acoustic ceiling tile that you see in suspended ceilings in commercial buildings. I manufactured the supporting aluminium grid system in Sydney.
My major competitor was a US company, who opened a manufacturing plant in China. They started importing a standard 1200 x 600 ceiling system in steel grid, which they sold at a price that was less than my cost. Such a system was suitable for buildings such as schools and hospitals, where cost is the driving factor.
My solution was to market solely to CBD office buildings who were looking for a higher standard of finish so as to attract tenants. I ignored the "commodity" market where I couldn't compete.
I think the US and European audio manufacturers are in a similar position and are well aware of Chi Fi and have chosen not to conduct a war they cannot win. Instead they have decided to concentrate their efforts on the upmarket "audio jewellery" type buyer, who get their information from What HiFi, Absolute Sound, Stereophile etc. and are simply not informed of what "good" audio gear is available to the same degree as ASR members are.
Recently I saw these two Music Fidelity items promoted in a local Sydney audio shop's news letter:
1. Nu-Vista Pre A$40,000 = US$25,000
2. Nu-Vista Pass A$43,000 = US$27,000 ........ exchange rate is 0.63.
Compare this with a front end consisting of the excellent Topping or SMSL range or a Minidsp Flex ($600 max), or RME DAC or second hand Benchmark ($1200), combined with the recently reviewed Apollon MCx500ST power amplifier (245W into 8ohms) for whom 90% of us gave a golfing panther rating, also about $1200.
i.e. for less than US$2500 there is a large range of SOTA technology, with all the power you could ever need, at 5% of the price of the Music Fidelity combination.
The members here at ASR are obviously not their target market and I would be surprised if we ever saw products from companies such as Chord, Naim, PS Audio or Music Fidelity offered to Amir for testing. There are exceptions, such as Schiit and the Hypex assemblers, who should be commended.
Last edited:
