Audio Recession

The last 3 months have been the slowest that I have seen in 10 years. You have to realize audio for most consumers is purchased with disposable income and that is tighter in this market. Soon it will go gang busters again but this is a great time for the consumer.
I know that I am very heavily overstocked in cables because that is what normally sells the best for me. At one time I was selling 40 - 60 highend powercords a month and now I am down to an average of 8 a month in the last 3 months.

I concur that these are tough times. The high-end, I believe is impacted more severely when the the stock market, more so than the economy, is in a slump. I can sympathise with dealers. As an audiogon buyer and seller, I have been affected both ways. I've had to curtail my buying, even though there are some terrific items out there at ridiculous asking prices, and I have been unable to sell likewise.

The only solace is that I can escape from the bad news by retreating to my listening room for some musical pleasure. Hopefully, things will return to a more favorable climate soon.

here's more depressing news if you care to read it:

http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1131

-kelly

Audio recessions are a good way to convince yourself that the system you have isn't all that bad after all. Instead of constantly looking for that new piece that makes your system perfect, a lack of funds all of a sudden forces you to spend a little time with your system forcing you to hear things that you didn't know it could reveal. Of course this can work the opposite way as well but I more times thatn not you will find that your system isn't as bad as you may have thought.

It's a great time to be a buyer for any luxury item right now - there are definitely signs everywhere that luxury items, including audio gear, are in a buyer's market. There have been many pieces listed here and other places over the past six months that were very reasonably priced and never got listed as SOLD. Presumably some did and just never got updated, but it sure seems like a soft market. There have also definitely been a lot of ads that give financial-straits reasoning for selling. I agree with everyone who makes the point that during tough financial times, it's easier to convince yourself that what you have is good enough, at least for now. Very similar to the car you drive, the house you own, etc. Even though the deals are good, the money is hard to come by and it seems a lot riskier than in "good" times. -Kirk