January 2025

Happy High-Fidelity Premium Audio New Year!
It's going to be a very good one!
Article By Roger Skoff

  No matter how you look at it, 2024 was not the best year yet for our hi-fi/high fidelity music/audio hobby. People who already had a good audio system just kept it, buying little else. After worldwide inflation, people without systems and of ordinary means were sufficiently concerned about keeping food on the table, shoes on their feet, and gas in their car, that they put off any purchases they didn't think absolutely necessary – including new, even otherwise affordable, high-performance audio gear; and, even though the rich – including, apparently, a surprising number of billionaires – bought ultra-expensive, Ultra High-End Audio gear (including multi-hundred-thousand-dollar electronics and near-million-dollar speaker systems) in surprising quantity, it wasn't enough to keep our industry prosperous.

According to dealers and manufacturers I've spoken with, both in the United States of America and abroad, many of the audio products enjoying good sales in 2024 were the very-expensive to ultra-expensive stuff, which was moving out, in some cases, faster than the factories could make it or dealers could restock it on their shelves. That, and a small amount of entry-level gear as well.

A lot of that had to do with the state of the global economy, the near-universal fact or threat of war, the Immigration and drug crises, and the currency creation and expenditures it took for them. Another crucially important factor was the skyrocketing worldwide cost of energy which, along with governments everywhere printing or borrowing currency at a truly breakneck pace, were a cause of the inflation that may be crippling some parts of the world. Add to all that the fact that people tend not to spend discretionary curency during times of change, but to wait, instead, for stability – or at least the appearance of it, at whatever level – before they will again freely open their wallets. As so you can see why high-end audio / audiophile, at times, were slow as of recent.

We should remember that high-end audio is a truly an international industry, with products designed and manufactured all over the world, and enjoyed by audiophiles everywhere. Because of that, as the world economy goes, so, generally, will it. And there seems to be good reason to look forward to real improvement.

It will take a while to do it, but if 2025 can deliver on its promises of lower energy costs of every kind, we ought to be able to expect lower prices for just about everything we buy. Food costs will go down because the energy cost of growing it, fertilizing it, and transporting it to market, will go down. Just lowering the price of petroleum will make an important economic difference: It won't just be cheaper for us to fill the tank of our car, but because truckers' diesel costs will be reduced, too, so will the cost of transport of everything we buy that needs to be carried from one place to another, and that means everything.

With the prices of many of the things we buy coming down a bit in cost, and hopefully workers receiving more pay for their efforts / energy, it seems reasonable that we should have more currency available for toys and goodies, including our high-performance audio system and the glorious music we play on it.

Increased energy production will not only benefit the world, it will increase the ability to export energy to the rest of the world, which will bring more currency. As many know, you generally need some form of energy to produce. People want to feel more comfortable in their daily lives and have more money for audiophile gear and music, but at least a good majority of their income is now going to pay for other people's problems.

If even a small percentage of the global problems can be achieved, it will mean that we will all be safer and more prosperous. Lives and industries will be improved as new products, which manufacturers have been saving for better times, will be released. More jobs making more things will make for more individual prosperity, and – if all goes well – people everywhere will have more time, and more comfort. Peace on Earth, safety for all mankind, and more inclination when the work day is through. With our workload complete for the day, we want to to bask in our accomplishments and...

Enjoy the music!

 

Roger Skoff