Issue 211  March 2011
Grass Roots Audio

 

  There are those in the high-end audio industry who frequently complain that our hobby tends to be insular and cultish, that a good deal of the industry is content to remain insular and cultish, and that little effort is expended on reaching out to music lovers who don't already share our passion for high-quality music reproduction. This lament is often accompanied by a wish for an organized and well-funded effort by the entire industry to bring our message to a larger audience. (Think "Pork, The Other White Meat" or "The Incredible Edible Egg.") In both these examples competing companies within an industry pooled their resources to promote their products as a whole rather than trying to gain market share from competitors. Instead of reaching for a bigger slice of the pie, they realized that making the pie bigger was a more productive strategy.

But that dream for high-end audio is unlikely to materialize. The high-end audio industry is made up of a relatively large number of tiny companies that simply don't have the resources to launch the kind of nationwide effort it would take to steer the general public toward better sound. The high-end audio industry's paralysis results from the seemingly insurmountable challenge such a campaign represents.

But rather than waiting around for a large-scale national movement on behalf of high-end audio, some individuals have taken the initiative to spread their enthusiasm for high-end audio locally and to bring our products to the attention of a larger audience within their communities. These individuals, working within organizations they have either founded or developed, have created a grass-roots movement that may benefit the industry immeasurably.

I'm talking specifically about the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society and The Home Entertainment Show (T.H.E. Show). Since moving back to Southern California I've been privileged to become part of The LA/OC Audio Society. The Society is a model of how individual efforts can create a powerful movement that, by benefiting its members, also benefits the industry as a whole. Through the efforts of the Society's founders and past presidents — and now under the indefatigable and enthusiastic leadership of Bob Levi, the Society's current president — the group has become the world's largest audio society with more than 750 members, and growing. The Society's monthly events bring music lovers together for camaraderie and exposure to industry luminaries and the best local dealers. After attending just two events, I can tell you that the LA/OC Audio Society should be the blueprint for how to organize audio groups around the country.

With such a large and energized membership, the LA/OC Audio Society has the critical mass to support the efforts of other proselytes. Specifically, the Society has thrown its full support behind a unique consumer-audio show that will be put on by Richard Beers of The Home Entertainment Show. T.H.E. Show is well known for mounting an adjunct trade show during CES and CEDIA, but what it has planned for its upcoming show in Newport Beach, California, in June is unprecedented. The Newport Beach show is a consumer high-end audio show at its core, but rather than targeting just the existing audio enthusiasts in Southern California, it is reaching beyond the traditional high-end audio audience. In addition to high-end audio, the Newport Beach show will include a classic car exhibition, a wine show presented by many of California's premier vintners, and a cigar exhibition. One of the event's sponsors is the local BMW dealer. The show will be promoted through ads in classic car, wine, and cigar magazines, among other venues.

With the ability to marshal its 750-strong membership, the LA/OC Audio Society provided the Newport Beach show with a foundation on which to build. Southern California has a population of 24 million people who have, on average, double the per-capita income of the rest of the country. And Newport Beach is one of the wealthiest communities in the U.S. The show's concept is brilliant.

This is exactly the kind of effort that will attract new consumers to our field. It's tragic that so many people who love music, and have the means to afford a great system, experience music through mass-market dreck that they've been led to believe is as good as it gets. I can imagine a show-goer hearing, for the first time, his music reproduced with an emotional intensity he never thought possible. The combined efforts of the LA/OC Audio Society and T.H.E. Show will expose a large number of new music lovers to the joys of high-end audio.

Instead of lamenting the marginalization of the high-end, these individuals have rolled up their sleeves and demonstrated the power of a local grass-roots effort to bring high-quality music reproduction into the homes of non-audiophile music lovers. It's a model that should be repeated in every major metropolitan area.

See you in Newport Beach this June.

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