Is the Market for Ultra High End Audio in Chicago Dying or on the Rebound?

The high end audio industry is one that seems to always be met with strife, no matter the situation. When you combine a general lack of knowledge about the industry itself, a gap in education when it comes to understanding the products themselves and the cost to participate within the industry, the subjugated group of people who can actively enjoy and defend high end audio products and producers becomes a small one indeed.

But think about things in another light: people have no problem drooling over ultra high end vehicle models or lavish homes! So why does the market for ultra high end audio in Chicago seem to take a hit when explained to the general public?

The answer might have something to do with functionality. We can drive a car and get from Point A to Point B; we can live in a home and make it our safe space for years and years—the uses for these expensive investments is apparent, but the use for high end audio isn’t always. Why? Well, for several reasons:

• People are often content with what they have in cheap consumer electronics—they don’t know any better quality, so they have no comparison for the dearth of performance in cheaply manufactured electronics.
• The market for buying ultra high end audio in Chicago is much narrower and not as readily available to those with the disposable income to put towards it. Vendors are far and few between and licensed sellers aren’t always easy to locate.
• The entry costs to get into the high end audio lifestyle are steep and there is no real path to participation other than a hefty investment that not many are willing to part with.

For these reasons and more, it has been said for years now that the market for high end audio is slowly going the way of the dinosaur. But is it really? Even with all of these knocks against it, is this niche industry really falling out of favor?

The answer is a toss up, but one that many high end audio enthusiasts are optimistic about, because while there are weights against the industry, there are also modern innovations that are making it more accessible to more people:

• Manufactures have begun to produce lower price-point items of a high quality, so that the disparity between mass-produced consumer electronics and super high end audio is not as lengthy.
• Efforts have been made to create learning resources for technical jargon and concepts, to raise the understanding and appeal of high end audio technologies.
• Marketing efforts have been made to create brand awareness for top name brands, to incite demand by those looking for only the highest quality.

The market for ultra high end audio in Chicago may be one that swims upstream against the current most of the time, but it’s one that has continued to survive for decades. So long as there is an interest in superior quality audio and an enthusiastic following of audiophiles, the market for high end audio will never truly be dead and in fact, by today’s rates, it might actually be in resurgence!

Categorised in: Ultra High End Audio

This post was written by Writer