"Real-World" -- but in What
World?
I looked at the cover of the April/May issue
of The Abso!ute Sound with some surprise. On it is a photo of the Usher Audio
Technology Be-20 loudspeaker, with a caption above: "World-Class Sound, Real-World
Price." The "World-Class Sound" part didn’t surprise me -- I’m
quite familiar with Usher’s speakers, having reviewed two of them, and I
wouldn’t be surprised if the Be-20, their top model, can compete head-on with the
best of the best. It was "Real-World Price" that got me: The Be-20 costs $16,400
USD per pair. If that’s a real-world price, in what world is it real?
Microsoft’s Encarta dictionary defines real-world
as "relevant or practical in terms of everyday life," which is pretty much how
I’d always understood the term. But no matter how good it might be, a speaker costing
$16,400/pair doesn’t fit that definition. For most people, that’s just way too
much money to spend on a loudspeaker for it to be a practical or relevant expense.
But while expensive audio gear gets a lot of press and
attention-getting headlines, there aren’t all that many buyers for gear at those
prices -- and their small number doesn’t even include audio reviewers like me. When I
look at the SoundStage! Network’s staff of about 30 writers, only a handful own
speakers that cost more than $10,000/pair. Furthermore, of the ones who do, in almost
every instance those speakers were purchased at an accommodation price -- a special
industry-affiliate price that’s roughly the equivalent of dealer cost (usually 30% to
50% off the retail price). In other words, they didn’t pay retail for their expensive
speakers, as people in the real world do. As for the rest of our writers, most own
speakers that cost under $5000/pair, and the speakers owned by a large proportion of that
number cost less than $1500/pair.
Suffice it to say, then, that even audiophile reviewers --
let alone most audiophiles -- rarely spend as much on speakers as what a pair of Usher
Be-20s costs. Obviously, given my job, I know many serious audiophiles; just as in the
reviewing community, the audiophiles I know who own really expensive stuff are few and far
between. Instead, most own equipment priced similarly to that owned by our writers --
which isn’t all that surprising, given that the writers themselves were all hardcore
audiophiles before they began writing for us, and were and still are quite representative
of audiophiles in general.
As for those of you who are neither reviewers nor
audiophiles but who like to have a stereo system to listen to music with, ask yourself
this: "How many people have I met who own a pair of speakers costing more than 16
grand?" Chances are, no one. In the real world, people don’t spend nearly that
much on speakers. It’s surprising to meet someone who’s spent one grand.
None of this will surprise those who work in the audiophile
industry, who have a better grasp than anyone of the audio marketplace. For example, seven
years ago, the owners of one large speaker company told me that 80% of the market buys
speakers priced under $500/pair, and about 98% of the market buys speakers for under
$2000/pair. Granted, inflation and fluctuations in the US dollar will have changed those
figures since then, but even if you double them to, respectively, $1000 and $4000, they
still come nowhere near $16,400. In short: Contrary to what some would have us believe,
the vast majority of audiophiles -- those who, by definition, live in the real world
of loudspeaker purchases -- do not spend an arm and a leg on speakers.
The real-world prices of loudspeakers are measured not in
the thousands of dollars, but in the hundreds -- precisely the market served by GoodSound!
Every product we review carries a price tag that makes it relevant and practical for
almost everyone -- and that includes another special speaker from Usher Audio Technology,
the S-520, which Thom Moon reviews this month. In fact, the stand-mounted, two-way S-520
is so affordable -- $479/pair -- that some might call it a steal. Usher has come up
with another speaker at a real-world price -- and this time, for real.
…Doug Schneider
E-mail comments to the editor@goodsound.com.
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