Hi TLS Guy,
I'm not sure where this became contentious and there certainly wasn't an intent to do so on my end. I recall Dynaudio leaving the DIY market and ceasing the sales of their drive units to other manufacturers including one I worked for at the time.
Regarding the sales of raw drivers and whether or not that increases the bottom line- I never made a claim one way or the other. We have a online parts store and routinely sell drivers to the public. While it is true that the intent is to service customers with existing products, I've seen many DIY projects over the years using those parts. Those are always great to see and I'm personally fascinated by people's ingenuity and craft.
The most interesting part of your post (for me at least) is the part where you noted "a decline in interest in high quality audio coincident with major speaker companies exiting the DIY market". That's an interesting take that I had not considered. There are a variety of causes/influences we talk about in the manufacturing/sales world, but the DIY market angle is not one of them. I know manufacturers who are doing very well and others not as well. The ones doing well (and that would include us) have adapted and the ones who are not doing well tend to follow the same business practices that worked for them in the 90s. In any event, love to see some data on the DIY market if you have any to share.
Regards,
Patrick
Bowers & Wilkins
Patrick, thank you for your thoughtful reply, you are forgiven for your "marketeer's" boiler plate reply.
So this deserves a longer reply. I'm a washed up retired chap, so I'm older than you. However I have had a passion for building audio and and now AV systems since a young child. My father was a DIYer. Anyhow I built my first speaker age 7. I started putting circuits together around that time. I also grew up in the UK at Rochester. Tovil was only 15 miles away, so I got to know Raymond Cooke. Lowther were not far away in Bromley, and Donald Chave was a great inspiration. Of course pretty much anyone dabbling in audio got to know the 'great' Gilbert A Briggs, GAB as he was known, through his writings and at the yearly Audio Fair, and his flamboyant 'live versus recorded" events at the Royal Festival Hall. He was a huge influencer and driver of the DIY market. He openly stated that it was far more profitable to sell speaker drivers, than going to bother of building cabinets. In those days the Wharfedale output of raw drivers was prodigious. I also go to know Peter Walker of Quad quite well and had a major influence on me.
We also had other friends who were into this hobby. I especially remember Donald Chevas who was a barrister at law of some regard. He was very funny and droll. It was great fun to be with him at the Audio Fair's where I would delight in him humorously taking down eager salesmen extolling the virtue if some ridiculous contraption. He would slip me components of his failed projects, which would extend my budget.
Then we had the military surplus stores on the Leicester road, where you could by surplus components for next to nothing. Sterns Radio of Fleet Street supported the DIY market very well, and the place was packed every noon hour with city workers spending their meager surplus cash on their next project. At the end of the day they were seen getting their newly purchased goods onto crowded railway trains.
In those days, you could buy an excellent reel to reel tape recorder in hundreds of tiny pieces for very reasonable money. I'm thinking of Brennel Engineering especially, So a member of the public could put together a recorder identical to a unit widely used by the BBC.
Now as to numbers I know not in specific terms. I do know that reading the mags DIY back then had a significant presence in the US, and some of their DIY products made it to the UK, I'm thinking of Heathkit in particular. I do know that both Altec, Electrovoice and JBL, really courted the DIY market, with drivers and designs.
So, back then developing a decent speaker was much, much harder then it is now. Now the DIYer has computer assisted design programs for box and crossovers within easy reach. Not only that, but sophisticated measuring tools are now within reach of the DIYer. Yet, this market is now ignored by the majors.
I do know that Parts Express have built up a fine business catering to this market. I have dealt with Madisound for about 40 years. In the UK Wilmslow Audio have supplied this market for years, going back to my childhood. Interestingly I think the DIY market, once so vibrant in the UK is now very smaller than the US.
My last point is I think an important one. I think from the contacts I have made, the DIY market, if properly supported, can drive innovation. I used to build my own PU cartridges before the stereo era. They were moving coil and the stylus was supported by a nylon thread. I was more dexterous then than now by far. Anyhow I did as I was determined to make a pickup that would track at 3 GM. That had been determined by Cecil Watts to be the tracking force at which an LP would not become permanently deformed. Forces of the day, were 7 to 10 grams. I believe I got there first. Anyhow I showed one to Stan Kelly of Decca. He took the suspension and made it a variable reluctance cartridge and the iconic Decca ffss was born.
Peter Walker always had a full circuit diagram of his products tucked into every instruction manual. He was not in the least concerned about others copying. He did tell me that knowledgeable customers would come up with improvements which he was not too proud to accept.
When the JW speaker module was introduced, I really don't think it would have survived if it had not been for the involvement of my father and myself. Prior to that each driver would only work for about 20 minutes.
I moved to Canada first in 1970. It will be 50 years June 20 since we left the UK. I was Canadian agent for JW until I moved to the US in 1976, During that time I further increased the reliability of those drivers and was heavily involved developing the Mark III.
In addition DIYers are you best unpaid sales staff. Obviously family friends and acquaintances are going to seek advice if they like what they see and here. They are far more likely to take advice from individuals like me than from a Best By Blue Shirt and even less from an audiophool dealer trying to fob them off with $1000.00 speaker cables. Over the years I have sold for you three sets of your top line speakers.
Audio in the home really does have to look at performance and aesthetics. The latter is a huge barrier to sales. Also speakers are very much like pipe organs in a way. Every organ builder worth his salt carefully voices the instrument to the space, including when installing an older instrument in a new space. So to some extent I believe speakers do need to have some means of being voiced to the space they reside in. And no you can not leave to Auydyssey with it cheap plastic mic, placed on chairs using a horrid cardboard base. That is absolutely not good enough.
I think this post is now long enough, so I expand in another post on what is seriously adrift with the industry now and potential solutions. No things are not good, and could be a lot better. The effort is ripe for reward in increased acceptance and sales. What is on offer now is not even close to acceptability. I will edit this post and link it here.
