HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

In that case we should include Wilmslow Audio, though they do retail some things.

I see it both ways I guess - it completely depends on who the middleman is and what their motivations are. I often see the case you personally put forward, Mr NVA (sorry can't remember your name at the moment..), in comparison to being in the music business. If you're interest is in the music, the art, then why wouldn't you self-release your work and keep the control. Bands who want to tour and play festival gigs asap need some big financial backing and so need a label behind them.

Depends what you want from life and what you deem as success..

That's different.

OK, so bands need some financial backing which they get from labels. Hi-fi manufacturers don't get financial backing from dealers - unless it's dealers who go into manufacturing.

Direct selling is self financing if they do what I do. I manufacture to order, customers pay up-front so I have the finance to manufacture, then put some of the profit into build up of parts / component stock.

The important thing is to control overheads, I do this by staying small and working from home.

Lindsayt wrote:OK, so bands need some financial backing which they get from labels. Hi-fi manufacturers don't get financial backing from dealers - unless it's dealers who go into manufacturing.

Foreign distributors aren't given credit the way UK dealers are so have to pay upfront, but you have to give them a very very good price as they have to sell on to retailers to sell to the end user so a lot of profits to come out of it. Through this system if the manufacturer is to make a sensible living as well and retail price are kept the same for all markets then this means that the retail price ends up ridiculously high as we see with so many products. The advantage of following this route, which obviously Pink Triangle have done, is that you can negotiate with your distributor over order size, especially if more than one distributor is after the product. These order can be very large, the biggest one for me in the 1990's was from a Chinese distributor in order to get the agency which was over £70k - which as I say is paid upfront. So as I say I think this is the *real* reason PT have taken this route to market, but I think it is a mistake if they could have been patient and gone the direct route in the long run they would be more profitable and less at risk, as retailers and distributors can drop you or stop supporting you virtually overnight. Result you are screwed!!!

How about John Kenny's mods?
https://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/home-1

To add to the list:

Mark Grant Cables

Tube Distinctions

Lakewest Audio.

Steve Toy wrote:To add to the list:

Mark Grant Cables

Tube Distinctions

Lakewest Audio.

At the prices they sell at you have got to be kidding - there is retail margin built in. Also Mark Grant is a retailer, so cannot be direct seller as he sell other peoples products.

There are no retail margins built into any of the abovementioned regarding the products they make or assemble themselves.

Lakewest products, when they are released will be sold direct. Mark Grant's cables are priced at a level that cannot be competed with if there is a dealer/distributor network involved.

As for Tube Distinctions, Anthony was asked by a dealer to make 4 Copper amps per year. He declined. A Copper amp costs just under 5k with KT120 valves. Sold via dealer/distributor it would be more like 9k. A dealer told me so.