ELECTROCOMPANIET AS filed for bankruptcy

[Electro]

First of all, what is wrong with a hifi from Currys???

If you really enjoyed the music then you would enjoy the convenience and simplicity of a simple all in one unit.

For 99% of the time, for 99% of people, this is more than enough and will sound just as good. No need to faff about with positioning, room, and other acoustic nonsense etc...

This is exactly what has happened... Consumers are not stupid. They could see that spending money and effort on bs high end hifi does not yield any more bang for their buck, so have opted to go for convenience, and to be honest with the technological progress, the audio quality is not far off either. Consumers have ditched 'audiophille' hifi for the likes of Sonos, Spotify and other easy to access and use systems.

You know who makes the bet DACs? Apple. Why people spend money on bs external DACs is beyond me. Eventually consumers will wake up to this and it's goodbye overpriced cr*p.

When I was at uni all I had was a 'boom box'. With that (and booze and girls) we had an amazing time and no one could say we were not enjoying the music.

It's all well and good now that I can afford it to buy nice hifi, but it irritates me that people on here seem to think there is some superiority to what they listen to on £10k+ systems.

Buying expensive hifi is not about the music. It's buying into a lifestyle. Nothing wrong with that. It's nice to get into cool electronics, admiring the quality workmanship, electronics and the community surrounding it. However this does not equate to better sound quality.

Moving back to the car analogy; an expensive sports car has great engineering, but day to day, on a commute to work, my new Peugeot 208 is far more comfortable and practical and will get the job done better than a fussy sports car. And safer too.

If I was really just into the music then I would do away with all the faff and bs that comes with high end hifi and spend £400 on a decent all on one unit from Currys, and spend the rest of my time, money and effort supporting the music I love.

Companies like Electrocompaniet went bust for a reason; because they were not offering anything consumers wanted or needed, and that's a good thing. Michael Jackson loved them?!??!? That's supposed to be praise? Have you seen the utter crap he wanted his money on? He went bankrupt too as he was duped into buying utter crap. More companies will follow this path too. As the generation of audiophiles ages and passes on, companies like Linn and Naim will struggle too. Sure they have innovated in the past, but if they do not wake up and start smelling their own bulls**t, they will follow suit too.

It all depends on how much you love music and how deeply that music affects and moves you.

I love music, without music I would die of emotional deprivation.

My HiFi system is a musical emotions top up machine that I have put together to satisfy my cravings in between going to live music events.

It is so effective at reproducing live sounding music with all the power, dynamics and emotion of a live event that it makes me feel that I am extremely priveledged to be able to own that system.

I don't care what it looks like or if other people approve or disaprove of it, I am completely selfish and it is just for me and my personal satisfaction.

That said if you really love music and that music moves you deeply then you are welcome to share the experience of listening to music on my HiFi system, if you truly love music and I can't make at least one tear trickle down you face on listening to music on my HiFi system I will be very surprised ( and disappointed for you ) .

 

[Deleted member 160668]

My HiFi system is a musical emotions top up machine that I have put together to satisfy my cravings in between going to live music events.

... couldn’t have put it any better.

Big +1

 

[jjbomber]

I love music, without music I would die of emotional deprivation.

I wonder if my wife will fall for that one!

 

[CnoEvil]

The answer to that is a definitive "NO!!!" *unknw*

 

[insider9]

Its not like that at all, what would make you think those systems sound like that, mine doesnt sound like that and its miles away from the stuff at Munich, not anywhere near that level 

I agree,

I think the problem is that so many people have never heard a well set up top quality HiFi system .

I often listen using my i pad as a source with spotify premuim at 320kbps ( connected as in my sig ) and the sound through my system is absolutely amazing even playing mainstream not so well recorded music, with well produced music the sound is extremely good .

If someone was blindfolded I bet they would not guess that it was spotify playing !

A good expensive system will get the best out of all types of recording.

There is another way of looking at it; These days with very capable smartphones and superb headphones many experience HiFi of the highest order for very little money. So much so that you probably would have to spend many times as much on a home set up to get as much.

That is if you get on with headphones.

I don't. Do you?

 

[Electro]

Its not like that at all, what would make you think those systems sound like that, mine doesnt sound like that and its miles away from the stuff at Munich, not anywhere near that level

I agree,

I think the problem is that so many people have never heard a well set up top quality HiFi system .

I often listen using my i pad as a source with spotify premuim at 320kbps ( connected as in my sig ) and the sound through my system is absolutely amazing even playing mainstream not so well recorded music, with well produced music the sound is extremely good .

If someone was blindfolded I bet they would not guess that it was spotify playing !

A good expensive system will get the best out of all types of recording.

There is another way of looking at it; These days with very capable smartphones and superb headphones many experience HiFi of the highest order for very little money. So much so that you probably would have to spend many times as much on a home set up to get as much.

That is if you get on with headphones.

I don't. Do you?

I find it very hard to use headphones even for a short period of time.

I enjoy a lot of sensory input from the vibrations to my body from music played live or on speakers.

With headphones I miss all the natural vibration the music creates via the air, floor and seat, and for me the enjoyment of the music is diminished quite a bit because that part of the music is completely missing.

 

[insider9]

Same here Electro. Listening to music via headphones is like having warm beer in hot weather. Maybe you get more flavour but it's nowhere near as good.

 

[drummerman]

I listen to headphones a lot at work and immensely enjoy it, at least until somebody interrupts me. - At home I sometimes use my Grado's late night or if I fancy loud and enjoy it too.

I have absolutely no problems switching between speakers and H/phones.

My system is far from high end but my headphones sound easily as good and sometimes better. No room interaction is a bonus too.

The advantage of not having a Crossover is bourne out with a very coherent and highly dynamic sound.

The system sounds different rather than better and imho one does not need to exclude the other.

My point was rather that for very little cash Mr & Mrs Everybody can nowadays enjoy high quality sound for peanuts. We never had it that good. - It perhaps also kind of questions the notion that most folks have not experienced near High End Sound. -

My guess is that many school kids are not that far off it.

 

[insider9]

I agree that pound for pound good headphone setup is far ahead of most similarly priced speaker systems. Still I'd rather use speakers, it's a matter of preference. I only use headphone when I can't listen through speakers, primarily at the gym or on the go.

 

[lindsayt]

The Owston hi-fi event yesterday confirmed to me that you can get headphone equaling or bettering sound for £three figures. If you DIY.

 

[newlash09]

I’ve met numerous people with high end hifi. They were all fairly wealthy. Like posh watches, high end hifi is aimed at wealthy people who want the best. As to whether or not it is the best, you can decide. There are plenty of wealthy people about, so maybe Companiet failed somewhere. Presumably competitors are more appealing. Or maybe the market is saturated. I must admit their kit is very ugly, then again a lot of hifi looks ugly to me.  

It seems Electrocompaniet didn't fail as such but there was a glitch in money management for an unknown reason ( to us ).

I don't really consider my HiFi system to be 'high end' it's probably upper midrange but I suppose some people might call it high end.

I am definitely not wealthy being a sole trader self employed car repair / tuning business .

To be honest I don't think very many extremely wealthy people would give two hoots about a high end HiFi system, they would rather spend that wealth on things that are visible like houses, cars, yachts, watches and clothing.

Impressive looking HiFi systems only impress audiophiles and they are like hens teeth, so it is not cost effective when it comes to displaying wealth, plus the fact that most non audiophiles think the whole thing is a little weird and nerdy.

My number one priority is sound quality, the equipment itself could look like the back of a bus for all I care, I listen with my eyes closed anyway *i-m_so_happy* , but I realise many people consider looks to be very important even to the point of sacrrificing ultimate  sound quality.

I don't know anyone who has a decent HiFi system apart from people on this forum and a mate who is a serious music collector, I managed to persuaded him to buy a fairly good system to play his 6000 Cd collection on.

In my opinion HiFi companies need to target music lovers if they are to survive, if they can be convinced that replay quality is worth spending money on there there is a whole new market available to sell to.

I guess that the market for good HiFi is shrinking by the day and there will be many casualties in the process all we can hope is that a few of the best ones survive.

I will wager that if you came to listen to my system for a few hours any qualms about the Electrocompaniet challenged / dated appearance would quickly dissapear . *biggrin*

I think this hobby is for folks with a little money to spare. And India being a emerging economy, there is some money here now a days it seems. I will admit to being the only weirdo in my family. But the thought of spending for sound quality is picking up here...and picking up fast...I fondly hope it bodes well for the hifi industry at large.

But there are restrictions too

Unlike in the UK, we mostly have dealers who don't stock anything for a audition. It is mostly a case of take it or leave it. So there is a real need for companies to invest in this large market . And no one's seems to be serious . I have bought everything blind. Electrocompaniet seems to have committed the same mistake. Bank on their quality and not bend to please anyone..

 

[Singslinger]

My first visit in a couple of years to this forum and it's a sad return for me to read this news.

I've always liked Electro gear, having owned the ECI 5 mk2 integrated and ECM 2 streamer. The latter had reliability issues and Electro had to courier a SIM card to me to fix some bugs but overall, the sound quality was good.

Fingers crossed, hope they get rescued and resurrected.

 

[davidf]

Fingers crossed, hope they get rescued and resurrected.

And they have been.

Maybe the thread title should be changed in order to not scare people away from the brand...

 

[Electro]

Fingers crossed, hope they get rescued and resurrected.

And they have been.

Maybe the thread title should be changed in order to not scare people away from the brand...

I agree the title should be modified so as not to give a false impression.

It seems Singslinger thinks that Electrocompaniet has gone bankrupt when in fact they are in a much better position now than they were before.

Electrocompaniet now have new backing , money and management to take them safely into the future.

 

[Happy_Listener]

Sad News! I feel like this is just the tip of the iceburg for the next 5 years too. More companies to go.

 

[Electro]

Sad News! I feel like this is just the tip of the iceburg for the next 5 years too. More companies to go.

No it's not sad news at all , it's very good news Electrocompanier is back and stronger than ever ! *biggrin*

They even have a brand new website under construction .

 

[davidf]

See?

 

[Al ears]

See?

Maybe they will establish a dealership in the UK......

 

[davidf]

See?

Maybe they will establish a dealership in the UK......

What the UK arm of Electrocompaniet want to do is build up a strong dealerbase of high quality dealers. Some are already in place, with more to come, although it won’t be in every high street store like some brands.

 

[Al ears]

See?

Maybe they will establish a dealership in the UK......

What the UK arm of Electrocompaniet want to do is build up a strong dealerbase of high quality dealers. Some are already in place, with more to come, although it won’t be in every high street store like some brands.

I didn't realise there was a UK arm of Electrocompaniet

 

[nopiano]

See?

Maybe they will establish a dealership in the UK......

What the UK arm of Electrocompaniet want to do is build up a strong dealerbase of high quality dealers. Some are already in place, with more to come, although it won’t be in every high street store like some brands.

Er, like some famous Naims, perhaps!

 

[davidf]

Maybe they will establish a dealership in the UK......

What the UK arm of Electrocompaniet want to do is build up a strong dealerbase of high quality dealers. Some are already in place, with more to come, although it won’t be in every high street store like some brands.

Er, like some famous Naims, perhaps!

Er, possibly!

 

[chebby]

I didn’t know that Electrocompaniet could be purchased in the UK nor be supported afterwards.

 

[davidf]

I didn’t know that Electrocompaniet could be purchased in the UK nor be supported afterwards.

You just need to know where to look

I’m not sure they’d got round to listing any dealers, and may have still been putting dealers in place before announcing anything.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

some famous Naims

Hi nopiano

You’re a nobody without a Naim *smile*

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft