Electronic Life?

[Soopafly49]

Not been into the whole hifi hometheatre thing long but are the days when people kept their electronics longer than a year before it became last years model gone or has it always been like this?

 

[bigboss]

I don't think it's always been like this. Few reasons:

1) Competition is forcing manufacturers to upgrade models every year.

2) More penetrative advertising.

3) More disposable incomes.

4) I think the biggest driver has been the iPhone, followed by other smartphones. This coupled with network providers offering 18 month contracts, coaxing you to upgrade your phone even if it's fully functional.

 

[bigboss]

My system is 3 years old now. Temptations are there every year to upgrade. Even though my system isn't 3D compatible, I'll hang on for a few more years before upgrading.

 

[chebby]

Not been into the whole hifi hometheatre thing long but are the days when people kept their electronics longer than a year before it became last years model gone or has it always been like this?

I had a whole hi-fi system for 11 years between 1996 and 2007...

Rega Planar 3 (a Sky blue one) + Goldring 1042 + Rega Brio amp + Rega Radio FM tuner + KEF Q35.2 speakers + Yamaha KX-580 cassette deck + Atacama rack (I have forgotten it's name.)

No upgrades. Not even to the cables. (I used the ones that came with the Rega tuner and the NAD CD player.)

Two replacement styli for the Goldring 1042 in those 11 years and (from about 2005) I added a NAD C521BEE CD player.

Lovely system.

 

[Soopafly49]

I don't think it's always been like this. Few reasons:

1) Competition is forcing manufacturers to upgrade models every year.

2) More penetrative advertising.

3) More disposable incomes.

4) I think the biggest driver has been the iPhone, followed by other smartphones. This coupled with network providers offering 18 month contracts, coaxing you to upgrade your phone even if it's fully functional.

More disposable incomes, I thought these were less but hey. Dont know if its just me but I almost feel a bit pressured to upgrade but Im not going to jus spend for the sake of it. Hopefully I'll get my sytem to a place I love and keep it for 10 years like chebby,but something tells me that even if I wanted to I probably wont be able to.

 

[bigboss]

More disposable incomes, I thought these were less but hey.

I think it's the savings that has taken more of a hit than spendings. Of course, people are buying less products today, but that's relative to 2007 boom. No one was buying as much as today 10-15 years ago. Add to that, the biggest markets in the world (China, India & Brazil) are evolving with people there having more & more disposible money. The aggressive marketing by the manufacturers in those countries will spread to rest of the world as well.

Apple's success however grew exponentially during the recession, & it's on its way to be come the first trillion dollar company.

Dont know if its just me but I almost feel a bit pressured to upgrade but Im not going to jus spend for the sake of it. Hopefully I'll get my sytem to a place I love and keep it for 10 years like chebby,but something tells me that even if I wanted to I probably wont be able to.

You're not alone. See my post above.

 

[CnoEvil]

My "Electronic Life" is like a volcano.......it can lie dormant for up to 2 decades and then explode!

Once the pyroclastic flow has stopped, things can stabilize for a while. :roll:

 

[BenLaw]

Not been into the whole hifi hometheatre thing long but are the days when people kept their electronics longer than a year before it became last years model gone or has it always been like this?

The general rule is that hifi has a longer shelf life than AV. Manufacturers don't tend to release a new model (or 7) every year. This is at least in part because features move on more quickly with AV, whereas simple SQ improves more slowly. This means hifi retains its second hand value much better than AV and TVs.

I too feel the pressure to upgrade, which is one reason to try and get it right first time: sticking the system on and being reminded how good it is reduces the urge