05-Jul-2016, 09:26
Well, to be a little bit more realistic than my previous post, they are probably facing an interesting conundrum.
Luxury markets for high-end hifi equipment are located in Asia and the US. I do not know how they have been doing there, but judging by the standard of quality they are offering in terms of service, they must have a hard time selling ; and looking at the exports of luxury watches to Asia, I can guess that the economic situation is not really favorable in this respect as well.
In Switzerland, when you talk to people with serious knowledge of the high-end market, they will disqualify Devialet as a life-style equipment, not a hifi product. So people who sell it aggressively are lower-end retailers, with little expertise in high-end, which does not help raising the brand image. Having bought a D900 makes me look like an original individual to say the least. In six months, they still have not sold the second D900 (049/100)... Anyone interested ?
This does not make it a very favorable conjuncture for selling high-end products and Guillaume's point about D1000 might prove right.
But another way to look at this is to raise the question of their genuine interest in the HiFi market. Devialet is a technology company, not a high-end HiFi company. So Expert range is probably a technological window for their know-how and the D1000 probably is the high-end of this technological window. Whether it sells or not might not be the point... And the D1000 costs approximately the same to build as 2 x D120. Not such a big deal hu ?
Luxury markets for high-end hifi equipment are located in Asia and the US. I do not know how they have been doing there, but judging by the standard of quality they are offering in terms of service, they must have a hard time selling ; and looking at the exports of luxury watches to Asia, I can guess that the economic situation is not really favorable in this respect as well.
In Switzerland, when you talk to people with serious knowledge of the high-end market, they will disqualify Devialet as a life-style equipment, not a hifi product. So people who sell it aggressively are lower-end retailers, with little expertise in high-end, which does not help raising the brand image. Having bought a D900 makes me look like an original individual to say the least. In six months, they still have not sold the second D900 (049/100)... Anyone interested ?
This does not make it a very favorable conjuncture for selling high-end products and Guillaume's point about D1000 might prove right.
But another way to look at this is to raise the question of their genuine interest in the HiFi market. Devialet is a technology company, not a high-end HiFi company. So Expert range is probably a technological window for their know-how and the D1000 probably is the high-end of this technological window. Whether it sells or not might not be the point... And the D1000 costs approximately the same to build as 2 x D120. Not such a big deal hu ?
