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How much interest is there in executive style radios?

R

Radioman100

Guest
Something just hit me. I don't know why it didn't hit me sooner.

Anti-HD types like saying there's a lack of consumer interest in HD Radio. They seem to lump in the whole premise of HD Radio in all form factors, but we all know that with the exception of one or two aftermarket car radios, HD up until now has pretty much meant executive style office radios.

I may not get out as much as I should, but in my travels, I just don't remember seeing a lot of executive style radios anywhere, HD or not.

Where I work, there are a lot of people with clock radios in their offices, a few with mini shelf stereos, a few with boomboxes and just a couple of radios in this form factor. One guy has a Tivoli in his office and we have a few Receptor HDs that were free.

At my last job, the GM had a Bose Wave Radio. Other than that, you had mostly boomboxes and clock radios. One guy had one of those replica cathedral style radios.

What I'm wondering is how big is the market for upscale, executive style radios? How many Tivolis are out there? How about Receptors (non-HD.) What about Sony's "The Radio" that was just replaced by "The Radio HD." What about the Bose Wave Radio?

I have to think these things are selling, but I also have to think they're not exactly setting the world on fire.
 
The only "executive style radio" I know of with HD is the Insignia from Best Buy. If you're reffering to the high-end table radios, as in models from Polk Audio, Cambridge Soundworks, and others, then there's LOTS of interest in that "form-factor", hence the explosion of the product category with, and without, HD!
 
Mike Walker said:
The only "executive style radio" I know of with HD is the Insignia from Best Buy. If you're reffering to the high-end table radios, as in models from Polk Audio, Cambridge Soundworks, and others, then there's LOTS of interest in that "form-factor", hence the explosion of the product category with, and without, HD!
Click to expand...

I have to wonder Mike. If there was truly that much demand for this product segment, why are the manufacturers in it mostly boutique brands? Polk Audio is primarily a speaker company. Cambridge Soundworks is now a division of Creative, the computer peripheral company. Bose, the company that has been making this style of radios the longest only sells them directly, not through dealers like most of their products.

If there's fat cash to be made from this product segment, where are the big boys of audio?
 
Polk Audio was a "boutique" brand 30 years ago. Today they (and their products) are in Circuit City and Best Buy, for God's sake. Ditto Cambridge Soundworks, Boston Acoustics, and SONY, once the "Big Enchilada" of consumer electronics, still nothin' to sneeze at.

Sangean is kind of a "sleeping giant", having produced some of the most popular radios ever, then stamped someone else's name (Radio Shack, for instance) on them. That they are in this market segment isn't insignificant.

No they're not as popular as Ipods. But for perhaps 25 years, there were NO quality table radios. Bose, then Cambridge Soundworks brought the segment back. Others have followed. And BOSE AIN'T NO "BOUTIQUE" company! They're MAJOR-LEAGUE, with major profits, and a MAJOR budget! ;)

So you've "got to wonder"? Wonder away. I think the facts speak for themselves ;)
 
Years ago, one of the lawyers at this firm I'm working for got rid of a NICE old JVC ghetto blaster (dual cassette, g. eq, shortwave bands) and replaced it with the Bose Schmoze wave radio thing.

She had left the boombox sitting outside her office and when I happened to be walking by I poked my head in and asked her what the deal was. She said to take it...which I promptly did.

It's sitting here in my stock room, singing merrily away. My win. Her loss. :)

She's since left the company, but I think there's a couple other lawyers here who have those Bose things in their offices. At least I could see them when they were in plain sight.
 
Mike Walker said:
Polk Audio was a "boutique" brand 30 years ago. Today they (and their products) are in Circuit City and Best Buy, for God's sake. Ditto Cambridge Soundworks, Boston Acoustics, and SONY, once the "Big Enchilada" of consumer electronics, still nothin' to sneeze at.

Sangean is kind of a "sleeping giant", having produced some of the most popular radios ever, then stamped someone else's name (Radio Shack, for instance) on them. That they are in this market segment isn't insignificant.

No they're not as popular as Ipods. But for perhaps 25 years, there were NO quality table radios. Bose, then Cambridge Soundworks brought the segment back. Others have followed. And BOSE AIN'T NO "BOUTIQUE" company! They're MAJOR-LEAGUE, with major profits, and a MAJOR budget! ;)

So you've "got to wonder"? Wonder away. I think the facts speak for themselves ;)
Click to expand...

With such a profitable and sought after item, why doesn't Bose sell them through their normal retail channels? Why sell everything else at retail but sell this one item direct?
 
Probably because they don't want the suck--err- buyer to compare the lousy overpriced and overhyped Bose with anything that's better quality and more reasonably priced. :mad:

I've heard Bose wave radios. I wasn't impressed.
 
HEY! Timeout! I'm NOT a Bose fan! If that's what you read into what I wrote, REREAD!

The discussion turned on whether this category (mistakenly called "Executive System", which is actually something else, Bose and the others being discussed make high-end table radios...one-piece units, "Executive" systems are at least three-piece) was POPULAR, and PROFITABLE. Completely different from "are they worth the money" (but my opinion on that...Cambridge Soundworks, Sony, Sangean (Polk Audio probably, haven't heard it), YES, Bose...HELL NO!) ;)
 
If the way expensive IBOC table radios are flying off the shelves at my local Circuit City, tweeter etc. is any indication I would have to say the interest is about 0, nada. As matter of fact there aren't any so i guess this idea is a no go. Bose sold so many because they had a new idea which on paper was very good, and very good advertising a (to most people) new way of creating sound with modified transmission line speakers, unfortunately they way overpriced them but they sold anyway. Since they were so successful with them you would think the next evolution would be IBOC Wave receivers, I wonder where they are ::).
 
KB1OKL said:
If the way expensive IBOC table radios are flying off the shelves at my local Circuit City, tweeter etc. is any indication I would have to say the interest is about 0, nada. As matter of fact there aren't any so i guess this idea is a no go. Bose sold so many because they had a new idea which on paper was very good, and very good advertising a (to most people) new way of creating sound with modified transmission line speakers, unfortunately they way overpriced them but they sold anyway. Since they were so successful with them you would think the next evolution would be IBOC Wave receivers, I wonder where they are ::).
Click to expand...

And yet more and more manufacturers are lining up to make them. Due out before Christmas... The new JBL HD Radio with iPod tagging! Since JBL is part of Harmon International, I wonder if Harmon Kardon is far behind?
 
I pod tagging is a reason to need, buy or use an HD Radio?
You are surely joking, right?
 
SUPERCASTER said:
I pod tagging is a reason to need, buy or use an HD Radio?
You are surely joking, right?
Click to expand...

No joke. I really don't think much of the iPod tagging feature, but apparently Apple does.

The big news as far as I'm concerned is yet another big manufacturer, JBL/Harmon International, is now in the HD Radio business.
 
Radioman100 said:
SUPERCASTER said:
I pod tagging is a reason to need, buy or use an HD Radio?
You are surely joking, right?
Click to expand...

No joke. I really don't think much of the iPod tagging feature, but apparently Apple does.

The big news as far as I'm concerned is yet another big manufacturer, JBL/Harmon International, is now in the HD Radio business.
Click to expand...

Several manufacturers left the HD Radio business, a few new ones decide to test the waters. So what?
The point is that HD Radio hype promises perfection but delivers little or nothing for the average listener/consumer, other then extra annoying hiss and analog AM and stereo FM fidelity reduction.
 
SUPERCASTER said:
Several manufacturers left the HD Radio business, a few new ones decide to test the waters. So what?
Click to expand...

Care to name "several"? The one that I'am aware of was the B.A. Recepter. It was first generation and also suffered from poor quality control regarding the isolating of clock hash from the R.F. section. A really odd situation, some worked well, most did not.

The point is that HD Radio hype promises perfection but delivers little or nothing for the average listener/consumer, other then extra annoying hiss and analog AM and stereo FM fidelity reduction.
Click to expand...

-That was #14 from Sup's files. BTW: How does FM iboc reduce "fidelity reproduction"?

Lino
 
JohnnyElectron said:
Is it true that RatShack is canning their HD radio, or what?
Click to expand...

It's still on their website and indicating "in stock" as is the Receptor HD.
 
Both the BA HD Receptor and the RS HD Accurian are out of production. However large unsold stocks and many returns are still available at stores, warehouses, and radio station closets near you.
 
Yeah...names like Accurian have been replaced by names like Sony, Yamaha, JVC and Alpine. Direct Sales have largely been supplanted by sales in retailers like Wal Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, J&R Music World, Crutchfield, JC Penney, Costco, Sam's Club, Target, and The Sharper Image. How will HD Radio survive this sad turn of fate?
 
Mike Walker said:
Yeah...names like Accurian have been replaced by names like Sony, Yamaha, JVC and Alpine. Direct Sales have largely been supplanted by sales in retailers like Wal Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, J&R Music World, Crutchfield, JC Penney, Costco, Sam's Club, Target, and The Sharper Image. How will HD Radio survive this sad turn of fate?
Click to expand...

Agreed. Who shops at Radio Shack these days anyway? The company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and has been for quite a while. I'll gladly take all the major players over Rat Shack, though we do still have them too.
 
Rat Shack can still be useful. When you need the odd resistor or connector at the last minute for something, it's the only place left you can go to. :p :-[
 
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