The consumer loudspeaker market faces challenges from shifting listening habits, as consumers look beyond traditional audio products, fixing their sights on smart speakers and headphones. However, the category is showing some resilience, and recent changes in loudspeaker preferences means trade value is faring better than volume, according to a new worldwide loudspeaker report from Futuresource Consulting.
Comprising bookshelf speakers, floor standing speakers, in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, home theatre speakers and computer speakers, the consumer loudspeaker market achieved 45 million shipments worldwide in 2018, with a trade value of $2.8 billion. That equates to a 12% year-on-year decrease in units and a 5% drop in value.
“The growth in streaming services is transforming the relationship that people have with music,” says Guy Hammett, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “It’s altering audio consumption habits and we’re seeing a rapid change in the mix of devices people wish to buy and own. Combine this with trends towards convenience, simplicity, fewer and smaller speakers and less cabling, and there are clear challenges ahead for the traditional loudspeaker market. Just three years ago, the value of the wireless speaker market was less than double that of loudspeakers. Now it’s nearly three times the value.
As the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) affects over 100000 people across 80 countries, Futuresource predicts poor results for the global CE industry in Q1 2020, with supply chain chain disruptions leading to difficulties in product delivery.
AudioQuest sets to stop noise contamination and current compression with the Niagara 3000-- a model incorporating almost all technology making the Niagara series, including the AC Ground-Noise Dissipation System, Transient Power Correction and wide-bandwidth Level-X linear filtering.
