Pioneer Discontinuing Premier Line

bigaudiofanatic

Very interesting, even though I hate pioneer this was a shock.

http://www.12voltnews.com/?p=8236

unrealii

I didn't think there was enough of a difference. There were too many "twins" within their product line which had little separation.

arun1963

Guys,

As a product the p-880 is a good hu.

1. Clean signal - With the internal amp turned off and the gains on my amp at resonable levels, the sound is distortion free till 60/63.

2. It hits rated voltage at around 58/62

3. Tons of tuning features,

4. Sounds good with the polk speakers.

When Pio got into the top end segment with the prs line, they should have known they were up against the big boys, alpine and eclipse. Both brands offer good products, enjoy a solid reputation, have loyal customers and channel partners.

When a company is trying to break into such a segment, it needs to have three things.
1. Good products - Simmilar level products for a bit less $$.

2. Deep Pockets - Ability to sustain losses. Ability to cover for mkt fluctuations, cost of constant innovation and sustained marketing and product promotion etc.

3. Patience - It will take 10 yrs to build a mkt share that can sustain the operation in this segment.

The prs line was a decent start vis a vis the product. It seem's pio chickened out on the other two issues.

bigaudiofanatic

Ya right, I use to have that unit. After the picto fuse blew I had noise like a muther. It was not installer error either, after grounding the rcas it got A LITTLE better. Than the cd's stopped eject all the way and so on and so on. I farted around with pioneers crappy line for 5 years never had any luck with them. Than I found alpine man what a well built product. If i want the best I look no further than alpines 9886 and 9887. There F1 line was awesome and they are talking about bringing it back!

MacLeod

Im an Alpine man myself but I still have mucho respect for Pioneer and especially their Premier line. Ive used several of their products over the years in amps and head units. Sorry to see them go.

CH2500

I wanted to chime in. I agree with unrealii that there were too many twins in their product line. However, the US is a lousy market for high end car audio equipment. It just doesn't sell very well here.

Arun1963, Pioneer is one of the largest electronics manufacturers. They are bigger than Alpine and definitely Eclipse. As far as market share its Alpine and Pioneer with Eclipse being a smaller player.

Also the Premier and PRS lineup is not Pioneer's attempt to break into high audio. Those product lines are Pioneer's middle line equipment. The real high end for Pioneer is their Carrozzerria lineup. It is only available in Japan and Europe and is easily on par with Alpine F#1 (which Alpine discontinued and no longer offers support for). Do a search on Pioneer Europe and check out some of their offerings.

Pioneer is not getting out of the high end audio, they are just leaving our poor market. For proof, check out the new Pioneer Carrozzerria DEH-P01 headunit that was just released. It offers 4-way processing (tweets, midrange, midbass, sub) and 4 - 24bit DACs into a single din unit. It also bypasses the internal dac of the Ipod to use its own DACs for improved sound quality from your ipod. Just an example, we don't know because they don't offer them their top end to the US market.

I just wanted to clear up some misconceptions in this thread. I'm not a fanboy as I use several different brands in both my vehicle and home. I run the ScanSpeak Illuminator tweets with the Pioneer TS-S101PRS 4" midrange and the mids from th Ts-C720PRS set. The PRS lineup is a solid performer with excellent engineering (check out the Klippel testing on them). I also use the Pioneer P9 combo and have had no issues.

The setup doesn't sound as good as my home stereo Polk's, but it is car audio after all. If you really want high end car audio, you really should look into what the rest of the world plays with too.

arun1963

I know a bit about pioneer and I am not crticizing the products. I'm only questioning the business strategy of getting into the premium segment and then chickening out.

I run the p-80rs which is the asia/oceanic model number for the p-880 and absolutely love it. A tweakers wet dream, with good sound to boot. Great vfm at its price. Ok, so the top end is the dex/deq series. Consider two facts.

1. While pio may have a similar mkt share to alpine, fact is that apline would sell more high end units than pio in the US. The prs and deq series was pio's attempt to capture a greater share of this segment.

2. There are two types of people who buy these units. The audioheads (for the lack of a better term) like us and the flashers. (No I don't mean THAT type of flasher, rather a person who buys a product to make a statement). In the real world, the second type outnumbers the first by 10:1. Prob more. This is the customer all the brands are after. We are only relevant for validating the product.

Of the two types of buyers, its easier to convert the audiohead, if you have a great product. Converting the flasher type takes time. Thats why I feel pio chickened out. There is no issue with the prs product line. I think I mentioned that in this thread and the other one.

Frankly I think this topic has been beaten to death.

Bernal

Very interesting

jimmydep

Bernal wrote: »

Very interesting

Bernal, what are you doing??

cadenceclipse

jimmydep wrote: »

Bernal, what are you doing??

Jimmy, what r u doing??? :eek:

dudeinaroom

jimmydep wrote: »

Bernal, what are you doing??

cadenceclipse wrote: »

Jimmy, what r u doing??? :eek:

cadenceclipse, what are you doing:rolleyes:

cadenceclipse

ur mom;)