ARLINGTON, VA. —
Factory-level sales of audio components,
including speakers, rose 10.9 percent during
the first nine months of the year to $902.3 million, driven
by a 14.3 percent gain in speaker sales and a 6.5
percent gain in component electronics, statistics from
the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) showed.
Component electronics sales rose 6.5 percent to
$371.5 million during the first nine months of the year,
led by a 6.9 percent gain in receiver sales and doubledigit
percentage gains in such high-end components
as component tuners, amplifiers and integrated amplifiers,
CEA found.
Speaker sales, including custom-installed speakers,
hit $530.8 million in the first nine months, led by sales
spikes in shelf speakers, soundbars, surround speakers
and home-theater speaker packages consisting of
at least three speakers.
Here’s what else the statistics showed:
Receivers:
Sales of receivers gained 6.9 percent to
$325.3 million on an 8.8 percent unit-sales gain to 1.11 million units, but not all receivers shared in the growth.
Unit sales of receivers with a dealer cost of $800 or
more fell by 11.2 percent to 109,280, but unit sales of
receivers with a dealer cost of $400 to $799 rose 19.6
percent to 303,562.
The number of receivers shipped without surround
sound fell 29.1 percent to 60,040.
Other separates:
Sales of power amps rose 50 percent
to $6.85 million on a unit-sales gain of 65 percent
to 4,845. Sales of integrated amps rose 51 percent to
$2.65 million on a 70 percent unit-sales gain to 3,237.
CD sales were also up, with dollar volume rising 55.6
percent to $19.8 million despite a 0.5 percent slip in unit
shipments to 97,319.
Dollar sales of AM/FM tuners rose 40.1 percent to
$437,551 on an 8.4 percent unit-sales decline to 544
units.
Unit and dollar sales of turntables were down. Dollar
sales fell 67 percent to $3.5 million on a unit-sales decline of 38.5 percent to 39,979.
In-room speakers:
Bookshelf speakers
posted the strongest growth among all
speaker segments, with dollar volume rising
72 percent to $45.4 million on a 15.7 percent
rise in unit shipments to 371,832. Dollar
volume in floorstanding speakers, on the
other hand, slipped 3.3 percent to $47.5
million on a 0.4 percent unit-sales gain to
255,966.
Soundbars, with and without an included
separate subwoofer, posted the second
strongest percentage dollar gain in the
speaker segment, rising 56.6 percent to
$145.7 million on a unit gain of 182 percent
to 858,794. More than half the soundbars
came with a separate powered sub.
Dollar sales of surround-sound speaker
packages with three or more speakers rose
36.2 percent to $64.7 million on a unitsales
gain of 138 percent to 1.8 million.
Subwoofer sales, on the other hand,
dropped 16 percent to $48.2 million despite
a unit-sales gain of 2.1 percent to
404,313.
Custom-installed speakers:
Sales
were down, as could be expected because
of depressed housing starts. Dollar sales of
in-wall speakers fell 6.9 percent to $40.3
million on a unit-sales decline of 2.7 percent
to 350,239. In-ceiling speakers posted
a 23 percent decline in dollar volume to
$45 million on a unit-sales decline of 15.4
percent to 589,144.
Sales of outdoor speakers fell 16.4 percent
in dollars to $39.3 million on a unitsales
decline of 20 percent to 464,113.
