It was a pleasant surprise to discover that head-fi specialist Stars Picker Audio Librrary is morphing into a home hi-fi company.
At the Northern International AV Show in Penang, which ended yesterday, I walked into one of Stars Picker’s demo rooms and saw a pair of MartinLogan Motion XT F200 floorstanding speakers in the demo system. Lim Hai Wei, owner of Stars Picker, confirmed that his head-fi outfit became a MartinLogan dealer recently.
The MartinLogan Motion XT F200 speakers were driven by the new Cayin Soul 170P valve monoblocks.
In the next room, Stars Picker had another demo system featuring the MartinLogan Motion F10 floorstanders.
It is quite exciting to see how Stars Picker has evolved over the years from a head-fi outfit started by young graduates selling DAPs and IEMs to Millennials and Gen Zers. Now it has ventured into home hi-fi to cater to demand as its loyal clientele has grown older along with the company and many of its customer have ‘graduated’ from DAPs and IEMs to desktop systems and simple home hi-fi systems. If this is the trend, then Stars Picker is indicating that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the hi-fi and AV industry which has been affected by ageing audiophiles and young folks having little interest in expensive amps and speakers.
