But, Pedigree's case against Aiwa, which was settled in late September, seems to have delayed the supplies and hence the systems which were to hit the market just before Diwali have been delayed by a few days and are expected to be launched by the middle of next week.

This has led to some cancellations from customers. But for the others, the delay means little, especially in light of the package from Baron for the system as well as the anticipation of lower pricing.

Meanwhile, the audio systems market has been doing brisk sales in the city during the festival season, say all the leading retailers in the city. This applies to the hi-fi end of the market which has done extremely well.

Top-end modelsfrom Kenwood and Sony as well as a new model launched by Philips have seen good sales. Though the exact volume terms are not available, the growth in terms of volumes compared to the past three to four months has been close to 45 per cent, they say.

The surprise winner in this segment is a new entrant Kenwood, which is surprisingly seen as a value for money brand by the buyers. The Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 discount in the prices has also had its effect and the brand has seen sales of around 35 units per day in Chennai from Vivek's, Vasanth & Co and Jainsons, the top three retailers alone.

Kenwood has three models on display - the KDV80 which comes with a video CD player also, the XD 550 with a 1000W output and the XD 780 with a 1400W output. Sony has also dropped prices over its recently launched GR8 model by close to Rs 5,000 from Rs 32,990 to Rs 27,950 for the festival season and by Rs 1,500 for its 500W output model.

Philips has introduced a 2200W system which is priced very competitively at Rs 24,990.This system has also hogged a fair bit of attention, but sales figures were not forthcoming from the company or the retailers.

The low end segment of the market, however, seems devoid of activity with a few takers for the systems on offer from Philips and BPL, who are the biggest players in this system. Philips had introduced an exchange offer to push this segment, but little interest seems to have been generated.Meanwhile, Akai, which introduced the exchange fever in the audio market, seems to have had a good run with the brand being out of stock in all the major as well as smaller outlets in the city.

Yet another brand which has run out of stock is the Sansui range, but dealer sources attribute this to Sansui being a relatively small player in the audio market. Sansui's colour televisions package on the other hand has been doing good business.

With Baron's Aiwa expected to hit the market next week, consumers are looking forward to a bonanza in the high-end audio systems segment. Priced at Rs 18,500,it is by far the least expensive on the cards, especially if it comes with package of software.