I'm sympathetic to some of Mr. Kessler's complaints, particularly about the ludicrous audio cable sub-industry. However, it's revealing that his essay does not mention the reason that I am in this hobby, which is the music.* Like HP and many others of us who have been in this hobby, I want the concert experience at home.
Despite being busy at work, I flew to Vienna with my fiancée on Saturday night to hear the Vienna Philharmonic, led by Herbert Blomstedt, perform Mozart and Bruckner at the Musikverein on Sunday morning. My system is not capable of conveying what I heard on Sunday, but, when I no longer have to live in an apartment close to my office in central London, I'll be able to assemble a system that can get me very close to the sublime, transcendent concert experience.
Most people don't share my passion, and that's fine. I don't care about prestige, Veblen goods, etc. That I went to Vienna for less than a day to hear a concert is a secret to everyone other than my fiancée, some close relatives, and those of you reading it here. I'm not interested in impressing anyone.
With apologies to Mr. Kessler, owning a Rolex, a Vacheron Constantin, or, God help us, a Breitling does not indicate a refined aesthetic sensibility. If anything, it indicates a strong sensitivity to vulgar advertisements featuring George Clooney and Hugh Jackman, or a misplaced obsession with imitating Steve McQueen.
A few high-end audio companies, particularly the McIntosh group of brands, are trying to establish high-end audio products as conventional, mainstream positional goods. Mr. Kessler seems to desire this trajectory for the entire industry. (Perhaps he, as an audio reviewer, wants the same kind of recognition that the hipster fellow who started a pompous luxury wristwatch blog has gotten.) Sadly, turning high-end audio devices into positional goods has nothing to do with bringing the listener closer to the experience of a real performance.
In this hobby, there are those of us who care about the music and those of us who want high-end audio to be another venue for signaling status. I hope to stay exclusively in the former camp.
* I've read a few of Kessler's columns over the years. If I were to judge by the records that I have seen him mention, I would guess that he does not have a very serious interest in music.
Hi soundArgument,
Though I concur with some of your sentiments, my perspective is a little different.
Tell me, how much enjoyment did you derive from flying to Vienna to hear the Philharmonic? Was it proportionate to the cost of the flights, accommodation, food and concert tickets? Of was the enjoyment your derived disproportionate? I’m imaging it was disproportionate, in that the cost of “investment” was considered less than the “return” (the enjoyment) with which you were rewarded, despite the fact it was fundamentally an experience defined by its ephemerality, and as such has no utility value beyond the experience itself.
Would you then deny another the same enjoyment they derive from a watch, which although of limited utility value (to tell the time), provides the owner a degree of disproportionate enjoyment relative to cost stemming from its aesthetic value, materiality and appreciation of the maker’s craft?
Would you also deny the same enjoyment to those of us who purchase contemporary art works, or photos, or industrial furniture from the 1930’s, or classic cars, or Japanese ceramics, or first-edition books, despite the fact that return on investment is usually a crap shoot, most suffer depreciation and maintaining and insuring those items brings no reward beyond the enjoyment they provide the owner?
Music appreciation is an extremely poor investment. Yet as a socio-cultural pursuit I would posit continues to have profound meaning for our humanity that we still struggle to fully comprehend. I get that everyone has their passions, and often those passions do not intersect and overlap (i.e. flying to Vienna to hear Bruckner, but deriding another for enthusiasm for the Beatles), but fundamentally, any passion is defined far more from the enjoyment derived than it is the utility value it represents. That’s why they’re passions, right?
The “vulgar(ness)” you point out in those you claim are sensitive to unrefined sensibilities are a reality present in nearly all spheres of life, not limited to watches, cars, clothing, wine, and yes, those who travel to foreign countries to appreciate Romantic composers.
And while I completely agree turning high-end audio into a positional good is fraught with ideological problematicism, please don’t use your (“very serious”) enjoyment of music to deride those of us who appreciate aesthetics for aesthetic's sake - whether they be related to works of art, watches, or music not falling under the classical banner - as a reason to dismiss our enjoyment, despite the fact all of us are only doing so almost exclusively and precisely
because of the level of enjoyment we derive from them.
Best,
853guy
. KK is simply writing for his industry and trying to justify the turn taken by it. It would be much harder and counterproductive for him to admit that performance in High End Audio gear has reached a plateau .. may have reached that earlier that we want to admit.
