I did that a few years ago only it was XM. I used to keep a pad and pencil in the car because I would write down the artists and albums I'd hear on various channels. Found a lot of great music that way.
I think so, too.
How do you make audio "cool" to bring in new blood?
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I did that a few years ago only it was XM. I used to keep a pad and pencil in the car because I would write down the artists and albums I'd hear on various channels. Found a lot of great music that way.
I think so, too.
I gave my kids those Harmon Kardon Sound Sticks (external 2.1 speaker system) to plug into their computers for much better sound.
Those were used briefly when new but have largely sat collecting dust, unplugged since.
But, they love their $75 earphones.
Those get used a lot.
Those were used briefly when new but have largely sat collecting dust, unplugged since.
But, they love their $75 earphones.
Those get used a lot.
Peter
I understand that multi-millionaires have hobbies.. They also seem to be the leat passionate about it though: The last time I checked a Polo game most of those present weren't watching the game much ... High End Audio will not survive on multi-millionaires, they are not invested enough in that ..This will go on for a while but not for long ..Look around and see how the mighty are (or have ) fallen/falling. We may metamorphose fully into a luxury field , we are in that process anyway with our strange pricing and our lack of innovation (except I repeat in the digital realm) ... Is there much progress in the Luxury items ? Is this ROlex doing anything better than that of the last decade (s)? Meanwhile look at what is happening around us in cars, in PC in our general items.
Now back to the portable music item which I believe is where the soft spot for good sound is and where you may find the few that more interested in a full body expereince ( i tend to belelive that a speaker bring that "tactile" experience. It is somewhat flippant to just reject an iPod Touch as bad (is it because it is so cheap?) . When one uses a great amp for HEadphone listening say a Woo Research or whatnot ... One can get great sound from an iPod Touch .. Right? I think I have some agreement here ..Right? But people, the analog output is the same output to the headphones, the same jack, the same circuitry. With the HEadphone amp , one has simply added more cicuitry ... The most High ENd thing one could do is to simplify. That is exactly what one gets with great sensitive ear/headphones and of those there are several ...
High End Audio can become cool and may even survive if it finds a way to attract new entries. If it looks for growth rather than mere survival through a suicidal pricing strategy (some would could it stratagem). High End Audio will have to abandon the snake oil and the BS attitude that pervade it (Thousand dollars product that do and can't do ANYTHING) .. It seems to me that at the bottom of such exclusionary attitude there is a deep sense of insecurity... As if belonging to those bestow us of some quai super-power and status... Many would like the High End Audio to remain the province of the few with "great hearing" where it should be that of those who appreciate the joy or music properly reproduced .. Those will always exist and will be devoted to their hobby .. The people who acquire a great system as simply a status symbol will quickly move to something more interesting or seemingly so .. Such people rarely are able to support a hobby for long ...
The last part of your post, I have a hard time understanding it .. So when a sector find itself in a dire situation.. It should simply roll over and leave that to the market ? Whatever happens, simply happens? Few entities of whatever nature you may wish have survived with such strategy... History is littered with the cadavers of those who have such passivity as a way to continuous existence
I'm inclined to disagree Bill. Young people are more likely to throw parties more often than us oldies. I don't recall ever being to a party that didn't have any music playing. Music sets the vibe, the better the system the more contagious that vibe can be. THAT is cool. Pop references abound. Take a look at Paramore's video of That's What You Get, which shows teenagers at a house party jamming AND playing ....eeeek......VINYL! If someone throws a good party and the music was a big part of what made that experience cool, count on the fact that there are going to be some guests who'll want some of that for themselves. This was true for my parents in the 50's and it's just as true today.
Take the world DJ scene. I had my first "server" with dedicated DAC shortly after the first iPod (5gB and had a jog wheel that actually moved, those were the days!) and iTunes launched from a German company called Native Instruments using software called Traktor. Today they are far ahead of the consumer scene with software available in 24/96 in devices from multi-format control surfaces and even gigantic multi-touch devices you can see through a la Minority Report. These devices will take the files either through a laptop or even just USB sticks. Some bundles can be had for less than $500 today for the bedroom DJ. All that's needed is a back-end one can live with when the guests are gone.
You want to make high-end audio cool for the younger set? Give them something they can collectively enjoy. IMO give them a package that can be used for a heck of a house party but doesn't make your place look like the roadies got drunk and left all the gear at your place. The concept of "cool-ness" is a collective one. Cool is "Popular".
High end audio has been selling the same functionality at ever increasing prices for decades. It has a core group of customers who have little interest in additional functionality.
In the larger world, audio has been transformed by new products and services. The base of customers for that new functionality is far larger than the core audiophile group. The future belongs to the companies and customers in that new world of audio functionality.
Bill
Hey guys---thanks for the comments. I will start that thread over the weekend in the music forum---apologize, just been tied up at work.
1. Step up folks with iPods to better headphones to amps to better sources to 2 channel.
2. Keep making high value entry level products.
3. Focus on turntable and record sales to generate interest. Records can be cheap and it is cool and appealing to many in a nostalgic way. Once they hear the great sound then they will explore more improvements.
2. Keep making high value entry level products.
3. Focus on turntable and record sales to generate interest. Records can be cheap and it is cool and appealing to many in a nostalgic way. Once they hear the great sound then they will explore more improvements.
The concept of an album is already nostalgia. Kids download songs, not albums. Kids put songs on their portable devices, not albums. Kids listening to music through their computers listen to songs, not albums. Kids get their songs by listening and watching videos on youtube and similar web sites. Much of today's pop music is a lead singer, dressed in some kind of outfit, singing and dancing, often times with a group of backup dancers, not backup singers, and the band, if there is one at all, never appears in the video. This is the world today. It must be taken into account by those who wish to bring the world of audiophilia to today's kids.
I hate to be brutally honest (and I am a classically trained clarinetist)--- but with the exception of some cross over jazz, there just isn't much interest in these areas. I hope the Amos Less of the world can change this (phenomenal new album btw!) As far as classical music, the Gustavo Dudamels of the world hopefully will expose more people to the genre. I know the LA Phil does concerts for younger people now which are a combination of music/theater in order to bring more interest to classical music.
If there is one thing that questions whether I am part of the audiophile group is this. What's with all this old music? Is there a belief that no new music is good or audiophile quality? I sat through the Wilson demos at CES and could barely stand hearing old music that I had no clue about.
Recently an audio store put out an audiophile event. I did not go there but they post the list of albums they played. So I get interested to get copies and hear them on my system. I go on Amazon, and other than one, I could not find any of them for sale there! I mean what's with listening to such obscure stuff that even the world's largest music retailer doesn't carry it in any format?
It is almost a badge of honor I suspect if you are a high-end equipment maker to play such material.
For our business, I took my music library and made a playlist for demo. Other than maybe one or two tracks, everything is from the last two decades and most less than 10 years old. They are really good sounding titles that to me, are also nice representation of modern music. So far, it is working but I keep thinking I should also add some ragged edge titles to it as to keep up with the masses.
To sum up a store experience---two years ago I walked into store and he told me all current music was crappily recorded and wouldn't tell me what a system is all about.
Luckily I ignored it and put on track and track and he was immersed in music he'd never heard before. Store owner loves when I walk in now as I bring new music.
Lebanese Blonde, live, was one of the best performances I've ever seen---the Thieves are really nice in concert if you get a chance to see them. In LA, they often play at the Hollywood Bowl which makes for a spectacular evening. I wish their recordings were better....
Infected Mushroom really isn't my music---but i respect there talent and pioneering of that sound. what they do with computers is amazing. Schpongle is pretty crazy stuff...i just heard them a few months ago. Crazy sounds! (i'm not sure what to think of them, to be honest). They are playing the Coachella festival this year, but unfortunately i can't attend.
I also find that my teens and their friends are very much into Pandora, a music service where they create their own radio stations with music customized to their taste based on information they supply.
Love of music and the desire for better sound is not going to go away.
The worst thing audiophiles can do, IMO, is make it seem like better sound is some OCD, perfectionistic goal that is miles away and will take up all your time and money you can't possibly afford.
In other words, try to hide that!
I don't use Pandora---but leagues of my friends do. It really surprises me how many of them do internet radio---had no idea.
I'm sorry, but I find this statement patently false. how much were cables in the 90s? there wasn't a 20k preamp until a few years ago. now 50k monoblocks are the norm. we even have MULTIPLE 150k amps, including one that you just reviewed.
the high end inflation over the past 10 years has been utterly ridiculous---for marginal improvements and a lack of real new technology.
Peter
what a crock......
Take off your blinkers buddy otherwise you and your other TAS reviewers will be pandering to an elite sect of society. That should do wonders to increase your TAS subscription list
Frantz,
Of course, there are other formats with great sound other than LP but LP still offers great sound! I am amazed at what I can hear on a my Scoutmaster and Lyra combo. I am more format neutral these days but I am an avid SACD listener and collector. Got two more Nat King Cole SACDs awaiting me at home.
I think in many ways the "nostalgia" is actually quite effective. I base that on my observations at our local Criminal Records store run by one of the Record Store Day co-founders. He has seen quite an interest (lines down the block) among mostly younger people in Atlanta and the occasional middle-aged farts like myself and my friends. There is a ton of new bands offering vinyl and often Eric has trouble keeping it in stock.
I think we all get so caught up in the top-end of the high-end, we forget some of the excellent things that have happened beneath that promontory. Yes, the high-end has grown out to appeal to more than the traditional 'carriage' trade and into the 'armored stretch limo with high-speed pursuit trained driver and accompanying team of ex-Spetsnaz heavies' trade, but so have all luxury sectors. The market for $1m+ watches and cars and $220m apartments are all a relatively recent function of the ever-widening gap between those with deep wealth and the rest of us.
I guess some of this is simple jealousy. We were the wealth-creating sector of the economy and our toys were both at the pinnacle of development and aspirational. We chose those toys carefully because they were almost affordable, just not almost affordable to everyone. Now that high-end audio has joined the Ferrari set and moved beyond our scope of affordability, we naturally feel hard done by, because we have to do something new to us... put up with second best. Meanwhile the new super-wealthy get to jangle their bling at us, and our bling looks a bit tarnished by comparison, like the guy in the 'Vette lining up against a Zonda.
However, what we have now is a host of extremely good products - arguably far better than ever before - at the relatively affordable end of the spectrum (I'm talking Sonos, Cambridge Audio and PSB grade products), a handful of very exciting brands (like Devialet) challenging and trying to overturn the old conventions of the traditional high-end and the sort of stuff you need to run a Russian petrochemical company to buy. The middle range is improving slowly, but it set itself a high bar years ago. That maturity is not audio's friend; audio is not subject to Moore's Law, and that the audio buying market in the middle and upper echelons has stagnated for a while. As people (manufacturers and buyers alike) are finally waking up to file-based audio, so there's suddenly some signs of development. Expect more and better. There is an element of 'we need to get over ourselves', here. There have been great and significant changes in audio, many of which have passed traditional high-enders by because they do not rely on vast amounts of power or in-room real estate.
Peter's correct in that the high-end finds those with high-end aspirations. Eventually. I don't imagine Mark Zuckerberg is much of a golfer, really into his cars, expensive wines and all the other things that are tokens of great wealth yet. But, come back in 20 years time and see what the 46-year old Zuckerberg is doing with his life - I'd lay good money he's learned to fly, has a fairly good handicap and drives to the links in a very nice car, will have a cellar full of dusty French bottles of wine and own a kick-ass audio system. Put simply, if you hang out with people with good shoes, you tend to end up buying good shoes.
Where I disagree with Peter is this doesn't have much to do with making the subject cool to a new generation. It makes it cool to a new generation of grillionaires, but I'm not convinced that's enough. We need the continuum of audio from value-led to African-dictator-grade. If the world of fashion was just down to Ross Dress for Less and Brioni with nothing in between, Brioni would come off worse.
Well said Alan. Think about all the great budget gear we have now...
$99 Shunyata power cords
$100+ Musical Fidelity V-series
$499 Oppo 83 and 93 players
$600 Simaudio phono stages and DACs
PSB, Usher, Paradigm, Audioengine, etc. $500 speakers
$800 Odyssey Khartago amps
$99 Ortofon cartridges
Lots of amazing sound for affordable coin.
$99 Shunyata power cords
$100+ Musical Fidelity V-series
$499 Oppo 83 and 93 players
$600 Simaudio phono stages and DACs
PSB, Usher, Paradigm, Audioengine, etc. $500 speakers
$800 Odyssey Khartago amps
$99 Ortofon cartridges
Lots of amazing sound for affordable coin.
I agree.
I've got all of his albums.
Just to tie together a few different veins of this thread, he's one of the artists I discovered years ago when I had XM radio.
My teenage daughter and I went to see Amos recently at the Filmore in SF.
Great show.
He's an interesting performer.
Low key with a wry sense of humor.
Ray Lamontagne and Alexi Murdoch are other guys in that vein that I like.
Other guys in a similar vein, but slightly different and more obscure are Kane, Welch, and Kaplan.
http://www.amazon.com/Kane-Welch-Ka...1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300156995&sr=1-1-fkmr0
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