How to Revive High-End Audio

[JackD201]

I think the first step is to get people to really listen to their music. Is it just me or has it just become to easy to cue up and play a track for the majority of listeners that the activity has been pushed to the background? Has it become so easy that it has been taken for granted? Example, I'm in a store, I hear a song I like, I call up the Shazam app, it tells me what song it is, I hit the Spotify button, put on the buds.

I don't think I've ever finished a song.

A big part of the allure of vinyl for me is that the requisite actions demand that I make time. Just the act of making time makes the experience more special. I was talking to a much younger cousin-in-law last Christmas and he blind sided me by asking if an online classified ad on his smartphone had a good price for the Rega P1 featured. I proceeded to ask him why he was getting into LPs. First he said he found it way cool to be able to listen to his Dad's record collection. Like me he said the "rituals" made it more enjoyable. He also said he liked the sound but it was not the number one factor, not second either. It was third. That is cool with me.

The assumption has been that quality should be the driver. This runs contrary to history. Convenience has ruled the roost. Question is, has convenience gone too far. So far that listening as a primary activity has become trivialized?

 

[Alrainbow]

Alan says it best . I take the trains every day and most people are playing music. Its just not an an audiophile would consider doing. Well i do and i have three big rigs as well. Time is what most people do not have, and today most pepole do not pay for music. We pay cause we want a better grade , they do not even know what that is. But this is only the music end of it. As for shops the people are always nice , but it is a little unerving to make an appointment and listen and not buy.
So the dance is in atleast two rooms here. I live in three worlds CIEM,S , headphones, speakers. And this is not even considereing a home theatre system. I do believe the music does start this show though. If all people payed for music maybe then they would care how it spounded.
Al

 

[853guy]

I think the first step is to get people to really listen to their music. Is it just me or has it just become to easy to cue up and play a track for the majority of listeners that the activity has been pushed to the background? Has it become so easy that it has been taken for granted? Example, I'm in a store, I hear a song I like, I call up the Shazam app, it tells me what song it is, I hit the Spotify button, put on the buds.

I don't think I've ever finished a song.

A big part of the allure of vinyl for me is that the requisite actions demand that I make time. Just the act of making time makes the experience more special. I was talking to a much younger cousin-in-law last Christmas and he blind sided me by asking if an online classified ad on his smartphone had a good price for the Rega P1 featured. I proceeded to ask him why he was getting into LPs. First he said he found it way cool to be able to listen to his Dad's record collection. Like me he said the "rituals" made it more enjoyable. He also said he liked the sound but it was not the number one factor, not second either. It was third. That is cool with me.

The assumption has been that quality should be the driver. This runs contrary to history. Convenience has ruled the roost. Question is, has convenience gone too far. So far that listening as a primary activity has become trivialized?

I agree with the majority of what you've said, Jack.

Certainly, if we were to move toward a particpatory model for music, where it costs us something to listen to it (taking out a record, cleaning it, placing it on the platter, for instance, our our money), and moved away from the consumer model for music, where it's all about how can we consume as much of it as possible for the least money possible (or freely downloaded and pirated - stolen - from the internet), then we might make some headway.

But that's difficult in a culture where on this very forum people are arguing about the cost of downloads - the thread itself has been made a sticky. I've been amazed that not one post has asked the counter question:

"Why is this incredible, transcendent, revelatory sound and art made by some of the most fascinating and creative artists and composers who've ever lived, that's changed our lives and the way we view the world, that's enriched the cultural fabric of our existence and made us weep and dance and smile and sing and shout SO DARN CHEAP?"

Do you like sculpture, or renaissance art, or ballet, or dance? You can't buy that stuff. It's on museum walls and inside collector's vaults and on stage at the cost of 94 Euros per performance. You can't own that stuff.

But music...? Oh my goodness...! I own a piece of Miles Davis' brilliance for the cost of a McDonalds meal. I own Coltrane's complete Impulse years for the price of a pair of jeans. Music is one of the true democratized arts that everyone can own a piece of.

And yet people still bitch and moan like crazy how much it costs. Well, how much is art worth to you? How much would you pay for a piece of art like a Bacon or a Hirst or a Moore or a Newman or a Modigliani? What about a Coltrane or a Dylan or a Callas or a Richter or a Starker? Is ten bucks for a CD really that horrendous? Is two bucks? Ninety-nine cents?

Has the listening experience been trivialised? Probably, yes. Has it been commodified and made into a disposable art form to be endlessly copied from hard drive to hard drive without investment on behalf of the consumer? Yes.

The question the audiophile community needs to answer is: has high-end equipment become fetishised and the master made to serve the servant? In my thinking, and apropos my previous post, if we keep raising the bar and insisting the music be "good enough quality" to play on a high-end system, the high-end will continue to alienate music lovers and dig itself a deep and entrenched grave walked over by a generation who could have saved it.

I'm still with Mr. Sircom.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

HMMM ... I do consider blu ray and big modern flatscreens high end
How to revive high end ,,???
Blow more hot air into it

I think the first step is to get people to really listen to their music. Is it just me or has it just become to easy to cue up and play a track for the majority of listeners that the activity has been pushed to the background? Has it become so easy that it has been taken for granted? Example, I'm in a store, I hear a song I like, I call up the Shazam app, it tells me what song it is, I hit the Spotify button, put on the buds.

I don't think I've ever finished a song.

A big part of the allure of vinyl for me is that the requisite actions demand that I make time. Just the act of making time makes the experience more special. I was talking to a much younger cousin-in-law last Christmas and he blind sided me by asking if an online classified ad on his smartphone had a good price for the Rega P1 featured. I proceeded to ask him why he was getting into LPs. First he said he found it way cool to be able to listen to his Dad's record collection. Like me he said the "rituals" made it more enjoyable. He also said he liked the sound but it was not the number one factor, not second either. It was third. That is cool with me.

The assumption has been that quality should be the driver. This runs contrary to history. Convenience has ruled the roost. Question is, has convenience gone too far. So far that listening as a primary activity has become trivialized?

I have exactly the opposite experience with digital media. No fuss is required to find the music I'm looking for - even if I'm looking for multiple arrangements/recordings of the same song. I type in my search criteria, and there's the music. No fuss is required to play the music - no set up, no cleaning, no careful cueing of the media. I just play it. Sometimes I finish a song, sometimes I jump (instantly) between recordings comparing for fun or need...but in each case it's ALL about the music; the formerly fussy, demanding tools of reproduction are out of the way, consuming no time, taking none of my attention away from the music. YMMV.

Tim

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

You presume both too much and too little of the music lover. Domestic music technology currently flies very low under the radar. For example, there is almost no coverage of High Definition Audio in the mainstream or tech CES reports, aside from a page on Fox News' website. It's entirely possible for the music loving proto-audiophile to be an iTunes user because it is a step up from low-rate Deezer or Last.FM streams and is considered 'CD quality'. That doesn't make them a knuckle-dragging philistine, it makes them a 2014 version of me when I was about 18.

There's also an over-exaggeration about just how bad MP3 and AAC can be in audiophile circles. We tend to conflate signal compression with data reduction, and dismiss both as the Big Bad. Yes, the ideal is freedom from lossy compression, but MP3 and AAC can sound OK too. Those who experience these lossy formats on a good system will frequently discover OK isn't OK enough and migrate away from lossy compression, but if we tell those same people to basically 'move along' at the outset, that will never happen. And ultimately, it's their choice to make, not ours - if someone extracts more musical enjoyment from playing their MP3s through a good system, more power to them. I might recommend they make the move to lossless 16/44 PCM or high-resolution PCM or DSD files, but if they conclude they are happy with what they have, why is that a bad thing?

Perhaps unintentionally, there is a rift between today's music lover and audiophiles and their dealers. By dismissing their choice of music format out of hand, our condescending attitude alienates those music lovers who might want to experience excellent sound. This also acts as kindling for the "I don't get out of bed for less than $50k" mouth-breathing audiophile dealer who views everyone with distain, but everyone with iTunes as being beneath contempt. Perhaps the worst thing about this kind of dealer is they unfairly tar good dealers with guilt by association. This needs to end, and end fast.

It needs to end because I am not sure how well audio will survive with just a high-end. It needs bandwidth, because it needs people who start small, but think big to grow over time, as well as pre-configured wealthy people with hundreds of thousands burning a hole in their pocket. And right now, those who start small start on lossy compressed files. Without people crossing over from lossy downloads and streaming to discover a wider world of audio, good audio remains just with the carriage trade. I'd hate to think we destroy much of good audio on my watch for the sake of not wishing to dirty our hands with MP3.

Well done.

The thing is, those mp3 people have an upgrade path -- to better quality mp3s, to lossless, to better headphones -- and many of them are on that path. And it sounds good in there. Taking mp3s out of it for a moment, right now, for millions of music lovers, there is headphones into an iPhone and there are docking stations and computer speakers; that's their frame of reference. Headphone listening, and a really good system in that world is <$1k, is the quality listening experience in their world. If the hobby/industry wants to bring even the most dedicated listeners in that group into the fold, the best strategy is probably not telling them they're stupid and the only way they're ever going to hear music that sounds Like music is to spend >10k and replace their entire music collection.

And even if they did much of the high end would sniff at the $10k system and make them feel like rubes.

Tim

 

[microstrip]

Every year around this time we have plenty of articles and debates on the shrinking of high end - it is the post time of CES and the statistics of the previous year become known. Reading articles on the subject written a few years ago shows that the premises have not changed, and that one of the expected savers of the high-end - better quality digital formats is still not established as a valid and wide spread standard.

I found this article very interesting - Whatever Happened To The Audiophile? http://www.npr.org/2011/03/05/134256592/whatever-happened-to-the-audiophile "That said, the landscape — or perhaps soundscape — has changed." - Mark Katz, associate professor of music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Unfortunately I do not believe that there is a magic portion that can turn 128k MP3 in an high-end format. IMHO this is the main problem of high-end - there is no "clean" migration route that does not imply re-buying your music. People accepted it for CD, mostly because of the improved convenience of the new media. But I doubt that they will want to do it for virtual music.

 

[Orb]

In many ways though the discussion is academic because as I mentioned society/habits have changed, one may convince those listening to MP3 to upgrade, but the majority will never go for a traditional floorstanding stereo speaker/component setup.

It would be interesting to see how many of the small KEF LS50 speakers are sold compared to similar priced large floorstanding recent model they have.
Fact is most are happy to listen either with a mobile setup (this can be high end but point being scope and narrative is different to most of what is talked about here - high end sit down quality in room stereo system) or with laptop/something similar.

Most of my friends have moved away from the sit down and listen in a room habit, to that which I mentioned earlier.
So highend is not dying, just that the traditional concept has consolidated while there is the opportunity to provide high quality components for lifestyle/mobile/tablet-laptop/etc, including smaller high end speakers.
I would consider the Devialet a high-end lifestyle product that manages to interest both traditional audiophiles and those that are not necessarily enthused by audio and want a good looking discrete-smart "tool" to play with discrete smart looking speakers.
This is one reason Devialet are doing so well, they bridge both audiophile and also lifestyle.
KEF, it will be interesting to see how well both the LS50 and their active PC speaker sell, along with Meridian and their mobile DAC-headphone as well as Audioquest Dragonfly, etc, headphones are a given and traditional audio brand names are becoming more known such as Bower&Wilkins models as an example.

However with all these new products and with high end focusing also now or soon on mobile/casual setup such as laptop/lifestyle listening habits, we will still only see a small amount of next generation moving into traditional high end sit-down stereo in a set room; probably those that have taken an interest and are enthusiastic about LPs-turntables (still a niche market).
Nothing will change that traditional listening using moderate sized fixed position speakers and components with focused-intent-critical listening is what has become niche, so this will reach a baseline that then should remain stable.
High end will still survive, and indeed will grow as many will expand into the new habits of listening, while others will consolidate their position-footprint with traditional "niche" audio listeners.

Cheers
Orb

 

[Andre Marc]

I think the first step is to get people to really listen to their music. Is it just me or has it just become to easy to cue up and play a track for the majority of listeners that the activity has been pushed to the background? Has it become so easy that it has been taken for granted? Example, I'm in a store, I hear a song I like, I call up the Shazam app, it tells me what song it is, I hit the Spotify button, put on the buds.

I don't think I've ever finished a song.

A big part of the allure of vinyl for me is that the requisite actions demand that I make time. Just the act of making time makes the experience more special. I was talking to a much younger cousin-in-law last Christmas and he blind sided me by asking if an online classified ad on his smartphone had a good price for the Rega P1 featured. I proceeded to ask him why he was getting into LPs. First he said he found it way cool to be able to listen to his Dad's record collection. Like me he said the "rituals" made it more enjoyable. He also said he liked the sound but it was not the number one factor, not second either. It was third. That is cool with me.

The assumption has been that quality should be the driver. This runs contrary to history. Convenience has ruled the roost. Question is, has convenience gone too far. So far that listening as a primary activity has become trivialized?

Jack, you are the first person, maybe unknowingly!..to see my point. What I was trying to say
in the mock up add I put together, is that people are really not LISTENING to their music
in many cases, they are hearing it...what my mock add was saying is would you like
to sit down and take a listen...

Secondly, in the example you give about hearing a song and using the Shazam app..well guess what..two months ago I was in the
supermarket and a song came on that stopped me in my tracks. I used the app the identify the artist..Diego Garcia...as soon as I got
home I purchased both is albums, Laura, and Paradise, one via FLAC download on Qobuz, and one on CD from Amazon.
I would rather burn a $20 bill then pay for lossy files.

Yes, I PURCHASED the music. I own it. I have now listened to both albums through at least 9 or 10 times..on the my main system, on my bedroom system, and
on my iPhone in the gym. There in lies the difference. Immersing my self in those two albums has been a very pleasurable experience. It is
not some time passing nonsense on Spotify.

I hope I made clear the difference in priorities I describe above. I think it is silly to think that people
will invest in a high quality playback systems if they won't even invest in playback media.

This argument that people have been convinced 256 AAC is a "good as it gets" is
rubbish. They have not been "convinced", that is all they need, and they do not need the high end if that is the case.

 

[Orb]

Coming back to consumers general interest or lack of in music.

Here is an interesting development regarding Beats Music, in that they are looking to provide a music streaming service but unlike all others the music can be offered curated and presented more like a traditional radio station; selection/curation is by various professionals/senior DJs/etc in the business.
At launch looks like it has 20 million tracks for listening.

They were pretty much on the ball with their market/positioning of "smarter looking/better" mass market headphones, so will be interesting to see if this new business venture will take hold with the general music listener.
Looks like they think there is a great appetite for general public to pay $10 a month for such a music service and interest in new music.
On a separate note this has an interesting artist pay model rate.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beats-music-launching-streaming-service-january-21st-20140111
https://beatsmusic.com/

Cheers
Orb

 

[Andre Marc]

Coming back to consumers general interest or lack of in music.

Here is an interesting development regarding Beats Music, in that they are looking to provide a music streaming service but unlike all others the music can be offered curated and presented more like a traditional radio station; selection/curation is by various professionals/senior DJs/etc in the business.
At launch looks like it has 20 million tracks for listening.

They were pretty much on the ball with their market/positioning of "smarter looking/better" mass market headphones, so will be interesting to see if this new business venture will take hold with the general music listener.
Looks like they think there is a great appetite for general public to pay $10 a month for such a music service and interest in new music.
On a separate note this has an interesting artist pay model rate.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beats-music-launching-streaming-service-january-21st-20140111
https://beatsmusic.com/

Cheers
Orb

Orb, let me be clear...I don't there is any lack of interest in music at all..it is generally intrinsic to being human..regardless of race, color, or creed..

It s the interest in OWNING music and hearing it in lossless quality from the final master.

The success or failure of Beats will be meaningless, as they will get millions of sign ups looking for FREE, LOSSY music on demand.

 

[Ronm1]

Quality of the music, h/w is just not a priority with most. A bucket list item it is not. Most enjoy the diff but not enough to change their habits or environments. Speakers are to be heard not seen. I have inlaws who enjoy a listen, appear to get it, $$ are no issue just not a prio.

 

[Orb]

Beats is $10 a month and not free, this is why it will be interesting.

But I guess then the point your debating is how listening habits have changed (which we both agreed upon and I emphasised with my own further postings), I think you will find give the general listener higher quality that importantly works within the newer trend (not sat down with a cumbersome stereo system in a dedicated room) and they will adopt it.
I think the issue is not about the music or quality, but the fact modern habits have changed.
However that change still means consumer will buy quality (both music and hardware) IF it fits into that modern listening habit paradigm; mobile/casual placement/ease of use/accessability/form factor-lifestyle/smartphone-ipod or comparable-tablet-laptop/etc.

Just my view anyway.
Cheers
Orb

 

[Andre Marc]

Beats is $10 a month and not free, this is why it will be interesting.

But I guess then the point your debating is how listening habits have changed (which we both agreed upon and I emphasised with my own further postings), I think you will find give the general listener higher quality that importantly works within the newer trend (not sat down with a cumbersome stereo system in a dedicated room) and they will adopt it.
I think the issue is not about the music or quality, but the fact modern habits have changed.
However that change still means consumer will buy quality (both music and hardware) IF it fits into that modern listening habit paradigm; mobile/ease of use/accessability/form factor-lifestyle/smartphone-ipod or comparable-tablet-laptop/etc.

Just my view anyway.
Cheers
Orb

Interesting. So there is no "Free" version of Beats?

Good post.

I absolutely think trying to get the mp3/on the go/portable etc crowd to invest in some hardware that does not fit in with their lifestyle is silly.

That being said, there are some very cool systems at their that are totally unobtrusive and like the Focal Bird, the Arcam Solo series,
and higher up the scale the Naim all in one players. And yes..you can plug your smart device into all of them or use AirPlay etc.

 

[Andre Marc]

Quality of the music, h/w is just not a priority with most. A bucket list item it is not. Most enjoy the diff but not enough to change their habits or environments. Speakers are to be heard not seen. I have inlaws who enjoy a listen, appear to get it, $$ are no issue just not a prio.

As I mentioned, my father in law investe $2500 in an HD TV, and a Bose surround system. He sniffed
at the very notion of watching "standard" resolution tv. Music? Meh..streaming low bit rate mp3 is just fine.
And mind you, he IS a music lover and a musician.

 

[Alan Sircom]

Jack, you are the first person, maybe unknowingly!..to see my point. What I was trying to say
in the mock up add I put together, is that people are really not LISTENING to their music
in many cases, they are hearing it...what my mock add was saying is would you like
to sit down and take a listen...

Secondly, in the example you give about hearing a song and using the Shazam app..well guess what..two months ago I was in the
supermarket and a song came on that stopped me in my tracks. I used the app the identify the artist..Diego Garcia...as soon as I got
home I purchased both is albums, Laura, and Paradise, one via FLAC download on Qobuz, and one on CD from Amazon.
I would rather burn a $20 bill then pay for lossy files.

Yes, I PURCHASED the music. I own it. I have now listened to both albums through at least 9 or 10 times..on the my main system, on my bedroom system, and
on my iPhone in the gym. There in lies the difference. Immersing my self in those two albums has been a very pleasurable experience. It is
not some time passing nonsense on Spotify.

I hope I made clear the difference in priorities I describe above. I think it is silly to think that people
will invest in a high quality playback systems if they won't even invest in playback media.

This argument that people have been convinced 256 AAC is a "good as it gets" is
rubbish. They have not been "convinced", that is all they need, and they do not need the high end if that is the case.

I absolutely agree with your first part and completely disagree with the latter.

People are not engaging with their music in the way they used to. We have become host bodies for smartphones, but this is not an irreversible position in everyone.

Audio has been so low on the priority list for so long that people don't know there's anything better and they've gone with the flow, but this too is not an irreversible position in everyone.

If you write them off, then no - none of these Spotify listeners will ever move on or out from there. But there are people out there who have not experienced what good sound can do for them because there's no one getting out there and showing them. They react like you and I and everyone else here did when we had that Damascene moment with audio.

I know this from direct experience at the Royal Festival Hall three years ago. We ran a Classic Album Sundays weekend, playing all manner of UK hit albums from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s through about $200,000 worth of system to an audience of mildly disinterested retro-fashionistas and their bored partners and family members. After one particularly harrowing rendition of Closer by Joy Division a kid came up to me (I was MC at the time), literally shaking. Up to that time, music for him was free and played through the speaker on his phone - not even through headphones. He had no idea what he was missing and we handed him his Damascene audiophile moment. I gave his parents my card and we have corresponded several times. He now has a small system comprising ProJect Debut Carbon turntable, Cambridge Audio DACmagic 100, Denon PMA-520AE and Tannoy Mercury V1 speakers (all from his nearest Richer Sounds), and talks about upgrading when he gets a job. He now buys records and rips CDs on his laptop. Admittedly, he also plunders his parents 1980s collection of Joy Division, JAMC, Echo and the Bunnymen and other albums because they are trendy again, but he went from being a surly teenager who was inseparable from his Slackberry, to a surly teenager who is inseparable from his record collection, and his Slackberry.

I grant you that you have to go through a lot of chaff to get to the wheat, but when was it ever anything different?

 

[Ronm1]

And mind you, he IS a music lover and a musician.

That to me is so sad, but my experiences are not much different. It's just the way it is.

 

[Andre Marc]

I absolutely agree with your first part and completely disagree with the latter.

People are not engaging with their music in the way they used to. We have become host bodies for smartphones, but this is not an irreversible position in everyone.

Audio has been so low on the priority list for so long that people don't know there's anything better and they've gone with the flow, but this too is not an irreversible position in everyone.

If you write them off, then no - none of these Spotify listeners will ever move on or out from there. But there are people out there who have not experienced what good sound can do for them because there's no one getting out there and showing them. They react like you and I and everyone else here did when we had that Damascene moment with audio.

I know this from direct experience at the Royal Festival Hall three years ago. We ran a Classic Album Sundays weekend, playing all manner of UK hit albums from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s through about $200,000 worth of system to an audience of mildly disinterested retro-fashionistas and their bored partners and family members. After one particularly harrowing rendition of Closer by Joy Division a kid came up to me (I was MC at the time), literally shaking. Up to that time, music for him was free and played through the speaker on his phone - not even through headphones. He had no idea what he was missing and we handed him his Damascene audiophile moment. I gave his parents my card and we have corresponded several times. He now has a small system comprising ProJect Debut Carbon turntable, Cambridge Audio DACmagic 100, Denon PMA-520AE and Tannoy Mercury V1 speakers (all from his nearest Richer Sounds), and talks about upgrading when he gets a job. He now buys records and rips CDs on his laptop. Admittedly, he also plunders his parents 1980s collection of Joy Division, JAMC, Echo and the Bunnymen and other albums because they are trendy again, but he went from being a surly teenager who was inseparable from his Slackberry, to a surly teenager who is inseparable from his record collection, and his Slackberry.

I grant you that you have to go through a lot of chaff to get to the wheat, but when was it ever anything different?

Alan, good post.

While I may have come off as pessimistic, I can't honestly say I have "written off" these folks.
But I do think you are being a bit easy on them saying they just "go with the flow".

There is always the possibility of another paradigm shift.

Now here is where we converge...the Classic Albums Sundays story recount..THAT IS MY WHOLE POINT Alan!!!!!!!!!

USE THE MUSIC! USE THE MUSIC! But do it in an industry coordinated manager. THAT is what my mock ad was ALL ABOUT!

BTW, it does NOT have to be "classic" albums...use THEIR music, any music...! AND..it does NOT have to be a 200k demo system either!

You showed the chap there was a DIFFERENT way to connect to the MUSIC! Sorry to shout but I think we have it a Eureka Moment here!

You may demonstrate to 200 people. So what if only 5 or 6, or 10 or 20 get it..it is a start.

 

[Alan Sircom]

Alan, good post.

While I may have come off as pessimistic, I can't honestly say I have "written off" these folks.
But I do think you are being a bit easy on them saying they just "go with the flow".

There is always the possibility of another paradigm shift.

Now here is where we converge...the Classic Albums Sundays story recount..THAT IS MY WHOLE POINT Alan!!!!!!!!!

USE THE MUSIC! USE THE MUSIC! But do it in an industry coordinated manager. THAT is what my mock ad was ALL ABOUT!

BTW, it does NOT have to be "classic" albums...use THEIR music, any music...! AND..it does NOT have to be a 200k demo system either!

You showed the chap there was a DIFFERENT way to connect to the MUSIC! Sorry to shout but I think we have it a Eureka Moment here!

You may demonstrate to 200 people. So what if only 5 or 6, or 10 or 20 get it..it is a start.

Yep, I go along with all this. We might have been arguing both ends against the middle!

 

[Andre Marc]

Yep, I go along with all this. We might have been arguing both ends against the middle!

Indeed!

 

[wakibaki]

It's best if high-end audio dies, so how to revive it is not the question. High-end audio is being killed by the fact that ALL modern audio equipment is better than 'high-end' was just a decade or two ago. High-end audio is something that exists only in the minds of audiophiles. The rest of us like to listen to music. You can get fantastic reproduction from a Sansa Clip+ and a pair of IEMs.

I have a lot of equipment. That's because I'm a GEARHEAD. I'm also a musician. Knowing these facts keeps me from sliding into being an audiophile, which is a person without sufficient self-knowledge to recognise that they're a gearhead and insufficient talent or application to become a musician.

w