Post by ArchimagoWho know Mnyb, maybe it's just going to be a slow burn...
The majority have found excellent sounding cell phones and iPads for
personal listening - just need better headphones than Beats. The family
room has a decent receiver and for the folks who want better sound,
they'll be looking for better speakers for a more social experience if
the soundbar isn't good enough.
As the current "audiophile" magazines and spiritualist audiophiles
dwindle over time, the bizarre industry that catered to them will
dissipate. And all the while "Rage, rage against the dying of the
light."
I think there will still be a good number of folks who just love the
high-fidelity experience and want to own hardware capable of it.
Hopefully this group just stays sane :-).
Just as there will always be a demand for hand built wristwatches in
spite of cheaper and more accurate electronic watches and a demand of
film based SLR cameras in spite of cheaper digital SLR cameras, there
will always be a demand of fancy, hand built boutique audio equipment.
High end audio equipment is now in the luxury goods camp and as such the
price versus performance ratio no longer has any relevance. Trying to
get wealthy audiophiles to understand that an inexpensive laptop
computer feeding digital audio files from a properly ripped CD to a good
USB DAC will sound as good as any megabuck CD player is just a waste of
time. The same thing applies to a good solid state power amp versus a
hand built, underpowered tube amp. Or a full range speaker coupled with
a good DSP unit versus a megabuck speaker/amp/preamp combo. Luxury goods
do not need to measure well or have fancy bells and whistles since their
"worth" lies elsewhere.
The market for high end audio will just become more and more expensive
and exclusive but it will never completely die. The number of brands and
dealers will continue to dwindle until there are only a select handful
left and the wealthy individuals who can afford these luxury goods will
know where to obtain these status symbols, most likely because there
will always be a few magazines and web sites devoted to the luxury
aspect of high end audio. This is probably why so much what passes for
equipment reviews in the high end audio magazines is becoming more about
solid aluminum faceplates, fit and finish and listening "impressions"
than about good value and measured performance.
The good thing is that due to robust nature of digital audio (robust
with respect to digital audio being less dependent on the storage medium
and transmission method) top quality playback equipment with very good
fidelity will be available for mere fraction of the cost of their high
end brethren.
The previous statement is borne out whenever one of the high end audio
magazines goes slumming and actually reports on or reviews some less
expensive equipment only to be shocked to find out that the equipment
sounds pretty damn good, nowadays this happens on a very regular basis.
Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. &
sub
Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub
Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1
& Energy sub
Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0
Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar
Garage: SB3-JVC compact system
Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso
Server: LMS 7.9 on dedicated windows 10 computer w/2 Drobos
'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/)
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