Digital, Low Mass, ClassD, Less expensive, Let it happen!

Actually Clearthink, I was the one who said HEA is in free fall.

Erik's posts have been right on the money from what I have been seeing and also testing on my own. "Bubble" is a great word to describe what HEA has created. It's something that has alienated itself (themselves)from the audiophile listener. Erik has also pointed out another very important fact, there's a difference between the HEA person and the Audiophile.

Projections about the state of the audiophile can be made all day and all night, but when talking to the industry insiders themselves and audiophile clients the HEA chapter of the hobby is not so hard to figure out. The trophy buyers are getting beyond the age of buying interest and most are moving to their final system choices. These are the guys, maybe 10,000 strong who have supported the HEA revolving door. The amp of the month club has become a hard sell as compared to even 15 years ago when the decline was well in motion. Anytime you see an industry in the US loose over 90% of it's demo store fronts there's a good chance that industry is put on the endangered species list.

The other side of this is a very positive one. Your average techy can now place an order with people like "Parts Express", and others, and with a little effort build amplifier systems that out perform the extremely expensive. Pose this to the up and coming audiophile, or to the more practical one, and the over built over priced components hardly get a rise.

And here's the real deal. This paradigm shift is happening with or without the opinions of the Agon poster.

mg

but now we know sound is better with low mass designs.

Let me give a personal example of what I talked about in my post above. Where I live (small apt on the Vegas strip) visitors stop by my place. They always sit for a quick listen and talk audio as we watch the strip action. I usually have several amps right as they enter my place and they are rotated slowly in and out of my 2 systems. Before this I had a place with 6 listening rooms but I felt was too far from the Vegas Strip, convention center and airport. I mention this to explain why I have the need to rotate every 3 or so months for my work as compared to letting amps settle in the system for years. anyway current picture painted

A little less then a month ago I introduced a small Class D amp to the system and as people stopped by the shock was more than a little for folks at not only how great the sound is but also how cool these folks (all audiophiles) thought the look was. The major shocker though was when I let them know the price of the new amp setup. All of them did and are doing the "wait a minute". But the most interesting reaction is how cool they think this new amp paradigm is. "Sounds as good or better, looks very cool, is so tiny". To these folks this is a very exotic, new age approach that is more sexy to them. Before I even mention the price folks like this new style better.

mg

What’s HEA?