Why Don't More People Love Audio?

I've thought about this before too. Here are the reasons I came up with:

1) The kind of music that favors high end, hifi gear is enjoyed by an ever more miniscule part of the population. People in the US just don't spend much time listening to Jazz and Classical music anymore. The most popular types of music - pop, rock and rap is reproduced better on non-audiophile systems.

2) Music itself is not as exciting anymore. In the 70's in my lower income beach neighborhood, it wasn't hard to find people living in an 800 sq ft shack on the beach on welfare with $20K stereo systems. The music was so good and exciting at the time, it was the supreme entertainment all by itself.

3) Home Theater is more entertaining and sociable than music listening. During the 70's, all you needed was good weed and good tunes and you had yourself a party. There's something about weed and music that went so well together.

4) High end audio turned into a raquet somewhere along the line. If all you want is the best sounding stereo gear for your money and you're tired of your Kenwood, you're treated to very unwholistic systems that sound amazingly good in one or two areas and deficient in others.

You're put on a continuous and ridiculously expensive treadmill of tweaks and upgrades until things just sound right overall. By that time they sound fantastic, but you would have settled for just "right" about $40K ago.

5) Similar to 4, the complexity you're introduced to just to get quality stereo sound is monstrous. You need expensive cables (but who knows how they'll sound in your system), power conditioners (but who knows how they'll sound in your system), better power cords, a DAC, preamp, amp, sub, source, room treatments, all with uncertain outcomes until they have the right mystical synergy. WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

All I wanted was a good sounding stereo. It shouldn't have to be this hard or this expensive. Ahh, but it is.

Well, IMO high end audio won't compete until the complexity is gone. The complexity just creeped in step by step until it's now choking the industry to death by being ridiculously daunting for the consumer.

What will save the stereo business? Digital Technology. Now that there are digital amps, all components can be connected fiber-optically and made in a much smaller form factor. Give em 3 or 4 small components with a single standardized cable connection to each that puts out dynamite sound, and you'll see people enjoy the music listening experience again.

Oh yeah, and some exciting new music to come along wouldn't hurt things either.

Most people don't know that high end audio exists. Seriously, to them top of the line is something from Wally world, Best buy (Bose), Target. However, that doesn't mean they don't love audio. Most people love music, they just either can't afford or are satisfied (don't know any better)with mid-fi.

A decent mid-fi set-up doesn't sound bad. You can enjoy the music. Only a minority want the best whether it's audio, food, or microbrew beer.

I don't believe it needs to be that complicated to get good sound. For $3-5 grand you can get a pretty darn good sounding system. You just need $2K, for speakers, $500 for a cd player, then $500 to $2500 for a amp/pre-amp or some combination thereof. There is no need to ever go further, forget about exotic cords, conditioners, etc.

That doesn't mean you can't get better sound with all the extra's, just you can do well without it too. Audiophiles just aren't satisfied with good sound, we want trancendent, miraculous. Yet, even among Audiogoners there is a wide variation in what type of system we need to be satisfied.

Larry B Nice insight.

As far as complexity, it has benefited the hiend dealer community to obfuscate and complicate to the best of their capabilities. This may bring short term shot in the arm revenue but will ultimately end with a lot of turned off jaded customers.

What I do see is that people could care less about the way things sound, as the low end products have become quite good. In fact, my mother in law was over the other night and said her Bose sounded better than my system because it was surround(!?)

The technology you describe is the death knell for hiend because it is simple, sounds good (to a point) more consistently than a lot of thrown together hiend gear.

Another reason is that some hiend gear is so overpriced for what it delivers as to be ludicrous. This is just another reason that the piper will be paid be unscrupulous manufacturers and distributors at the next economic cycle...

Seevral things that come to my mind are:
1)Money. People put music low on the priority list.
2)Anlytical listening. Most people don't listen to how the music sounds, they just listen to the music.
3)Many people listen to music only at parties or get-togethers. Music is just in the background.
4) They haven't gotten the disease. Kind of like golf. Once you catch it your hooked....

Eagleman,

Good and to the point response. Your second point on analytical listening is so true.