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Is this the end of HEA?

http://www.cepro.com/article/is_this_the_end_of_high_performance_audio_at_ces

This last year has made my ears perk up. Honestly I didn't even know the article above had been written until now. What I did know was listeners have been in touch with me about the future of HEA and their future as advanced listeners. It's been nice to see folks getting in touch with me and even nicer that they are doing so because they wish to settle into their final system sound. To say things in their words "it's been an expensive ride" and most of these folks aren't sure they've gotten a fair shake always from the hobby. Many feel they have bank rolled a part of a hobby that hasn't always delivered the goods. Basically instead of telling listeners that this is a variable hobby the "experts" pushed a very expensive game of component Plug & Play onto the discrete audio generation. I remember those days of guilt buying where a dollar amount was used as a representative for quality, when it meant no such thing. I knew first hand this was not the case as designers scrambled to make up-sell products that sounded less musical than the original products that put their name in audio fame. I also could see the HEA decline happening but still was giving the benefit of the doubt to those saying HEA was just fine and growing. Mom and pop stores for the most part have vanished in the US with the exception of a few creative thinkers. New expensive products are being adored but I don't see many actually buying them. Now I've got my eye on T.H.E. Show (Richard's show) and wondering if it's happening or not. Richard and I have talked many times about what will happen to HEA in the US if T.H.E. Show and CES cease doing their thing in Vegas. I wonder what Richard RIP is thinking now sitting in the clouds.

I am very excited to see the next few years come about even though I know some are still buying into the old paradigm that the HEA is the cutting edge with only a volume control to adjust and a fork lift included with every purchase. Going to the CES web, I have my answer for Vegas. Going to T.H.E. Show website I'm still in question. If these two are no more, in terms of HEA, who's next?

Michael Green

michaelgreenaudio

Showing 12 responses by geoffkait

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Most high end systems I ever heard, and I’ve heard a bunch, were disappointing. I’d say they probably fall under the category, Looks Good on Paper. I certainly wouldn’t consider allocating a huge amount of 💸 💸 💸 If I thought that’s the sound it would buy me.

I think it all started around 1980 when the big audio show was in DC. Somebody was demonstrating the humongous Infinity Reference System with a big RTR tape deck and AUDIO RESEARCH tube electronics. The dude on stage announced proudly, “see if this sounds live music to you.” Unfortunately, when the sound came on and filled the auditorium it was so bad everyone immediately got up and walked out.

A rich man 💰 has about as much chance of getting into audio heaven as a camel 🐪 has of passing through the eye 👁 of a needle. - old audiophile axiom
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
glubson,

What I think your analysis of the “shift to low mass uncomplicated and less expensive systems” ironically and mysteriously overlooks is the primary reason for such a shift - sound quality! Hel-loo! Nobody is suggesting we go back to listening to mp3 on iPods. If you like we can review the whole list of reasons why sound quality is the impetus and intended result of downshifting from high mass, complex, expensive systems to lightweight, very simple, and very inexpensive systems. I’m sure that is what MG had in mind in the OP.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. High End Audio has precious little to do with equipment or cost. It’s actually surprisingly easy to assemble a very expensive Stereophile Class A system that sounds very generic, boring, two dimensional, amusical, irritating, thin, metallic, thuddy, compressed, distorted and/or like paper mache. 😛 We want tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste. 🐬

The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. - old audiophile axiom
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Low mass speaker drivers are a trade off. Standard speaker drivers typically move more air than dipole drivers, thus deliver lower bass frequencies and greater dynamics. How are we defining low mass systems? Taking the transformer out of the chassis and relocating it elsewhere doesn’t reduce the total mass, just redistributes it. Removing the chassis cover does reduce total mass. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
It has some of the same advantages and drawbacks as an electrostatic driver although the point source operation is interesting.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
The premier high end store Excalibur in Alexandria closed circa 1986. They even had the monster Infinity Reference System. It’s been downhill in HEA ever since. Meyer-Emco, Audio Associates also long time gone. The Paragon of Sound in MD long gone. It takes big bucks to stay the in the game. The big 50x50 room I was in with Tenor and Rockport at Tuscany Hotel in Vegas was something like 50 big ones for 4 days. Mapleshade stopped going to CES twenty years ago. Money talks, nobody walks.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Another clue was the decision by John Curl and Bob Crump around twenty years ago - my how time flies! - to design and produce what are probably best referred to as entry level high end, I.e., more affordable, products like JC-1, and abandon their efforts as CTC (Crump, Thompson and Curl) the last year they showed their fabulous but expensivo Bar B Q amplifier and Blowtorch preamp way back in 2000, having had the foresight to realize that dog won’t hunt. 🐩
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
glupson1,648 posts12-29-2018 11:23pmIn order to talk about HEA (High End Audio), we may need to establish some definition of it. It is inconvenient, if not impossible, so we conveniently do not mention it.

CES is Consumer Electronics Show. It is not, and was never meant to be, High End Audio Show.

>>>>Huh? Then how come I participated in a system at CES that was valued at $300,000 and won best of show? And what was that Cable Cooker doing in the room? And all those isolation stands? And how come I participated in the John Curl/Bob Crump Room when they were at the peak of High End Audio with their Blowtorch preamp and Bar B Q amp? I was with Mapleshade and Gallo, too. And with Golden Sound, with BWS preamp, five isolation systems, Ultra Tweeters, 8 ft tall Golden Sound speaker’s, Tweaks included Brilliant Pebbles, water bowls and photos in the freezers. Those systems are the very definition of High End Audio. Hel-loo!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
No, jitter. It’s actually an Appeal to Reality. Knock, knock, Hel-loo!

Seasons greetings! 🎄
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Oh, that. That was inaccurate, too, glubson. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Glubson, you should leave the house sometime. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. High end audio has always been part of CES. T.H.E. Show might as well have been The High End Show. Been there done that. There’s something for every taste. Even mid fi for your taste. I am considering letting you win an argument this year as you seem to be getting a complex.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
AQUIO Waterproof Bluetooth Water Bottle Speaker. I’m down for that one.
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