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New York HiFi Show: Tubes and Turntables

I was at the New York HiFi Show today.  It was hard to find many CD players, despite one with a price tag $40,000.  Virtually every room featured turntables and tubes. Sonically, it was a definite improvement over shows in the past.  Not too much sizzle and boom, although a lot of systems demonstrated big bass. Natural sounding components were the rule.
There were hardly any systems affordable by the average audiophile.  $100,000 rigs were not unusual. It seems demonstrators were prone to showing their best.
 With all the myriad of exotic stuff, I’m sorry I can’t remember too many names, but the re-introduction of sophisticated treble and bass controls and room-conditioning processors were impressive.
Of course, streaming was featured in many displays.
It wasn’t a large show, so it was comfortably do-able in one day.
rvpiano
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
willemj, OK, you’ve convinced me! The biggest market must be the one with the best sound. Or at least the one with sound just as good as high end sound. Why else would it be so popular? I did not realize there were so many connoisseurs of good sound. 😃 Of course, your whole screed begs the age-old and *important question* - can a tweaked Mid Fi system beat an untweaked High End System?

Addendum: I hate to judge too quickly but this particular post of yours appears to set the stage for a philosophical war between economics and physics. 😦

Geoff Kait
machina dynamica
advanced audio concepts
we do artificial atoms right!

roberjerman
2,086 posts
 
Today 99% of the public does not care about better sound quality (Hi Fidelity). And only the 1% can afford the outrageous prices of the so-called "Hi End" gear. When I attended the NYC shows in 1976 - '80 the attendees were predominantly middle-class and lines were out the door waiting to get in! 
willemj
1,036 posts
 
For those who wonder what these are responses to,  I posted an extended economic analysis of the audio market, with an explanation for the prominence of snake oil products, based on  mainstream business economics theory. It was removed by a moderator.
For me such censorship is the end of the line. Farewell.
trelja
3,215 posts
 
@willemj, I happened to see it prior to removal. Agreed with some of it, disagreed with some of it. But felt it added greatly to the discussion here, and feeling baffled as to what motivated removal.  Stifling good, honest opinion that does not contain profanity, business or other impropriety, or threatens harm yields bad results for all of us.  Definitely not healthy in terms of discourse or pushing the hobby forward
cleeds
2,065 posts
 
willemj... I posted an extended economic analysis of the audio market, with an explanation for the prominence of snake oil products, based on mainstream business economics theory. It was removed by a moderator.
For me such censorship is the end of the line.
It may have simply been deleted because it was so far off-topic. Why not try posting it in a new thread, or try to find a thread where it would be more on-topic.
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