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Is high-end audio dying, if not dead already???

Without sounding like the mad prophet of the airwaves, I think high-end audio is in its death throes. I would like to hear other opinions on this issue, but I think it is time to raise the question and also some hell as to what is happening to the high end audio and audio in general.

Here's why: Most of the major audio publications spend a great deal of time on romancing the "absolute" fidelity of computer audio and music that is digitally processed. On the other hand, you have critics, reviewers, celebrating the comeback of vinyl, analog, and turntables. The mantra goes: "it really does sound better, like real music", so chuck out your CD player, and buy a $5000 analog rig, and have fun again cleaning, preserving (a medium) searching record huts worldwide for pristine vinyl gems. Maybe, there are some shellac gems out there also

It seems the CD format has "OUTLIVED" its usefulness in the pursuit of the absolute sound because its technology and soft ware has never convincingly improved. It is like the BB King tune "the thrill is gone" or saying kids let's just change the channel for something more exciting and new.

High-end audio seems to now ( as the old joke goes)require a degree in engineering or rocket science to understand the circuitous (bad pun) route to audio nirvana. Equipment has gotten more expensive over the last 15 years, under the pretext that the electronic functions have increased and become more complicated. Take a look at the back of a 5 channel receiver or amp, or home theater receiver, a digital processor, etc. and you will see the future of audio. It might be easier to hook up a heart and lung machine.

Ironically, as high end audio and audio in general evolves, the music industry delivers more shit to the public's ears, Geez, I never knew that in order to really enjoy Shakira, JZ, Pharell, and the rest of the talentless trash discovered and pushed by American Idol, The Voice,and the popular Mega media, would require hearing it in absolute sound.
sunnyjim
rja's avatar
rja
2,112 posts
 
"but the music ....will always be there"
And we will buy it over and over and over.......to fit every technological iteration that comes down the pike, ad infinitum. No I'm not bitter. 8^)
57s4me
30 posts
 
Perhaps in this debate there is an assumption that there are absolute improvements every year, and this is challengeable.... In just about every aspect of hi-end audio there have been landmark products (going back to the 1960s) which are still held to be definitive. If this is so then the debate should be differently defined: the Hi-End Industry, if it is a 'good' business, should innovate and this year's products must somehow be better than yesterday's products.
My thinking is that we have been producing superb components for a very long time. Improvements, if they do indeed exist, are sometimes microscopically small and insignificant. If this is so then the industry might not be on the best shape?
After all, there have been a lot of great minds devoted to our getting the best possible sound digitally or via analog - and for a long time. There will always be passionate individuals in this business who have something to offer - thank God! - but I suspect it is more difficult than ever to re-define what is achievable. And so, I think the OP might have a point...
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
4,382 posts
 
I'm too lazy to read all the posts just coming back from a wine tasting but as of now I feel that high end is not so much over as the "emperors clothes" no longer hide the fact that "high end' audio is alive and well and had been living all along with the mid priced gear.

All it took was to suss out the right gear and carefully pair it with all the ancillary stuff and Bob's your uncle. Just as there are cult leaders in politics that people tend to follow, waiting for instructions on what to say and believe, audio has it's fair share of wannabes that strive to make their mark on an unsuspecting public.

It amazes me just how much correcting it took to pen this. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
I liken high end audio to fine swiss watches. The technology has existed across many decades. The updates are mainly in style and materials with some breakthroughs in design here and there. The focus in high end audio is on workmanship and style, not economies of scale or reducing the cost in the next generation product. Just the opposite, in fact. Luxury items, unlike TVs and refrigerators, seem to rise in cost with or slightly above the rate of inflation. Those of us that have tracked this hifi hobby over decades may lament the sticker shocking prices of today's gear; but was it really any different in the 50s through the 2000s? The hobby will live on with the dedicated few who also have the means, and perhaps go back to more of a DIY kit business to help manage costs. I used to do my own mods and upgrades years ago, and some mods that were above my skill level I had done. Thats what real hifi used to be.
macrojack
1,292 posts
 
It would appear that the average age of the audiophile is rising by the year. The inevitable stopping point of the aging process will coincide rather identically with the stopping point of that individual's consumption of new audio products. It will, in fact, have double-edged effect of further damaging the market place with the addition of more used gear to the inventory. Supply and demand dynamics will cause opportunities for those who are entering the market place to purchase wonderful used gear at a fraction of the prices being demanded by boutique charlatans and genuine innovators alike. This should cause an extreme cleansing of the manufacturing ranks.

On another front, there appears to be a burgeoning DIY community being fed by a sensible modular component manufacturing contingent. The Hypex success will not go unnoticed and the charlatan fringe will be outed by the audio hobbyists who know their stuff.

And, I believe, we need to consider the possibility of a greater world wide economic collapse than the one we are just beginning to emerge from. The banksters will give us some amount of time to recharge our financial batteries but we can be sure that there will be another taking, since nothing in the forecast is present to prevent as much. Batten down the hatches. Audio will be your least concern if that happens.
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