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General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

The world keeps changing, and our priorities change with it.

Here is (most of) a message I posted about ten days ago. I'm re-posting it in this thread because it is relevant.

The basic problem that higher-end audio manufacturers face is declining interest in audio per se. With so many new-tech alternatives to choose from, most consumers have "moved on" to other pursuits, mostly in the video realm.... and it's hard to fault them. We humans are more sight-oriented than sound-oriented, so it's easy to see why someone would rather buy a hi-def TV than a two-channel amplifer or a pair of speakers for the same money. And of course, we have the home computer market competing for the same discretionary spending.

I suspect that high-end home audio systems will become increasingly rare, owned only by rich eccentrics. Even $4,000 audio-only systems will become an oddity. Until and unless there is a resurgence of interest in high-quality sound the market will continue to shrink. 98% of the population will spend their money on big-screen TVs and listen to music on iPods. The only way that "high end" manufacturers can change this is to bring prices down to a much more affordable level.

Recently I had dinner with a fairly wealthy gentleman and his wife who live nearby, in a very tastefully furnished home they bought last year as a retirement home. They are educated, highly intelligent people. Everything in their home was of high quality, most of it obviously new. In their living room they had a 54" Pioneer HDTV, and sitting next to it a Bose Acoustic Wave system. I know they could have spent more on a sound system, but they didn't care to. Probably 75% of the money they spent on a/v gear went to the video side, and I'm sure they think their Bose system is about as good as it gets. After all, they've been bombarded with ads telling them so for years!

So, in a certain sense, Bose is the future of audio. They have an excellent reputation with the non-audiophile masses, and their products aren't all that bad - just overpriced by about 200%. For companies with better products to succeed, they must become more Bose-like. Sad but true.



"Music is the medicine of a troubled mind." -- Walter Haddon, 1567


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  • The world keeps changing, and our priorities change with it. - Big Dave 10:23:19 05/08/07 (0)

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