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RE: -N-O-T- TRUE.

"Whose doing personalized pinna programming and headphones with built-in head position sensing so that surround sound is sane at home and on the road?"

Funny, you read my mind. With this technology, it should be possible to reproduce the spatial aspects of sound with complete fidelity. There's no reason to suppose that, except for the physical sensation of bass, a future iPod won't be able to provide a completely convincing simulation of an actual performance. In fact, I think we're a lot closer to perfecting headphone reproduction than we are to perfecting reproduction through speakers.

Interesting historical comparison, too. I think the main point audiophiles are making is that the audio gear that's available to kids doesn't compare with the best that high end audio has to offer. But your point that the typical kid has access to cleaner sound than his counterpart did 40 years ago is I think a valid one, both at the low- and mid-fi levels. And I like to think that improvements in sound quality will then grow organically out of the new media. To some extent, this has already happened, with high quality earphones and earbuds. There's also been some work on head position detection: Stereophile reviewed a very interesting system a few issues back, although it's geared to the emulation of loudspeakers rather than the recreation of the original sound field (which current recordings don't allow).

Unfortunately, I have the impression that these changes aren't going to come out of the high end industry at this point. High end audio has been very slow to change and adapt. Newer technologies -- file servers, high res digital, surround, etc. -- are adopted slowly, even grudgingly, despite a fair amount of attention in the audiophile press.

OTOH, I do think that loudspeakers will continue to be part of our lives, and those of our children. Home theater is one such area. I don't think most people want to be encumbered by a head-mounted display, despite its advantages. I could be wrong about that, after all, people walk around now with earbuds on, and future video displays will no doubt be light and easy to flip out of the way if the baby cries. But for the time being, anyway, I see home theater as fertile ground for improvements in loudspeaker technology, and I think that one of the industry's goals should be to find a way to get more people to select audio gear that works not just for home theater but for music reproduction as well. These goals aren't, IMO, mutually exclusive, in fact, the most satisfying movie sound reproduction I've heard has been through high end audio components.

And of course, there's the matter of partying. Maybe one day, all the guests will just sync up their bluetooth headphones, but for now, people need speakers if they're to dance to the same tune . . .

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