High End is Dead?

The great high end store Excalibur in Alexandria Va closed around 1986. Among other things they had the big dog Infinity Reference System in the large room and the then new Martín Logans in one of upstairs rooms. Since then the high end has been like a wounded wildebeest running through the Kalaharii. Know one knows for sure how long he’s going to keep on going. The recent economic depression could not have been very encouraging for anyone with aspirations of making a big splash in the high end. Can you say downsize?

We can’t lay blame on those darn kids today who’ve grown up listening to music on their phones/tablets/Bluetooth speakers/Alexa because their reference points for “good equipment” are limited by those very things.  My reference point was my family’s console tube driven Magnavox record player which - *gasp* - could hold and drop 5 lp’s in succession. I had nowhere to go but up in the 70’s when all that lustful receiver gear came out and there were more than enough retail stores to check stuff out. 

As mentioned below, getting into hi-fi then was a dream objective.  Currently, there are so many venues for music via the internet that the ease of obtaining music doesn’t at all correlate with “quality” equipment.  Stores have virtually disappeared simply due the economics of inventorying expensive gear, having to make appointments to check stuff out, etc. I love cars but I loathe buying them.  Same goes for audio. Love it, but most of my purchases via retail have been, where and when possible, walk-ins.  

The immediate appeal of music accessibility, everywhere anytime, exceeds the perception of possessing quality playback.  It’s simply not in most folks wheelhouses right now. Why would I should I spend $1000 on a good amp when I got Bluetooth streaming in my house, the den, the patio, the yard, the beach for like...a LOT less?  Jeepers, I can walk into big-box retailer and buy a groovy pair of earbuds for less than $100?

I might be able to explain a reason or two why but...

They might hear me but they aren’t listening.  It just doesn’t matter. 

Alas, HEA will never completely go the way of the dodo bird because their’s still enough of us - me, a boomer - to bequeath my stuff to my survivors when I kick.  Perhaps then they’ll get IT!

The loudness wars are a result of crappy portable playback gear, and the desire to commit to forms of isolation ---and hear the details in the music. To have those aspects pushed through.. via gear that can’t actually reproduce the fine details and can’t swing the dynamics (portable or small lifestyle crap gear), all for an ear or mind that cannot hear them and can’t be trained to as the listening materials aren’t even available anymore as the source of the inspiration.

It is always interesting to note that the blow-back on that is..that properly mastered audio source signals are called ’old school’, and have now been found to be desirable by the younger set (ie vinyl and retro gear purchases). 70’s rock and pop was far far more dynamic and alive than most of the pop and rock produced in the 2000’s and 2010’s. These aspects are fundamental to getting your mind and ass to swing in tune with the music, so the emotional hook can enter the story with intent and directional potentials.

Those of the middle part of the bell curve that demanded compression and loudness (age, capacity, intelligence and funds available to spend) to make unconscious purchase decisions, in that group is the budding audio oriented person. A good chunk of them are into messing round with high quality headphone set ups. Instead of sit down speaker based audio reproduction systems..

Those audio person potentials within the masses...they’ve (partially at the least) never really been privy to the source materials and thus never privy to the fundamental cognition of the ’why’ of high end audio.

A fundamental disconnect in the societal/cultural/temporal conveyor belt of new adherents to quality music reproduction. (add in the headphone bleed off)

Digital being a crap grab bag of convenience (in situ).... where quality of reproduction was killed off (the first 30 years of digital and it’s ubiquity), does indeed have a notable amount of the blame for this present scenario - heaped at it’s feet.

And then other fundamental problems/changes tied with forms of market dilution, and so on. Of course, all of this is only a component of the problem and answer set.

a complex scenario with many layers and directions, so it is no small wonder no one has a functional solution and so many voices that can't find a universal path. So complex that a functional answer/direction may be out there, but never get heard in the din and noise of those who don't understand the full complexity of the mess. Which counts for most of us.

I have just moved out of the bay area north 3 hrs or so.  First time home buyer and learned my lesson about not thinning the herd before leaving. Sold my Burgess 2a3  but wound up shipping 20 boxes or so of just hi fi.  6 factory boxes of speakers alone. 
And now checking ebay just to see what the market is bearing on value of Nak RX505 and there are decks going for upwards of $500 ,  $1000's even , if I recall correctly.  Although Im sure the seller who is asking $1k plus for a pristine vintage Nakamichi is going to wait quite awhile .   One deck went for just over 400 and it had an issue  or 2 and cosmetics of 6 .   It depends very much on what is being sold  of course and certainly that we are a sub culture of music afficionados while the majority of the population are listening via disposable  Best Buy systems.    

@acman3

That's great that you helped your SIL to get his system going. Introducing the next generation to the capabilities of HEA is the way to keep it alive.

My youngest son loves music and has a pretty nice setup in his bedroom with a Parasound HINT and Rega RP6 with a Clearaudio Maestro V2 cart.  As a teenager, he has around 75 of his own albums and access to my collection, as well.  His favorites to listen to are The Beatles, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Dire Straits and other classics.  Though his mom often tells him to turn down his music when it gets a little loud, it just makes me smile.