Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Limabean, my hat's off to you and your shipmates. Installing an audiophile system onboard a nuke is a 5.0 degree of difficulty- talk about tricky room acoustics! Hell, my hat's off to you guys everyday, anyway just for being there. At least now you have some good tunes to help with the tedium. I'm listening to Miles Davis right now and dedicating it to you and your shipmates. Hey, do you think the Russian submariners can hear your system too? They're probably happy to have some decent music for a change!

Detlof, from senior year in high school to senior year in college I had four completely different stereo systems even though I was a dirt poor student. That should have been a sign to my parents or someone, but it went undiagnosed (psychology wasn't as advanced back then). As a result I continue to suffer with no hope for a cure! Glad to know there are fellow travelers at least. Just think by the time we finally get our systems right our hearing will be shot. I sure hope the old folks home doesn't have a Bose system! Best regards to all.

Wehamilton, I was (self)diagnosed, but that did not help either. My system is more or less right now, but my ears are failing. So there you are...but I am still at it of course, thinking of tweaking hearing aids and how to find the sweat spot in my ears for them. Regards,

Wehamilton, thanks for the Miles Davis dedication. His "Kind of Blue" album is one of my favs!

For @ least the following reasons:
1. Very few people know how to listen to music.
2. Very few people will take the time to listen.
3. Very few people discuss music just as music.
4. There's little status in it.
5. Music has been, for the most part, reduced to furniture status and taken for granted.

Much of the above thread emphasizes a people are lazy-stupid-inbred-indifferent line of reasoning. While convenient to make, this argument is really a cop-out and probably misses the underlying causes for the growing lack of interest in high-end audio.

Consider that the number of consumers purchasing high-end gear has consistently declined, and by marked amounts, since the mid-90's. Are we to believe that there has been a dramatic acceleration in laziness, stupidity, indifference, and inbreeding in so short a span of time? If not, then something else must account for the rejection of the high-end by so many people. I can only give my experience and would not be so bold as to proffer that it is typical of everyone or even most.

My first brush with the high-end came in 1979 when I heard a reference rig consisting of KEF 105's, Crown reference amplification, and a Linn analog front end. The experience was magical, but the $8K-$10K price tag was well beyond my means at the time. I settled a few years later for Hafler amplification, an ADCOM pre, Maggies, and an early generation CD player.

Recently, I decided to completely replace the entire system and was delighted that I now had sufficient means to purchase a high-end setup. After extensive research and many trips to area audio salons, I am disappointed to say the least. First, the sound of the modern reference rigs is not fundamentally better than what I heard in 1979, period! But the price tag is now in the $100K+ range. Moreover, if anything has changed, it is not a marked improvement in the quality of the high-end, but rather the narrowing of the gap between the mid-fi/near-high-end and the "true high-end."

So you tell me, when I can buy a very respectable 2-channel rig for $6K or so, buy an Audi S8, spend two weeks cruising the Greek isles, and purchase $20K worth of art --- OR buy a $100K stereo system, which should I do? This is really a no-brainer.

Simply put, the high-end audio industry has failed miserably in innovating and developing new products that are substantially better in any significant sense. The value per dollar quotient has never looked poorer, and people are not so stupid that they are unaware of this.

Count me as another defector.

P.S. Would the last one out please remember to turn out the lights?