How could High End audio be improved?

IMHO, the biggest issue is not easily resolved: The lack of objectivity. What is better? What is worse? It always depends on far too many factors and it therefore becomes very, very difficult to make good purchasing decisions. In turn, this leads to hype, a proliferation of manufacturers and high prices.

If you are a car buff, you can look at horsepower and torque and understand what that means. For us, a watt is not a watt (RMS, Class A, speaker load???). If you are a wine buff, you can get a Wine Spectator rating (for us, virtually anyone who advertises in Stereophile is reviewed as the best in class). Those are just a couple of examples. What is a novice to do? Heck, what is an experienced audiophile to do? We can't listen to every combination of all equipment in our living rooms.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that we can make this hobby more objective (at least not without a lot of new learning). But the inherent subjectivity makes this a very difficult hobby to understand and makes decisions very difficult. There is no summarized way to distill how one system (let alone component) compares to another.

Something that could help would be for manufacturers to cooperate (yeah, I know...) and design various packages of components to sell to folks. The dealer is often doing that as best as they can, but the dealer only carries so many lines. A carefully matched package approach can simplify the decisioning and drop the pricing -- and only the manufacturers can really create these strategic alliances that, hopefully, are formed by listening to the alternatives and compiling good systems. If this were easy to do, it would already be done. But given the currently subjective nature of the business, simplifying the sales presentation and ability to compare would be wonderful. (Consider why most car manufacturers don't sell engines, transmissions and bodies separately).

My two cents. It's hard to put all this in a few paragraphs. Great thread Twl. I look forward to everyone's response.

I agree with you, Ozfly.

Tom,

First on my list would be the need for less hype about sonic improvements. Hey, I'm not saying that improvements aren't happening but it's difficult to tell what is real and what is simply promotion.

More care in the recording studio. It seems some really great engineers were replaced with tech types to the detriment of the finished product. Additionally the manufacturers should push for support from the recording industry. It seems that better technologies would be more likely to survive if there were principle agreements that "if" the equipment manufacturers were to develop playback then the studios would support the availability of the medium and keep the software cost reasonable.

Affordability is an issue for me. Don't get me wrong on this because I am a believer in dedicated lines, cryoed pieces, etc. but so much of what we are doing in the area of cables and such is controlling tone. I would certainly appreciate some disclosure from the manufacturers with regard to related pieces used in the development of their products. This would take a lot of mystery out of the buying process. With all the deserved criticism of Linn as a given we should also agree there is no doubt about what source components and speakers they are using when they develop another amp or whatever. If XYZ amplifier maker uses a particular speaker, source or cabling to voice their product then it seems reasonable to disclose this to the potential buyer.

Upgradability. If a two channel person desired to eventually incorporate home theatre and convenience into a very simple system then the upgrade path should simply be the purchase of additional pieces that work together by design. This is unlikely to happen without manufacturers forming an alliance.

It would be nice if there were just a few simple standards such as selectable voltages, locations of power cords and input/ouputs so that cabling issues were minimized. It would also be nice if enclosures were somewhat standardized even if they were different, as in small, medium and large. That would make equipment stand manufacturers be able to accomodate needs easier.

The industry really should rethink it's distribution methods and warranties in light of what developed countries have done to make this a world economy. Subtle issues also need to be addressed such as support for customers without either a local retailer or a local retailer that doesn't do what is needed. A perfect example is my nearest Linn dealer. He can't even set up a turntable. I should be able to buy either directly from Linn America and do it myself at a reduced price or my local outlet should be required to provide the service especially in light of the price fixing involved. The regional distributor isn't going to hold the retailers feet to the fire for fear of the retailer dropping the line. Nor is the North American distributor going to much care, let alone those in Scotland as long as sales goals are acheived.

Warranties should be world wide and transferrable as long as the product was purchased from a legitimate outlet. Even if the product in hand was not purchased from such an outlet the service should be performed at a reasonable price. With the advent of online purchasing, the possibility of someone unknowingly owning a piece of gear that can't be serviced is getting more likely. Manufacturers and retailers need to accept the fact that their turf is getting more difficult to protect and that the consumer shouldn't be the one to suffer.

Resurrect some products from the dead. As you personally are aware I'm in need of an affordable step up device to run my cartridge of choice. The perfect fit is the Cotter which is long out of production. I wonder if anyone has approached the designer and asked about the possibility of licensing the design. Sometimes there isn't a need to reinvent the wheel and still keep the wheels of commerce turning.

Some of these suggestions seem anti-freedom and trouble me to post them but I'm not responsible for NAFTA, GATT nor the WTO. These are reactions to the reality of living in the real world and trying to make the most out of it.

Great post Tom. I'm sure this will generate a lot of responses.

Patrick

This is a multi-fold problem.

First: The price of most gear is ridiculous. This needs no expounding upon.

Second: "Hi-end" has very little exposure into the mainstream. When people do become aware that such a thing exists, they are then greeted by a snobby dealer that wants to push a very expensive system onto them. This scares the hell out of them and they run home with their tails between their legs. Once they get there, they think that their receiver doesn't sound all that bad and wonder how much better "hi-end" could be for ALL that money. The fact that the gear in the dealers' showroom didn't sound all that much better due to poor set-up only aids this line of thinking.

Third: Most audiophiles are males and most males are competitive. As such, we tend not to want to attract competition and do little to "infect" new people with the "disease". If we do find someone that is "into audio", the first thing that we want to do is to compare components, systems and see what sounds better, who's gear is "prettier" or who spent more money. Once all that is done, the "winner" gets to gloat about the size ( or lack ) of their "johnson". This obviously does not apply to women. As we all know, women audiophiles are a rare thing, probably because men have alienated them from learning about such things.

Fourth: The high end market is a niche market to start off with. To make things worse, we now have niche markets within a niche market and we have done this to ourselves.

We have hi-end broken into tubes vs SS. From tubes, one can go SET, Push-Pull, OTL, Triode, Pentode, Arachnophobe, etc.. For SS, you can go high power, low power, mosfets, bi-polar, etc... From there, one can use monoblocks, single stereo amp, bi-amp, tri-amp, etc... When multi-amping, you can then mix and match tube and SS, etc...

Then we have sources i.e. digital vs analog. Digital offers the choice of one box vs two box, tubes vs SS, etc... Analog offers belt vs direct drive, linear tracking vs pivoted, straight low mass arm vs S or J shaped medium / high mass arm, suspended vs unsuspended, etc...

Speakers can get into various designs i.e. dynamic, planar, electrostatic, horns, omni's, single driver, etc.. or almost any combo of the above. I think that you folks already know about the diversity of cables and thoughts / opinions on that subject, so i won't bother going there.

As such, by the time one finds the "niche" or "combination of niches" that we like as individuals, we have not only alienated ourselves from the general public, but to some extent, from one another. While the diversity of products and design ideas IS what makes this such a great and fun "hobby", it only helps to divide us at the same time due to personal preferences. After all, we wouldn't have such vocal opinions about so many different items / subjects if there weren't such vast differences between products / styles and what we like as individuals.

The bottom line is that we have somewhat stuck ourselves out in the desert and then wondered why we are the sole voice out in the distance. We've done very little as a whole to go out recruiting others and share the joys of being an audiophile with them. To top it off, when asked about such things, many of us resort to attacking Bose and other "less than acceptable" brands of products that they look up to. As such, we probably need to change our attitudes and way that we go about doing things IF we want this field to prosper.

I say "we" as i've been guilty of the above too, so i'm going to try and apply this lesson and things that i thought of when typing this up to my life in a personal manner. I hope that others that agree with these points will put forth the personal effort to do something about this too. Hopefully, this "eye opening experience" and new thought process will be evident in both my personal life and my posts. After all, "civilians" are less likely to ask for help or be drawn into this field if they don't like what they see or read right off the bat. It leaves a bad taste in their mouth when the "experts" or "fellow hobbyists" can't even agree amongst themselves. Sean
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Thanks, Pat and Sean. You both have very good points.