How could High End audio be improved?

Oh Viggen, don't rain on the beauty parade, especially if what you offer is a radically subjective justification!

Really though, yes, people have different opinions - I think we are aware of that - but that fact itself doesn't translate into the proposition that, therefore, all opinions are equal. Certainly, there are some guys who only care about the equipment - whose minds are so orientated towards an attachment to things that it overwhelms any tendancy to be drawn into the music, as in, an imbalance between thing and mind - but I don't think we should tell ourselves that that way is the optimal means of experiencing meaning in the music. I can't imagine you beleiving this either, even though being equal/equal has a good sound to it in a crowd.

Radical egalitarianism enables one to proceed into a group and judge them by saying they shouldn't form opinions where one way is differentiated from another, but this is disingenuous: some truths are truer than others, all knowledge is built on that proposition. Moreover, the opinion that all opinion is equal is a performative error; in making that argument you disprove the argument.

Second, the hiend is not a "thing." People who are attached to the power of their mind to objectifying reality many times make this error; they reduce mind to an object - science has been doing it since Descartes.

The hiend is a group of minds who listen with those minds to sound-phenomenon, again, it is not a "thing". As long as you assume its some-thing "out there" - like an object I can manipulate - and not your own mind, you won't understand, and will ask questions unaware of the materialist assumption underlying and limiting what answer you can potentially derive.

All are equal in potential to "hear" beauty, but some choose to limit themselves in the assumptions they bring to the listening.

Again, the question is: how can we find more minds that have seen already that beauty isn't a thing?

Asa, don't all people limit themselves by their assumptions whether they choose to do so or not?

Also, while I may have misinterpreted, I don't believe Viggin was justifying the opinions of others who disregard the art and beauty of music. Rather, I read his post as simply suggesting that there are different opinions which are, of course, important and correct to those who hold them.

Like moths drawn to the flame, we audiophiles are drawn to the truth of musical expression. So, in varying degrees and in different ways (as you suggest), we are closer than most to the truth of musical art. Hiend is not a necessary requirement for that, but it is for us. Per many of the suggestions above, hiend could be a home for many more. More people will choose it as a home if it is comfortable and inviting and provides some shelter from the everyday storms of life. I believe that most people do enjoy beauty without it being taught to them. Not everyone will choose to see it when it appears, but more will if we can simplify the offering.

Attitude is a big problem in the stores. I drove for an hour to listen to a pair of speakers earlier this week. I listened to the salesman tell me how he designed most of the equipment and tweaks in existance in the world today.

I did not have the heart to tell him how full of crap he is, but I suspect his breath has given it away.
When he lies to me about this how do I know when he is telling the truth?

He probably sells lots of stuff, but I haven't bought from him in years.

I do think AudiogoN is one of the things that keeps stores in business though. Finding a market for used gear allows the seller to buy the next new toy!

TNT had an interesting point with an inexpensive Rotel integrated:
This extreme detail notwithstanding, the amp is able to point straight to the main target, i.e. Music: while with other very detailed systems the listening experience becomes something like an hunting party for environmental noises, which prevent you from the very full immersion into the musical experience, here music remains always at the center, and detail is only a secondary item that makes reproduction more realistic.

Just to qualify:

Cartesian philosophy separated mind and body, but it is not the mind that has become a "thing".

Also, you are presupposed "beauty". Then again, I guess everyone does in one context or another more or less.