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Is this the end of HEA?

http://www.cepro.com/article/is_this_the_end_of_high_performance_audio_at_ces

This last year has made my ears perk up. Honestly I didn't even know the article above had been written until now. What I did know was listeners have been in touch with me about the future of HEA and their future as advanced listeners. It's been nice to see folks getting in touch with me and even nicer that they are doing so because they wish to settle into their final system sound. To say things in their words "it's been an expensive ride" and most of these folks aren't sure they've gotten a fair shake always from the hobby. Many feel they have bank rolled a part of a hobby that hasn't always delivered the goods. Basically instead of telling listeners that this is a variable hobby the "experts" pushed a very expensive game of component Plug & Play onto the discrete audio generation. I remember those days of guilt buying where a dollar amount was used as a representative for quality, when it meant no such thing. I knew first hand this was not the case as designers scrambled to make up-sell products that sounded less musical than the original products that put their name in audio fame. I also could see the HEA decline happening but still was giving the benefit of the doubt to those saying HEA was just fine and growing. Mom and pop stores for the most part have vanished in the US with the exception of a few creative thinkers. New expensive products are being adored but I don't see many actually buying them. Now I've got my eye on T.H.E. Show (Richard's show) and wondering if it's happening or not. Richard and I have talked many times about what will happen to HEA in the US if T.H.E. Show and CES cease doing their thing in Vegas. I wonder what Richard RIP is thinking now sitting in the clouds.

I am very excited to see the next few years come about even though I know some are still buying into the old paradigm that the HEA is the cutting edge with only a volume control to adjust and a fork lift included with every purchase. Going to the CES web, I have my answer for Vegas. Going to T.H.E. Show website I'm still in question. If these two are no more, in terms of HEA, who's next?

Michael Green

128x128michaelgreenaudio
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 
We all have good days and bad days; maybe that was my tone deaf day.
lhasaguy's avatar
lhasaguy
339 posts
 
I have been watching this thread with interest as I reflect in my own history.

When I was in the Army 50 years ago, I got hooked on “good” music by a friend.  To me at that time it was a system of a Dual turntable, Sansui Sp100 speakers and a seperate tuner and amo/preamp combo.

It was light years above the all in one cheap turntable combo I had.  An Akai reel to reel was added and I was in heaven.

It was a qunatum leap beyond what I had ever had or owned.  Returning home, I lusted after the McIntosh gear, but it was Far beyong my means.

Over the years I has decent stereo, that always pleased me.  Gear came and went, nothing seriously expensive, but I was always about the music, not the gear.

Fast forward to a successful career and disposible income.   I make a killing in a side hobby of selling rare coins about 13 / 14 years ago and had the funds to but McIntosh 501s to drive 3.6 Maggies.   

I Love the sound and the music in dimensions I had not experienced before, yet I love the same music no less.  It is all about the music for me.  I am just blessed to be able to afford some great gear!

Money has fiven me extra pleasure, but I was happy with decent gear before I coukd afford a more expensive system.

It is anagous to cars in a strange way.  I was happy with a Honda Accord, but you will have to rip the Mercedes E400 out of my hands.

At the end of the day, it is about what you can afford in the things that are important to you.  I would still be happy with my former toys, and appreciate them for what they were.  I am just lucky to have othet choices.
electroslacker
375 posts
 
OP is insightful. 
For most of my audiophile journey, the manufacturers and reviewers held the power, promising me euphoria, as I hung on their every word, and gazed at every ad. They were able to keep me in a state of constant yearning and ever-hopeful purchasing.

One day I felt a switch from others telling me what would make me happy, to the power returning to me to use personal discernment in choosing what made me happy.  It was an epiphany to go to Axpona with the singular goal of finding what made me happy.  I knew it when I heard it, and it was simpler and less expensive than expected.

There may be some tweaks but I have reached end-game, with a satisfying immunity to the dreammakers and technology hawkers.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
In order to talk about HEA (High End Audio), we may need to establish some definition of it. It is inconvenient, if not impossible, so we conveniently do not mention it.

CES is Consumer Electronics Show. It is not, and was never meant to be, High End Audio Show. So-called High End might have been more represented there in the long-gone times when consumer electronics consisted of barely anything more than music reproduction devices. As the field expanded, High End Audio become less relevant. In some way, it could soon still be called CES (Car Electronics Show).
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio OP
1,019 posts
 

Here’s an important post

"For most of my audiophile journey, the manufacturers and reviewers held the power, promising me euphoria, as I hung on their every word, and gazed at every ad. They were able to keep me in a state of constant yearning and ever-hopeful purchasing."

____________________________________________

The HEA revolving door was a plan to keep people buying, and we did. We kept buying till we got to the point where we became the masters of our own sound. From that point on our systems sounded better than reviewed systems and trade show setups.

Lets be honest HEA trade show setups sound pretty bad. There haven’t been many good sounding shows since the mid 1990’s. The HEA selling machine started to loose clients around that same time. I don’t see this as a bad thing but good thing, we matured as listeners. Reviewers and reviews are here to get us started. From that point forward your sound is up to you. The more advanced we get as listeners the more we move away from the starting gate and get onto the exploring of music.

Every week I have people coming to me because they are in the middle of their soundstage and want to take it further. They want or have moved beyond the sales pitch and have gotten serious about the hobby of Tuning in their music. How many of them read this forum? Probably a few, but mostly these are guys and gals who have entered a deeper exploration stage that goes past brands and on to a "Method of Listening" (Method of Tuning).

MG


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