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Where is great audio going? - Headphones and Mid-Cost

I've been thinking about this for a while. If CES is any indicator, the high end audio market is shrinking.
However, music consumption is not. Where is the disparity?

In my humble opinion, it is going to headphones and mid-cost gear.

Before I go too much deeper, let me say that I feel there is a big difference between "high end" and "very expensive."  Not everyone agrees with me. If a cable costs $30K it MUST Be high end right? That's not me.

The modern audiophile is much more likely to be into headphones. Discussions about headphones, and DAC/headphone amps have incredible high participation. I'd venture to say that there are a lot more headphone audiophiles today than traditional 2 channel.

This is for a couple of reasons. Cost is a factor, but also space. You don't need much more to have a great headphone setup than your desk. To get a great stereo setup you need the space, the acoustics, and considerate neighbors. The average apartment dweller (like me, sadly) just does not have the resources to build a home, with a separate listening room. Also, we spend so much time in front of our PC's, that if we are going to enjoy music, it makes sense we optimize for it rather than a listening room.

My point I think is that we are going to have to stop looking to $50k amps to drive the high end. We have to disconnect ourselves from the idea that price = value and start thinking about our community as being able to encompass more music lovers in the way they live today.

Best,

E
erik_squires
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I don’t think downsizing is necessarily a compromise in sound quality. Quite the contrary. There are many obvious and maybe not so obvious advantages going to a small system, especially a small portable battery powered system as I have. Going to a battery power CD or cassette system has the following advantages for sound quality alone, not even counting cost and real estate.

If thy eye offend thee cut it out. 

1. No speakers required and their distortion.
2. No speaker cables and their high distortion.
3. No house AC and it’s noise and distortion.
4. No power cords and their high noise and distortion.
5. No interconnects and their noise and distortion.
6. No room acoustics anomalies.
7. No fuses and their noise and distortion.


schubert
7,386 posts
 
For MANY people music is a social event NOT a musical one !
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
Whoa!, rpt Whoa! Geoffy, cut me some slack Jack! Last time I checked the headphones you use with your ‘80’s Walkman / Discman still have transducers in them, which aren’t immune rpt aren’t immune, to the evils of distortion. Same goes for your headphone cord. And, like it or not, you are still operating your Walkman / Discman and headphones in the same environment with EMI and RFI basting your little beanie just as much as of you were listening  to an AC powered hifi system of any price. 
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orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Erik, are you talking HEA, or economics; from my point of view, poverty is walking up the ladder of success. High end is what it is, and it wont change; the percentage of people who can afford it has changed dramatically in the last 20 years.

While the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, along with the shrinking middle class; hence the lowering of expectations for HEA for the masses.

In the meantime, there is a demand for 350K amplifiers, and 14K cartridges; that tells me something, I don't know about you?
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