Digital, Low Mass, ClassD, Less expensive, Let it happen!
Well here we are! Not that you can't go back and buy boat anchors, but now we know sound is better with low mass designs. Digital source? Yep, the tide has turned. ClassD amplification is also here to stay. Lower mass speakers, on their way back too. The audiophile hobby is getting less expensive and better sounding.
I guess we can debate this, but it's happening anyway. The hobby is simply growing up and becoming more aware of how to get great sound, and get it smart. There has been a lot of myths passed down when we only had paperback magazines, mostly for marketing, but the internet has finally caught up with audio reality. Instead of $20,000.00 components we have $20,000.00 whole systems (including all the trimming). Shoot, there are $5,000.00 systems that excel. The Trade Shows are changing, the market is changing and we are changing. Want to stay old school? No problem, there will always be old school and plenty of used gear (at least for our lifetimes). There will also be smaller niche companies that spring up to tempt us.
The hobby is entering a new era for the extreme listener. It will be a hobby of doing and exploring Electrical, Mechanical and Acoustical as equals. Components will be much smaller and more flexible, and more time will be spent on playing our whole music collection, and not just a few recordings. Many HEA debates will be making their way to the archives as the hobby grows closer to mainstream. Mainstream as in higher quality audiophile mainstream.
Are you ready? I sure am!
Michael Green
michaelgreenaudio"Yep, Agon is slowly turning the corner, sometimes kicking and screaming the whole way," The only ones who are kicking and screaming are the religious fundamentalists who are driven, motivated, and consumed with absolute faith, conviction, and fervor and everyone else is mostly questioning, challenging, and doubting which is the hallmark of independent thinkers, observers, and scientists but who are targeted as infidels by those who announce, proclaim, and insist that they found Truth. |
Laggers is a marketing business term and not an insult. It is not meant to be positive or negative...it just defines behavior. There will always be laggers and early adopters etc... We need both. Yes both. Great if we can all get along. Just seems to be some very vocal laggers lagging as they do, but also throwing out lots of words while lagging. Perhaps more lagging and less attacking words. Perhaps? |
Thank God we have ears! And thank God we have the free will to explore for ourselves! The lifestyle of exploring music reproduction is a dream come true for the audiophile at whatever level we choose to get involved. The different camps of the community "are" the denominations of audio I guess one could say. Audiogon is very much like driving into a town noticing all the clubs, churches, bars, businesses and schools. Almost all the households visit or belong to one or several of these camps. Which camp does an audiophile choose to be a part of is up to them as an individual. I belong to the camp of "Variables" (Tuning), which means I see audio as a continuum of constant motion. It's the same camp as playing a musical instrument in-tune or any variation there of I choose. In other words I make my own sound as I see fit with all the variation physics provides. Tuning seeks not to get stuck in a "fixed" (one sound) setting. This doesn't mean random energy flying around without control, but instead being in charge of the variables. In many ways Tuning is the opposite of Plug & Play. With Plug & Play we are dictated to, with Tuning we choose our own path. mg |
