Can anyone tell me where the progress in audio went?


 

128x128tannoy56

When you have audiophiles convincing themselves that turntables have magic properties, that tube amplifiers have magic properties, that cables can have magic properties, that digital has bad properties that don't actually exist and a whole host of other things that are never going to result in progress, then you will have an industry that is focused on feeding that neurosis, not progress.

 

Fortunately, as a portion of audio, "hifi" is small and even less when you consider the audio portion of movies and video. Hence while this industries plods along deifying 100 year old technology, the rest of the world developed dirt cheap high quality DACs, multi-channel object oriented surround sound, relatively dirt cheap and near straight-wire with gain class-D amps (with switching power supplies), DSP based crossovers, accurate room measurement systems that only require a $100 microphone, a whole host of room correction systems and bass management (that came out of home theater), DIY base management and low cost  multi-channel DACs, relatively good sized acoustic panels companies (HiFi is just a portion of their business), DSP subwoofers (another offshoot of home theater), a host of pro/prosumer ADCs that give performance light years beyond tape for < $1000 (and up of course). Well designed high end speakers today, for the most part, can achieve lower distortion at higher volumes (but perhaps not as high of volume), have much better dispersion, and flatter frequency response. They can do it at relatively lower cost too and if desired, in a smaller package (with trade offs).

 

The biggest hurdle to advancement in hifi is audiophiles.

few industries are immune from needing continual sales to sustain... high end audio is no exception

so the marketing machinery, in all its forms, keeps cranking

that is not to say that progress is not being made, in both the absolute front, and on trickling-down of higher performance aspects to more customers at more affordable levels

 

Like a lot of things once the technology has improved to a particular point where further improvement is marginal at best, effort starts to go into styling, snake oil, aesthetics etc. that's where things are with hi-fi.

Just look at cars (pre EV) or surfboards or many other things. Not much has really changed unless you believe the marketing.

+1 theaudioamp exactly

The quality of digital audio improves every day.

The quality of budget gear improves every day.

The quality of uber expensive gear like Boulder or Magico improves every day.

The only category that is stagnant is midfi analog lol.