Why Don't More People Love Audio?

It takes some type of mentoring for the uninitiated on the benefits of spending a little more to get something unimaginable, and the cottage industry continues to fill that growing void left by the larger high end companies.

Service to the customer is the key but without the newbie hearing a top-flight system playing their familiar tunes, is it any wonder most people find this hobby a turn off?

Another phenomenon I take note of is what happens when someone new to all this listens to great sound. It puts them to sleep. It must be mentally fatiguing to process all the additional information one hears. Interesting. So, there is some mentoring needed on why one feels that way. It takes time to get beyond that and just allow the music to take over. That requires a real commitment.
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As several have mentioned, the number one reason that people treat their audio systems like appliances is lack of exposure to a great system. No music lover goes away from hearing a great system unchanged. Most want to have some modicum of that for themselves once they are aware of its existence. The next problem is finding the stuff to buy. Great dealers are few and far between, and without their help the learning curve is very steep for the uninitiated.

I've thought about this before too. Here are the reasons I came up with:

1) The kind of music that favors high end, hifi gear is enjoyed by an ever more miniscule part of the population. People in the US just don't spend much time listening to Jazz and Classical music anymore. The most popular types of music - pop, rock and rap is reproduced better on non-audiophile systems.

2) Music itself is not as exciting anymore. In the 70's in my lower income beach neighborhood, it wasn't hard to find people living in an 800 sq ft shack on the beach on welfare with $20K stereo systems. The music was so good and exciting at the time, it was the supreme entertainment all by itself.

3) Home Theater is more entertaining and sociable than music listening. During the 70's, all you needed was good weed and good tunes and you had yourself a party. There's something about weed and music that went so well together.

4) High end audio turned into a raquet somewhere along the line. If all you want is the best sounding stereo gear for your money and you're tired of your Kenwood, you're treated to very unwholistic systems that sound amazingly good in one or two areas and deficient in others.

You're put on a continuous and ridiculously expensive treadmill of tweaks and upgrades until things just sound right overall. By that time they sound fantastic, but you would have settled for just "right" about $40K ago.

5) Similar to 4, the complexity you're introduced to just to get quality stereo sound is monstrous. You need expensive cables (but who knows how they'll sound in your system), power conditioners (but who knows how they'll sound in your system), better power cords, a DAC, preamp, amp, sub, source, room treatments, all with uncertain outcomes until they have the right mystical synergy. WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

All I wanted was a good sounding stereo. It shouldn't have to be this hard or this expensive. Ahh, but it is.

Well, IMO high end audio won't compete until the complexity is gone. The complexity just creeped in step by step until it's now choking the industry to death by being ridiculously daunting for the consumer.

What will save the stereo business? Digital Technology. Now that there are digital amps, all components can be connected fiber-optically and made in a much smaller form factor. Give em 3 or 4 small components with a single standardized cable connection to each that puts out dynamite sound, and you'll see people enjoy the music listening experience again.

Oh yeah, and some exciting new music to come along wouldn't hurt things either.

Most people don't know that high end audio exists. Seriously, to them top of the line is something from Wally world, Best buy (Bose), Target. However, that doesn't mean they don't love audio. Most people love music, they just either can't afford or are satisfied (don't know any better)with mid-fi.

A decent mid-fi set-up doesn't sound bad. You can enjoy the music. Only a minority want the best whether it's audio, food, or microbrew beer.

I don't believe it needs to be that complicated to get good sound. For $3-5 grand you can get a pretty darn good sounding system. You just need $2K, for speakers, $500 for a cd player, then $500 to $2500 for a amp/pre-amp or some combination thereof. There is no need to ever go further, forget about exotic cords, conditioners, etc.

That doesn't mean you can't get better sound with all the extra's, just you can do well without it too. Audiophiles just aren't satisfied with good sound, we want trancendent, miraculous. Yet, even among Audiogoners there is a wide variation in what type of system we need to be satisfied.

Larry B Nice insight.

As far as complexity, it has benefited the hiend dealer community to obfuscate and complicate to the best of their capabilities. This may bring short term shot in the arm revenue but will ultimately end with a lot of turned off jaded customers.

What I do see is that people could care less about the way things sound, as the low end products have become quite good. In fact, my mother in law was over the other night and said her Bose sounded better than my system because it was surround(!?)

The technology you describe is the death knell for hiend because it is simple, sounds good (to a point) more consistently than a lot of thrown together hiend gear.

Another reason is that some hiend gear is so overpriced for what it delivers as to be ludicrous. This is just another reason that the piper will be paid be unscrupulous manufacturers and distributors at the next economic cycle...