Do NOT Blow Your Entire Budget on Two Channel Audio

@facten

That is a great reply, thank you, it is clear that even high end manufacturers like Wilson are partnering with Dolby Atmos market because customers want it. When I refer to boat anchors in five years I am referring to DAC’s and products that use semiconductors. A $5000 dac five years ago is very close to a boat anchor compared to what a $500 dac can get you today. Digital preamps/processors that include dac’s are a GREAT topic re: budgeting. The Marantz 8805 that was $5K five years ago dropped in price as soon as the 8805A with 8K HDMI came out and dropped again when the 16 channel AV10 came out. If you don’t need 8K and/or 16 channels its going for about half of what it would 5 years ago. You can apply that same strategy with a digital two channel preamp/dac.

I love the strategy of getting a processor that is one level down from the flagship and a two channel preamp with HT bypass for about the same price as one flagship unit (either MCH or 2CH).

@mahgister 

One market does not replace the others...

What about the Blackberry being relaced with the iPhone?

The CD being replaced by streaming?

You mix things...😊

Blackberry and Iphone it is phone MASS market : the same market...

Cd and streaming or ripping etc: it is MASS music files market : the same market...

Audiophiles are not defined by being MERELY in the mass market... These two are different targetting market...

For sure technology is evolving which IMPLIED some mid level convergence between mass market and audiophile market ... The mass market audio becoming more "audiophile" by the technological improvement progress and the audiophiles market becoming less costlier for the same reason... But these two market the mass market and the audiophile market will stay distinct for the decades to come... Why ?

Because music is not sound, and sound is not music ; even if they are not separable they are very distinctive...

Then one market does not replace the other they COEXIST for different goal and different reasons...

 Then we are not all designed by our audio history and taste from  the same "plaster mold"... We are all different and a solution for one is an impediment for another one...

I own no iphone... 😊

@mahgister

One market does not replace the others...

What about the Blackberry being relaced with the iPhone?

The CD being replaced by streaming?

 

Speaking of replacing....

The OP should heed his own thoughts on the subject, literally and personally.

All the best,
Nonoise

And they said the same about the LP: Cut and paste yes but these are the industry facts.

CD sales in the US for 2021 increased for the first time in almost two decades, according to data published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Shipments rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021, and revenue from the format rose from $483.2 million to $584.2 million. The RIAA’s numbers corroborate a similar report from MRC Data published earlier this year.

Although CD sales are still far from their 2000 peak — when almost a billion CD albums were shipped in the US — Axios notes that the increase is another key element of the resurgence in physical music. Vinyl sales have been steadily increasing for over a decade-and-a-half now, and hit 39.7 million units in the US in 2021, bringing in $1 billion in revenue.

Global sales of vinyl, CDs and other physical formats increased 4% in 2022, accounting for $4.6 billion of the $26.2 billion worldwide music market, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s Global Music Report 2023.Mar 18, 2023

CD sales in the US for 2021 increased for the first time in almost two decades, according to data published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Shipments rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021, and revenue from the format rose from $483.2 million to $584.2 million. Mar 14, 2022