Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Sorry, Onhwy61, what you talk of is NOT plug and play. Yes, manufacturers make all the main bits, which harmonise visually and hopefully sound wise, but they do NOT come as a complete package.

I am talking here of the Ikea experience: you walk in, say, "I want one of those please", have one, two, three, etc cartons to take home or be delivered. Open the boxes, everything is there, and I mean EVERYTHING, all the appropriate quality cables, stands, the funny bits that get it to work WELL, with simple, exceedingly clear instructions on how to hook it together, and especially all the little tips and techniques for getting the best out of it. If the dealer has to do it, then people will say, "how much of the price of my system is the paying of this fellow to do this?"

Buy a luxury car, you go to the showroom, dealer points out a few things, hands you the keys and you drive off. Buy a top notch HDTV, you put it on a stand or table, plug in power cord and aerial, kick off a totally automated setup and it shows pretty pictures. Both items just WORK with no fuss at all and that's what counts.

Remember, the question is "Why Don't MORE(!!) People Love Audio?". Why, because it is all too complicated! People have mental breakdowns getting a cheap and nasty home theatre box working, after all ... :-)

Frank

Frank - Very few people ever get to the point of finding audio complicated because they lack the motivation to find audio.

I don't know if I can type slowly enough for all of you obstinate audio freaks to get it but the harsh reality is this:

We are oddballs - eccentrics - what we find irresistible is of no interest whatsoever to the vast majority of our fellow citizens. Just accept that. There is no magic solution to this non-problem.

To be totally argumentative, Ikea is RTA which is at the other end of the sofa from plug in and play. Also modern luxury cars require fairly detailed instruction before you can safely operate them and you cannot maintain them without dealer assistance.

Onhwy61 - You are not being argumentative but rather setting the record straight. If this, or any discussion, is to be productive and rewarding it needs to be restricted to factual arguments, reliable data, and responsible assertions. When someone veers off course in any of those areas, it is incumbent upon the likes of you to introduce corrections. Thanks for keeping things honest. And Merry Christmas.

I was picking nits. I just thought his examples were really bad. Put five luxury cars in a lineup and unless you're a valet at a boutique hotel you won't be able to start them three of them without being shown how. Setting the heat control on the vibrating rear head rest also is as intuitive as it could be in some models.

Enjoy!