When I first got into the hobby in 2001 there was always the statement speakers costing 50k, cables costing 30k e.t.c.
But what has changed is a large increase in boutique electronic manufacturers, catering purely to cashed up retiring boomers.
When I was a kid, one of the necessities was a high-end stereo. Almost all the young men I knew had nice stereos. Some had super nice ones. I was one of those. Today, I know of no one, zilch, that has a stereo of any kind. All my kids and grandkids listen on their phones. And even watch all their movies there also... Yea, it going to be a dead-end road shortly as us older folk retire earth. |
@jl35 +1 |
@phillyrover Great point the heart of my system is a Deja Vu Audio preamp and a pair of George Wright monoblocks. Custom and boutique builders can offer a ton of value and incredibly good sound. |
Inexpensive audio? Hate to rankle anyone that finds the offerings ’meh’, but ’Chi-Fi’ is Huge in Asia.....lots of ’entry level’, regardless of how one might dis/downplay/ignore its’ existence.... Not long after the intro to the ’global market’, the overall ’appearance’ of the items got ’gloss-ier’, offered more levels of control, and generally more ’bang/buck$’ for the not-so-well-off-burgeoning ’phile market... Good-looking ’tiny ’phile with D amps....the speakers are (as usual) the slowest to keep up with the improvements in the front end stuff, but ought to, given some time... Just the ticket for dorms one can’t afford, the tuition makes a home down payment a fever dream....so the rise in apartment construction breaks the ceiling...🤷♂️🙄 Frankly, I’m happy to be in the ’8%ile’ age category in the chart on pg.1.....as I wouldn’t wish the next 2 decades on anyone cogent enough to realize what’s really happening... Since ’we’ as a species didn’t have it together enough to ’order up’ additional Earths’ to cover the demands for air, water, raw materials, farmland, housing....etc. And that ’Etc.’ list is huge... ----------------/--------------------------/--------------------/------------------/----------------- A local auction house posted a online sale of hi-fi equipment and items. A batch of ’mid-ish’ stuff that looks to be about 3~4 ’pairings’ of units, some speakers, couple of subs....box of cables, cd’s, dvd’s.....and posters! I’ve no horse in the race, and not interested in bidding... But, being the nice guy none suspect of me, the stuff has to be picked up by the next day. PM if you’re curious.... Note to our A’gon monitors: Trust me, there’s no mega-buck item(s) in the lot that would appear here, and y’all could look for yourselves..... ....and they wouldn’t list the stuff here anyway....not likely that A’gon exists in their universe.... ;) |