Future of this hobby?

Young people today seem to have so many things going on, and MP3 and other portable devices are convienient for them. I feel that as they get older and settle down, good audio will find some importance to a few. But I feel it will always be kind of a niche market and not main stream. But who knows what the future holds. What we consider very good might become the standard for everyone someday, or maybe something even better. At my age, I doubt I will live to see it, but when you think back over what the world was like in 1905, alot has happened in the last 100 years.

Perhaps when the health benefits of music enjoyment via dedicated listening are quantified and fully understood will people begin to invest in high end audio equipment in greater numbers to practice "preventative medicine."

Grant - Just watched "Broken Flowers" last night (good flick) - There are some short scenes of Bill Murray listening to music on his couch...looks like he's deliberately sitting right in the sweet spot...well, those scenes would make a hilarious ad for your Assisted Living Center.

Firecracker - great post! The responses here have been some interesting reading. That's disconcerting, but not at all surprising about your experience with the Chicago Audio Society. I think your desperate cry for an awakening will not fall upon deaf ears here, as you've seen from the responses already. We feel your pain my friend. Seriously, one aspect of this hobby that has always turned me off is that it seems to be, by it's very nature (or perhaps by human nature) an isolationist pursuit. I will paraphrase...no why even type it again, I'll paste a note I wrote to Grant and a few other A'gon friends just a few days ago on a different subject, but it applies here in an edited form:

People like what they like for reasons that are as different as our fingerprints. The very nature of recorded music is a "coloration" or variant from the moment the sound leaves the source. How you prefer to hear it played back to you, and in what space that effects that playback, is not necessarily going to be the same from person-to-person, and there can be beauty, musicality and enjoyment in oh so many variants. So it does raise my hackles, always, when anyone starts talking about anything like components in finite and absolute terms (and this happens frequently). That kind of thinking goes so far away from enjoying/sharing the hobby, and enjoying the music (an aspect of the hobby that brings us all together on common ground for the most part). It is the proverbial carrot on a stick...reaching out and never satisfied. The whole point of this stuff is to enjoy life(music). I dunno' but constantly reaching for something I can never attain is not an aspect of life I enjoy much. Don't get me wrong, I do like putting together a system and tweaking it to some extent so it enhances my enjoyment, but it is not a relentless pursuit for me. So that's a long way around saying that the kind of arrogance Howard describes does really bug me. It probably alienates allot of folks from enjoying, and or considering our hobby, and thus isolates all of us that much more from the general public who already thinks we're nuts...and I know you know they're all quite right ;-)

What I think this hobby needs is more noble ambassadors the likes of Albert Porter, the late Patrick Malone, and many others here on this site, and contributing to this thread, who are happy to have the opportunity to share their enthusiasm for audio gear and music, without any ego attachments or expectations that others will embrace their own personal choices/preferences. A few good men (and one or two ladies too) to pass on the baton to you young folks, many of whom don't even know what an LP is. Unfortunately you will have to weed through some input from the opposite end of the spectrum as well, but hey, that's life.

As far as technology and the gear; If the demand is there, and I do think it will be, there will always be someone out there making and improving upon the goods to meet that demand.

Just keep on sharing your enthusiasm and it may just spread.

Marco

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The hobby was different back in the early fifties when I got involved. "Involved" is the right word. We had to wire up our own electronics, and design and build our loudspeaker (just one of them). It was a "hands on" quest for sonic perfection. As such it stirred more emotion than going to a shop, plunking down a few grand, and walking out with the latest greatest thing. And in those days, a state of the art system was within financial reach of a dedicated high school kid (like me).

Many Audiogon folk seem to be interested in cars. In a similar way that hobby has also changed. It used to be that if you wanted a "hot" car you had to soup it up yourself. No more. Auto showrooms are full of mass market hot rods. Twice the performance and half the fun.

And we must recognize that entertainment is increasingly more than just sound. A simple example from my own experience is the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera "Mikado". I have excellent recordings on LP and on CD that I have enjoyed for many years. I recently bought a DVD. The sonic quality, especially when played on my HT system, is plainly inferior, but yet I find that watching the DVD is more enjoyable than listening to the CD or LP.
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