Interesting thread.
I sell & install these soul-less whole house systems every day and have a somewhat different experience and perspective about it.
There is little doubt or argument that the state of the High End has been waning since the Mid-Eighties. My favorite example was the C.E.S. show in Vegas in the early 90's where the few turntable manufacturers choosing to show where relegated to the rooms surrounding the Adult Video convention in the far corners of one convention hotel.I could not tell which came first The Adult Video Convention or the lingering death of High End.
Anyway there is also a parrallel trend in the custom install side which no one has mentioned and it helps shed some light I think on the industry "Lameness" suggested here.
The simple idea is MONEY. Not real complicated to grasp.
There is NO RETAIL left to speak of unless it is driven by huge sales and recurring revenue.The Manufacturers simply follow the lemmings,lined up to buy all forms of "Pod" and "Pod Gear".
In a strange way the custom business has also divided into Mid-Fi or worse for the masses and High End Custom for the few.
Most of these systems you lament feature not only crappy highly compressed sources but themn distribute it through crappy speaker switchers driven by crappy but stable amplifiers and miles of crappy wire to.........crappy speakers.
Is this wrong? no.
Is this bad? Maybe it is just crappy and most people could not grasp it being any other way.
Just like the High End where we strive to sit no one wants it if they don't know it is there.
I have not installed a system like this in over 15 years I think. I strive to reach for the tiny market willing to beleive there is better quality out there and willing to pay for it.
There are several systems I install that allow for significantly improved quality and much better Audio and Video.
I never run more than one speaker per amplifier and thus do not go through switchers or volume controls.All my systems use independent Pre-mps,Amps per Zone/Room.
I design installs, not slam them in.
There is no high-end gear to nice to install in whole house systems and nothing inherent in distributed A/V that dictates bad quality
I try to do at least 1 room in the house that really surprises the customer and blows them away and just like in the olden days once they get a taste they often want to move up.
I try to get them to my house for starters and give them the idea.
Last year I did a system with all JM Labs Speakers(Many Custom) and Pass Labs Electronics.
To ignore digital streamed sources would be suicide for me and my kind.
To provide a simple distrbuted interface for them along with Automation,Security and communications is only smart and is where the money is right now in the industry.
There is a real scism between the cookie cutter merchants and those of us who do "Custom"
We both make money though as there is volume on the one side and margin on the other. We both sell a service.
Both co-exist as there are a lot of buyers out there and enough variety to keep everyone going,unless they try to stick with High-End retail alone.
The specialty dealer who used to be our friend is me!
The new high-end is the high-end custom installer and there is more going on here than there ever was back then. I have been in for 30 years and the industry is not any more lame than before,they are exactly as before,trying to follow the money.
That is what I see and what we tallk about while reminiscing about the Good Old Days in the industry.
