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[email protected] outsor@city-net.com is offline
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Default The audio geek

In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.
Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and
customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0

Ken Kessler, a veteran audio journalist, summed up the industry's
problems last year at an audiophile conference in Denver. Speaking to a
roomful of mostly middle-aged men, he said: "In the '60s and '70s, if
you opened up Esquire or Playboy and they showed a bachelor pad, there
was a killer sound system in it. Now, there's an iPod dock."

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Andrew Haley Andrew Haley is offline
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Default The audio geek

wrote:
In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.
Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and
customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0

Ken Kessler, a veteran audio journalist, summed up the industry's
problems last year at an audiophile conference in Denver. Speaking to a
roomful of mostly middle-aged men, he said: "In the '60s and '70s, if
you opened up Esquire or Playboy and they showed a bachelor pad, there
was a killer sound system in it. Now, there's an iPod dock."


Aww, all this talk about B&O speakers at fantastic cost like something
in the Museum of Modern Art is just consumber fetishism. These days
it's possible to buy something that sonds fabulous by 1970s standards
for a fraction of the price. We should we have to give a **** about
the "aesthetics test"? We're audiophiles, right? We care about the
*sound*. Gimme enormous PMC speakers in studio black every time...

Andrew.

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Audio_Empire Audio_Empire is offline
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In article ,
ScottW wrote:

On Thursday, July 25, 2013 5:57:19 AM UTC-7, wrote:
In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.

Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and

customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0



They run one of these articles every 6 months or so...and they all lack
credibility with lines like this leading into a segment on resurgence of
vinyl.
"Then he heard one of his older brother’s albums, “A Night at the Opera” by
Queen, in 5.1 surround sound. “I remember listening to it in my room and
hearing all the voices,” Mr. Damski said. “I thought, ‘Oh, there’s another
layer to this I wasn’t aware of.’ ”

ScottW


There IS a resurgence in vinyl. One would have to be really out of the
loop to not have noticed it. There are more 'tables, arms and cartridges
on the market today than at any time since the advent of the CD (~1983).
And the people in this business MUST be selling this equipment to
SOMEONE. After all, they keep introducing new models and brands at all
price points (except the very bottom - the $100 Japanese direct-drive
table with the linear-tracking arm is a thing of the past), but every
other price-point, all the way up to $100,000 turntables and $15,000
phono cartridges seem amply represented.

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Default The audio geek

In article ,
wrote:

In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.
Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and
customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0

Ken Kessler, a veteran audio journalist, summed up the industry's
problems last year at an audiophile conference in Denver. Speaking to a
roomful of mostly middle-aged men, he said: "In the '60s and '70s, if
you opened up Esquire or Playboy and they showed a bachelor pad, there
was a killer sound system in it. Now, there's an iPod dock."


Audio, as a hobby, is in decline because young people's tastes have
changed and therefore no new blood is coming into the hobby. Youngsters,
today don't actually care about listening to music any more. Nor do they
care about the quality of reproduction in the music that they DO hear.
Music has become, to a large extent, a commodity among the young. The
idea of sitting down and actually listening to music for the SOUND of
music has become passé. Sure, they want their iPod instruments filled
with as many songs as will fit and they pirate them, trade them and let
them play into their earbuds as a running, background obbligato to their
lives. Music plays as they jog, work out in the gym, even SWIM! Music
plays in their ears as they do homework, on the job, and I'm sure they'd
listen in class at school if the teachers would let them! It's like
they're hearing music more and enjoying it less. And I'm not
exaggerating either. A friend of mine has a 16-year old son. He's
physically attached to his iPhone. It would likely require a medical
operation to remove the earbuds from his ears. He listens constantly
around the house, only he's not *really* listening, he's doing other
things. The music is just "there". When asked why he and his peers do
that, his answer is "... if we have the music on, we don't have to
think."
His dad has a pretty good audio system. The kid can use it if he wishes.
Needless to say, he never touches the thing - has no interest in it and
can't understand what his dad sees in sitting down and actually
immersing himself in the sound of good music being well reproduced.
Not audiophile material, he.

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John Stone John Stone is offline
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Default The audio geek

On 7/25/13 2:32 PM, in article ,
"Audio_Empire" wrote:

Audio, as a hobby, is in decline because young people's tastes have
changed and therefore no new blood is coming into the hobby. Youngsters,
today don't actually care about listening to music any more. Nor do they
care about the quality of reproduction in the music that they DO hear.
Music has become, to a large extent, a commodity among the young. The
idea of sitting down and actually listening to music for the SOUND of
music has become passé.


AND.....

There IS a resurgence in vinyl. One would have to be really out of the
loop to not have noticed it. There are more 'tables, arms and cartridges
on the market today than at any time since the advent of the CD (~1983).
And the people in this business MUST be selling this equipment to
SOMEONE.


Ok, how do you square these two statements of yours? You have to care enough
about listening to music to go through all the trouble of doing it with
vinyl, right? Or are these new turntable buyers just "hipsters" that own
these things because they're "cool", but use them when they want to show off
to their hipster friends? Or maybe a bunch of us old farts are out buying
their last turntables that they can bury with us? Whatever, it doesn't seem
to bode well for the market over the long term.



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Audio_Empire Audio_Empire is offline
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Default The audio geek

In article ,
John Stone wrote:

On 7/25/13 2:32 PM, in article ,
"Audio_Empire" wrote:

Audio, as a hobby, is in decline because young people's tastes have
changed and therefore no new blood is coming into the hobby. Youngsters,
today don't actually care about listening to music any more. Nor do they
care about the quality of reproduction in the music that they DO hear.
Music has become, to a large extent, a commodity among the young. The
idea of sitting down and actually listening to music for the SOUND of
music has become passé.


AND.....

There IS a resurgence in vinyl. One would have to be really out of the
loop to not have noticed it. There are more 'tables, arms and cartridges
on the market today than at any time since the advent of the CD (~1983).
And the people in this business MUST be selling this equipment to
SOMEONE.


Ok, how do you square these two statements of yours? You have to care enough
about listening to music to go through all the trouble of doing it with
vinyl, right? Or are these new turntable buyers just "hipsters" that own
these things because they're "cool", but use them when they want to show off
to their hipster friends? Or maybe a bunch of us old farts are out buying
their last turntables that they can bury with us? Whatever, it doesn't seem
to bode well for the market over the long term.


You're right. The market is dying. If there is little new blood in a
hobby, attrition thins it out over time. But, interestingly, there are a
lot of middle-aged nuvo-riche who want to equip their "macmansions"
with a music room/home theater with the best audio equipment in it that
money can buy. These are not audiophiles by any stretch of the
imagination. They just want the "best" (read that as "most expensive")
and they hire consultants to make those buying decisions for them (for a
fee, of course). I was in such a home locally, here, about a year ago.
The guy had a $50,000 Walker turntable rig, Mark Levinson electronics
and Magico Q5 speakers. The system probably cost at least a
quarter-million dollars. From what I could see, the guy had fewer than
20 CDs and about 4 LPs. When I expressed an interest in his system, he
was happy to show it off to me, but really knew nothing about it (I knew
far more about than he did) and volunteered that he didn't listen to it
much because he didn't care than much about music. He also had a
Steinway concert grand in that room with a DisKlavier system installed
in it. He played that for us too, but again, he "...didn't use it very
much". I had to resist a strong urge to punch his lights out! Yeah, life
just ain't fair when the undeserving can afford things that many of us
would give our eye-teeth for and yet they are totally indifferent to
them.

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Scott[_6_] Scott[_6_] is offline
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Default The audio geek

On Thursday, July 25, 2013 1:50:31 PM UTC-7, John Stone wrote:
On 7/25/13 2:32 PM, in article ,
=20
"Audio_Empire" wrote:
=20
=20
=20
Audio, as a hobby, is in decline because young people's tastes have

=20
changed and therefore no new blood is coming into the hobby. Youngsters=

,
=20
today don't actually care about listening to music any more. Nor do the=

y
=20
care about the quality of reproduction in the music that they DO hear.

=20
Music has become, to a large extent, a commodity among the young. The

=20
idea of sitting down and actually listening to music for the SOUND of

=20
music has become pass=E9.

=20
=20
=20
AND.....
=20
=20
=20
There IS a resurgence in vinyl. One would have to be really out of the

=20
loop to not have noticed it. There are more 'tables, arms and cartridge=

s
=20
on the market today than at any time since the advent of the CD (~1983)=

..
=20
And the people in this business MUST be selling this equipment to

=20
SOMEONE.

=20
=20
=20
Ok, how do you square these two statements of yours? You have to care eno=

ugh
=20
about listening to music to go through all the trouble of doing it with
=20
vinyl, right? Or are these new turntable buyers just "hipsters" that own
=20
these things because they're "cool", but use them when they want to show =

off
=20
to their hipster friends? Or maybe a bunch of us old farts are out buyin=

g
=20
their last turntables that they can bury with us? Whatever, it doesn't s=

eem
=20
to bode well for the market over the long term.


That is easy to square up. The audiophile community as a whole is eroding b=
ut within that community there has been substantial support and growth of h=
igh end vinyl playback. Hipsters are buying the cheap new turntables but ob=
viously audiophiles are the ones buying the megabuck gear that is still bei=
ng produced and still being bought. Actually when one looks at the vast arr=
ay of high end audio gear being made these days it's kinda hard to believe =
the market is really all that bad.
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Audio_Empire Audio_Empire is offline
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Default The audio geek

In article , Scott
wrote:

On Thursday, July 25, 2013 1:50:31 PM UTC-7, John Stone wrote:
On 7/25/13 2:32 PM, in article ,

"Audio_Empire" wrote:



Audio, as a hobby, is in decline because young people's tastes have


changed and therefore no new blood is coming into the hobby. Youngsters,


today don't actually care about listening to music any more. Nor do they


care about the quality of reproduction in the music that they DO hear.


Music has become, to a large extent, a commodity among the young. The


idea of sitting down and actually listening to music for the SOUND of


music has become passé.




AND.....



There IS a resurgence in vinyl. One would have to be really out of the


loop to not have noticed it. There are more 'tables, arms and cartridges


on the market today than at any time since the advent of the CD (~1983).


And the people in this business MUST be selling this equipment to


SOMEONE.




Ok, how do you square these two statements of yours? You have to care
enough

about listening to music to go through all the trouble of doing it with

vinyl, right? Or are these new turntable buyers just "hipsters" that own

these things because they're "cool", but use them when they want to show
off

to their hipster friends? Or maybe a bunch of us old farts are out buying

their last turntables that they can bury with us? Whatever, it doesn't
seem

to bode well for the market over the long term.


That is easy to square up. The audiophile community as a whole is eroding but
within that community there has been substantial support and growth of high
end vinyl playback. Hipsters are buying the cheap new turntables but
obviously audiophiles are the ones buying the megabuck gear that is still
being produced and still being bought. Actually when one looks at the vast
array of high end audio gear being made these days it's kinda hard to believe
the market is really all that bad.


If we weren't constantly being told that the market is dying, I would
say that you certainly can't tell by looking at it... I've been
attending the Bay Area Hi-Fi Show (next one is Aug 9) and seems to me
that attendance is bigger every year. Again, the patient looks pretty
healthy to me, but the doctor says he's terminal. Who am I to argue?

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Greg Wormald Greg Wormald is offline
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C'mon guys--hi-fi has **always** been a minority option.

I went back to Canada and visited some old friends a few years ago.
There were two who had the most interest in music and hi-fi and I had
helped them pick out some good equipment to satisfy their ears. I was
really looking forward to talking to them, and listening to whatever
they had now.

30 years on and they still had the same gear I'd helped them audition
with the exception of adding a CD player. And they had forgotten all
they knew about setting it up. They were amazed at what they'd been
missing when the re-set-up was complete.

None of my other old friends had anything to notice at all. A clock
radio on the 'fridge, and some ran the odd bit of music through the $300
surround sound package that came with the TV.

As far as sales and shows go, there are a lot of people in the world
now, and lots of money, so even a minority can be significant.

Greg

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Stephen McElroy Stephen McElroy is offline
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Default The audio geek

In article ,
ScottW wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0


They run one of these articles every 6 months or so...and they all lack
credibility with lines like this leading into a segment on resurgence of
vinyl.


"Then he heard one of his older brother’s albums, “A Night at the Opera”
by
Queen, in 5.1 surround sound. “I remember listening to it in my room and
hearing all the voices,” Mr. Damski said. “I thought, ‘Oh, there’s
another


layer to this I wasn’t aware of.’ ”


There IS a resurgence in vinyl.


That may be true but how one is led to it by listening to a 5.1 remix of
Queen's Night at the Opera is unclear.


The Queen anecdote wasn't about lps, but was an example of one of "many
younger music fans [...] seeking a listening experience that goes beyond
an MP3 and a cheap pair of earbuds."

Stephen



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Arny Krueger[_5_] Arny Krueger[_5_] is offline
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Default The audio geek

wrote in message
...
In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.
Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and
customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0

Ken Kessler, a veteran audio journalist, summed up the industry's
problems last year at an audiophile conference in Denver. Speaking to a
roomful of mostly middle-aged men, he said: "In the '60s and '70s, if
you opened up Esquire or Playboy and they showed a bachelor pad, there
was a killer sound system in it. Now, there's an iPod dock."


The real problem is that good high fidelity has become very pervasive, and
there's no longer any need to spend the big bucks or waste a lot of space to
obtain it just about anywhere.

The new market for things like iPod/iPad docks and high quality earphones
has immense amounts of cash in it, which overall offsets losses elsewhere.
There's no need for me to drive across town to suffer with a hovering
salesman who seems to think he's technically competent, and instead just
click a few boxes at Amazon and wait 3 days.


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Audio_Empire[_2_] Audio_Empire[_2_] is offline
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On Friday, July 26, 2013 11:11:48 AM UTC-7, ScottW wrote:
On Thursday, July 25, 2013 11:46:35 AM UTC-7, Audio_Empire wrote:

In article ,




ScottW wrote:








On Thursday, July 25, 2013 5:57:19 AM UTC-7, wrote:




In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.








Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and








customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.
















http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0












They run one of these articles every 6 months or so...and they all lack




credibility with lines like this leading into a segment on resurgence of




vinyl.




"Then he heard one of his older brother’s albums, “A Night at the Opera” by




Queen, in 5.1 surround sound. “I remember listening to it in my room and




hearing all the voices,” Mr. Damski said. “I thought, ‘Oh, there’s another




layer to this I wasn’t aware of.’ ”








ScottW








There IS a resurgence in vinyl.




That may be true but how one is led to it by listening to a 5.1 remix of Queen's Night at the Opera is unclear.



Unclear? It should be downright opaque! There is no VINYL 5.1 remix of anything.


One would have to be really out of the


loop to not have noticed it. There are more 'tables, arms and cartridges


on the market today than at any time since the advent of the CD (~1983)..


And the people in this business MUST be selling this equipment to


SOMEONE. After all, they keep introducing new models and brands at all


price points (except the very bottom - the $100 Japanese direct-drive


table with the linear-tracking arm is a thing of the past), but every


other price-point, all the way up to $100,000 turntables and $15,000


phono cartridges seem amply represented.




Vinyl will have a future when someone starts manufacturing cutting lathes again. Until then this "resurgence" is a dead cat bouncing.


I'm sorry but you seem to miss the point. Vinyl's resurgence is not now, nor will it ever be on the scale that it once was when vinyl (along with R-to-R tape) was THE source of a music collection. But it has gone from being a moribund market to a healthy one. Can't say how long it will last, but right now the existing equipment for mastering new discs seems to more than able to keep up with demand.



Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of vinyl.

But the price of new high quality vinyl is in the same death spiral that high end (and I don't mean performance by high end, I mean price) equipment is in.


Frankly, I don't think it's about "new, high quality" vinyl as much as it is about the millions of existing LPs out there being bought second-hand or part of extensive vinyl collections belonging to existing audiophiles. That's my interest in all things phono. I have 5000 LPs and I like to play them..


I see a factory sealed version of my Classic Records Zeppelin IV is being peddled for nearly $270 on elusive disc. I'm sure the next generation of audiophiles is just dying to have it, literally .


Anyone who would pay that much for a Led Zepplin LP deserves what they get. OTOH, IMHO, the shift in peoples' tastes away from classical music and toward pop is at least partially responsible in the decline of the audiophile hobby. Studio produced music lacks so many of the things that drove the hi-fi market for so long, that there is a perception that the level of reproduction required by audiophiles simply doesn't do that much for pop. As long as the reproduction provides big bass, sparkling highs, and fairly low distortion (things that are, as Mr. Kruger states "pervasive" and pretty easily and cheaply come by), that any subtlety of performance is merely gilding a lily and deemed unnecessary.

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Audio_Empire[_2_] Audio_Empire[_2_] is offline
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On Friday, July 26, 2013 3:31:26 PM UTC-7, Arny Krueger wrote:
wrote in message

...

In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.


Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and


customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.




http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0




Ken Kessler, a veteran audio journalist, summed up the industry's


problems last year at an audiophile conference in Denver. Speaking to a


roomful of mostly middle-aged men, he said: "In the '60s and '70s, if


you opened up Esquire or Playboy and they showed a bachelor pad, there


was a killer sound system in it. Now, there's an iPod dock."




The real problem is that good high fidelity has become very pervasive, and

there's no longer any need to spend the big bucks or waste a lot of space to

obtain it just about anywhere.



Ah, the "party line".

The new market for things like iPod/iPad docks and high quality earphones

has immense amounts of cash in it, which overall offsets losses elsewhere.

There's no need for me to drive across town to suffer with a hovering

salesman who seems to think he's technically competent, and instead just

click a few boxes at Amazon and wait 3 days.


Well, that's true, anyway. Sad really. Brick & Mortar stores bring a sense of community to the local audiophiles. A place to meet like-minded spirits. With that fast disappearing, audiophiles will be even more isolated from one another.
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Arny Krueger[_5_] Arny Krueger[_5_] is offline
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"Audio_Empire" wrote in message
...

On Friday, July 26, 2013 3:31:26 PM UTC-7, Arny Krueger wrote:


The real problem is that good high fidelity has become very pervasive,
and
there's no longer any need to spend the big bucks or waste a lot of space
to
obtain it just about anywhere.


Ah, the "party line".


As if the writings of Ken Kessler aren't representative of a party line.
It's just a different party line.

The new market for things like iPod/iPad docks and high quality earphones
has immense amounts of cash in it, which overall offsets losses
elsewhere.


There's no need for me to drive across town to suffer with a hovering
salesman who seems to think he's technically competent, and instead just
click a few boxes at Amazon and wait 3 days.


Well, that's true, anyway. Sad really. Brick & Mortar stores bring a sense
of community to the local audiophiles. A place to meet like-minded
spirits. With that fast disappearing, audiophiles will be even more
isolated from one another.


There are numerous online forums that are providing a sense of community to
a wide range of audiophiles, again away from hovering salesmen.


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In article ,
"Arny Krueger" wrote:

"Audio_Empire" wrote in message
...

On Friday, July 26, 2013 3:31:26 PM UTC-7, Arny Krueger wrote:


The real problem is that good high fidelity has become very pervasive,
and
there's no longer any need to spend the big bucks or waste a lot of space
to
obtain it just about anywhere.


Ah, the "party line".


As if the writings of Ken Kessler aren't representative of a party line.
It's just a different party line.


agreed, but I don't remember Ken Kessler being mentioned specifically.

The new market for things like iPod/iPad docks and high quality earphones
has immense amounts of cash in it, which overall offsets losses
elsewhere.


There's no need for me to drive across town to suffer with a hovering
salesman who seems to think he's technically competent, and instead just
click a few boxes at Amazon and wait 3 days.


Well, that's true, anyway. Sad really. Brick & Mortar stores bring a sense
of community to the local audiophiles. A place to meet like-minded
spirits. With that fast disappearing, audiophiles will be even more
isolated from one another.


There are numerous online forums that are providing a sense of community to
a wide range of audiophiles, again away from hovering salesmen.


I don't know what kind of high-end stores you've been exposed to, but
the ones with which I'm familiar were enthusiast owned and run, and
didn't have "hovering salesmen". They were there if needed, but if an
audiophile gab-fest were under way, 9 times out of 10 they were right in
the thick of it.

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In article ,
ScottW wrote:

On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 10:44:52 AM UTC-7, Audio_Empire wrote:


I don't know what kind of high-end stores you've been exposed to, but

the ones with which I'm familiar were enthusiast owned and run, and

didn't have "hovering salesmen". They were there if needed, but if an

audiophile gab-fest were under way, 9 times out of 10 they were right in

the thick of it.


There seems to be a trend toward appointment only outlets.
I suspect this is largely driven by the lack of sufficient business to
support a full-time staff.

The few "gab-fests" I've overheard usually don't last long before someone
declares that most audiophiles can't or won't hear what is plain as day.

ScottW



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I'm often very surprised by the number of so-called audiophiles who have
never bothered to train "their ears" to HEAR audio. Our ears can be
great tools for evaluating audio performance. Of course, the "ear'" is
also subject to subconscious bias as well, and one must also train their
hearing against falling into that trap. It can be done, but not 100%, so
one should check their findings against some kind of bias-controlled
testing procedure. There are also some rules of thumb:

The main thing that thing one must take into account when training one's
ears to "hear" hi-fi is to be used to hearing live, unamplified music
and hear it often. You can't hear what a piece of equipment is doing
either right or wrong if you don't know what music is SUPPOSED to sound
like. If there is a such thing as a "golden eared audiophile" it is one
who has trained himself to listen critically, by knowing what differs
from real in reproduced music and who can quantify, in his own mind what
those difference are.

---
news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

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Oregonian Haruspex Oregonian Haruspex is offline
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On 2013-07-25 19:32:58 +0000, Audio_Empire said:

In article ,
wrote:

In the article there is a link to the kessler youtube mentioned below.
Apanel of audio folk discuss the current poor health of the audio biz and
customer decline. But in the article there is a small glimmer of light.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/ga...eeks.html?_r=0

Ken Kessler, a veteran audio journalist, summed up the industry's
problems last year at an audiophile conference in Denver. Speaking to a
roomful of mostly middle-aged men, he said: "In the '60s and '70s, if
you opened up Esquire or Playboy and they showed a bachelor pad, there
was a killer sound system in it. Now, there's an iPod dock."


Audio, as a hobby, is in decline because young people's tastes have
changed and therefore no new blood is coming into the hobby. Youngsters,
today don't actually care about listening to music any more. Nor do they
care about the quality of reproduction in the music that they DO hear.
Music has become, to a large extent, a commodity among the young. The
idea of sitting down and actually listening to music for the SOUND of
music has become passé. Sure, they want their iPod instruments filled
with as many songs as will fit and they pirate them, trade them and let
them play into their earbuds as a running, background obbligato to their
lives. Music plays as they jog, work out in the gym, even SWIM! Music
plays in their ears as they do homework, on the job, and I'm sure they'd
listen in class at school if the teachers would let them! It's like
they're hearing music more and enjoying it less. And I'm not
exaggerating either. A friend of mine has a 16-year old son. He's
physically attached to his iPhone. It would likely require a medical
operation to remove the earbuds from his ears. He listens constantly
around the house, only he's not *really* listening, he's doing other
things. The music is just "there". When asked why he and his peers do
that, his answer is "... if we have the music on, we don't have to
think."
His dad has a pretty good audio system. The kid can use it if he wishes.
Needless to say, he never touches the thing - has no interest in it and
can't understand what his dad sees in sitting down and actually
immersing himself in the sound of good music being well reproduced.
Not audiophile material, he.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---


I hardly think audio as a hobby is in decline. Young people listen to
digital music, but there is a huge range of quality there. Some groups
like Nine Inch Nails release their music in 24/96 which is, by any
*scientific* measure, superior to vinyl.

Apple's earbud headsets are pretty decent in quality for what they are.
The older ones were better than the new ones, but when the idea of
portable music players is brought up, hardly anybody is interested in
re-amplifying their iPod's music output into a little tube amp setup
and pumping it into a broadcast engineering-style set of headphones,
the bulk of which exceeds the iPod itself. If you take issue with
this, please tell me how many stages of re-amplification are needed,
considering the iPod's amp puts out enough juice to power even large
headphones!

The other thing that one has to bear in mind, is that the younger crowd
doesn't have any interest in prestige-level audio equipment that is
exceeded in quality by the humble Yamaha HS50M / HS80M + HS10M pairing
- likely the very equipment that the recording was studio mastered on.
No $10K+ amplifier / receiver needed there. Need a tube to mangle that
music and add harmonics that were never there in the recording? Add a
cheap Behringer tube exciter.

With the death of quality music on the broadcast bands, receivers are
on their way out as well. Sure, there are still lots of receivers
made, but they are likely not hooked to an antenna, being more of a big
box that heats the room and has a DAC.

The audiophile market is so infested with snake oil salesmen that it's
little wonder that this always-tiny segment of the market is rapidly
falling by the wayside. Once a year or so I buy an issue of
Stereophile in order to re-acquaint myself with the laughable
vocabulary and incredibly priced equipment, just for a laugh.

What's the purpose of an audio system? Is it to faithfully reproduce
audio recordings? We can do that now for under a thousand bucks,
everything included. Is your system engineered to add depth, reduce
glare, and increase the relative proportions of hot / salty overtones?
Can you really even appreciate the Bybee Quantum Purification you paid
so dearly for without a solid, cork-supported rosewood listening room?
I don't think so.
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Andrew Haley Andrew Haley is offline
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Oregonian Haruspex wrote:

The other thing that one has to bear in mind, is that the younger crowd
doesn't have any interest in prestige-level audio equipment that is
exceeded in quality by the humble Yamaha HS50M / HS80M + HS10M pairing
- likely the very equipment that the recording was studio mastered on.


Mixed on, sure, but does anyone master on the humble Yamaha HS50M?
For mastering they're going to use something much larger, e.g. the big
SLS Audio Studio Reference Series or or the PMC BB5.
http://www.peerlessmastering.com/equipmentlist.html
http://www.fluidmastering.com/studio.htm

The audiophile market is so infested with snake oil salesmen that
it's little wonder that this always-tiny segment of the market is
rapidly falling by the wayside. Once a year or so I buy an issue of
Stereophile in order to re-acquaint myself with the laughable
vocabulary and incredibly priced equipment, just for a laugh.


Amen to that, brother. Amen.

Andrew.

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Oregonian Haruspex Oregonian Haruspex is offline
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Default The audio geek

On 2013-08-04 17:10:50 +0000, Andrew Haley said:
Mixed on, sure, but does anyone master on the humble Yamaha HS50M?
For mastering they're going to use something much larger, e.g. the big
SLS Audio Studio Reference Series or or the PMC BB5.
http://www.peerlessmastering.com/equipmentlist.html
http://www.fluidmastering.com/studio.htm


While a lot of traditional recording studios of course use gigantic
expensive mastering solutions, lots of music is being recorded in more
modest settings, and mastered in the now ubiquitous bedroom studio.
These outfits can produce good sounding recordings, despite the
generally modest gear. Electronic music is generally mixed to master
right in Cubase, Logic, or Ableton these days, bypassing the entire
recording studio / mastering chain.

This is just another way in which the music scene is changing, aside
from digital music distribution.

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