2008 - Best or Worst Time to be an Audiophile? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Ajani
01-12-2008, 05:31 AM
I've seen a lot of complaints/articles about the decline of our hobby, the death of Hi-End audio reproduction and it led me to wonder, whether now (2008) is the best or the worst time to be an audiophile. (I do realize there are more options than just best or worst).

On the Negative side:

1) Interest in High Fidelity/Quality Audio systems is much lower than in previous decades.

2) Convenient but lower quality audio formats and players now dominate the market (MP3s and MP3 Players).

But on the Positive side:

The quality of entry to top-of-the-line audio components has dramatically increased. (assuming we believe the reviews in magazines like Stereophile and What Hifi?).

Just look at the number of class A rated digital sources (priced between $1K and $2K) in Stereophile in recent years.... from Benchmark, Quad, Marantz, Rega, etc...

Then between $2K and $3K the number of Class A Rated Integrated Amplifiers.... from NAD, KRELL, CREEK, etc....

And further, the rise of Class B speakers in the $1K to $2K range from brands such as Revel and Monitor Audio. And based on the reviews Quad used to get in the Brittish Press, I suspect their speakers would also fall into the Class B range.

Seems like an arguement could be made that now is a great time to be an audiphile, especially one with a limited budget... since budget products seem to be delivering stellar performance nowadays.

From my experience with some of the brands listed above and others not mentioned, I favour the view that now is really a good time to be in our hobby.

But let me know what you think...

Is this the best time to be an audiophile (audio enthusiast or whatever term you prefer)? Is now the worst time, since the 'Golden' Days of audio are long gone? Or are things pretty much the same as always?

Feanor
01-12-2008, 09:22 AM
I've seen a lot of complaints/articles about the decline of our hobby, the death of Hi-End audio reproduction and it led me to wonder, whether now (2008) is the best or the worst time to be an audiophile. (I do realize there are more options than just best or worst).
...

Objectively this is the best time ever. More music and more choice of equipment than ever before. The quality too is better than ever before. There are a couple of reasons why people suppose that things were once better.

First, some people simply to like to wallow in nostalgia. There is no doubt a whole lot of charm of the great classics such as the Marantz 7 and 9, or the McIntosh C22 and MC275 and some people, (such as our friend, Melvin Walker who is privileged to own some of these), are entitled to admire them. However a huge variety of much better equipment is available today, and it is, if anything, cheaper than it used to be.

Secondly, high-fidelity per se is admittedly not so much in the public eye as it was in the '70s and early '80s. My theory is that hi-fi interest declined once consumer video formats, (Beta, VHS), became available, and is further exacerbated by the advent of HDTV and portable audio formats, (MP3). However to me this redirection of interest indicates that most of the people who were apparently "into" hi-fi back then really only had a superficial interest in the hobby.

JohnMichael
01-12-2008, 09:32 AM
I think it is a good time to be an audio enthusiast / audiophile due to higher quality product at all price levels. Engineering and trickle down technologies has made good sound available to more. On the other hand I think there are fewer of us. Many choose portability and convenience over sound quality. I listened to an Ipod once and the difference was like comparing a spinet piano to a concert grand. It was obvious to me so much was missing. I have only listened to an Ipod that used compressed formats but if they are sastisfied with the sound will we be able to win them over?

blackraven
01-12-2008, 11:40 AM
When I was in college in the 70's, just about everyone I hung with was into midlevel HiFi.
Today if you look at the same aged kids, their into MP3 and portability. I agree, its certainly better today then back then as far as equipment goes, but its too bad that MP3 and HT is all the rage because prices would certainly be lower and technology would trickle down faster if we had more people into HiFi.

basite
01-12-2008, 01:07 PM
I don't think there's actually a good time or a bad time.
you're either an audiophile (or becoming one) or not, you're not saying: 'I'll be an audiophile in 10 years because then it's better to be one'.

anyways...
I think that there are lots of new things out there for us to explore, and lots of new things still coming. Audio gear is getting back in though. Vinyl is 'reviving', both youngsters (like me), as adults are getting (back) into vinyl. And I do think there are quite some people caring about audio.

Ajani
01-12-2008, 01:39 PM
I think it is a good time to be an audio enthusiast / audiophile due to higher quality product at all price levels. Engineering and trickle down technologies has made good sound available to more. On the other hand I think there are fewer of us. Many choose portability and convenience over sound quality. I listened to an Ipod once and the difference was like comparing a spinet piano to a concert grand. It was obvious to me so much was missing. I have only listened to an Ipod that used compressed formats but if they are sastisfied with the sound will we be able to win them over?

I'm not sure we really need to win them over. I actually see some benefits to the masses being non-audiophiles.... the main one being the growth of more convenient media formats. even though listening to an mp3 on an Ipod sounds pretty crappy to me, I really enjoyed using my Mac-Mini as a server and being able to scroll through my entire CD collection from my couch with my apple remote. And even though I had a slight preference for the sound of an actual CD playing through my Marantz CD-5001, most of my listening was done with the Mac.

Also, unlike most people I don't think MP3s are the end of high-end sound. Keep in mind that the reason MP3 spread as a format instead of the actual CD format (over the internet) was because of:

1) the limited internet speeds.... I still cringe at the memory of my first 14.4k modem and how retardedly slow the internet was back in 1994....

2) The lack of hard-drive space to hold all that data... but now with high speed internet and much larger hard-drives, I suspect we'll see a trend towards higher quality formats....

The fact that we now see the rise of formats such as apple-lossless may well be a sign of things to come... my hope is that we'll see a substantial increase in the number of uncompressed formats in the next few years... who knows, we may even see SACD/DVD-A quality formats being sold on i-Tunes soon....

Just imagine being able to access your entire music collection with a click of the remote from your couch & being able to download new songs at anytime of day or night in SACD quality!!!! :)

E-Stat
01-12-2008, 04:31 PM
Objectively this is the best time ever. More music and more choice of equipment than ever before. The quality too is better than ever before. There are a couple of reasons why people suppose that things were once better.

First, some people simply to like to wallow in nostalgia. There is no doubt a whole lot of charm of the great classics such as the Marantz 7 and 9, or the McIntosh C22 and MC275 and some people, (such as our friend, Melvin Walker who is privileged to own some of these), are entitled to admire them. However a huge variety of much better equipment is available today, and it is, if anything, cheaper than it used to be.

Well said. I have better fidelity listening to Shure earbuds on my phone than when I started this hobby in my teen years.

We must also acknowledge there are numerous pivotal components that have identified the evolution of high fidelity over the years. The Sid Smith 7C/9 and Dick Sequerra 10B pieces are legendary. The good news for everyone is that over the decades, far more inexpensive gear began to match the performance of the earlier benchmarks. While the 7 and 9 were Saul Marantz' swan song, Dick Sequerra continued tuner development and created the next benchmark: The Day Sequerra One (http://mpbarneytuners.googlepages.com/sequerrafm1). Other greats like William Z Johnson of Audio Research, Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson (there's that name again!) of Conrad-Johnson, John Curl who designed for Mark Levinson, and Nelson Pass first with Threshold and later with Pass Labs - among others - continued in the refinement of the amplification chain. There were lots of shoulders on which to stand. :)

rw

kexodusc
01-12-2008, 04:53 PM
I agree with everything Feanor said -

I own a few amps that were well regarded as mid-fi giant-killers in their respective eras. Today I can find amps that are comparable in both performance and sales price...except 2008 prices should be higher than 1998 or 1988 prices.

The real evolution in audio has been in speakers, and room acoustic treatment. I think audiophiles the world over owe the home theater boom a big favor. If it wasn't for millions of people buying speakers, now 5 at a time or more, we'd have never seen such a progression at the entry-level, such quality and performance at the mid-fi level, and a desire to compete and justify prices at higher levels. $2000 goes a lot further than it used to, and inflation suggests it shouldn't.

I'm not even convinced there's fewer of us- I think the needs, wants, and preferences of the audiophile have changed - there's some of us who put just as much effort into our home theater sound as we would a stereo system, often at far greater expense...Some people refuse to accept that non-traditionalists can be audiophiles too. I don't see the two as being mutually exclusive - different in some ways, but fundamentally the same.

Rock&Roll Ninja
01-12-2008, 05:15 PM
In terms of music 2008 is certain a very good time to be an audiophile.

1. The death of the FM/Mtv/RollingStone 'Good ol' Boy' system has opened up hundreds of venues, and many artists are now recording media that simply couldn't 15 years ago.

2. Amazon.com. Its 1998, you want a CD, any CD. Amazon has it. Before this if your local chain record store didn't have it on the shelf it may as well not exist.

About the only thing 'worse' than before is the mastering of Pop/Rock/Metal/Rap music. (Which had a lot more to do with car CD players than iPods).