It’s the time of year for saving money!
We rant around here about what’s wrong with the audiophile hobby, and rightfully so. The irrational devotion to retro-technologies over new-school and positively disruptive ones, the embrace of voodoo religion over proven acoustical science, the fact that today’s 70-year-old Baby Boomers won’t be around to buy many more of the $10,000 stereo preamps that are part of our industry’s bread and butter…
You’ve heard it all before. I will only kick a dead horse once here.
Do you know what sells true high-performance audio equipment to the people who can actually afford it and who might appreciate it just as much as stereotypical audiophiles?
Lifestyle.
Yes, I said it. Lifestyle. Generation X, the older children of Baby Boomers, are sadly stereotypically defined by their incredible work ethic married to a total lack of work/life balance. Simply put, we are killing ourselves for no good reason and are often miserable in the process. Our younger siblings, the Millennials, have a term us Xers could learn a little from: “living your best life.” Us Gen Xers have a lot to learn about living our best life, and perhaps it could start with a good audiophile system.
25 years ago, when I was a kid selling a lot of Wilson Audio, Mark Levinson, Proceed, and Transparent Audio in Beverly Hills, all despite an early 1990s aerospace recession, the key to my success was to illustrate to clients with enough money exactly why a pair of $12,900 Wilson WATT Puppy 3/2 speakers (a gem for their era, albeit very expensive both then and now) could bring peace and happiness into their lives. Traditional audiophiles then invested in gear more based on brand equity, esoterica, and often mystical performance. More mainstream clients saw how having excellent-sounding music in your life made your day-to-day a better existence. This was a key differential that moved with me from selling the aforementioned brands to the then Bugatti-like Cello Music and Film Systems. Mr. Levinson (not to be confused with the brand that he sold in 1982 to Madrigal under very unique circumstances) could get very wealthy people to invest in music because music, like art on the wall or your name on the wall at a museum or what have you, made your life better. A tough day on Wall Street could be softened by listening to some John Coltrane for 15 minutes with a nice pour of something single malt from Campbelltown and a few, slow, deep breaths. What was the value of that relaxation back then?
Better question: what is the value of enjoying the greatest music today in our ever-connected, overly-digital life today? I argue that finding a way to make music a part of your life, your relaxation, your cerebral healing from this 100 percent connected world is worth more today than 25 years ago. Here’s the good news: it costs less and less these days to bring great sound into your life. My go-to system in the old days was a pair of black Wilson WATT Puppy 3/2s, an Acurus Integrated amp, a Rotel 855 CD player, perhaps an Audio Alchemy DAC, and some entry-level Transparent cable. Total system cost was around $16,000 retail.
Today, you can put an audiophile system together that costs a quarter as much that destroys the performance of what we could do a generation ago. That is the advantage of a technology-driven marketplace: things get better and better in terms of performance while prices drop like a stone. Ask anyone who bought one of those first-generation Sony 40-inch plasma TVs, which were four inches thick, roared with fan noise, and cost $20,000 out of the gate. Sure, they were cool at the time, but today’s 65-inch UHD TVs are superior in every way for less than a tenth the price. Audio systems have benefited in the same way, at a time when more and more of us could seriously benefit from some amazing music reproduction in our lives.
Many of today’s $1,000/pr floorstanding speakers delivery absolutely fantastic sound. Even a decent AV receiver these days sounds so much better than the Acurus Integrated amp from back in the day, and has HDMI inputs/outputs, wireless connectivity, streaming, and most importantly simply fantastic room correction that just a few years ago would have been an insult to any self-respecting audiophile. Today, many of them are off-the-charts good.
If you want to actually hear the lowest registers of bass? No problem. I can think of two handfuls of super-performing subwoofers that range in price from $399 to $1,199 that Rock the Casbah and need about 90 seconds of your time to make rock in your room.
Oh, how about musical content? For a little more than the cost of one Compact Disc at the old Tower Records, you get access to pretty much every album in every genre ever recorded. Metadata? The best you’ve ever seen. Better than what you would have paid $14,000 for from, say, Meridian Sooloos ten years ago.
If you are worried about the future of the audiophile hobby–and you should be if you follow the business, its demographics, its trajectory, and the way the elders consumer products versus the young’uns–perhaps it is time that we start selling these systems as solutions to problems the way the Calm App speaks to an ever-stressed out generation. Us Gen Xers are respectfully a mess in our forties. Younger Millennials are even more stressed, or so they say. But you don’t need to spend more than the price of a weekend pass to Coachella to buy an audiophile system that can perform in ways that Mark Levinson, Joe Cali, Christopher Hansen, myself, and all of my old-school buddies could never have dreamed of. The day has come to stop focusing on selling to the same people in the same ways. There are better reasons and better performing systems that cost less to help the world be a happier place, one audiophile system at a time.
People simply don’t LISTEN to music the same way as they did in the past? When was the last time you actually sat and listened to an entire album, CD, etc.? Most people today don’t even sit long enough to LISTEN to an entire song!
We audiophiles aren’t “most people.” We love to listen… 🙂
Why do you think one has to listen to the whole album to enjoy good sound? Im jumping fast through my collection or through Tidal, and still enjoy the whole evening very much.
No one said you had to. But artists write, perform, and produce entire albums, with the intent of them being enjoyed. My guess is that you are a bit younger than most on here. No biggie. You like what you like.
Does anyone know what is the device with display pictured in the article?
If you are talking about the fourth picture down from the top, that is the Meridian Sooloos system mentioned in the article.
the availability of quality music has never been easier to find and play. Qobuz and Tidal make it wasy. Find a good dealer and listen to what is possible. I am amazed everyday how my old musical favorites sound so good on the new gear
One would think the access to this much volume (and quality) of music would have a created an audiophile boom industry.
I think you’ve answered your own question here. Everyone [generally speaking] loves to listen to music but very few are concerned with it being presented in the highest possible quality. Today it is all about convenience. “How many songs can I fit in the smallest form factor.” Presented with the option of FLAC, DSD or MP3 most would immediately choose the latter based on file size and swear they couldn’t even hear a difference in sonic quality.
I would still take the time to listen to not just one but a few vinyls in the evening. It’s pleasant eye-sight to watch the stylus riding on the surface of the vinyl.
One of high end audios problems in crossing over to the newer generations aside from the cost is the perceived complexity of assembling a system, there can be real issues. and the physical space requirements.
In metro areas space is at a premium.
I scored a beautiful pair of Conrad Johnson tube amps from an investment banker that did not have room for them in his new SOHO apartment.
space is a concern, but if anything, i think the “newer generations” are far more adept at dealing with the perceived complexity and space requirements than the older folk. after all, they were born w/computers and cellphones in their hands…
Back in the 70’s we had less entertainment options, so music was the thing. I had free time to explore all the audio brands, specs, features etc. AR even had a showroom in Grand Central Station.
Recording LP’s to Reel to Reel and Cassettes directly connected you to the music and process, you had to “monitor” the recordings not simply click a button. My kids love music, My son is a successful classical music composer “Alex Weiser” (he just released an album “And all the days were purple”)while they are connected to music, they are not connected to the equipment, other than my son’s recording and production skills.
actually, i think the entertainment options are pretty-much the same, except now they’re so much more portable and convenient. and i am sure your son alex, w/his studio skills, would have no issues whatsoever, connecting to the equipment if/when he’s wanting to set up a home audio system. (i was a bit of an anomaly, having basically stopped watching tv when i was 14. and today, i have no use or desire for anything resembling h/t. i am simply not interested.)
i think what’s far more intimidating to many of the younger generations today is the perceived cost of the gear, because the $50k and up electronics and speakers and etc., are what gets so much of the love from the hi-end journalists. it’s enough to make anyone’s eyes glaze over.
yes…my 7.2 system is overly complicated and there always seems to be some problem….
hi phil,
curious – are you one of the “younger generations”, or one of the “boomers”?
best,
doug s.
i’m not at all worried about the future of the audiophile hobby. if the human race survives the next 50-100 years, (now THAT’s something to worry about, imo), there will always be “the audiophile” hobby. it was, is, and always will be a lunatic fringe hobby. people have been predicting its demise almost as long as i’ve been into it. same as it ever was. people were fretting about the future of high end when jerry was in diapers. yes, today, many many many people are into “convenient” audio. all that means is there’s now a larger pool for those appealing to audiophiles to fish from.
but, i do believe it hurts the hobby when narrow minded know-it-alls, talking about what’s wrong with the audiophile hobby spout such nonsense as:
“The irrational devotion to retro-technologies over new-school and positively disruptive ones, the embrace of voodoo religion over proven acoustical science…”
that certainly is a rant, but definitely NOT a “rightful” one – all that does is alienate a large portion of those very people the audiophile community is purporting to attract. the FACT is that “proven acoustic science” still has a lot that’s not proven, and not known.
regarding the “stuff”, i basically see two types of audiophiles, and gear that appeals to them. one type wants the best possible sound, but wants it at a price they can afford. (of course, what they can afford varies, but most of us are not 0.1%’er’s and cannot afford 95% of the stuff talked about, for example, in the paper and electronic show reports, like axpona, caf, munich, etc. the 2nd type of audiophile wants decent sound, but honestly is more interested in the bling factor, and the fact that the stuff they bought DOES cost as much as a house. for these types, it’s all about status.
I’ve been repeating this phrase “same as it ever was” ad infinitum after reading your post. 😕 I should be worried.
haha! i was saying that, (about many things, not just audio), even before i heard david byrne’s “once in a lifetime”.
doug s.
I just read in the Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook 2019 that “2018 was a year of substantial growth in the audio industry.” True, a lot of this was in non-audiophile areas like smart speakers and Apple headphones, but on the other hand, according to the publication, “shipments of speakers priced at $10,000 a pair and above actually increased year-on-year in 2018.” I’ll take those as good indicators for the future of music listening in general, audiophile listening included.
The marketing of multi-channel home theatre applications within the home and with the integration of the large visual presence of a big screen TV or projector, superceeded 2-channel audio listening in the past 20 years. Box stores loaded with with cheaper overseas electronics paved the way for suppressing sales of true audiophile gear, thus closures of numerous specialty audio stores. The generations growing up in this era of “transition” have had less or no exposure to what a high quality 2- channel audio system can offer in terms of shear pleasure and enjoyment. Most young brains now are pre-occupied with stimulus from their smart phones and tablets and are ignorant of the fact that quality sound actually exists in other formats. Alas, 2-channel audiophile listening will still carry on as a small boutique hobby for those that appreciate the enjoyment of what this arrangements offers.
Are we over-thinking this?
It’s a fairly well recognized truism across a broad range of human activities — careers, travel, art, music, etc — that you will not strive for those things you have never experienced. The world of high end music reproduction is no different. There are too few opportunities to experience the best this hobby has to offer.
My imagination and eventual obsessive interest in home theater began at Epcot, probably 20 years ago. It was an exhibition room in that World-of-Tomorrow area behind the giant sphere. This small room was equipped with a home projector (RUNCO?), screen, and above average quality sound system (Marantz?). I didn’t have to go seek out a Tweeter or Tech Hi-Fi (New England’s Hi-Fi stores back in the day). A shockingly nice, consumer-oriented, accessible, touchable, realistically attainable home theater system was permanently planted in my head on a visit to Disney World. A few years later, I witnessed a similarly effective setup (by Bose) at a Boston area furniture store. The provocation for my current hobby started in the most unlikely places. It took me a few years to achieve my home theater. In fact, I have both a dedicated theater room as well as an everyday living area where a TV centers what many people would also describe as a home theater. I did say obsessive.
I would never have strived for what I had not personally experienced.