It’s the time of year for saving money!
I’ve been using portable personal audio devices ever since I got my first Walkman Pro. And while I’ve used portable players and headphones both on-location and tethered to room-based systems, I fear that I’m in a minority in this respect – most audiophiles are either all in when it comes to portable/personal or not even remotely interested.
For many young music lovers, a smartphone is their primary music source, followed by a Bluetooth speaker device located on a spare horizontal surface in the living room.
The “old school” high-end high-performance audio sector has long embraced the idea that portable and personal are way-stations on the journey to a high-performance audio experience.
But I have met many young professionals who spend most of their time on the go who have decided that their portable personal rigs will be their “heavy hitter” primary system. And the end results they can achieve are on a par, sonically, with the best room-based systems.
I’m not the only person whose seen this. When they began their portable and personal audio shows the Head-Fi Organization aligned themselves with existing audio shows as an additional display hall (or halls). But last year Head-Fi announced that they would no longer be partnering with room-based audio shows, but instead have their own unique exhibitions without being attached to a room-based show. Why?
To me, the reasons are pretty obvious – personal and portable audio has developed to the point that it is no longer a “Me too!” hobby that needs a room-based show to make its way, but a distinct and unique branch of the audio world that can stand on its own two feet.
Portable or personal FI is no longer merely a plant cutting from high-performance audio, but full-grown, very healthy vegetation of its own.
Headphones, the devices to drive them, and the portable sources to deliver content to those devices have become the primary driving economic force in consumer audio. The vast majority of established high-performance loudspeaker firms have seen the sales figures and joined the fray, creating their own high-performance headphone options.
Many, I’m sure, have done so because they realized that they had to if they want to be around ten years from now…
And why won’t Head-Fier’s all be room-based audiophiles as they age out of renting skateboards?
One reason…space. Given the demographics of urbanization there is no reason to believe that housing costs will become a smaller portion of anyone’s budget. And as we room-based audiophiles know all too well – the most expensive part of our audio system is the room that it’s housed in. And why should someone who has a great personal audio system bother trying to set-up a room-based system that will cost far more and not necessarily be sonically superior?
The juice may very well not be worth the squeeze…
So, if you happen to be involved in an audio firm that believes that personal and portable audio doesn’t matter, or that all those earbud-users will eventually own a big high-performance room-based system, I would polish up your resume, because you may need it…
I would love to see more boutique audio companies get into the headphone biz, because I’m sure they’d bring some fresh thinking to it, and I imagine there would be triumphs and train wrecks galore. But unless they’re going to build the headphones themselves — a difficult and costly journey that’s likely to bring years of failure before the first success — they have to deal with an Asian manufacturer who will want a minimum order that’s too much for a boutique audio company to handle.
Some smaller firms, such as ZMF and Dan Clark Audio (formally Mr. Speakers) have gone through that awkward “journey” part already. Both made in their own U.S.-based production facilities. Also, we will have to see if the Corona virus affects production in China – we may see some time period when no Chinese product may be available…A worst case scenario, granted, but possible.
Those are interesting examples, because they both started out as Fostex modders, then eventually started making their own products. I wonder if that’s still a viable path for a high-end company to get into the headphone biz? I also note that the market for non-Bluetooth headphones and earphones is increasingly crowded, yet dwindling fast. And yeah, building in China — because of tariffs and various political, economic and other issues — is not the easy choice it used to be. Interesting times for the audio industry …
Let’s not forget that Grado has been making their own headphones here for a long time.
Our sensory perception and enjoyment of music isn’t just about the sound that enters our ears. Perception of music is also linked to what we feel with our bodies… Headphones can sound fantastic, and can have some technical advantages over room-based setups with real speakers, but every headphone based system I’ve heard cannot come close to duplicating what I FEEL when listening to (real) music in a properly dialed-in, room-based speaker setup, where I can not only LISTEN to the music with my ears, but also FEEL it with my entire body…
That requires substantial SPLs to “feel” music even if the sub is under your chair…I suspect much of the feeling comes from conditioned listening. I hear the same remark, in reverse, from headphone listeners who miss the detail and immediacy of earphones, and hear all the room’s problems, so it does cut both ways…
I agree with all your saying but one factor does tend to change the youngsters just using personal audio. They get older and get married or at least get a partner. Personal audio, DAP’s and headphones are great I use myself but they are anti-social so as the young audiophile gets a wife and family they will tend to move into a more room based audio
That’s a good point but I think there are 2 sides to that argument as well. Partners, and even moreso parents & kids, don’t always enjoy the same music. Thus, personal audio becomes a way to enjoy one’s music without bothering the other family members. My sense as a 30-something audiophile myself is that the general trend is going toward personal audio for music and in-room systems for movies/tv/home theater, which is arguably more socially friendly.
Yes Wave Theory, well observed. But that in-room system for the “movies/tv/home theater” will most likely be a sound bar….maybe book shelfs on a stand. It will not look any thing like the systems of the past, which were multiple front rear and side speakers OR floor standers bracketing the television display with woofer and or center speaker in between them. My system is the latter, with floor standers, (tower speakers), on short stands. Stands for woofer and or center speaker also. There is nothing like the sound of a floorstander 18 inches off floor. The sound stage is soooo much more open off the floor. In college I put plastic milk crates under my big speakers and boy, did it make a difference.
The systems that were born of the 1970’s, just are not viable in today’s world where music just does not have the importance as it did. And with home theater taking the lead over music for our audio experience, the need and money is just not there for large systems. The systems of the 70’s were first designed and almost exclusively used for audio. The collective ‘we’, did not mate the system to television till later. I am partial to a system with tower speakers bracketing the tv. This system is great for music and that is what my system is most used for. These systems are expensive and money in America goes not too far, for even the staunch middle class. Though many countries like having their money tied to the American dollar, in this, it’s home country, the dollar just cannot purchase a full blown sound system. But it can purchase a sound bar.
Americans are just becoming too poor to live in anything else but a world of work and labor, sweating rent in a world where most people will be tenant renters all their life, and a world where “kids” will be living with their parents till they are too old to find a mate that is capable of sex. You do not feel sexy living with your parents at 28 years of age. You feel like a flaccid loser. I see it all to often.
These unfortunates just do not buy expanded pricy systems. And we are all unfortunate that this is so.
Obviously one size does not fit all. Thank goodness we have choices. Some will move on from portables others will not. For many reasons. Gateway products are just that. Some could be happy with a pair of Vanatoo speakers and just plug the iphone in.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, Steven. I’ve discovered that another draw to personal/portable audio is in the ability to quickly explore different sound signatures or have a variety of sound signatures at the ready that don’t require extra equalization/signal processing. I’ve traditionally been an in-room/speaker-based system music listener but over the past ~3 years I’ve moved more toward headphones for my personal music listening. A benefit to doing so I didn’t count on at first was that it’s much easier to explore different sound signatures with headphones than with speakers. Direct A/B testing with speakers requires stopping the music for several minutes, switching speakers, moving speakers to the their optimum position and so forth. That process doesn’t account for the room and storage space necessary to house, even temporarily, multiple pairs of speakers. It’s much more switching and space friendly to have multiple sets of headphones with different sound signatures that can be swapped out in seconds. This switching speed makes it much easier for direct A/B tests and hearing subtle differences.
As the audiophile hobby can be generally though, having multiple cans is a rabbit hole. In those three years I’ve gone from 1 pair of ok headphones I used for everything mobile to about 6 different sounding sets, at least 3 desktop dacs, and about 4 different headphone amps, oh and tube rolling and headphone pad rolling and… I think you get it. However, all of this has been really exciting and I’ve learned a lot about not only audio reproduction, but what I like and don’t like in sound. I would argue that headphones allowed me to learn those things quicker than I could have with in-room speakers.
Finally, and in fairness, I still enjoy the times when I’m the only one home and go to the basement and crank my speakers – so I’m not exclusively in either camp here.
I’ve always used headphones but in the past preferred the speaker experience. Not any more, hearing difficulties due to Menieres disease, first in the left ear 10+ years ago and now, despite being extremely careful, in the right ear means headphones are the only option for me. I use Sennheiser HD800s at home and JVC Flats elsewhere. The Flats are more sensitive than most and help when using low power sources (tablets, laptop etc). I hope this helps others with the same affliction.
Even though my hearing is poor I’m still able to distinquish good sound from bad. I recently pressed an older Kenwood receiver back into use because the newer Sony receiver did not have as much clarity. I’m rather proud of that.
I bought my first Hi-Fi grade stereo in 1971, so I am as old as dirt. I still have a pretty decent in-room setup. However, I am more likely than not to be listening to my LG V-30 (see https://www.stereophile.com/content/lg-v30-hi-res-smartphone-mqa-specifications), on either my OPPO PM-3, Etymotic ER-4PT(S) (with a little help from my FiiO A3) or my Grado SR325 depending on location. Don’t have a mint in the setup, but I can stream almost anything, and it makes me happy.