watchnerd
Grand Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #21
It got commoditized for the most part.
That's a good summary.
It got commoditized for the most part.
Exactly the same here.not sure how it is in the u.s but here hifi was a hobby that guys indulged in, the fixed up and made there own amps etc tbh my dads generation fixed up their own cars too. Everything got stripped down, it was part of ownership.
Guys still do that here but they are all well over 50... There is no, let's strip our phones iPads etc well not on the same scale anyhow.
I think money being earnt and spent more equally between the sexes plays a part too, woman have very diffrent criteria in this regard.
Maybe, I'm not familiar with any of the stuff you mentioned. But a guy or kid with no skill or knowledge to speak of could go out and buy Dyna, Heath, etc kits, follow the step by step instructions and end up with a working product. I was about 9 or 10 when I soldered my first Knightkit short wave radio together.Not really...it just moved to other areas. Home robotics, 3D printing, etc.
You should go to a Maker Faire sometime.
Yes..Is your new avatar Tony Montana + cocaine snowman?
I don't think that's quite accurate. The boomer generation was very into music when young, everyone wanted a good stereo to listen to all the artists of the day. Much more than a status symbol. Later as work, wife, kids, etc; came around the involvement in the music of the day faded as did the opportunity to listen to any music, new or old. By the time that old HiFi broke down they just didn't care anymore. Just a few of us passionate music lovers are left now with the big rigs at home.For a decade or two in the 1970s-1980s, it became a status symbol for men to spend money on, like having a nice car
Hi
With the close to $100K speaker cable the circa 50K IC and the circa $20K Power Cord...
The darn thing is that inherent to the nature of the hobbyist she/he tends to think in term of and seek for, the next best thing, even among those who should know better .. so you can tell what would befall the non-scientific person with available funds .. because at the end not one gets any poorer for buying a $50K arm .. So the flight to even higher prices goes on and many take their sight of real performance and start focusing on bling and price and the comfort of a elevated sticker price ...
I could continue .. Time to stop
Call me a cynic, but I think that pushing those things to the extreme resulted in better perceived (or imagined) fidelity for the susceptible. The real gains were made from the most intelligent use of technology, not the most extreme technology.In the 70s we found out that pushing some things to the extreme resulted in better fidelity. Better power supplies, better components, better transducers
That's fine, I think you've said it all in a most honest and direct way.I could continue .. Time to stop
or think that Quantum tunnelling is used to make their system sound better.
Point taken about Quantum Tunneling ... You have to admit home that it is a stretch to say that some fuses and power conditioner use it in their "working".. Truth to be told if we were to think about everyday phenomenon... some of them are very hard to explain and may invoke quantum tunneling or even more complicated stuffs .. The shining of the sun for one ... A vulgar Transistor works under physical phenomena that are very hard or sometime impossible to explain. . There is no Quantum Tunneling involved in Synergistic cable or the Black Body or ... but the audiophile hears just the name and assigns a sound to it...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling
Well, Quantum Tunnelling would seem to be a valid topic at some level of audio engineering, given the complex nature of our modern devices...
I would be in general agreement with your post... The current iteration of my roughly equivalent speaker ($4500 - 1998) has moved up to an MSRP of $25,000. That's more than inflation which would put it around $6663.
It does have some improvements and differences, but $18,337 worth? No Sale...
It currently comes in 3 sizes - two inches width difference each - $10,000, $15,000, and $25000. I have wonder why the second two inches in width is so much pricier than the first two.
Yes. And where Hi Fi still falls down, usually, is that it's not satisfying to listen to. Women are notoriously able to pick this - all the aspects that their menfolk are jumping up and down in excitement about leave them unmoved, and they politely leave the room as soon as they can - "it's just not nice to listen to", they might say.Hi
Very interesting topic and one I can chime in... A few things:
1) We may need to dial back the cynicism and nostalgia:
Listening to music seems to be a very human activity/need. Everywhere on earth people make and/or listen to music. At every level of civilization or societal stratum there is music. Reproducing it thus become an interesting idea. One can at one's leisure listen. Some people have been keen to notice there was (still is) a vast difference between the reproduction and the "real" thus Hi-Fi was born.
Frank....though women love the cinema and the musical soundtrack intensifies the emotional connection. Women might not like hi fi but that's probably a control or home interior design thing. Women are just more practical about spending money....just like most guys say....I hope she never finds out how much I have spent....ymmvYes. And where Hi Fi still falls down, usually, is that it's not satisfying to listen to. Women are notoriously able to pick this - all the aspects that their menfolk are jumping up and down in excitement about leave them unmoved, and they politely leave the room as soon as they can - "it's just not nice to listen to", they might say.
When a system can run at elevated levels, and be good to listen to right next to the speakers, and then also at the far end of the house - then it's on the right track. And Hi Fi probably won't get back to being taken seriously again, by the general population, until that happens ...
Franks here? I thought Thomas was keeping him in his cage?Frank....
the information age coupled with Asia coming of age put everything out of reach of most people.