The number of hifi enthusiasts who are completely influenced by fashion is almost all of them.
The financially successful engineers know that and pander to it if they want to make lots of money.
Producing well engineered good value for money products for the very, very, few who are immune to the fashion is not a recipe for business success. Producing beautifully styled kit packed with the latest buzz-word fashionable features/components makes a fortune for those who pander to the much larger portion of the market who have swallowed the bollox hook line and sinker. That goes for both equipment and recording engineers IME.
Harbeth recommend simple speaker cables and say all adequate amps sound the same but all their importers insist on fancy connectors, cables and electronics at shows just to be taken "seriously" by the fans.
The financially successful engineers know that and pander to it if they want to make lots of money.
Producing well engineered good value for money products for the very, very, few who are immune to the fashion is not a recipe for business success. Producing beautifully styled kit packed with the latest buzz-word fashionable features/components makes a fortune for those who pander to the much larger portion of the market who have swallowed the bollox hook line and sinker. That goes for both equipment and recording engineers IME.
Harbeth recommend simple speaker cables and say all adequate amps sound the same but all their importers insist on fancy connectors, cables and electronics at shows just to be taken "seriously" by the fans.