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How do we get more people excited about HiFi?

This is really debatable. Everyone's heard a SONOS system and they are objectively better than a lot of "hi-fi" stuff that people prized in the '70s.

No, people aren't setting up 2-channel stereos in their living rooms as prominently as they used to.

And, it's not a hobby for young people as much as it was in the 70s, tweaking a system to get better performance.
I don't think it's so debatable. Few people in my generation have experienced listening to medium quality music reproduction in a home setting, unless they have parents who still have a hi-fi system.

Everyone was amazed at my hi-fi system at college even when it was very modestly priced. Most people from my generation have just never heard an entry-level separates system. An entry-level amplifier blows them away just because of how powerful a hi-fi amplifier is when compared how they normally hear music on laptop speakers.

You have to remember most people nowadays are growing up with music from the tinny speakers on their iPad or iPhone. Laptop speakers are listened to a hundred times more than hi-fi systems today. People usually think an Amazon Alexa speaker really sounds great and comparatively powerful. Many people (under 30) have never heard music played on a separates hi-fi system. Many younger people today don't have experience listening to CDs on a budget micro-system (from Philips, Panasonic, Sony), their experience is listening on the laptop, or an Amazon Echo if they are lucky.
 
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To reinvigorate the hobby the first and most important part is for the industry and those that represent it to stop with the snake oil and present factual evidence for a product. I know a few people that don't bother because they find the whole thing very pretentious or even a scam. As the internet becomes something more familiar and people learn and grow with it, the reviewer's/influencers will lose a lot of sway, a lot of people can see the smug and sometimes condescending ego's of these people as their ego's inflate with each video and people in the comments feeding their ego by praising something they agree with because they own it. This is the problem with a lot of the internet age, even highly educated people are caught in a web of the quest for self affirmation and only seek out views or information that fits with their particular mindset. It's the same reason MSM is at deaths door having to run clickbait nonsense articles which are just designed for attention. The internet age is still very much a new thing on the scheme of things, and people are still growing mentally at mastering this new source of information. If I hadn't always enjoyed actual hi-fi gear, I don't think I would purchase any these days, I would buy a soundbar or an Alexa like the majority to be honest. The industry and other industries created the rod for their own backs, short sighted thinking and using the most powerful marketing tool ever, the internet, to convince people of nonsense and falsehoods and divide people into factions. This part of the early days of internet is waining, except it's too late for certain industries to save themselves as they have fallen so far into believing their own nonsense and alienated so many who once followed that now all that's left to do is carry on with the same, we are already seeing the effects across other industries where brands have sabotaged themselves for a cause or belief which they feel could be exploited for monetary gains.
 
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I some times catch a ‘reaction’ video over Jootoob where a young guy/gal listens to Pink Floyd, Dire Straits or even Pavarotti for the very first time.
…and well the truth of the matter is that tears of joy and goosebumps city don’t need “hi-fi” in order to take place.
I’d much rather people dive straight into music via their airpods or whathaveyou than ending up discussing hi-fi.
Hi-fi, in the mainstream at least, is the equivalent of tasting cutlery at the restaurant and completely ignoring the osso buco on your plate.
But music without a good system is like taking the expensive meal out the back of the restaurant and eating it while sat on the ground between the dumpsters. Still good food but you're not getting the whole experience.
 
But music without a good system is like taking the expensive meal out the back of the restaurant and eating it while sat on the ground between the dumpsters. Still good food but you're not getting the whole experience.
I don’t fully agree. My enjoyment of music after finding better equipment hasn’t trumped the first time I listened to X fave artist over my then Koss PortaPro.
A great system can however elevate the music, but to me we’re then moving into the ‘cutlery part’ of the equation.
 
I don’t fully agree. My enjoyment of music after finding better equipment hasn’t trumped the first time I listened to X fave artist over my then Koss PortaPro.
A great system can however elevate the music, but to me we’re then moving into the ‘cutlery part’ of the equation.
The first time is always special agreed. At work I use the speaker in the PC tower under the desk and I still enjoy the music but the difference between that and my home system is incalculable and well worth it I would think to any music lover.
 
Let's not get too extended in our metaphors. Worst case, listening to good music on a bad system is like listening to the concert in an alley outside the venue. Best case it's like front row, center. Same song, can still be magic either way, but different qualities of experience.
 
Hello,

a few decades ago HiFi was a popular hobby and in almost every living rooms was some audio equipment. Most HiFi people from today know these times and miss these times.

The rise of the computer, video games and the internet shifted the focus of a lot of people away from HiFi. A whole young generation wasn't that interested in HiFi. And HiFi as a hobby and a whole industry is now a small group of people.

Since the love for music and the potential desires for good audio quality of music, video games and movies hasn't faded a way, I think the industry has failed to demonstrate the young generation how fun good sound quality is.

If you are also a bit sad, that HiFi isn't very popular anymore there is the question how we can change that?

I think we have to hook the younger generation since most of the hobbies are formed in the age from about 12 to 28. Almost no one of this age group has ever heard a very good sounding audio system, so it isn't a surprise that only very few become hifi people.

Most of today's enthusiasts came from headphones since they are more popular in the younger generation and there was a hype with beats a decade ago.

From an industry perspective I think I is worth to get/ hire some influencers to show the younger generation that there is HiFi.

As a HiFi company with a good listening room it might be beneficial to invite local school music or engineering classes and let them play thier music in this room which is embedded in a factory tour.

As a HiFi dealer it might be interesting to get the gamers somehow into the store so that they will hear how good their games can sound.

What are your thoughts about the whole topic?

Best
Thomas
Looks like a lost cause regarding yonger people. My daughter (28) is brought up with a high-end set in combination (in my former home) with an excellent acoustics. So she knows how liqued a quality audio system could sound. My current setup is in my attic mancave with a bad acoustics but DSP corrected such that it come close to the sound of my former home. Basicly the daughter is really not interested in high fidelity audio more IE headphones. Basicly she does not have the patience or need to listen longer than 1,5 minutes to music to occupied with here phone. The same with here mother. Is that a familiar observation. ?
:facepalm:
 
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Sonos sound is adequate. It can be better than 99 percent of what I heard in people’s homes growing up.

What make them special is apps in the speakers. Or the Port. Lots of services with one app.

Of course that turned out to be their weakness.
 
Humans love music and always have. I’ve never met one who does not. Nothing has changed since the time we were all kids.
I gravitate towards this point of view (in the absence of counterevidence). Hi-fi systems have become affordable digitally to the point that THD+N is not considered as much as in the vinyl heyday. Digital audio won, which is why marketing of the 1970s-1980s style lost.
 
I don't know if there are still so many people who PAY to watch movies or listen to music. We'd have to see the sales figures. But among all the young people I know, and there are a lot of them, they all have a mobile phone, but only my girlfriend has a laptop. And none of them buy records, videos, games, etc.
For those over 50, it's even worse: the problem with all this entertainment from the 20th century is the total lack of interactivity. Listening to music sitting on a sofa with $500,000 speakers was maybe a dream at the time of the Beatles, I don't know.
Because in the reports of the audio shows that I see, we are more in the 70-80 year old range on average, right?
As for the fb pages or the many specialized sites (many of which have disappeared, is this a sign or a normal renewal?) like Audiogon too.
I had the opportunity to frequent and then work in a high-end store for 2 periods before, after the closure of one of the 2 stores, then moving to the countryside and the final end, to see that in the clientele.
 
If general acceptance of good audio increases, it will be though improvements in soundbars and home theater.
 
Because in the reports of the audio shows that I see, we are more in the 70-80 year old range on average, right?
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I would say more fifties and sixties. Still working or on a big pension, everything long since paid off, large disposable income. Watches, classic cars and golf are competing hobbies.
 
Nostalgia for the analog heyday can lead to something akin to flak for headphones and IEMs as well as digital music, but loudspeakers and vinyl have considerable distortion (whereas hi-fi means low distortion).
Technically that is true, but that is not necessarily what people want. Recordings of live instruments and unaugmented voices is a small percentage of the market. People can appreciate bass, which is the expensive part, but Les Paul forever changed the definition of fidelity to instrument sound.
 
Looks like a lost cause regarding yonger people.
Paradoxically, headphones or IEMs younger people use remove room acoustics that is the major hurdle for hi-fi. Nostalgia appears to be a factor in this thread.
 
IMO the thing that made HiFi a big market when i was young was that it was pretty well the only thing gadget fanatics could spend money on but as soon as there were lots more choices those who were not that bothered about music, or at least its sound quality spent on other stuff that interested them more, like computers or games.

On top of that good speakers are bulky and very room position dependant if you want to share listening (room compensation only works for a small area for acoustically badly placed speakers) and few people want to sacrifice the look of their living room to get the best sound.
Of our 4 children 2 are accomplished musicians and all 4 listen to music a lot but only one has a "proper" HiFi and the speaker position is compromised for practical pet/child convenience reasons.

Also it is my contention that people who experiment a lot or change equipment a lot seeking the most accurate sound are more often equipment enthusiasts than music lovers IME, those who claim to be unable to listen to music at low quality are few I think, I certainly would prefer Bach on my 'phone speaker than rap on the best stem in the world.
 
I think HiFi represented HiTech back in the day.

What else was there, in the home, that was HiTech, that you could "get into"? Prior to everything having a CPU, that is.

Color TV, preferably with a remote (to flip between the three available channels). Of course, you had to be there when the content you wanted to see was broadcast. And you might turn on the Stereo after all the stations had played the Star Spangled Banner and gone off the air around midnight.

You'd have a HiFi if you wanted to get FM Stereo.

Maybe a Touch Tone phone for local calls. Long Distance was still expensive, though you didn't have to get an operator to connect you any more with Direct dial avialable.

Maybe Ham Radio if you were into that.

You could immerse in Photography, Dad had everything to make black and white prints in the bathroom. And "Pictures In A Minute".

Too much other stuff going on now to dilute the "listening to music" experience.

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To confirm, we can now ask AI!

What represented High Tech in the home in 1964? Provide an extensive list.

In 1964, high-tech in the home included:
  1. Color TVs: Becoming more common and a major upgrade from black-and-white sets.
  2. Microwave Ovens: Early models were starting to appear, revolutionizing cooking.
  3. Push-Button Phones: Replacing rotary dials for easier dialing.
  4. Hi-Fi Stereo Systems: For high-quality music listening.
  5. Self-Cleaning Ovens: A new convenience for households.
  6. Electric Typewriters: Making typing faster and more efficient.
  7. Automatic Dishwashers: Saving time and effort in the kitchen.
  8. Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorders: For high-fidelity audio recording and playback.
  9. Transistor Radios: Portable and more reliable than tube radios.
  10. Central Air Conditioning: Becoming more accessible for home cooling.
  11. Electric Shavers: Offering a quicker and more convenient shave.
  12. Digital Clocks: Starting to replace traditional analog clocks.
  13. Home Security Systems: Basic systems with alarms and sensors.
  14. Electric Blankets: Providing adjustable warmth for beds.
  15. Cordless Phones: Introduced at the 1964 New York World’s Fair1.
These innovations were considered cutting-edge at the time and set the stage for future advancements1.
 
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Everywhere I go I see people with earbuds. Stockers in the grocery store. Random shoppers.

The phone has also replaced cameras.

What audio has in common with photography is that earbuds are better than what they replaced, and phone cameras are better than Instamatics. Sad to say, pictures from my phone are generally better than I took with my Nikon F.

And the reasons are the same. Phones take better pictures because they are available when the picture opportunity arises, and earbuds are better than living room stereos because they are with you.
 
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If you are also a bit sad, that HiFi isn't very popular anymore there is the question how we can change that?
As a starter, keep them away from ASR! far, far away . . .
ASR tells people:
- $100 DACs are as good as or better than those ultra spec , ultra expensive stuff (Hell even $10 DACs)
- So many things are below the threshold of audibility, so don't worry about them
- Save your money, don't spend on cables, isolation pads, blah blah
.
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ASR sucks the life out of Audiophiles, and they are the ones that keep spending money on this hobby, which is a lot more about the gear, than results and enjoyment of music.
So as a dealer, Keep knocking ASR, don't let your potential customers anywhere near it.
:facepalm: :)
 
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