If there was a perfect and invisible audio system would you still enjoy this hobby?

[Mr. Widget]

If there was a theoretical perfect audio system, capable of reproducing sound in a totally accurate manner, with an unlimited 20/20k spl capacity and perfect, but absolutely invisible, environmental correction, nothing to see, to touch, to calibrate, to position.
You sit down and just whatever you want sounds perfect. Would you still like this hobby?

I voted "Yes" because every step I take in that direction seems to be a positive one. There is progressively less visual information to distract me from the music (sound).

First I believe your theoretical perfection is an unobtainable goal, but we are asymptotically approaching it.

I voted yes too as in my own way I have come very close to reaching this goal. My equipment is hidden out of view and mostly in another room. I mostly use Roon and control my system with my iPad so in my listening room there is an iPad connected to all the music I require and a pair of speakers. No cable lifters or mono blocks proudly placed on altars.

That said, I love the aesthetics of vintage audio gear and have a small collection of my favorites, but they are not in my listening room or even plugged in.

 

[Colonel7]

Is the Remote perfect and invisible, too?

No, unfortunately it requires a phone app.

 

[Chrispy]

No, unfortunately it requires a phone app.

But in the future/perfect world all you'd need is a brain implant, right?

 

[Whoareyou]

Good friends + Good food + Good drinks + good music = invisible audio system.

 

[Chrispy]

Good friends + Good food + Good drinks + good music = invisible audio system.

I can tell you that the large majority of my friends wouldn't care about the audio system the music was being played on (but my gear is quite visible), let alone be able to discern it's "quality".

 

[Galliardist]

No, unfortunately it requires a phone app.

On the contrary, it’s entirely AI based and automatically selects your favourite music…

…based on what it heard your neighbours playing at 3am on tbe night after it was first installed.

 

[Ken1951]

For both of our systems we can only see the speakers. The only reason I'll replace any of the electronics is if they fail or in the case of the two AVRs something renders them technically incompatible. No inclination of replacing any of the speakers, we like them too much, but if they weren't visible and we had the sound, more to the good. I enjoy the forum, but haven't been in the market for any equipment in years. It's only about the music. Songs move me. The systems just deliver them. I get as much enjoyment out of certain songs played in the car. The music is what I love. I voted Yes of course.

 

[Bleib]

For this I'd love to have a chip inside my brain, it's the only way to have ultimate soundquality. I expect it would need some form of active noise reduction though as many recordings aren't exactly clean

 

[Galliardist]

How would people feel if this "perfect" audio system, or something very close, was actually a wearable? The promise of near-perfect virtual surround on an individually fitted device could be met within just a few years. Would you give up your systems for that?

I suspect that a wearable would result in rather different opinions to the proposed invisible supersystem in the original question, because you would still know it's there and would respond to it as headphones, whereas the invisible system would result in a response like a blind test setup.

I also suspect that takeup of the hypothetical invisible system would be much larger if there were two alternative brands to choose from, and people could wax lyrical about which one was better. At least we could still argue about that.

 

[Mart68]

I voted 'A little less'. I like to have a proper system in the room, one reason I have not gone for the active speakers with built in amps and DACs.

I like to look at the equipment the same as I like to look at artwork on the wall. If it's invisible then I lose that pleasure.

I am a child of the 1970s (born '68), we never had audio equipment in the house. Occasionally we would go to rich relatives who would have a proper separates system. We never got to have a listen to them, but I always thought that looked really cool and I always promised myself that one day I would have something similar in my living room.

Maybe it's irrational but it matters to me.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

I would spend a lot less time, effort, and thought on the hobby. But I would enjoy music just as much. Maybe more, since that is all that would be in question: what to listen to when.

But then I would probably feel bad about having all the knowledge I do (not much compared to many here) which was no longer useful, and miss messing around with stuff. So I would personally likely get into vintage, and have a goal of making different sound signatures for different time periods. A 50's sound for music from the 50s, 60's for 60s, etc.

I have zero desire to get into vintage as of now. But knowing myself, that's what I would probably do.

 

[DSJR]

See fellas, I'm married and live in a small house without the space for a man-cave (although she tells me I'm trying hard to achieve one here), no chance of a huge stereo with multiple subs and not even much time for marathon music sessions, so an 'invisible' highest quality sound system would be ideal here. Sure I tinker with all manner of old turntables none here would remotely look at and I have a collection of HiFi related boxes long overdue for thinning out, so for my future life if I'm given one, the prospect of drastically simplifying it all down visually while improving musical enjoyment is an excellent idea for me

 

[egellings]

I expand the concept here.
If there was a theoretical perfect audio system, capable of reproducing sound in a totally accurate manner, with an unlimited 20/20k spl capacity and perfect, but absolutely invisible, environmental correction, nothing to see, to touch, to calibrate, to position.
You sit down and just whatever you want sounds perfect. Would you still like this hobby?

This question comes from reading many threads and many reviews with sentences like "With these speakers, a transparent DAC and a capable DSP, you will never have anything to update again for the rest of your life"
and inevitably the idea of something that cannot be improved, something that is simply perfect and definitive makes me a little sad, because for me this hobby has more to do with the journey than with the destination. Clearly I love quality reproduction, but I also like to try speakers, try out amplifiers, change positions, play a bit with my systems and see what happens by mixing different equipment, and I think that if it weren't for this there would only be the RIGHT passion for music. But this hobby would no longer exist, and it would make my life less fun and enjoyable

If the system is perfect, then the hobby aspect of audio disappears at that point. Part of the hobby is optimizing the system and experimenting with different components in the system. If it's perfect, then I'll enjoy hearing the music, but lose any interest in optimizing it, since it's a done deal. It's okay to enjoy both the music and fiddling with equipment. Of course, constant fiddling with the system and using music as a mere test signal would be pointless, too.

 

[JeffS7444]

I still want at least some small bit of fetish-worthy audio hardware, but it doesn't need to be anything particularly costly - an attractive mid-grade stereo receiver from the 1970s, for example.

But for the real system, sure why not make it vanish, or even virtualize it? For me, science-y thinking has removed most of the mystique.

 

[Anton D]

Soon after the arrival of the perfect system will be the posters telling people they aren’t using them right and demanding to see their system settings so they can claim superiority.

 

[wwenze]

It will become like cables and CDs basically.

 

[Cadguy]

I enjoy listening to music most in the dark so that there is no visual distraction from the performance. For me the ideal system would be that the entire surface of all 4 walls, ceiling and floor be transducers that still look like normal domestic walls. I don't mean that there be 1000s of drivers behind a cover but that the wall itself be the transducer. As an aside, when I listen in the dark the "sound stage" is subjectively larger than when I'm distracted by seeing the speakers.

 

[egellings]

I enjoy listening to music most in the dark so that there is no visual distraction from the performance. For me the ideal system would be that the entire surface of all 4 walls, ceiling and floor be transducers that still look like normal domestic walls. I don't mean that there be 1000s of drivers behind a cover but that the wall itself be the transducer. As an aside, when I listen in the dark the "sound stage" is subjectively larger than when I'm distracted by seeing the speakers.

Have giant wall-sized electrostatic panel speakers made for that.

 

[Snarfie]

The ultimate system would be stimulating direct your Auditory Neural Pathways with the correct audio laws of physics in combination with the physical conditions (reverb time etc) of the specified audio control room/venue. Probably a quantum data stream an a thought would be enough.