Industry Insiders And Their Nonsense

[Sal1950]

They look so shouty.

but can sound fabulous,

 

[fpitas]

but can sound fabulous,

Only in pink!

 

[Sal1950]

Only in pink!

Show me yours

 

[fpitas]

Show me yours

Mine are a proper manly black.

 

[Sal1950]

Mine are a proper manly black.

View attachment 327892

Nice, I love the massive sub

 

[Descartes]

It's an interesting topic, the "death" of the traditional HiFi system. Personally, I think it's definitely on the way out. When I was a callow youth, a friend of mine who was working and earning money bought himself a HiFi system. It consisted of a Kenwood integrated amp, a Kenwood receiver and the top of the line Kenwood cassette machine. I have no idea of the model numbers. It was finished with a pair of AR10 speakers. To me as a penniless high school student, obsessed with music, it was the holy grail with blinking lights and power meters. I remember describing it to my father in rapt reverence and he asked me how much it cost, when I told him he visibly blanched at the amount. Subsequently, when I began earning regularly, my first savings goal was to buy my own system and accumulate a big collection of LP's.

As I have mentioned previously, I was accosted by a snake-oil product only a few years in to the HiFi bug and that effectively killed it. I kept that gear until it aged and deteriorated so much that i replaced it with a desultory combination of a media centre amp, a Sony CD changer and a pair of home made speakers that I cobbled together with Yamaha NS10 drivers that had been rendered spare by the recording studio next door to the radio station I was working at.

Just as an aside here, the engineers/producers at Alberts recording studios would have the NS10's re-speakered every so often when the perceived the drivers had lost their bite. Subsequently there were lots of low-hour Yamaha speakers sitting around looking for a home.

Anyway, my music collection transitioned from vinyl to CD and my equipment changed along with it. In the present, my music collection has transitioned from CD to streaming. As a consequence, my equipment is now a bluetooth amp hooked up to a pair of bookshelf speakers. If I look at my kids, the eldest exclusively uses earbuds and the youngest splits between her car stereo, earbuds and a mono bluetooth speaker. The space any of these solutions take up is inconsequential and I can't see either of them ever wanting a rack full of gear and some enormous speakers. Why would they, this is the way they consume recorded music content. It's portable and convenient.

In a previous thread I started, I posed the question (hardly novel) "Where are the female Audiophiles?" In that thread, I included a bunch of photograps illustrating the sex and age of the audience for a HiFi show. I did'nt cherry pick the photos either, the crowds were primarily 40+ males where the average age is probably over 50. So how much life has the traditional HiFi business got left in it realistically? I can't think of a single male under 30 I know that has saved up and bought a HiFi. My friends sons who are in their 20's are similarly equipped to my daughters, car, bluetooth speaker (maybe) and headphones. If any of them do catch the bug, they're more likely to buy home theatre style equipment rather than bespoke HiFi components.

I agree that the HiFi business has puportedly been "dying from the same heart attack for the last 40 years" but I think that maybe, the shift in technology and lack of interest in HiFi specific equipment might actually be the beginnings of it's extinction. Without a receptive generation to buy in, how can it continue?

Speaker crowd

View attachment 325957

Headphone crowd

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Stereo speaker crowd all white elder men! Typical a dying breed!
I would rather have a 9.4.6 system for movies and surround sound audio.
For stereo and background listening either KEF LS50 WII and Aolle Music!

Might trade for KEF LS60

 

[Sal1950]

Stereo speaker crowd all white elder men! Typical a dying breed!
I would rather have a 9.4.6 system for movies and surround sound audio.

??? So what's the 9.4.6 crowd if not also old men?

 

[fpitas]

??? So what's the 9.4.6 crowd if not also old men?

Old men with a trendy setup.

 

[Sal1950]

Old men with a trendy setup.

No, old men with a SOTA music reproduction system.

 

[computer-audiophile]

There are a few people in my circle of audio friends who have absolutely gigantic horn loudspeaker systems at home. Western Electric, Klangfilm, Altec and the like. You can't just buy something like that in a shop. Unfortunately, I can't show their systems because of privacy reasons. But it was always a lot of fun to be there.

 

[Purité Audio]

I just don’t see any burglars being interested in a, hi-fi and b, huge 1930’s cinema horn horn systems that take four men to move .
Keith

 

[computer-audiophile]

I just don’t see any burglars being interested in a, hi-fi and b, huge 1930’s cinema horn horn systems that take four men to move .
Keith

Yes and no. Some people would probably commit murder to get their hands on individual collector's items. But there are also simply loners and secretive people among them who prefer to keep a low profile. I was lucky enough to get to know them because they were also interested in my own work.

 

[Purité Audio]

If collectors have been murdered for their Klangfilms ( which to be honest I find extremely unlikely) they can name the culprit from the afterlife via Steve Huff’s Paranormal,

Huff Paranormal – Talking to the Spirits with a Spirit Box. Worlds most advanced ITC Evidence.

Keith

 

[fpitas]

I just don’t see any burglars being interested in a, hi-fi and b, huge 1930’s cinema horn horn systems that take four men to move .
Keith

Burglars these days are wimpy!

 

[gsp1971]

With the younger generation, portability rules.

That is true with every young generation. We had "walkman" and then "discman" when I was younger. Now it's cellphones and i-phones and earbuds. But we also had a ritual at home. On Saturday nights the family would gather in the living room, dad would play some LP from his collection and we would just sit around and talk while listening to music. That made me appreciate good sound reproduction, something that has stayed with me all my life to this day.

 

[anmpr1]

I just don’t see any burglars being interested in a hi-fi and b, huge 1930’s cinema horn horn systems that take four men to move .
Keith

Because hi-fi was once desirable, you'd sometimes find gear with the original owner's name or SSN hand etched into the cabinet or metalwork, for sale. I always bought a lot of second hand gear to try out, but I would never buy anything like that. I used to 'flip' gear using newspaper ads, but was afraid the cops would show up at my door and accuse me of thievery if the gear had someone else's information scratched in to it. Plus, you couldn't sell that stuff because it was defaced.

I don't know if anyone is doing that anymore.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I meant something else, not the average audio stuff you find on the consumer market. It's about really rare collector's items, e.g. old unique originals. It's the same as with some art collectors who absolutely want to own a very specific work. Cost no object. Sometimes there is a lot of ambition, money, envy and secrecy behind it. You have to experience it yourself to believe it.

 

[Mart68]

I meant something else, not the average audio stuff you find on the consumer market. It's about really rare collector's items, e.g. old unique originals. It's the same as with some art collectors who absolutely want to own a very specific work. Sometimes there is a lot of ambition, money, envy and secrecy behind it. You have to experience it yourself to believe it.

I get that, but posting a photo doesn't necessarily give any clue as to who owns it or where it is.

Is there scope for a new 'Ocean's 11' film where they have to concoct an absurdly complex plan in order to steal a super-rare hi-fi system?

Okay probably not.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I think many people who live in expensive cities have the problem with space. The Mélaudia group of audiophiles, of which I was a member for many years, goes back to this problem. Its founder Raoul Li Yung, who lived in Paris at the time, didn't have enough space for his double Onken etc. to listen to. So they used to meet up for weekends in a clubhouse where the system was then set up and developed further. I was there from time to time, travelled from Germany and also brought in my own amplifiers and speakers sometimes.

 

[Sal1950]

Burglars these days are wimpy!

Yea, no balls. LOL

So they used to meet up for weekends in a clubhouse where the system was then set up and developed further.

Having to go visit your system on the weekends would suck big time.