Fluffy
Addicted to Fun and Learning
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- Sep 14, 2019
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In his latest post, Archimago discuss thinking about the big picture in audio. It's a great post with some very good points. I enthusiastically agree with his idea of "good enough" gear, and the fact the DACs are pretty much a solved issue, and lately it becomes apparent that amplifiers are reaching there as well (and definitely way past that point in headphone amps).
The latest speaker tests by Amir made me think that there are already something close to "perfectly transparent speakers" in existence, and it's just a matter of driving their price down to a consumer friendly level. and generally, it looks like the trend is towards one product that does it all – a digital powered speaker that behaves perfect acoustically and doesn't require any component other than a power plug and some source (and some can probably stream on their own).
And despite these huge advancements, the audio industry is still very much alive and evolving. New products coming out all of the time, most of the differences between them comes down to branding and marketing. The pure technology side of things is pretty straight forward and almost identical performance-wise throughout many different products.
I wonder what is still driving this business from the perspective of the consumer. I think we can take a different look at this field and divide the people in it into two groups – unrelated to subjectivism of objectivism, poor or rich, knowledgeable or novices. The division I came up with is between goal-driven ("good enough") and hobby-driven ("everything matters").
The market mostly subsist on hobby-driven folk – these are the people that buy and discuss gear for the fun of it and for the sense of community. Most repeated upgrades are from people who just like to buy new shiny things and flaunt them to their friends. These could be either subjectivists or objectivists – the resulting behavior is the same. You can spend lots of money on luxurious handcrafted turntables and vintage tube amps just as well as on highly engineered solid states and SOTA DACs with exceptional measured performance. It also doesn't exclude value-oriented buyers, as those can upgrade constantly between different low-cost devices, trying to find the best deals. It only matters that they stay invested in the hobby for years, never fully satisfied with their current setup and always hungry for change and excitement. I believe most audio brands market to this section of the population, because they are repeating customers, and therefore the most profitable.
The other type are the goal-driven ones. Those enthusiasts have a specific goal in mind, and they are on a journey to achieve it. The longer the journey the more money they pore into gear, and thus also more profitable to brands. But the main difference between them and the hobby-driven ones is that they are not doing it for fun. The search is a means to an end, and the end goal is having the right setup for them. these can also be either objectivists or subjectivists, value-oriented or luxury-seekers – they eventually settle on something as close as possible to what they were looking for, and stop buying and upgrading after that. Audio brands would love to take their money as well, but they are not as important as customers, because they eventually stop buying. Although, you can put most regular consumers in this group – anyone that goes out and buys Bose headphones that they will use until they wear out are also goal-driven, and their goals are pretty simple. And there is a huge market for those consumers that only buy the one thing they need.
Both these groups affect the way companies produce and market products, and in different ways. I want to bring up PS Audio here as an example, because in his channel Paul Mcgeown try to wear two hats at the same time. Under one hat, he claims that we are always light years away from achieving perfect fidelity and the technology always keeps evolving – thus marketing to the hobby-driven group. And under the second hat, he talks about developing all-in-one amplified speakers that solve all issues in one convenient product that you can buy once and be happy forever – marketing this time to the goal-driven group.
There are many other companies that wear either or both hats. On the extreme side of things, in one end you can find the snake-oil dealers that try to convince you that "everything matters", and that’s why you should invest in expansive cables and other less sensible upgrades. Those companies appeal to the hardcore hobbyists who are never satisfied with what they have and can afford all these crazy adventures. On the other end, you have companies like JBL that make Bluetooth portable speakers and sound bars that are supposed to be the end-solution for the goal-driven consumer who looks for "quality audio" on the cheap and doesn't have time to do any research on their own.
Personally, I put myself in the goal-driven group. For me, the setup I have is good enough for my goals and after a certain point there is no longer a need to upgrade. On the other hand, I do enjoy discussing these topics and advising people who are new to this, so I guess I have some hobbyist in me. I don't think there is anything wrong with being hobby-driven – all hobbies are legitimate, and if this hobby brings people joy, all the power to them. And as archimago put it, " I think so long as one can afford it, everybody's aware that claims are based on opinions rather than substantiated fact, and apply a bit of common sense, it's "mostly harmless"."
I don't like seeing people be taken advantage of by big companies, and I think being an objectivist is a way to express distrust in manufacturers that try to do that. But the people "on the other side of the aisle" (for me at least), subjectivists and hardcore hobbyists, are not to blame for following their passions. So even if DACs are already perfect and amplifiers are on their way to be, and speakers could be if we put some effort into it, I predict people will continue to enjoy investing their time and money in these things, and companies will continue to serve that demand. You can say the hobby highway will continue to flow, while once in a while some people will take the end goal off-ramp. It would be delusional to think either of those things will ever stop happening.
P.S
Is Archimago active in this forum? Would seem appropriate…
The latest speaker tests by Amir made me think that there are already something close to "perfectly transparent speakers" in existence, and it's just a matter of driving their price down to a consumer friendly level. and generally, it looks like the trend is towards one product that does it all – a digital powered speaker that behaves perfect acoustically and doesn't require any component other than a power plug and some source (and some can probably stream on their own).
And despite these huge advancements, the audio industry is still very much alive and evolving. New products coming out all of the time, most of the differences between them comes down to branding and marketing. The pure technology side of things is pretty straight forward and almost identical performance-wise throughout many different products.
I wonder what is still driving this business from the perspective of the consumer. I think we can take a different look at this field and divide the people in it into two groups – unrelated to subjectivism of objectivism, poor or rich, knowledgeable or novices. The division I came up with is between goal-driven ("good enough") and hobby-driven ("everything matters").
The market mostly subsist on hobby-driven folk – these are the people that buy and discuss gear for the fun of it and for the sense of community. Most repeated upgrades are from people who just like to buy new shiny things and flaunt them to their friends. These could be either subjectivists or objectivists – the resulting behavior is the same. You can spend lots of money on luxurious handcrafted turntables and vintage tube amps just as well as on highly engineered solid states and SOTA DACs with exceptional measured performance. It also doesn't exclude value-oriented buyers, as those can upgrade constantly between different low-cost devices, trying to find the best deals. It only matters that they stay invested in the hobby for years, never fully satisfied with their current setup and always hungry for change and excitement. I believe most audio brands market to this section of the population, because they are repeating customers, and therefore the most profitable.
The other type are the goal-driven ones. Those enthusiasts have a specific goal in mind, and they are on a journey to achieve it. The longer the journey the more money they pore into gear, and thus also more profitable to brands. But the main difference between them and the hobby-driven ones is that they are not doing it for fun. The search is a means to an end, and the end goal is having the right setup for them. these can also be either objectivists or subjectivists, value-oriented or luxury-seekers – they eventually settle on something as close as possible to what they were looking for, and stop buying and upgrading after that. Audio brands would love to take their money as well, but they are not as important as customers, because they eventually stop buying. Although, you can put most regular consumers in this group – anyone that goes out and buys Bose headphones that they will use until they wear out are also goal-driven, and their goals are pretty simple. And there is a huge market for those consumers that only buy the one thing they need.
Both these groups affect the way companies produce and market products, and in different ways. I want to bring up PS Audio here as an example, because in his channel Paul Mcgeown try to wear two hats at the same time. Under one hat, he claims that we are always light years away from achieving perfect fidelity and the technology always keeps evolving – thus marketing to the hobby-driven group. And under the second hat, he talks about developing all-in-one amplified speakers that solve all issues in one convenient product that you can buy once and be happy forever – marketing this time to the goal-driven group.
There are many other companies that wear either or both hats. On the extreme side of things, in one end you can find the snake-oil dealers that try to convince you that "everything matters", and that’s why you should invest in expansive cables and other less sensible upgrades. Those companies appeal to the hardcore hobbyists who are never satisfied with what they have and can afford all these crazy adventures. On the other end, you have companies like JBL that make Bluetooth portable speakers and sound bars that are supposed to be the end-solution for the goal-driven consumer who looks for "quality audio" on the cheap and doesn't have time to do any research on their own.
Personally, I put myself in the goal-driven group. For me, the setup I have is good enough for my goals and after a certain point there is no longer a need to upgrade. On the other hand, I do enjoy discussing these topics and advising people who are new to this, so I guess I have some hobbyist in me. I don't think there is anything wrong with being hobby-driven – all hobbies are legitimate, and if this hobby brings people joy, all the power to them. And as archimago put it, " I think so long as one can afford it, everybody's aware that claims are based on opinions rather than substantiated fact, and apply a bit of common sense, it's "mostly harmless"."
I don't like seeing people be taken advantage of by big companies, and I think being an objectivist is a way to express distrust in manufacturers that try to do that. But the people "on the other side of the aisle" (for me at least), subjectivists and hardcore hobbyists, are not to blame for following their passions. So even if DACs are already perfect and amplifiers are on their way to be, and speakers could be if we put some effort into it, I predict people will continue to enjoy investing their time and money in these things, and companies will continue to serve that demand. You can say the hobby highway will continue to flow, while once in a while some people will take the end goal off-ramp. It would be delusional to think either of those things will ever stop happening.
P.S
Is Archimago active in this forum? Would seem appropriate…
. "hobby driven" is a interesting idea -makes sense in terms of the cable business and the flippers who have owned everything once for a week or a month.
