I'm just stuck in the old school audiophile world I guess. That and I don't have unlimited funds to play with all the new actives like some do. I hope that whatever investment I make in gear will give me long term durability and a company that will stand behind it. If you plunk down $20k or more on D&D or Kii will the component continue to function for at least 10-15 years, we see way to much of expensive gear from young companies that lets the smoke out in the sort term. Will either of those manufacturers even be around in 10-15 years to provide any type of support at all?
Integrated actives aren't the only way to provide modern SOTA performance, the separated approach like the JBL M2 offers performance at least as good with the advantage being upgradeable-repairable at any point from the DAC to the speaker drivers.
I believe this is the path that the High End audiophile market will take. For better or worse it still leaves the window open for everyone to make money from the reviewers to the snake oil cable manufacturers. True audiophiles will have the opportunity to pick each component as in the past, use DSP and measuring gear like REW to put together something whose end result will be better then the one stop integrated actives offer, and give him the peace of mind that if one channel of the amp goes down he doesn't lose the entire system for very long. I see DAC's or preamps becoming more active as in the HT market. Fairly automated DSP as the ARC correction software that Anthem offers in it's STR preamp is just the begining for the audiophile that doesn't want to be completely hands-on in the DSP correction.
The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades.
