I appreciate all the thoughtful responses to this thread. And thanks for the link to the original article.
It's more than the stores. I have attended Capital Audiofest the last four or five years (now that the stores are almost all gone, shows are often the only way to hear new equipment). I don't know if I'm going to go anymore. Why? Because, aside from some of the more rationally priced headphones, there isn't much there that speaks to me. I bought my first system (Dyna SCA80/A25/Dual 1218/Shure M91E) (kit) in the early 70s at fifteen, with money from saving allowances and cutting lawns. It cost $330; about $2500 in today's money. Here's the biggest difference between hi-fi then and hi-fi now IMHO: The cost of that system wasn't all that much more than than the department store systems that it blew away with ease.
There is essentially no counterpart to that system in today's audio marketplace. At Capital Audiofest, the closest thing is always the Odyssey room, where he is usually showing a system that costs about $7000. Even that's triple the cost of my Dynaco system, adjusted for inflation, when you take into account the fact that that $7000 does not include a front end of any sort. And the other systems? I did some calculating, and the mean price of the systems I was able to find information for was between $60,000 and $70,000. The Fuc
It is my contention that you do not have to spend $60-$70,000 to get satisfying reproduction of music in the home. But many audiophiles act like it is, deriding lower-priced equipment as "mid-fi" and such. People spend more on cabling than I spent on my entire system. Spend your money however you please, but I submit that the message that you need to spend $1000 just to get the power from the wall to (insert component name here) is actually a deterrent to people getting interested in high fidelity (I hate the term 'high end') music in the home.
Someone mentioned iDevices. Headphones account for most of my listening time these days. Had to sell my component system some years back during hard times and just never got another one- partly because I just don't have five figures to sink into an audio system deemed worthy by today's market, and partly because most of my listening time these days is through headphones, and I get just as much (if not more) satisfaction listening to my SE 535 or HD 650 through a $200 headphone amp as I ever did when I was obsessing over my room component system. In fact, in many rooms at capital audio fest, I found myself thinking (acknowledging the parameters and limitations of headphones) "I get better sound at home for five cents on the dollar". In fact, I probably get more satisfaction listening to Tidal through my Dragonfly Black and SE 535's than I did when I was obsessing over which phono cart had the best synergy with my turntable.
It would be nice to see a healthy entry-level market for decent sounding audio equipment at a reasonable price but there just isn't one anymore. Too bad. The purveyors want to so a few hundred $80,000 systems rather than a few thousand $8000 systems. The hobby needs to get back to the basics. There is more margin in tweaks than in components, so that is where much of the marketing effort goes. Again, spend your money however you like, but I think $2000 (or <half that if you shun 'audiophile' room treatments and hang some quilts) spent on room treatments will have a much bigger influence on the sound you hear than $2000 spent on esoteric cabling.
It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like some form of music. So, if there are music systems that are reasonably priced and have good sound, that should be a huge market. Why isn't it?
Rant over.
