Welcome to my Blog!
Some think this is a great way for me to raise issues, ask questions and, possibly, stir up some controversy. No problem I thought, I seem to do that as easily as breathe! The catch is that you get to answer back.
So here goes... my first Blog.
The Hi-Fi industry is in crisis. Faced with falling sales, internet shopping and the iPod it is in a crisis of confidence. It thinks no one loves it enough to keep it in business. Has it been delivering less than it promised long enough for it to be found out? Is it now just too uncool? Has the iPodisation of music kicked high quality music reproduction into touch?
Or is this an opportunity for Hi-Fi to recolonise the territory and bring real quality to internet/computer/WiFi sourced music?
posted by Russ Andrews @ 11:37 AM
24 comments
24 Comments:
Hi Russ,
I think there is a whole generation of kids who are just not that interested in the quality of music reproduction. They have iPods, laptops, Playstations and so on and the whether or not the sound is good seems to pass them by. So there is potentially no new customers coming though. And the fact that the music business doesn't care about quality of artist or sound does not help.
So the HiFi biz needs to find a way to attract younger customers, and one way to do that could be, as you suggest, through offering to improve the sound reproduction of internet/computer/WiFi sourced music.
But something needs to change soon that's for sure.
It won't recolonise, the landscape has changed too much. People today want speed, convenience, portability and a low price before decent sound. They get these from iPods etc, they don't get them from traditional Hi-Fi. I'm over 40 and the only person I know in my immediate circle of friends and that has a decent Hi-Fi (they look at my valve amp with a sense of bemusment and pity!), everyone else has mini-systems,iPods or spends their money on AV kit. True HiFi is now a niche product and will remain so. Sad but true.
Hmm, you might want to get that Alba set up on oak cones, the larger the better! And don't forget the speaker cable - the more expensive the better.
I'm joking of course. But great job on the product philosophy Russ (may I use your first name?). I love your wires, cables, cones, and the silencer is nice too. Will be interesting to see what happens with this blog thing... especially as however many people have just received your news e-mail!
Anyway, about the topics at hand. I think most people my age and younger especially (I'm 24) don't seem to know what good sound is, and those that do often have their priorities wrong! I'm happy to say that a few people have been inspired by listening my hi-fi to go out and sort themselves out with better kit.
Many truly don't care. Maybe it's because so many things have to 'compete' for our attention these days. I don't really know.
Personally, I think streaming music and MP3 downloads are useful for evaluating potential album purchases, which you download for 'free', then buy on CD/vinyl for more involved listening.
Nice to see the HiFi world with some of its more well known speakers using Blogs :)
As per your post I'd have to say I love my new iPod Nano. Its a great piece of kit with a 'good enough' sound in a convenient and good looking (IMHO) package.
I love my 'HiFi' more - but I personally find listening to often be a 'dedicated' experience. When i want to sit down and have a good session of real music listening, there is only me and the HiFi and some great tunes (and some not so great that i still like :) )
For me its all about time and convenience.
As far as the industry goes - does the average person find hifi interesting? Does the average person get detered from real hifi stores through jargon and prices but find it much easier to head for Dixons/Currys etc for flashing lights and usually lower prices?
Where i see, or more importantly hear, the quality of my mainly black boxes my friends only see 'ugly black boxes' that aren't attractive to look at or have in a living room - they don't get passed the looks to consider that it may sound better :(
then those fatal words 'Rip-Off Britain' spring to mind as you can save serious money buying over the internet .. but thats topic in itself :)
Obviously, from the first seven comments, there are many factors combining to produce the current situation in hi fi.
When I first became interested (and couldn't afford much!) high quality sound was something relatively few people had, and it was produced on a fairly small scale. Over the past 30 years increasingly large companies have mass-produced and driven down prices, and if demand faltered they tried to revive it by introducing new technology, preferably of the kind that could be made to appear fashionable, in the hope that we'd all start over again. So today we have home theatre with high fidelity explosions or ipods and similar equipment which hardly claim to be hi fi because they're after a different and newly-created market.
Does it matter if the real hi fi industry contracts? It would probably mean that good quality equipment will become relatively more expensive, and the market for accessories would also suffer, but in the end people will choose what they and you can't compel themn to have good sound.
Anyway (and just to make sure I enrage someone) much of the stuff that's become popular over the last 30-40 years isn't real music, doesn't need good quality reproduction, and only claims that it does because of the artificial and freakish production techniques it uses.
I think the lack of interest in Hi-Fi is very sad.
I have this awful feeling that maybe the 'youth of today', to use that awful phrase, are going deaf due to too many decibels. Is that why they don't appreciate Hi-Fi?
Or maybe it's because everything these days is so frantic and pressured - not a moment to spare.
In this sort of aggressive environment, I think we get agitated and distracted and forget how to relax and enjoy the textures of music or anything else in life.
I think the problem is in the availability of downloadable music and software, whilst we are able to download music from the net we will accept inferior quality product because ease of use and purchase seems to be more important than sound quality. I do own an IPOD Mini but only use out of the house (gym and suchlike) because the sound quality is only acceptable. I think to too many people Music is a background noise and not the art form it really is
Hi Russ,
I think the iPod is actually (in the longer term) the saviour of hifi... becuase so much music is being downloaded and listened to, this is bound to raise the standards of music people listen to (eventually). This in turn will require better equipment to play it.
However, the HiFi industry will have to adapt to digital music reproduction. Analogue is niche (sadly).
Hi Russ
have you ever conisdered making instrument cables as i for one would surely love my marshall valve power amp to sound as good as it possible can and unfortunatly i cant seem to find decent enuff cables
I believe that people who love music, and listen to it for pleasure, will always enjoy it reproduced as well as possible. The challenge is to inform those who know little about quality music reproduction. Those who are aware of hi-fi, but aren't 'in' to it, believe it to be expensive and believe that they wouldn't be able to hear the difference. Change these attitudes and there'll be a whole load of new customers!
Personally i believe it's in the blood, only true music lovers will seek to improve their sound quality as they and some others can appreciate why.. if you have a good sound sysytem it can be improved for a lot less than upgrading,i recently had my mains feed replaced with russ's high grade cable"the cheaper one of the two" and was blown away by the difference it made, most cannot justify spending on hifi if they dont appreciate sound quality. chart music today is all about making money not quality.if more people could hear quality maybe they would be persuaded to spend...
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I have 2 iPods (sad). Great for holidays etc. Real hi-fi? Of course not. Ambient information is compressed to pieces. Particularly bad news if you're listening to classical music. Real hi-fi will never die. And by the way Russ is right - MAINS leads are about the best upgrade you can do to your system (as long as it's decent in the first place). i bought some mains leads recently and they really DO make a difference. honest!
There is too much diversity.
Hi-fi, games consoles, home theatre systems and computers all fight for what spare time and money we have. As a result, somethings will suffer and decline in popularity, this is inevitable.
I have had for many years a modest separates system which I have upgraded along the way. In recent years I have moved into the home theatre world but am now wondering why. Unless you are into loud action movies, which I’m not, most of the sound is two directional. In the average home, the set-up will be a compromise of room shape, where to put the TV and the front speakers, and keeping the rest of the family happy. I see myself returning to a simpler age with priority given to good quality HI-Fi, correctly positioned for listening to music.
On a different note I own a Rio MP3 player. With a good quality pair of headphones attached, the quality of the sound surpassed my expectation. To be able to carry 1500+ songs anywhere I go is great. Whilst this may not be hi-fi in the purist sense of the word, it still brings quality music to a large audience, maybe just a few of these will go on to buy and appreciate mid and high end systems.
We should welcome this new technology; it will no doubt find its own level, with the naff and gimmicky falling by the wayside. However quality products will always be around and you can't keep a good dog down forever.
HI Russ
You have always stated importance of basics. With the quality of recordings today, who needs hifi?
Hi from Dubai
Lots of good comments - but too many see only the downside. I am over 60, have been into hi-fi since my early 20's and have a(recently aquired) i-Pod as well as a high quality stereo (Proj-ject 2.9, Graham Slee, Musical Fidelity, and Kef) and home theatre system (Denon, Kef and Hitachi plasma) in a dedicated listening room. With the iPod I use only Apple lossless - and the sound is great for music on the move.
I believe the iPod "revolution" will prove to be good for the hi-fi industry (as is home theatre) as it exposes far more people than ever before to a wider range of music and more listening hours. However the industry itself needs to loose some of its perceived hi-brow image to attract all those people now listening to more music than ever before.
In the relatively short term the industry should be given a boost by the baby boomer generation - now free of kids at home, and many in early retirement, with more time and more space available in their homes to set up quality systems.
The future is digital - but only if it can avoid the stupidity of format wars which not only confuses the general buying public but annoys even dedicated hi end consumers. Analogue is wonderful but will remain a niche market - and what a joy it is!
Russ,
Valves seem to be making a comeback. What are your views about valve amps and valve-based systems in general?
Will in Bratislava
I'd like to think Richirich is right, but alas, Mr Terence put his finger on the button. For the vast majority iPods are more about being cool and boasting about the quantity of music you have than the quantity. In this age of information overload, too many are just used to poor quality information in large quantities, and that extends out to music just as it applies to every other part of our life.
The problem as I see it now is that decent equipment just costs too much! When a £1000 cd player is a budget model then the worlds gone mad. I for one have gone mad with it. I own a decent Linn/Naim hi-fi (along with digital the most over used phrase) and have found myself spending a small fortune on accessories. When you have to pay £100ish for a decent interconnect- A piece of wire with plugs, does that stop you eating a balanced diet. No but it does stop potential purchases from dipping their toes in to a half decent sound system. Reduce all prices, I know that the hardware can have quite small margins, but I also know that cabling has a massive mark up, perhaps as muh as 500%.
Incredible but true eh Russ.
Will in Bratislava,
I dunno what Russ thinks about valves but my take is that I've yet to hear a decent system with a valve amp. It doesn't mean to say there aren't any out there of course but that's my experience so far. I went to the High End Show at Heathrow earlier this year and some of the valve systems there were laughably bad. In general what I've heard are systems that are highly coloured with no dynamics that just don't reproduce music.
I think it was J. Gordon Holt (of Stereophile fame) who said that many people who are interested in audio are interested in the sound systems make not music. Real music, of what ever flavour, is dynamic amd my experience is that valve amps don't reproduce these dynamics. Many people just want a system that sounds 'nice'. Each to his own I know but personally I just don't get it.
Russ,
An example of the kind of item required in the new iPod world is a reasonably priced standalone DAC. I currently have an Apple AirPort connect via Tonik interconnect (natch) to my Linn system. iTunes on my desktop PC feeds the AirPort via a wireless network. What I get out of it is a jukebox and its quiet as it's in another room away from the hifi.
Now the sound is OK, good enough for a party or background music, but not for serious listening. I have read that using a dedicated DAC with the AirPort significantly improves the sound but I cannot find anything that is reasonably priced ie less then the price of my Linn Genki! The AirPort has an optical toslink output by the way.
So how about it? Any ideas? Any plans to produce such a thing?
I do not have an iPod yet but...... convenience of the digital format, and the fact that it can be stored on many different media, has to be fully embraced by the HiFi manufacturing world if it wants to survive. There are a few hard-disk based home music systems on the market, but they are way too overpriced.
I built myself a very small and quiet PC (www.mini-itx.xom), ripped all my music onto hard disk in uncompressed format (fills up a 160Gb disk) and stream this wirelessly to a device called a Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com).
Next step is to change the power supply for one of Russ's and stick it on Oak cones etc. The convenience of being able to call up instantly any of my music library has made me fall in love with music all over again, I am listening to tracks that I have not done so for many years.
If I get an iPod, it will be the new Nano, 'cos that thing is just soooo cool!
Russ,
I read on another forum that you claimed to hear differences in sound between interconnects with different colour sheaths. And that the difference was down to the colour of the sheath!
Is this true and if so can you explain
how this can be the case?
Cheers,
James.
Thanks for all your comments... here are some of my thoughts. I think that iPod will change the way people listen to music - for the better. And there has been a precedence: the car radio.
Car radios were massively popular when first introduced - particularly in the US. They changed the way people listened to music and made it easier to listen to more. A bit like iPod.
The effect of car radios was to have a massive impact on music - it revitalised it. Tamla Motown even EQ'd their records so they'd sound more natural and realistic when they were played by radio stations.
And some of these listeners were people who cared about the quality of the music they listened to - hence the growth of the Hi-Fi industry in the 60s and 70s.
I think iPod is much the same. It's making music easier to listen to for more and more people, and there will always be those who really care about their music to be interested in high fidelity.
I don't think we need to lose any confidence in the industry. Those who are discerning enough to want more than a basic audio system will always be in the minority.
But it's this minority who 'get' the emotion that a true Hi-Fi system can convey. And the industry will always be there to support this discerning minority.
New gadgets - like iPod, the internet, music downloads, wireless Hi-Fi - change some of the details, but they never change the whole thing.
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