What is the Future of the High-End?

Sonic Satori - What is the Future of the High-End Part VI: Can't We All Just Get Along?

"What do I seek in a high-end in-room audio system? A deep connection to my music. The ultimate goal for me is to get the system to disappear: Get out of its own damn way. That's why words like "transparency" and "coherency" are thrown around like mad. We're all (at least many of us are) looking for that grand connection to the art-form that drives all this. So if your true aim is indeed connecting with the music, you shouldn't take issue with the delivery method of somebody else's system… if their choice is different from yours. Everyone has their preferences. We all interpret differently, but that doesn't mean anyone's method is necessarily better than the other. By whose standards?" ~ Michael Mercer

Future of high end audio = people that can afford it !

The economic developments of the last 20 years and more recently indicate at least that the number of people that can afford high end audio are growing .

As to whether they choose to spend their money on high end audio....or not......that's another story!

All That being said the future of high end audio IMO obviously is mostly digital ,in one form or another with formats the same as now for the time being maybe some more high res downloads. More likely in the future there will be more and more cloud storage maybe some will be high resolution .

I see increasing music subscription business models much like Pandora,Spotify, iTunes cloud ,Moog and Amazon. rather than physical media or local storage

I see a small market for some Premium high res subscriptions for those willing to pay for it if content and bandwidth allow a business case for it. More likely they may further develop mp3 or AAC type lossy compression out to higher bit rates and improve the quality .

A higher bit rate lossy codec would allow for a tiered subscription model with current mp3,AAC on the bottom and a newer higher bit rate codec in the middle and maybe high res losses at a premium.

There are arguably superior higher bit rate open source lossy audio codecs already.
If they develop one that is DMCA compliant that might work for the music industry.
, there is room both technically and in the market place for that in greater numbers than high res subscriptions IMO.


I have many good memories of vinyl (I grew up with it ) Vinyl will never be anything at all like it was like in the 1950's 1960's.
IMO Vinyl will continue to have a small niche presence to one degree or another at least for the time being.
The majority of my listening these days is high bit rate mp3, AAC, and .flac lossless. very occasionally I will play a CD
most most are ripped into .flac .

Even CD's will be unsustainable eventually in any numbers as distribution continues to move towards the cloud.

Introduction to ....

After some 45 plus years of being obsessed - my main concern is the shrinking number of gateway products - the Dynaco,Hafler,NAD 3020's,AR turntable, etc. . That first step into something that does play the music better - but is discretionary money - not new car/house priced. Without these products we are headed towards the fine mechanical watch -yacht territory. Products of such limited production that they will not be within aspirational sight of most music lovers. This trend also leads to bling being more important than performance as a design goal.