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30 years into the Future with Home Audio?

Peter_Klim

Peter_Klim

Well-Known Member
I was just reading about the movie TRON and it got me thinking, what the future with home audio equipment will be like. Not necessarily of he technology but will there even be HOME audio?

With the stereo electronics industry dominating in portable electronics, manufactures of home stereo have been making stereo speakers smaller and smaller. Hardlly anyone ever sits donw to listen to music to just listen to music. Even in car audio seems to be dying out because I see drivers with those white earbud headphones. I couldn't believe 5 years ago when my friend told me she listens to music in her bedroom through her PC speakers. Even in the 90's my friends at least had a boom box in their bedroom. I've been living on the beach these past 4 years and I don't even think I've ever seen anyone there with a boombox. Ok, I'm getting a bit off topic, but my point is it seems like hardly anyone has anything audio related unless its main purpose is to be heard using headphones.

Sound quality has gone downhill the last 20 years or so and it's getting worse with the Loudness war. So obviously not that many people care about sound quality, espeically not the kind you can get from good full-bandwidth floor standing speakers.

If not for home theater, I think home audio would be fading away much quicker. But even there, it's becoming small, not even bookshelf, but small satellite speakers that only go down to 200 H with one single 3" driver standing on 4 foot poles. I have a friend who use to be into HT, with nice speakers, but now he just has a TV, one that is much larger, but no external speakers. He tells me: "No, it sounds good. It gets really 'loud'"

I'm 41, and I think I'm a little bit younger than the average aged audiophile (or anyone into quality stereos). In 30 years I'll be deaf or dead. In 30 years there will hardly be the market for anyone wanting to buy decent speakers. So maybe Martin Logan is doing the right thing by getting into tiny speakers? Rumor is they're working on electrostatic bud earphones ;)

So what are your thoughts of home audio in the feature? Will there be any? Will amps, speakers, source all be the size of a pack of cigarettes? Will it exists but it will all suck? I don't think there will be ANY talk about which cables are better or if there are any difference in detectable sonics- everything will be wireless.
 
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Interesting thread idea.......

I've read before about museums using super directional speakers, that, when you look at a painting, you can stand on the "x" and listen to some history around it, but when you move away, you hear nothing.

I predict speakers more like this, you can hear it in one room, but not the other. Excellent idea for keeping the house quiet.
 
well you beat me to it! but this is a VERY good question that i think of all the time! im 26 and younger than most audiophile types as well, and i belive that quality is more important than quantity. but to most in my generation (gen-y, 1982-92) are more about just loudness, and bass, even the older gen-xers (1972-82) i know are more concernd with loudness and bass. and how you can hook your i-pod up to it or cool flashy lights. mainstream home stereo sad to say, is dying a slow sad death. but i think the avrage joe will always have something in the house to make music. but the future of stereo-hifi components looks pretty bleak, but could be somewhat intresting. smaller was cool 5 years ago but ive noticed a influx of bigger louder shelf systems at best buy, and i think that people will always be impressed with big mean looking speakers. even if they sound like sh.t, the future is digital for shure, but i think people will always want something tangable they can hold. and some people will always care about good sound. but ive also noticed that the more things change, well, in a way, they stay the same. audios founding fathers, (saul marantz, avrey fisher, howard scott, jim lansing, etc.) built amps and receivers and speakers that can still out proform stuff today, but the moving coil basic loudspeaker design hasnt changed in , what? 70 years? and the riaa curve is still the main point of equalization, as far as i know. stereo gear still runs on a 120v power scorce, and rca hookups are still dominant after 60 years, so whos to say? i think in 30 years we will still see all in one boc systems, probubly voice activated with touch screen controls? just diffrent styling cues than today. home 2 channel receivers will be totally extinct, but we will still see home theater receivers. who knows? look at cars? all the old school classics they are re making now, maybe the same for mainstream stereo in 20 or 30 years? think about how cool a new pioneer sx-1980 would look, with a touch screen face!!! or even a brand new 2035 fisher 500c, with a digital display and a dvd player built into it? i think a new retro line of mainstream audio would look cool as hell, and would probubly sell well!!
 
newguy1 said:
Interesting thread idea.......

I've read before about museums using super directional speakers, that, when you look at a painting, you can stand on the "x" and listen to some history around it, but when you move away, you hear nothing.

I predict speakers more like this, you can hear it in one room, but not the other. Excellent idea for keeping the house quiet.
Click to expand...

yeah those are neat, i think the military has speakers like that too.
 
I think there will be companys making home audio equipment but the good stuff will be as it is now, out of the price range of the average person.
 
hdted said:
I think there will be companys making home audio equipment but the good stuff will be as it is now, out of the price range of the average person.
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+1, but think of all the research by those uber-expensive companies that is going to be put into learning about hearing/psychoacoustics, never mind the new materials that will be manufactured......
 
I was thinking about this the other day as well. I am in my early 30's and I don't know anyone who could just sit down to listen to music and really enjoy the quality of a nice system. I think you will always be able to buy high end stereo equipment and speakers. The market is shrinking therefore the high end audiophile equipment does become more expensive. The music industry itself has changed. All the music that is produced today is meant to be played with the bass and treble jacked up so all you hear is boom, boom. SO I guess that is why Bose is common among regular folks. They have a Sub plus to mini cube speakers. The speakers are designed for today's music. Back in the day when they produced music it was actually done with musical instruments. Now it is all done with computers, programmed keyboards, etc. I really only see two types of music today and that is pop and hip hop sarcastically speaking ofcourse. All the music vids are the same and old MTV is a thing of the past, times are changing.... Are they changing for the better!!!
 
I'm 18 and will be doing this until there is no more to be listened to, repaired, or sold.
 
I have to totally disagree on your take on today's music , there are many many current artists and recordings that are every bit as good if not better than the past. There is most certainly some bad product of today however just as there was yesterday.
 
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This has all the makings of another one of those "grumpy old men" threads. I remember when...men were men and stereos were stereos... :)
 
whoaru99 said:
This has all the makings of another one of those "grumpy old men" threads. I remember when...men were men and stereos were stereos... :)
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Sorry , just had to say it,
on topic
.... I see a highly visual future , however it's not for me,only sometimes do I like a visual with my music listening.
 
ecandle said:
I have to totally disagree on your take on today's music , there are many many current artists and recordings that are every bit as good if not better than the past. There is most certainly some bad product of today however just as there was yesterday.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. My point was just that the music today such as hip hop and pop are the leading money makers for music genre in the industry today but we still have lots of other music produced today such as country, R&B, Dance, acoustic, rock, etc. Example one of the top selling albums of today is Justin Bieber. 10 years ago it was Britney Spears, 20 years go it was Nirvana and 30 years go it was Billy Joel, Queen. There are some examples of the type of music and also what age group the music industry was geared towards.
 
whoaru99 said:
This has all the makings of another one of those "grumpy old men" threads. I remember when...men were men and stereos were stereos... :)
Click to expand...

There is substance to the OP. In the sixties/seventies I believe a greater portion of the population was was more interested in or had good quality stereo.
 
ecandle said:
I have to totally disagree on your take on today's music , there are many many current artists and recordings that are every bit as good if not better than the past. There is most certainly some bad product of today however just as there was yesterday.
Click to expand...

If I were to have referred today's music instead to "the majority of today's music" which is pop/rock/rap, would that have changed your mind? Jazz and classical recordings may have improved (definitely hasn't gone done over the last 20 years)
 
luxmaster said:
I totally agree with you. My point was just that the music today such as hip hop and pop are the leading money makers for music genre in the industry today but we still have lots of other music produced today such as country, R&B, Dance, acoustic, rock, etc. Example one of the top selling albums of today is Justin Bieber. 10 years ago it was Britney Spears, 20 years go it was Nirvana and 30 years go it was Billy Joel, Queen. There are some examples of the type of music and also what age group the music industry was geared towards.
Click to expand...

We are on the same page
 
30 Years From Now, Home Audio...

30 Years From Now, Home Audio...

Tubes and horns and turntables.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
:D


(Well, a guy can hope, anyway.)
 
reggaenaut said:
There is substance to the OP. In the sixties/seventies I believe a greater portion of the population was was more interested in or had good quality stereo.
Click to expand...

Sure. They had a lot fewer things vying for their disposable income. Now there are computers, video games, portable stereos (Ipods and such), car stereos, innumerable electronic gadgets like Ipads, Kindles, etc. All of that on top of traditional things like skiing, vacationing, cars, boats, home improvement, furniture and on and on.... There just ain't money left in the budget (nor the interest) for a really nice stereo.

On the flip side, who ever would have predicted that so many people would be wild about 30+ year old stereo gear today.
 
It's all about convienence today. Ipods, mp3's iphones and other such digital devices. 99% of the younger generation that I know isn't interested one iota in music quality. It's all about "hey look what I can do with my new iphone." Lots of them I talk to actually think those boom boom car stereo's sound good. It's sad they don't understand good analog music but on the flip side it's also less competition for the good used gear.
 
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