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30 years into the Future with Home Audio?

30 years from now? Huge libraries of music (hundreds of thousands of recordings) instantly accessible from tiny devices. Everything will be hi rez. If stereos exist, I think they will be nearfield listening devices that allow the listener to be completely enveloped in the sound and take the room out of the equation. Ideally, such a system will perfectly reproduce the dynamics of everything from chamber music, to a jazz club, a concert hall, or live rock concert.
 
luxmaster said:
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.
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I would say a soft-synth if properly implemented can be as much an instrument as a violin or guitar. Vocal Trance, Progressive House and a variety of other genres have really come into their own in the past few years. People are oftentimes so limited as to what defines a musical instrument.

Try listening to some Deadmau5 stuff bought in WAV uncompressed, through a good DAC. You'll be surprised.
 
austi15 said:
I would say a soft-synth if properly implemented can be as much an instrument as a violin or guitar. Vocal Trance, Progressive House and a variety of other genres have really come into their own in the past few years. People are oftentimes so limited as to what defines a musical instrument.

Try listening to some Deadmau5 stuff bought in WAV uncompressed, through a good DAC. You'll be surprised.
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I will take your advice and listen to Deadmaus. I have just ordered a cd for my curiosity sake. Most music today is electronic or has some type of electronic track in the background. I have been listening to Base 305. Some great sounds and music themes there but today they build a different type of speaker to handle today's music. For instance you would not take a speaker made 30 years ago and expect to get great sound from today's music. Those speakers were designed to handle the music of their era. Ofcourse there are always exceptions. In my setup I have 4-5 pairs of speakers ready to go depending on what music I choose to play. 30 years from now music would be a bunch of beeps, sound tones & electonica put together in a soundtrack with vocals in the foreground. Well that is my vision anyway and 30years from now they will build speakers specifically for that music.
 
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.
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But this would be bad for imaging, "airiness" and soundstaging, no? I would think that directionality and sound envelopment are in an inverse proportion with one another. I personally need immersion!
 
stereorob said:
home 2 channel receivers will be totally extinct,
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Gawd, I hope not! -:tears:-

stereorob said:
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!!
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I don't think that there is a parallel here. Cars, toys, and systems harken back to an aging generation's youth and the stuff you cite is what we were about. No, I think that there will continue to be degredation in sound reproduction and quality earbuds (read: oxymoron .:screwy:.), and in using computer music storage. But as the last (and this) generation gets into their 40's and 50's, they will return to the "old skool" bpc crapola that was a part of their formative times.

Me? I will hang on to my heavy silver late 70's stuff and probably accumulate backward in time (getting into 60's and 50's tube equipment).:banana:
 
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mrt2 said:
30 years from now? Huge libraries of music (hundreds of thousands of recordings) instantly accessible from tiny devices. Everything will be hi rez. If stereos exist, I think they will be nearfield listening devices that allow the listener to be completely enveloped in the sound and take the room out of the equation. Ideally, such a system will perfectly reproduce the dynamics of everything from chamber music, to a jazz club, a concert hall, or live rock concert.
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By taking the room out, you mean being tied to earphones/earplugs.:D
 
luxmaster said:
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.
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Modern day pop sucks indeed. But thank god for the modern creative options available to artists.

austi15 said:
soft synth....genres have really come into their own in the past few years.
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The 80's are 30 yrs ago eh? :D

As far as home audio is concerned.. It'll be all digital to the mass consumer and one does not need to own anything themselves. Everything can be streamed directly off the web everywhere. The speaker setup will be centered around the TV like for most consumers.

What will happen in the Audiophile world? Dunno.

I'll keep enjoying vinyl and a stereo setup (among other things) just like most enthousiasts here.
 
JonL said:
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.)
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Dittos in my home (if I am still around in 30 years) except that there will no doubt be some OB direct radiating loudspeakers involved. Sub will no doubt be architectural horns though.

mike (grumpy old man)
 
I would have to agree.
I'm 16 and I'm starting to become an audiophile, I would say. I can't stand the idea that people use these tiny little low quality speakers to listen to their music and they think it sounds great. I also see less home theaters, and when I do find one, it has tiny speakers.

I am proud to say though, that my home theater is made with two large floorstanding 4-way speakers and 2-way bookshelf speakers with 5¼" main drivers, powered by Yamaha and a mix of pro-audio gear.

Heck, I even showed my friend what wonders my Onkyo and computer sound card can do for online gaming. Showed him what soundstaging was and how much it helped, and now I have him convinced to get a better quality speaker system than the tiny little speakers he has now.
 
Everything sounds better with Auto-Tune right? Kill me now.

I'm hopeful. I think there will always be people who love great sound, and technology will once again be our friend.
 
High end audio has always been a niche market. It never was and probably never will be for the masses.

As far as audio quality going downhill in the past 20-30 years, I couldn't disagree more. There have been great strides in audio reproduction over that time. All of the 'mid-fi" companies that were producing decent quality electronics in the 70's/80's (Kenwood, Yamaha, Sony, etc..) have gone the route of home theater because there was more money to made there.

What's disconcerting to me is how ridiculously priced some of the high end audio has become even accounting for inflation. A turntable or amp or speaker that costs more than the average house to me is beyond ridiculous. Having said that, there's also a lot of great reasonably priced gear available.

As an example, for me growing up, a Linn LP12 was the holy grail. However, I wouldn't trade my VPI Scout for a Linn these days. The VPI is the equal if not better in many ways at a "reasonable" cost.

I suspect that there will be many more smaller companies that concentrate on high end audio as many of the bigger names shift more towards home theater and mainstream stuff where the money is. But if this is true, I also suspect that high end audio will also become more expensive.
 
mrt2 said:
30 years from now? Huge libraries of music (hundreds of thousands of recordings) instantly accessible from tiny devices. Everything will be hi rez. If stereos exist, I think they will be nearfield listening devices that allow the listener to be completely enveloped in the sound and take the room out of the equation. Ideally, such a system will perfectly reproduce the dynamics of everything from chamber music, to a jazz club, a concert hall, or live rock concert.
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What he said, and no it won't be through ear buds!

I expect the future to fall into two categories, those with a physical stereo of some kind, and those without.

Group one will probably be a lot like what mrt2 described above. And for those recordings lucky enough to have a visual record, i'd also expect a really cool 3d holographic projection of the performance. Think the Holodeck in Star Trek, but not quite as sophisticated. While you might be able to pose for a picture with your favorite musician, you won't be able to actually touch him/her.

Group two will have some sort of cybernetic implant in their brains that they can link to the web and download whatever they want into it. Then have the audio feed sent directly to their auditory cortex. Bypassing amps, speakers and even the ears! Finally audiophiles will be able to get what they want, a perfect replay of the recording. Some might even be able to get the visual of the performance sent straight to their visual cortex as well.

I can see it now. These people would look like drug attics today, bouncing and wiggling around, pointing at things not there. Kinda like when blue tooth first came out and i thought those people walking around talking to no one were crazy.
 
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I dont want to say too much, but I do want to say that there could be some interesting changes

Ever since I got into audio Ive seen people and companies trying to produce sound from things other than speakers with their moving coil and paper cones

Ive seen devices that shake couches and give you that rumble feeling, floor mats for DJs that simulate that earth pumping thump, and devices you stick on desks or windows to turn pretty much any surface into a speaker

just spotted this recently...
http://www.gizmag.com/greensound-technolog/16372/

I think speakers are going to change at some point, there are enough innovative people out there trying to find a way to produce perfect sound with something other than a paper cone woofer that we might just see audio beamed directly into our heads/ears or some small orb of a speaker (or whatever shape they decide to use) that reproduces sonic waves with ever increasing precision...

ok, I said alot... lol
 
I would love to have:

Numistrek09 said:
some sort of cybernetic implan in their brains that they can link to the web and download whatever they want into it. Then have the audio feed sent directly to their auditory cortex. Bypassing amps, speakers and even the ears! Finally audiophiles will be able to get what they want, a perfect replay of the recording. Some might even be able to get the visual of the performance sent straight to their visual cortex as well.
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as long as there's some pretty decent security in the program. It's a little scary to think about contracting a computer virus in your visual and auditory cortexes. Or getting your cortex hacked into.
 
Biochip implants will change our species forever. And like it or not, i'm sure there will be cases like what you describe above. Though hacking in to your hearing or sight won't do much for you, unless in the secret agent/spying business. Now folks trying to download from your brain account numbers and crap like that, much more likely.

Ain't tech great.
 
I just ran across this article
http://proavmagazine.com/technology/the-long-road-to-digital-loudspeakers.aspx

the next step in sound is going to be truly digital sound reproduction...

found this company that already offers something of this nature:
http://www.sonicweld.com/

very interesting stuff

the future of sound could be the walls in your house
each one made with an array of tiny microtransducers or pistons that can move and manipulate the air in and around it to recreate sound

imagine the walls of your house being able to perfectly (or nearly so) reproduce sound and place it within a specific area of the room, giving amazing spatial effects
surround sound on steroids...


http://www.thefreelibrary.com/UK+Firm+Prepares+to+License+First+Digital+Loudspeaker.-a055695253
 
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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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And many of us will be waiting for it to hit the used market, just as we do now! :D More of a concern to me is the dwindling interest in the Fine Arts in general, be it music, painting, sculpture etc. IMHO

Happy Holidays,
Jim
 
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