CNN says LoFi is the future

[bobschneider]

But they did include some Mac gear in their photo of the old dinasaurs

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/23/lofi.america.ap/index.html

 

[ferninando]

ahhhh, back to the days of the scratchy, tinny sounds of the transistor radio with the 1" speaker. widebandwidth 1khz to 5khz and 100 million songs to listen too. Oh whoopy. Glad I don't have to buy into any of that crap. I've got all the hifi I need for the rest of my life. Besides they don't make music anymore, just noise and scratched records. Wonderful hifi.

 

[PHC1]

No surprise there at all. It's slowly been coming to that. The younger generations are growing up on iPods, iTunes, Limewire, Napster, etc.. They wouldn't know a "good sound" if it fell on their face and started crawling around. Another problem is the fact that high-end audio is expensive and is usually the hobby of 30+ year old who actually have a career and can afford it as well as the fact that one needs to get "hooked" enough to overcome the sticker shock/irrational prices and the law of diminishing returns of high end audio. How does one get hooked? Exposure to high end. With many high end dealers either converting to home theater or closing, where would one get "exposed" to it? All the more reason to buy as much McIntosh gear as you can afford, enjoy it for many years to come and sell it when and if that becomes necessary. There will always be demand for "muscle amps" of the past just like there are huge prices on American muscle cars of the 60s and early 70s. It will be the same youngsters of today buying them many years from now, just because they never had it and it will be "cool" and a novelty to own a 250, 500 or 1200 watt amp with blue meters.

 

[Andyman]

I saw something recently that indicated that over a billion dollars was spent on cellphone downloads of music, so this is zero surprise to me.

My God, what kind of fidelity does a cell phone offer???? uke:

Even the 8 track player hooked up to half a dozen TV speakers in the old 1962 Fairlane beats that :lmao:

With my apologies to FisherDude, it's McMusic :yes:

 

[1948epiphone]

Part of the problem is that "back in the day" you had to be a pretty decent musician or performer to get an album made. Now every navel gazing room temperature IQ teenager with a minidisc and a mike can make a CD. Anyone notice how little really creative music there is out there? The upside to digital is that so much obscure old stuff is now available......guess you take the good with the bad. Classical music may be the savior of high fi, who knows?

 

[Cleve]

This is the exact same article that ran in the Washington Times on 4/18

http://www.washtimes.com/entertainment/20070418-095009-6170r.htm


There's a lengthy thread already discussing it. Moderators might want to lock this one and direct everyone to the existing thread.

 

[EchoWars]

We are devo...

 

[JimJ[VT]]

This thread is funny.

 

[CarlV]

All the more reason to buy as much McIntosh gear as you can afford, enjoy it for many years to come and sell it when and if that becomes necessary.

Out of my cold dead fingers.


Carl

 

[masterlu]

Garage Sale at Masterlu's

 

[Big Mac]

Amen CarlV!!!!

Let the hoi polloi have their cheap crap....it is just another example of how our culture bows to Wal-Mart, et al......

 

[Mopic5]

We can see it coming – “Fahrenheit 321” (the melting point of vinyl/acetate tape). Montage, the state employed “fireman” who does the bidding of the Blueberry Borg, in ferreting out the hidden warrens of Hi-Fi listeners – smashing their analog gear, burning their tapes and records and CDs, but nevertheless risking all in pocketing a few R2R tapes to hear what all the hubbub is about.

At home he begins to listen to this glorious stuff from a X-2000 stashed in his closet and piped out to a couple of Rectilinear Low Boys disguised as plant stands. His vacuous wife, a failed American Idol contestant, is concerned – not only about the risks he is taking – but how any artist can have a repertoire of more than one or two songs.

In the end, of course, he must flee to the Camp Audio Karma, hidden in the Michigan hills near the long abandoned Chrysler Proving Grounds to listen to bootleg high-fidelity and train voices (without mp3 vocal implants) and musicians on instruments to commit this glorious music to memory and unscorchable talent. We’ll survive!

 

[Big Mac]

I love it! SWEET! :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:

 

[Number 9]

Hey, there will be always rebels in the hills, but joking aside, this trend has a big impact on hi-fi gear. Its been going on for the past several years, and its starting to have an impact ...

Don't know if someone of you saw the announcement over the weekend that Linn is going to go through a major restructuring due to losses last year. Lots of layoffs on the way. If it could happen to Linn, it may happen to McIntosh too. Levinson has been hurting and dormant ... its turning into a cottage industry for the rich (sorry Masterlu - no offense intended).

Apple is on a roll with iPods. Shame that some of that money could be going to McIntosh too ... if it can ride the portable/digital craze: a Mac Squeezebox or something along those lines.

 

[ron-c]

By every measure, business is very good at McIntosh. I would not worry we have about the same number of customers as Ferrari and Aston Martin combined....

Thanks,
Ron-C

 

[lissjw]

few options

I had never heard high end gear or even knew it existed until a friend said he had heard a fantastic amp at some small shop outside od Chicago. I made the drive (40 miles) and could not believe the difference between that amp and ALL others. That amp was a MA6100. I saved for a few months and bought one closer to home. It was used so I got a few $100 knocked off. That was in 1975. That amp is still with me (Terry is bringing it up to specs). I would never have heard it if it weren't for those high end shops. I live in a backwater area now and the closest dealer is by the bay some 167 miles away. We seem to be going backward. Or maybe its just me.

 

[Number 9]

... we have about the same number of customers as Ferrari and Aston Martin combined....

:saywhat:

 

[chathamdad]

When McIntosh started really developing home theater gear there was a lot of noise about how it showed McIntosh wasn't really committed to high-end audio, was hedging their bets, etc. Leaving aside, for the minute, the fact that the two channel gear that McIntosh has made in the last 5 years is among the best they have ever made (even acknowledged by the same audio press that was bashing the investment in HT), it also appears that HT has allowed them to move into a lucrative and growing market and not only service that market's needs with great equipment, but also use the success of those sales to propel the (perhaps) less lucrative 2 channel segment along. This is a prudent business model that allows growth that is consistent with their decades-old mission. There are a lot of "purists" who are looking for jobs in this industry these days. Having DM Holdings behind them doesn't hurt either, I suppose.

That's one school of thought, anyway. Another is that Masterlu is singlehandedly keeping McIntosh profitable. If so, good work sir!

 

[PHC1]

Out of my cold dead fingers.

Nice amp Carl!:thmbsp: I wouldn't sell it either.

 

[PHC1]

Another is that Masterlu is singlehandedly keeping McIntosh profitable.

No doubt Ivan's purchases, both in use and in storage show up on McIntosh's corporate profit charts.