Interesting read at AudioCircles...

[WhiteSE]

clicky
I kind of liked Frank Van Alstine's which I paste here:

"Owning and enjoying audio playback equipment that can give you the experience of enjoying music for the sake of the music" is the message that is gone from the market place.

For many years the major mass producers (Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, etc.) used to put that message out to the mass market buyers. Hi End audio was able to essentially ride along on those coat tails, with a supplimental message "true, and we can do it for you even better."

Listening to music for the sake of the music is a basic human experience over the eons that has not and will not go away. However, the mainstream message now has changed to "devices to enhance your lifestyle" or whatever. Certainly audio has been religated to an accessory to your TV set or computer, or a way to have pleasant background tunes as you biddleybop thru the day. Certainly nothing to try and grab your attention and make you LISTEN. That would be a distraction to your lifestyle.

Lifeless compressed web downloads, horrid video sound tracks, and throw away components reign now as the marketers are succeeding in destroying the experience of music for the sake of the music for everyone.

Perhaps its time for the remaining builders of true high fidelity audio components to think about banding together and figuring out how to put the message that "great music reproduciton is good for your soul" back out in the mass marketplace.

I donated and delivered and set up a complete $8000 AVA music system to a local Montessori school yesterday. I did it because the school still actually teaches true music appreciation to children. You should have seen the look on the kids faces when they heard the music for the first time with the clarity, transparency, and emotion we (this industry) can deliver. You should see the joy of the teachers as they realized how much better they can teach music appreciation when the kids can actually hear the music.

As long as you remaining audiophiles are most concerned about brands of cables and colors of capacitors, you are not going to reach your friends and neighbors and all those who have never experienced a high fidelity music playback system and would be astonised if they did. These audiophlake priorities just make you seem like "nuts" to them, with some justification.

Can you spread the message that "a great music reproducion system brings peace to your soul" without having them trip over the firehose cables and $5000 power conditioners? Your "toys" are going to go away unless you can help change the mainstream advertising message of "cheep plastic is not all that annoying" to something better.

I've got 200 grade school Montessori kids being exposed to music done right now, and with teachers that care that it is. Maybe they will bring their school experiences home to their parents. I hope so.

Lets get the right message out there and people will listen, because the music is good for your soul. They just need to be reminded of that.

Frank Van Alstine

 

[styler]

i concur

yep. though try to take my iPod from my cold dead hands! i totally agree, but hell, had poor Van Alstine stopped by here first he could have gotten some advice on how to do it alot cheaper than $8000. lets see:
Altecs/La Scalas/or similarly efficient speaker
Some Dynaco Monoblocks or a new tube integrated
Decent CD player
--------------------
my total 3500.00 or less

 

[GordonW]

Yes, maybe it could have been done cheaper, with used gear, bargain finds or whatever, but that's not the point, at all.

We all do get caught up in the "gear for gear sake"... all of us, at some time. It's a matter of whether you can communicate how much FUN having a TRULY GOOD audio system is, just USING it to play MUSIC that sounds REAL.

I completely concur, there is going to have to be a "re-awakening" of the public, of the need for good-quality (not complicated, not extravagent, not a lot of bells-and-whistles, just GOOD gear configured well) gear, as opposed to the "playtoy" dog-and-pony-show-but-oh-by-the-way-it-plays-music-too stuff that people consider the status quo these days.

And yes, this even applies to home theatre systems. It's true, there have to be more speakers and stuff for a 5.1 system to work properly... but it's possible to IMMEDIATELY demonstrate what GOOD speakers (usually the weakest link in the vast majority of HT systems) can do. Sure, they have to be more than "wall cubes"... but it's quite possible, as has been mentioned, to find REALLY NICE, "full-size" speakers, that not only are competant performers, but they actually LOOK like something someone would WANT to have in their decor.

It's just a matter of finding these products, passing along the word to people who don't know, and rewarding those who make good, honest gear. Because if those who still are trying to "keep the faith" in the audio manufacturing industry can't get support (ie, customers, buyers), then they'll have to quit and go do something else. We've got it pretty good now, those of us who collect "vintage" gear... but what about the next generation? What will it be like, when there's nothing but broken iPods, useless/fallen apart/shoddy "BPC" gear in the second hand and thrift stores? Who here, would want their kids to be left with the lack of choices that would result from that?

Sure, there's lots of other choices people can make to "idle away" their leisure time, now... video, video games, computers, etc... but if one thing has been universal, it's the NEED for music in life, for the human species. And the closer one can get to "how the musical creators wanted it to sound"... in most cases, the more FAITHFUL the playback system can be made... the more intense the emotional response, and the greater the reward.

And the greatest thing? It's not even necessary to "run the gamut" of every tweak known to man, to get sound that will GENUINELY get the TOES TAPPING of nearly everyone. If we could even get the average audio system to 95%... heck, even 90% or 85%... of what the "best" systems can do, think of how much BETTER things would be. As Van Alstine mentioned, it's quite possible to do that, without getting caught up in interconnect/cable "wars", funky tweaks or the like. Just get the basics right...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[bOUddha]

Yes, maybe it could have been done cheaper, with used gear, bargain finds or whatever, but that's not the point, at all.

Gordon, I understand and agree with your point, but those kids are getting their first, most indelible taste of music from an $8,000 system. Perhaps van Alstine's message might have been more widely distributed by donating an $800 dollar vintage system to TEN different schools!

 

[WhiteSE]

Guys. i dont think Alstine's plan was to widely distribute gear...he took teh opportunity he had locally...more than can be said by probably most other makers of gear...

If only one of each maker of gear donates 2 or 3 pieces, you can have many of these occurrences....to be effective, it has to be in places where that music appreciation is taught and appreciated....and that isnt in that many schools...

even shops should follow this, as many potential clients can surface..

 

[WhiteSE]

Maybe AK should choose a school and donate,,,

 

[fotno]

It occurred to me while reading this thread, that kids today (boy do I sound like an old fart) have no idea what music is supposed to sound like, and having never heard it properly presented, doubtless will be satisfied with almost anything they're offered.

I was lucky. Growing up, I was exposed to one of the most musical cultures in the states, southern Appalachia. I grew up listening to great pickers and singers making their 'egg money' on front porches, and in churches all over the mountains of NC, Tenn, and Va. I heard, early and often, emotive music played and sung by musical greats, and later when I joined the school band, I was exposed to symphonic music, both live, and recorded. My wife, who is 10 years younger than I, thinks her car has an excellent sound system and can't imagine wanting anything more. IMHO, her car's system sounds no better than the yellow Zenith transistor radio my mom gave me in 1970.

To close, music is art. The single most transportable art that exists. It can be listened to nearly anywhere, and once heard becomes a part of all who've heard it. But unlike static arts such as painting or sculpture, there is little to no public support of it's preservation. I believe it will be people such as we, who are willing to evangelise others about "proper" music and musical equipment, that will either preserve or fail to preserve the very thing we love.

- Steve