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Is Hi-Fi dead??

Peter_Klim

Peter_Klim

Well-Known Member
Is Hi-Fi dead?? Is Mid-Fi dead too???

With the loudness war going on, lousy sound quality with downloaded and mp3 files, the near future death of CD (and possibly vinyl) and all the hi-res CDs (like SACD) and speakers being made smaller for convenience/space over sound quality...is Hi-Fi dead?

My buddy showed me wireless ear-bud headphone for his ipod made by motorola. I said "how is the SQ on them. Usually wireless aren't that great" he replied: "I don't care, I just hate having the cord get in the way..."

My other buddy want to get wirless surround speakers for like dirt cheap (new, so they will really suck @ss)

My friends all want tiny small speakers that you can hide in your hands for a 5.1 system- it's gonna sound like sheeeeit. I tell them to spend the same money for 5 speakers on just 2 good ones. They reply: "But I want surround..." $99 total for 5 new in the box speakers will sound like, you guessed it: shhhhhhhhhhh...

WTF is this world coming to???!!!!
Is Hi-Fi dead????? What ever happened to huge tower speakers with 12-15" woofers!! Why are 18" tall book shelf speakers from the 80s shrunkin down to those garbage iPod speakers that have, in one enclosure, a couple of 2-3" full range speakers with 1 (supposedly) 4" woofer in the center? WTF is this garbage? Why are people listenining to their laptops as their main stereo sytem??
We decorated the office for Halloween this year with a super hero theme and music. So the night we decorated we played "superhero" music from a stereo receiver and a center channel speaker (I didn't want to lug 2 medium sized speakers - JBL L5 - 4 way speakers - a 10", 8" , 5"? and tweeter). We're enjoying it and then this one young dude is walking around blasting his iPhone music through it's built in speaker - wtf??? Your crappy sound is making now making it hard for the rest of us to enjoy our music! UHGG!!

I guess I am just frustrated that no one care about SQ anymore, that it will hurt us who do when the industry won't listen to the minority that we are. And all they will make for us is music that sound like? Yep, shhhhhhhhhhhhhh- I'm PISSED!!

So I googled "Is Hi-Fi dead?"
Some good but kinda old ( 2 years ) news:

Is HiFi Dead

EDIT: Added "Mid-Fi" to the mix.
 
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Was HiFi ever alive? Everyone likes to think back to when there were records everywhere, etc etc etc. But what selective memory forgets to mention is the majority of households which didn't have anything even remotely close to HiFi. Everyone forgets the budget bin records which sounded terrible (high end records on sale excluded). HiFi is a niche market for people that want to enjoy music. Most people simply don't care, and never have. My wife is one of those people. She can tell the difference between something that sounds nice and something that doesn't, but she will listen to this HORRIBLE under counter AM/FM/CD/DVD/TV thing that literally sounds like 100% pure distortion. It sounds so bad that after only a few minutes I get an actual head pounding headache. She simply doesn't mind that it sounds terrible. She represents a LARGE portion of the world then and now. People that enjoy live music, clean music, and high fidelity will always want better than ordinary. Right now there are plenty of sources to download higher quality formats than CD; those places just aren't ITunes, Napster, and all the other big box watered down retailers pushing the next injection of smack.
 
My nephew heard my stereo, he says it's 'nice' (but he really could care less), then he goes right back to his Ipod and You Tube. It's a different generation I guess. Is Hi-Fi dead? For most I really do think so. But for a few of us who care about sound...Hi-Fi will never die.
 
So let all the kids sell there parents vintige HiFi systems when they want. I just wish I could pick them up for a few bucks at the GW in America like many here in the forum :tears:

Later in life they will regret it. Or maybe not.
 
OK, Like I said. I wish I was the guy writing this thread just below this one!

Pioneer PL-530 found in a Denver GW!
 
I had a similar experience last Christmas. I went back to visit my sister and her family. She --like many women, it seems-- doesn't care that much about audio gear, although she likes music. Her husband also isn't one of those people who is into audio gear (as most people aren't). While the kids had nice computer systems to play computer games on, and they had a big plasma (LCD? -anyway, a big, flat screen) TV with something like an Xbox for gaming and "guitar hero" set up on it. The stereo was an ordinary (what I would call) BPC system and they bought something new while I was there. As "the audio geek", they had me help connect it up, and I felt almost dirty and embarrassed, really sad/sorry for them, as I did so. The speakers were along the lines of HT-in-a-box; small, flimsy resonant things with thin wires and color-coded "idiot-proof" connectors. There was no way it was ever going to produce GOOD sound. :no: I wouldn't want it if you gave it to me for free.

They bought my elderly father a new audio system for Christmas, and it was in the same BOTL/MOTL range. Maybe at his age my Dad won't hear the difference, but still I felt somehow disappointed, almost embarrassed at the quality of what they happily buy and ENJOY, that I wouldn't even be able to put up with in my home. Trying to explain or talk about what might be done with sound quality using vintage stuff fell on friendly, sympathetic but somehow really-couldn't-care-less ears. They understood what I was saying, that there might be "better" sound out there, but they didn't feel any need to get better than what they had.

I finally realized that it is "strokes for folks". Some people just aren't interested and just don't care about hi-fi, just as not everyone cares for motorbikes, boats, or the latest trends in ladies' shoes. Maybe if you set up a good system in their homes and let them listen, they'll change their minds, but if they haven't heard and don't know what they are missing (and perhaps even if they do hear?), your words will simply fall on deaf ears.

Today I happened to drop in at an HMV store (large music-store chain). I found a whole section with audio gear. Some of it was gaming stuff: hand-held controllers and foot pedals and such. Then there were umpteen small, "digital" typeheadphones, a few of the best of which might have had the potential to sound pretty good, but most of which wouldn't. PLUS... a whole bunch of iPod docking stations and related iPod-fed accessories. ALL of them smallish, plastic things with very small speakers and construction that is unlikely to last more than a couple of years, if that. NOTHING substantial. NOTHING big. NOTHING powerful. NOTHING durable. NOTHING hi-fi, in any meaningful sense of the word. And this is a major and "trendy" source for music, for young people and adults alike.

Alas, the true hi-fi shop, and the competition that once drove manufacturers to make ever better quality hi-fi gear, is a thing of the past, perhaps holding on in pockets to serve a niche market like AKers, but it will never be mainstream again.

The only hope that I hold out is that over time, the digital technology does make advancements. 16 bit becomes 24 bit, 96Khz moves to 192Khz, XRCD, SACD, DVD-A and Blu-ray emerge. True, some of these are/were short-lived, and downloading is threatening to make them all obsolete (if it hasn't already), but the developmental trend will continue to push forward, I think, as digital memory storage capacity increases and cost decreases.

Perhaps one day the stuff that we can stream from the small successors to the iPod will sound as good as a hi-fi vinyl system does today. I hope it does, and sooner rather than later. I hope they put it into a nice retro-looking package that I can stomach having in my home, too. But until then, I'm holding on to my vintage analog gear with as tight a grasp as I can! :yes:


The question mark in all of this is whether enough people will still WANT good-quality sound, to encourage makers to offer it when they can. I'd like to think that at least enough people will, despite some evidence that not everyone will.
 
visiman said:
OK, Like I said. I wish I was the guy writing this thread just below this one!

Pioneer PL-530 found in a Denver GW!
Click to expand...

I love stories like that. My favorite one of all is the one that started me into vintage audio, when I found a pair of perfectly-working Infinity RS II speakers... thrown away in the trash-collection place! :banana: I can still hardly believe that stroke of luck, when I listen to them. :music: Hi-fi won't totally die, as long as there are thrift-shop scroungers and trash-pickers willing and able to rescue these no-longer-appreciated treasures and rescue and restore them! :D
 
BPC=Black Piece of Cr@p, the dominent styling of stereo gear after the silver faced era as production moved off-shore and price was the biggest manufacturing consideration.
 
visiman said:
So let all the kids sell there parents vintige HiFi systems when they want. I just wish I could pick them up for a few bucks at the GW in America like many here in the forum :tears:

Later in life they will regret it. Or maybe not.
Click to expand...

And this where u are completly wrong
Teenagers here many i know LOVE vintage audio a lot where very dissapointed when i borght the sony
one of my mates has a pionner SA-7300 on a pair of pioneer floor speakers 12 inch woofer

never abuses it i have a Technics system with technics speakers

not all teens are the same lol

i just borght a nice set of Sennheiser head phones there so good



Now for my debate

The mu te ki can give u a clean stereo HIFI sound
stereo only mode
75 watts X 2 at 0.02 THD 20 hz to 20 KHZ not to bad
on a set of 2 8 inch woofer and 1 silk Horn
these stand 98 Cm
you dont know unless you fiddle a bit and listen to it
HIFI is still very alive in many Audio of today products

oh BTW i do hate distortion and i know it when i here it
 
Is High-Fidelity dead? .... I don't think so. At least not for those who know and can appreciate the difference.

High-Fidelity comes in many shapes and forms and in all budgets. It can come in analog as well as digital, vintage as well as new, big as well as small.

The question perhaps should be: "Why isn't everybody into hi-fi ?"

Allot of people could really care less about hi-fi for various reasons.

Bottom line is ... I know what I like. That's all that matters to me.
 
I don't think so either. Its kind of like vintage cars...the equipment is half the experience. The feel and sounds of a vintage car are like the feel and sound of vintage sound equipment...from a time which will never come again. They say you can't go back, but we can sure try!
 
Nothing new about Hi-Fi, Low-Fi and No-Fi, it has alwayes been like this.



drknstrmyknight said:
BPC=Black Piece of Cr@p, the dominent styling of stereo gear after the silver faced era as production moved off-shore and price was the biggest manufacturing consideration.
Click to expand...

I belive it would be BPC = Black Plastic Cr@p, units went from silver all metal to black plastic.
 
Hi Fi dead?? No way. For evidence, look no further than (1) the proliferation of new 2-channel gear on display at every electronics show; (2) the surge in affordable 2-channel tube gear from China; and (3) the resurgence of vinyl, including the number of NEW titles being issued.
 
I think HiFi has and always will be a niche market. For the forseeable future there will be those of us who enjoy and seek good sounding music.


cogito, seems we were having nearly identical thoughts.
 
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I noticed Crutchfield is beginning to push what they call "Hifi 2.0". At least some recognition and a step in the right direction from a mainstream seller?

Lifted from their site: "There's an interesting paradox in the consumer electronics industry. For an increasing number of music fans, the pursuit and appreciation of high-fidelity sound has diminished as technology has advanced." ...................."Digital audio can sound amazingly good. Unfortunately, some of today's most popular digital sources – MP3 players, satellite radio, and Internet radio – often do not. These technologies are wonderful in many ways. But their operation typically depends on lower-resolution signals than you get with CD. Therefore, millions of young people may never have experienced true high-fidelity sound reproduction."
 
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