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Why Our Hobby Won't Grow

ussexplorer said:
Knobs. I do it for the knobs. Well not 100% true. I also like the look of older silver / wood grain gear and the power behind it. Though, I do admit I like a nice clean all black setup of gear to. But, unless you are willing to spend some cash on new stuff. I purchased all new gear through 92-96 when I got a job. It was okay. The most I spent was on a dolby surround receiver. It was basicly the only one that had a bass and treble knob with a phono input. nice fan in the back to. It sounded great and used for many years with old vintage speakers. Then I wanted what my parents had. Power, silver, and knobs. I'm only 33 and thanks to several older freinds and my dad being the small record / beatle person he is. Keeps me going. Now my newest upgrade a pioneer spec system. I hope to take ownership of tuesday or wensday.

TTFN,

Josh
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PROFF OF WHAT I SAY :banana: Lovely ! wow spec stack! rock on!:music:
 
grillebilly said:
When I was in high school in the mid 70's, all my friends had as good a stereo as we could afford.
Kids now days listen to music on their cell phones and are happy with it.
Unlike years past, most kids don't know what a decent system sounds like.
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I started a similar thread a few weeks back when I moved my daughter into her college dorm. Didn't see a single "stereo"; not even a set of Minimus 7 sized speakers.
They may know what a good system sound like, but they aren't listening to or buying them.
 
As mentioned in earlier responses, our hobby has alway's been a bit of a niche'. With all of the media option's availible today, it's suprising how big a player the music industry still is. Unfortunately it's mostly a highly compressed mess, barely suitible for average portable playback equipment. The current CD releases are just as bad. If it sound's o.k. on $10 earphones, then good enough for most. Guess us Hi-Fi niche guy's keep getting pushed further into a corner, finding good source material to play on them. Funny how most visitor's really enjoy listening to my home system, but not enough to care, when they walk out the front door. I'm not going anywhere, though.
 
One glance through Stereophile or Absolute Sound tells me that the audio world seems to be doing ok. And even if it doesn't, there's going to be enough equipment on the used market to satisfy most any of us for the rest of our lives.

And the last time I was in a record in the city it wasn't baby boomers snatching up all the 180g vinyl.
 
In the early 60s,millions of young people couldnt afford,or didnt want to deal with the size of full sized cars.Sure,they were sturdier,more comfortable,and more powerful.
But they sold millions of the VW Beetle.The Ipod of autos.
Jimmy
 
I think the "threat" is not from the technology side. Kids need exposure to and education in the arts and they're not getting it.
 
geiman said:
Audio like the kind that we like, is dying.
Those of us who are in it now, are hobbyists, experimenters and music lovers.
In the 50's the same kind of people were in to HiFi. It was the domain of hobbyists.
Just like now.
The hifi boom of the 60's and 70's with the Pioneers and Kenwoods et al was primarily mass market mid fi, sorry.
It is refreshing to do projects such as E'wave because that's where our roots are.
Experimentation, love of music and the fun of the hobby is great recreation for most of us.
I would not expect anyone to bring out a new line of receivers like we had in the 60's.
The mass market won't respond because the demand isn't there.
So what. We aren't stuck with the boutique stuff either.
We can build from scratch or kits what we want and it will sound better than what we can buy assembled.
You just have to take the initiative yourself if you love this hobby.
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I have to say I agree with you geiman. I see our hobby fading to those that take that extra effort. So called 'vintage' gear will obviously be available, but that well will dry at one point or another.

We are the fringe. We are not mainstream.

There is gear available that I would consider consistent with what one might have found through the heyday of hifi gear from a price perspective, or as geiman refers to much of it, mid-fi (although I'm not _wholly_ in agreement with that) if one were to take into consideration inflation. Hifi gear (probably -- I really don't know) isn't selling the way it was in the '70s. There aren't as many shops selling gear as there were in the '70s, maybe there are if you count the Best Buys and whatnot, but they're not selling what I'd consider decent stereo gear, either. Gear will be available, but will become harder to find used.

I'm not one that is particularly loyal to the vintage game. Don't care whether it was made yesterday or 30 years ago. If it performs well, that's good enough for me.

John
 
as long as theres stuff that will give me a decent left/right signal to feed into my vintage amps/ preamps/receivers i'll be fine. the chinese highend gear is beginning to take hold. its just a matter of time before chinese brands infiltrate the shelves to the point of giving pioneer and their likes a serious run for the money.

look at brands like apex. utterly unknown bargain dvd players on the shelf at the big box stores just a few years ago. now they are a brand to consider when looking at run of the mill dvd players.

as it is i dont care for any of the chinese stuff so i've already accepted that i need to keep my vintage gear running. stuff with custom ic's will eventually become unrepairable but stuff with discrete off the shelf parts will be much easier to keep alive for many years to come.

mp3's, flac, ogg, wav, will come and go but as long as theres a way to get analog left/right i'll get by!
 
What exactly are we talking about when we say 'our hobby'. Is it vintage audio? Or hi fi in general? Or hi end?
 
I'm 15 and new to the hobby. I can see the pro and cons of good enough and hi fi systems. I do not see the point however of people who whole music collection is digital.
Unless they can make a system that will last 70+ plus year i think hifi sound will still be around.
 
JohnVF said:
I did, too, but that's a pretty broad assortment of people. When I go into the high-end stores, it seems to be most people are younger than the boomers.
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Oh, I agree, it's definitely ambiguous. My commentary was a very general assessment.

The concept of hifi, in my opinion (whatever that might be worth) just isn't ingrained in the culture like it was when I was a teen back in the later '70s/early '80s. Some of us carry that torch, but it doesn't seem to be as prevalent as it was. Eh, I could be very well full of it.

John
 
Well, here's my take on it as a younger person in the crowd.

Audio as a hobby isn't going to die, but it isn't going to become big either. It will be what it is now, a marginal group. But it is going to change in the comming years. First off, digital will eventually be supreme. At the moment it is about as far along as analogue was in the 1910s, so it's still just a baby. But one day it will have grown up and will truly compete with the older analogue systems. With time it take their place. (If built well enough anyway.) Analogue will still hang around, but it will become a small part of the hi-fi world. Think about it, if you could get 100 bit 500khz+ HD downloads of any song in less than a second, would you put forth all the extra effort to get a TT to perform to the max? This is where convience will work it's way into the hobby. It's like useing the interstate and main highways to get to a destination, or backstreets and country roads. Both will get you there, but one is much faster.

Second, if you want to know the near future of audio look no further than your children. (For those here who have them.) Do they love hi-fi as much as you do? Will they pick up the torch? They are the inheritors of your gear apon your passing. If they do not love it enough to keep it up and going, it will be disposed of one way or another. It's the nature of things. I know i wouldn't be here if i hadn't gotten my father's equipment. This kind of "comming into" of audio may help get younger folks on board with the hobby, whether it be for the memories, or a true love of music.

Third, HD is moving into all aspects of life. Look at those commercials for "HD sunglasses". Well, i didn't know i needed sunglasses to see in hi def. So don't be surprised if someone starts marketing Hi Defination music and equipment. It may not be our standard of Hi-fi, but just like it did in home theater, it will start the trend towards it.

Forth, the way music is enjoyed is DEFINATELY going to be different. With what i've been seeing and reading about, i see two camps emerging. Those with gear of some kind, and those without. Those with gear will have all the wonderful stuff from today at their disposal, but others will be useing stuff unimagined today that can perform unlike anything before. Imagine your whole living room wall being a TV showing you the concert, while the other walls become the speakers. Kinda like a holodeck in Star Trek. Hell, you might even have holographic projectors to create an image of the musicians in your living room to go with the music! You won't be able to touch it, but it will look REAL. This kind of thing isn't far fetched, i've already seen experimental TV technology that is as thick as a placemat and just as flexible. It's a commin folks! The second camp won't have a need for gear, because they just download anything they want directly into their brains! Cerebral inplants with all kinds of different enhanceing abilities will be able to input any song of your likeing directly into your auditory centers. The ultimate listening expierence. This sort of stuff is also not far fetched at all. By the end of this century it will be as common as prostetic legs. Already we have linked quadriplegics to the internet. The rise of the cyborg is just around the corner.

So, those are some of my expectations for the future of the hobby, i could be WAY off though. ;)
 
Numistrek09 said:
Well, here's my take on it as a younger person in the crowd.

Audio as a hobby isn't going to die, but it isn't going to become big either. It will be what it is now, a marginal group. But it is going to change in the comming years. First off, digital will eventually be supreme. At the moment it is about as far along as analogue was in the 1910s, so it's still just a baby. But one day it will have grown up and will truly compete with the older analogue systems. With time it take their place. (If built well enough anyway.) Analogue will still hang around, but it will become a small part of the hi-fi world. Think about it, if you could get 100 bit 500khz+ HD downloads of any song in less than a second, would you put forth all the extra effort to get a TT to perform to the max? This is where convience will work it's way into the hobby. It's like useing the interstate and main highways to get to a destination, or backstreets and country roads. Both will get you there, but one is much faster.

Second, if you want to know the near future of audio look no further than your children. (For those here who have them.) Do they love hi-fi as much as you do? Will they pick up the torch? They are the inheritors of your gear apon your passing. If they do not love it enough to keep it up and going, it will be disposed of one way or another. It's the nature of things. I know i wouldn't be here if i hadn't gotten my father's equipment. This kind of "comming into" of audio may help get younger folks on board with the hobby, whether it be for the memories, or a true love of music.

Third, HD is moving into all aspects of life. Look at those commercials for "HD sunglasses". Well, i didn't know i needed sunglasses to see in hi def. So don't be surprised if someone starts marketing Hi Defination music and equipment. It may not be our standard of Hi-fi, but just like it did in home theater, it will start the trend towards it.

Forth, the way music is enjoyed is DEFINATELY going to be different. With what i've been seeing and reading about, i see two camps emerging. Those with gear of some kind, and those without. Those with gear will have all the wonderful stuff from today at their disposal, but others will be useing stuff unimagined today that can perform unlike anything before. Imagine your whole living room wall being a TV showing you the concert, while the other walls become the speakers. Kinda like a holodeck in Star Trek. Hell, you might even have holographic projectors to create an image of the musicians in your living room to go with the music! You won't be able to touch it, but it will look REAL. This kind of thing isn't far fetched, i've already seen experimental TV technology that is as thick as a placemat and just as flexible. It's a commin folks! The second camp won't have a need for gear, because they just download anything they want directly into their brains! Cerebral inplants with all kinds of different enhanceing abilities will be able to input any song of your likeing directly into your auditory centers. The ultimate listening expierence. This sort of stuff is also not far fetched at all. By the end of this century it will be as common as prostetic legs. Already we have linked quadriplegics to the internet. The rise of the cyborg is just around the corner.

So, those are some of my expectations for the future of the hobby, i could be WAY off though. ;)
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I hope you're not way off.

At the other end of the spectrum, my 13 year old niece is excited to be getting a turntable and vintage receiver from my father. The one she wanted turned out to have a bad channel and I plan to give her one of mine instead. I'll do my best to have it be something that every 13 year old will want, too, to keep our hobby going.
 
I've said this before when similar threads pop up - high-quality audio started as a hobby, briefly blossomed as a mass-market phenomenon, and is back to being a hobby. I look around, and I think it's healthy as a hobby, but I agree it's unlikely to be a mass-market phenomenon again.
 
RichPA said:
I've said this before when similar threads pop up - high-quality audio started as a hobby, briefly blossomed as a mass-market phenomenon, and is back to being a hobby. I look around, and I think it's healthy as a hobby, but I agree it's unlikely to be a mass-market phenomenon again.
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That's pretty much as I see it too, RichPA.

We still have lots of options and choices.
 
mrt2 said:
True. In the audio context, a lot of households in the 60s had cheap, solid state stereos that replaced the tube based systems of the late 50s. They were cheaper and "good enough" for most people. The lps also got worse sounding as the 60s progressed.

In the 70s, we had brown fake woodgrain crap systems. I know, I owned one of these. They were cheap, convenient, and "good enough" for most people.

That is not to say I am not worried about this hobby, I am. My thought is that the high end systems of the future will be built around a high quality digital preamp/DAC device, possibly wired to the internet, and may feed powered speakers.
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I'm more pessimistic, because this time there is a difference in the size of the market (globalization) and of the education of the consumers that form it. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the global market went from about 400 million people to about 10 times this figure. Moreover, this time the process is not just commercial, but somehow also cultural ("consumer role models" presented to young people that never put them into doubt, suggestions that "all old technologies are superseded by far by the latest one", not mentioning the profit factor....).

All the best
 
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