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Hifi in the last twenty or so years seems to be being dragged in two completely disparate directions. On the one hand we have the hifi enthusiast (audiophile) who will go to almost any lengths to achieve the very best audio reproduction in the home and on the other we have a largely disinterested public who are more than happy to plug in their ipod and earbuds and listen to Mp3s they have downloaded.
In short the man in the street has stopped buying hifi and the market is becoming more and more polarised between very expensive hifi and nofi.
I’ve written about this before in my “Dream Hifi” article, but when I was a teenager I lusted after a good quality budget system and the magazines of the day championed budget hifi for those starting out on their hifi buying career. For those of you who were teenagers in the 80s I’m sure you remember the system – Dual turntable, Nad or Marantz amplifier and a pair of Kef or Wharfedale loudspeakers – a system that was not cheap, but was attainable for many.
Where are those champions now and where is the good quality budget hifi they were once promoting? How do we as an industry get Joe Public and in particular teenage Joe Public, interested in Hifi again?
Hifi manufacturers need to realise that offering a high quality, affordable hifi system is good economics – once a teenager realises that they can get a much better sound in their bedroom then they are much more likely to buy into the upgrade concept and in later years spend serious money on their music reproduction electronics. Good quality, budget hifi is a stepping stone drug that will eventually lead to a much harder addiction! More »
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Computer Hifi Killed the Radio Star…or did it?
Regular readers will be aware of my thoughts on using computers in home hifi installations and that my experiences have been less than satisfying for me. To be fair the problems have centred on interface issues and me simply not “gelling” with listening to music using computers.
Never let it be said that I’m not willing to revisit things though – I like to think I have an open mind and, as with most things in life, I like to run with the “If you didn’t like it then try it again…you might like it” philosophy. It’s a philosophy that has served me well in life so far…in most things.
So it was with a great deal of reticence that this time last week I took delivery of a Squeezebox Touch. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the last few years, the Squeezebox is a nifty little device made by Logitech that connects to your home network and allows you to stream music stored on your hard drive to your hifi. The last one I had really infuriated me and didn’t last very long at all before it was sold on to a chap in Poland. More »