Darko's take on the modern music reproduction scene. Some interesting viewpoints, some of which I agree with, some of which I would have a different take. It is thought provoking though, and well worth a few minutes to read. It does at least put a touch of perspective on stuff like the recent fretting over MQA and similar.
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2017/0...re-fi-now/
Nice to see a slightly more light-hearted article. I agree with much of what he says too - not least the hifi snobbery and missing out on the younger crowd.
I would have killed for a high-end hifi in my 20's but even if I had it, I wouldn't have had anywhere to put it. The younger generation (and some of us that are technically older even if we feel young
) don't even work in offices anymore let alone own a house (with or without a dedicated listening space). They're on the move. Portable and headphones are where it's at. And low-fi simple hifi that might get moved from flat to flat each year. They can have fun listening to vinyl through a stereo that doesn't cost a years wages.
I hope there are still some that can appreciate the quality though. Phantoms and KEFs mentioned will most likely help, but they're still relatively expensive. Actually ironically they'd be better off buying old second hand kit - much of which is probably fantastic sounding stuff that cost a fortune in its day and can be picked up cheaply now.
I've got a real hankering for a turntable since my recent encounter. I immediately started looking at more and more expensive ones, just because you get suckered in to the 'quality' idea. Cartridges alone costing several thousand start to seem reasonable. Madness. If I do it I think I'm going to get an old beaten up one and just enjoy it for the nostalgia and needle dropping noise, rather than get obsessed with quality. Well, that's as soon as I work out where I could put it and what I'd play on it.....
So what - I love the racist/ageist/sexist comments about white middle aged men - you wouldn't get away with similar derogatory comments about any other demographic. However, despite this I notice that there appears to be quite a few Asian contributors to this forum - so I suspect this is a male thing rather than having anything to do with race.
Hi Fi has always mostly been male dominated - and given the expense - probably for slightly older men who have progressed in their career. This is no different to any other niche activity - high performance cars, luxury watches, train spotting, bird watching, stamp collecting etc. One argument is that women have better things to do with their lives!
In the end, while there is money to be made and there are crazy men around, these niche activities will continue to flourish - and men will continue to annoy their female partners with their obsessions. I suspect that nothing will change - in another fifty years, the hifi audio shows will continue to be dominated by middle aged men, perhaps a few more from different ethnic backgrounds. And the same goes for the car shows, the bird watching societies and the stamp collecting conventions.
At fist glance, Darko's comments may appear racist/ageist/sexist. However, based on my own experience visiting very many UK hifi shows over the last few years, I would have to say that Darko's words are pretty much 100% factual and correct. Is it racist or sexist to state the truth? It is what it is I guess.
I am middle aged myself, but when visiting the National hifi show last summer, I actually felt quite young in relative terms! So Darko might actually be being quite generous to the more mature hifi show attendee, rather than being ageist as such.