Journalism or public relations?
- Thread starter paskinn
- Start date
Tony L
Administrator
Both, or neither. I've never understood the need for divisions or hostility in some quarters for other quarters of what essentially a single entity. I see the whole thing (manufacturers, retailers, enthusiasts, DIYers, forums, magazines, the second hand / vintage kit market etc etc) as one interlinked ecosystem. We are all a part of it. Hardly anyone even fits neatly into one category, e.g. manufacturers, dealers and reviewers are usually enthusiasts too, enthusiasts often start to build and sell their own stuff, forums such as pfm provide a platform to all points in the loop. It's all the one thing, folk just need to take a few steps back and view it as a whole.
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Many these days wouldn't even buy a dedicated stereo in the first place...
The rise of PC, TV, smart phones and computer games has of course had a massive effect on hi fi sales, but another huge factor is that dirt cheap equipment of today, whether it's a TV surround system, PC speakers, an MP3 player with phones or docking station, all give a quality of sound that is vastly superior to that made by your average domestic non-specialist-hifi gear of the 60's 70's and 80's, when hifi sold well. Think of the Ferguson mono record player or the cassette based ghetto blaster etc.
For most non audiophiles the cheap generic made in China stuff of today is as good as they require!
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
Spot on. Good sound in the home has never been cheaper or more convenient. When you do go off the mainstream track, diminishing returns has never kicked in harder either. An excellent digital source, integrated amp and speakers costs very little for quite outstanding performance compared to 70's and 80's rack systems.
Joe P
Memory Alpha incarnate | mod; Shatner number = 2
Jez,
I think Lou's completely muddled correlation with causation. Foo just happened to arise with the decline of audio, but foo isn't the cause of the decline.
Joe
Of course, but the decline of dedicated audio ain't because of foo or hi-fi magazines, despite what Lou seems to think.
I think Lou's completely muddled correlation with causation. Foo just happened to arise with the decline of audio, but foo isn't the cause of the decline.
Joe
Alan Sircom
I dü werds, me
Agreed. But I'd add that increasingly the PC (more specifically today, the tablet) is the hi-fi system, the games console, even the TV set. It's why I think some of the most right-headded products ATM are coming out of Arcam. It seems to have worked out - almost uniquely in the audio business - that the audio electronics are an 'over there' device that the user interacts with wirelessly through and from the tablet or even phone in their hands.
Robert
Tapehead
True, its a symptom, but I can see how it might put off the new blood, assuming we can actually attract their interest in the first instance.
Robert
Tapehead
They soon will be - the moment they read a magazine or join most forums.
Unless very lucky, their first glimpse of a prospective new world is one where trivia rules.
Contrast that to the mags of the 70s where there were sections for 'beginners' and guides which just cut to the chase. Here is some well regarded entry level kit that works fine out of the box and will provide instant and lasting gratification, which it did for many. The TT and amp is fine on the bedside cabinet and the loudspeakers can be connected with bell wire and placed on a convenient shelf.
Alan Sircom
I dü werds, me
I think I need to clarify this. I don't see the position as a mouthpiece for the audio industry, as in the people who make things other people buy. I see the role as a mouthpiece for the community. Sometimes the boundaries between who does what precisely get blurred, because many of the people not in the business of making audio equipment are more 'industry' than the industry itself. They know more people in the business than I do, they frequently move in the same circles, etc, etc.
Granted for a magazine, the advertisers effectively keep that situation in play. But my take on this is we (and by 'we', I'm not just describing the magazines, but including the forums in this) are trying to keep our common passion alive, and trying desperately to pass that passion on to others. It's a constant source of frustration to many in the community (whichever side of the fence) to see the ever-increasing gulf between excellent entry-level equipment and those products that can realistically broaden and deepen one's musical interests. While it's great that budget equipment has probably never been better, we need to rekindle the interest in aspiring to bigger and better things, but if those bigger and better things cost 100x as much as the entry-level equipment, that will never happen. However currently, if you build it, they don't come, and the gulf between what's cheap and what's next is widening as a result.
I find this more deeply troubling than £10,000 cables, £20,000 tonearms, £35,000 racks or even £350,000 loudspeakers. These things are rich men's playthings, and if the rich men are playing with audio equipment today, it has little bearing on day-to-day audio enthusiasts. That I write about some of these products is because one aspect of the magazine's niche is in that branch of rich man product interest zone. But having to replace a £1,000 amplifier with a £5,000 amplifier because not enough people buy a £1,000 to warrant its continued existence is really threatening the survival of the audio world as it stands. All of it.
Evil Emperor
Taller Than Stalin
Thass no good guy, where iz da bling in dat? I ain'ts no beginnah. I iz a winnah!
Word!
Translation: Let's all join hands and make contact with the 21st Century, shall we? It's not the 1970s, no one thinks that way anymore. Everything is trivia led - the iPhone was the best thing in the world, ever. Except now it isn't and the Android is the best thing in the world, ever. These statements are exactly how people think today and are completely unrelated to actual performance of the phones themselves.
Why should audio be any different?
The only crazy part in all this is I reckon if the cable companies stopped trying to sell their wares on the basis of sound and sold them on the basis of bling, they'd do better!
Evil Emperor
Taller Than Stalin
If you promote £10,000 cables, you are part of the problem that causes this gulf between starter and upgrader. End of story.
Alan, please if the audio press was a mouthpiece for the community then they would have at a minimum one individual who is a cable sceptic. It appears you have left out all of us on the right part of the bell curve.
You started out pretty good and I thought we were making progress, but no, the audio press has always targeted the low hanging fruit, the kind of person that could be sold magic goods.
From a dark and wintry Alberta
Louballoo
Joe P
Memory Alpha incarnate | mod; Shatner number = 2
onlyconnect
pfm Member
sq225917
Bit of this, bit of that
It's not reviews of 10,000 cables that put joe public off hifi mags, it's the fact that absolutely nothing in there has any relevance to what they do. You need headphones, portable devices and other entry level audio (none hifi) stuff in there to welcome them in the door. Show them Bose and they will eventually migrate up to better sound and better user interface/experience (if that exists). You need a high quality Brennan and decent looking and well priced all in one devices to introduce them to the hifi brands. Despite all their faults at least Naim realise this with products like the UnitiQute.
Alan Sircom
I dü werds, me
We had a cable sceptic. He was removed at the 'request' of the enthusiast hard-core, badgering both myself and my seniors within the company. We have others. They keep their council on cables. I will not name them, because it's the end of their audio writing.
Those who you call 'low hanging fruit' we call 'core readers'. You piss them off at your peril.
Tony L
Administrator
The product I feel is missing is a small, neat combined DAC / analogue preamp. It needs to be cheap, say £300 or less, offer say 2 digital inputs, 3 analogue inputs (one being 3.5mm for an iPod / phone / iPad) and ideally an MM phono stage. Needs to look nice and have outputs that include one for a sub. This product would open the door to building a really top-notch starter system using a pair of pro-audio near-fields, e.g. Mackies, Adams, KRKs, Events, Genelecs etc. A great system genuinely capable of filling a living room with clean, open and dynamic music for around a grand to 1200 quid. The company that makes this and markets it to the masses correctly will prosper, the companies that don't will likely be killed by it!
Alan Sircom
I dü werds, me
Forgive my being judgmental, but I don't rate the opinions of a reviewer who - when he was the biggest subjectivist game in town - was exposed as having a controlling share in a loudspeaker company that he alone wrote glowing reviews about, reinvesting reader's subscription money into the loudspeaker brand, only to disappear for several years before returning 'reinvented' and then attempting to exact revenge on the 'black hats' that exposed him.
But hey, maybe I'm just raking over old coals.
Alan Sircom
I dü werds, me
This is precisely what WHF does well. The other magazines will struggle to get the same exposure, and as a result we each have our own niche to cover. Our one is top end equipment. While we cover entry-level equipment occasionally, it's about as common as Evo reviewing Kias.
We do regularly cover headphones and portable devices, both at the high-end and at a more grass-roots level. They furiously upset the audiophile readers, who think it 'pollution'.