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The best audio system on earth?

I agree with Tony above but do feel a little less worried
The goal, if such there is, is for music reproduction to be available at all levels and all budgets for the future, and i think it is.
This post is a daft distraction, and irrelevant to 99.9% of humanity but so what?
There are billionaires. it's an unjust distribution of wealth but it's not preventing new music from being enjoyed.
Maybe it's up to us older HiFi lovers to make sure we introduce the music 'they' love to them on the best kit. just like our elders did for us.
As I said, any well thought out HiFi system will be a start. Some will get it, some won't. Life moves on.
As to HiFi as a concept dying, I hope not, much as i hope decent affordable motorbikes are always around but it's their world now.
 
Tony L said:
Again this is kind of the point I’m trying to make. I bring a whole life experience with me in making that point. I aspired to a proper hi-fi system as soon as I heard a really good system aged 12 or 13. I had achieved it before my 16th birthday with a second-hand Lenco, Quad 33/303 and a pair of JR149s. A pretty decent system even by today’s standards. The system that sparked my interest as a pre/early-teen was a TD-125, 3009, V15/III, a Quad 33/303 and a pair of Celestion Ditton 66. Quite a high-end rig in 1974 or whenever it was, yet still kind of tentatively attainable even to a little kid. It wasn’t a Lamborghini Miura, a Lear Jet or an island in the Bahamas. It was a music replay tool that if one really wanted one could scrabble and save and achieve.

That same little 12-13 year old kid seeing the video upthread would just conclude hi-fi was just for boomer billionaires. There is just no connection or relevance. It may as well be a space station. A gigantic banner shouting “This technology is not for you”.

I argue these points because I care about music, I care about audio, and I want to see a whole new generation enjoy something beyond headphone listening (which admittedly is superb and remarkably attainable these days). If the conventional audio industry wants to survive it needs to pitch to kids and teenagers. Kids and teenagers just like I was. Like many of us here were. The musicians are. The world is awash with amazing new vinyl, CDs and downloads from amazing new artists. They are doing their part. The hi-fi industry needs to do its part and become relevant again. If it doesn’t it is dead.

PS I do accept there is still some good honest kit out there, I don’t intend to slag everyone off. I just feel the industry as a whole has lost its way to a disturbing extent. Every year I make the same point, and every year what I am looking at is even more absurd and ultimately irrelevant than the previous years offering.
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I think that part of what has changed is that entry level kit has become so very good. Back in the 60s, 70s, even 80s, the music centres and one box record players were nasty sounding things. If you went even to a Dual 505, NAD and Diamonds you were a big step up. Better kit such as you describe was better again. But now you get decent quality lossless or even high rate MP3 files on your phone, as a source that's up there with an entry level CD, you put that through a Bluetooth speaker and it's *pretty good*. Buy separate amps, speakers etc? No thanks.
 
stevec67 said:
I think that part of what has changed is that entry level kit has become so very good. Back in the 60s, 70s, even 80s, the music centres and one box record players were nasty sounding things. If you went even to a Dual 505, NAD and Diamonds you were a big step up. Better kit such as you describe was better again. But now you get decent quality lossless or even high rate MP3 files on your phone, as a source that's up there with an entry level CD, you put that through a Bluetooth speaker and it's *pretty good*. Buy separate amps, speakers etc? No thanks.
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Agreed. Everyone has a smartphone, and every smartphone is capable of genuinely high quality audio. My ‘travel rig’ of mainly lossless files on my iPhone and a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 2 is seriously good if a bit exaggerated in the bass (the Momentums, not the iPhone). That is in reach of everyone, in fact they already have the expensive bit in their pocket already.

My suspicion is the equivalent of 13 year old me fully understands this and also understands the next step is to add a pair of Genelec or Neumann active monitors and not set foot in a hi-fi shop. Add a mail-order Technics SL1200 to taste. Job done. You can’t go wrong with that to be honest. To be honest if I lost my kit for any reason that is how I’d replace it, albeit with rather larger and more expensive MEGs.
 
TheFlash said:
The opening post was about Audio Show Deluxe of course, which focuses on the spendier end of the market (actually by some definitions the midrange!); every show has its place.

I'd like to see the sort of entry point show you mention but it wouldn't be a load of old blokes making it work, it would need some younger folk tuned into younger folk's priorities to make it an attractive proposition for a day out. Of course the elephant in the room is who would pay for this sort of show and how the manufacturers/dealers would reconcile the costs of running a room with the likely sales it would ultimately need to generate to pay its way. Lots to sort out...
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I think the other end of the spectrum is Audiojumble. More old blokes but the kind that haggle over a £5 cable.
 
paulfromcamden said:
I think the other end of the spectrum is Audiojumble. More old blokes but the kind that haggle over a £5 cable.
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I got a Thorens 150 in a custom plinth with a Mayware arm for £30 at the audiojumble at, where was it now? Near Leicester somewhere, in the late 90s? Before they started the Wam thing at Scalford. Good fun. Not many £30 record players beat a TD150. Not many £300 players do either, FWIW.
 
paulfromcamden said:
I think the other end of the spectrum is Audiojumble. More old blokes but the kind that haggle over a £5 cable.
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I thought of that and I also thought of the Wam now Mav show which can be a great way of being inspired to build a great system for less money than elsewhere... but then I realised (a) these are both attended primarily by older males and (b) they require knowing stuff about turntables and phono stages and why you can't just plug a turntable into any sockets on the amp... the Crossley has a lot to answer for!
 
Tony L said:
Again this is kind of the point I’m trying to make. I bring a whole life experience with me in making that point. I aspired to a proper hi-fi system as soon as I heard a really good system aged 12 or 13. I had achieved it before my 16th birthday with a second-hand Lenco, Quad 33/303 and a pair of JR149s. A pretty decent system even by today’s standards. The system that sparked my interest as a pre/early-teen was a TD-125, 3009, V15/III, a Quad 33/303 and a pair of Celestion Ditton 66. Quite a high-end rig in 1974 or whenever it was, yet still kind of tentatively attainable even to a little kid. It wasn’t a Lamborghini Miura, a Lear Jet or an island in the Bahamas. It was a music replay tool that if one really wanted one could scrabble and save and achieve.

That same little 12-13 year old kid seeing the video upthread would just conclude hi-fi was just for boomer billionaires. There is just no connection or relevance. It may as well be a space station. A gigantic banner shouting “This technology is not for you”.

I argue these points because I care about music, I care about audio, and I want to see a whole new generation enjoy something beyond headphone listening (which admittedly is superb and remarkably attainable these days). If the conventional audio industry wants to survive it needs to pitch to kids and teenagers. Kids and teenagers just like I was. Like many of us here were. The musicians are. The world is awash with amazing new vinyl, CDs and downloads from amazing new artists. They are doing their part. The hi-fi industry needs to do its part and become relevant again. If it doesn’t it is dead.

PS I do accept there is still some good honest kit out there, I don’t intend to slag everyone off. I just feel the industry as a whole has lost its way to a disturbing extent. Every year I make the same point, and every year what I am looking at is even more absurd and ultimately irrelevant than the previous years offering.
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Good post.

Great story about your early ventures in this strange land. However, I wouldn't want to see shows like Sunday's draw in their horns because of the risk of a few 12-13 year olds accidentally coming across the video and thinking "obscene, obscene!". Depending on where you draw the boundary around "the hifi industry" (Sonos, Bose, Crossley, Beats anyone?) there is still something out there for all ages and all budgets. The Audio Show Deluxe deliberately sets out its stall as being for the 1% (random percentage, don't let it distract you) rather than even the mid-range "masses". That show is hardly representative of the industry as a whole.
 
Isn't there a huge paradox here in that the people who may appreciate the fidelity of these bling systems can't afford them whilst those that can ( without batting an eyelid)aren't necessarily buying them based on the same criteria or level of audiophile appreciation? Bastards.
 
The show was exactly as described, bit ticket items, budget from a few k per item up to 100,000s per item. I heard nothing that I've not heard better in modest home setups. A lot of them did one thing incredibly well, often at the cost of many other important traits.
 
The level of hifi available for modest money makes a mockery of these high end bling fest systems. The best thing to do is to laugh at them.

Quite a lot to laugh about on here also.

As Tony says, hi-res files & active speakers is pretty hard to beat.
 
The best audio system on earth would have to have the level and crushing dynamics of big horns, the timbre of BBC-inspired monitors, the delicacy and boxlessness of electrostatics, and the detail of Wilsons or Focals.
 
Yank said:
The best audio system on earth would have to have the level and crushing dynamics of big horns, the timbre of BBC-inspired monitors, the delicacy and boxlessness of electrostatics, and the detail of Wilsons or Focals.
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Sign me up!
 
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