How could High End audio be improved?

IMHO, the biggest issue is not easily resolved: The lack of objectivity. What is better? What is worse? It always depends on far too many factors and it therefore becomes very, very difficult to make good purchasing decisions. In turn, this leads to hype, a proliferation of manufacturers and high prices.

If you are a car buff, you can look at horsepower and torque and understand what that means. For us, a watt is not a watt (RMS, Class A, speaker load???). If you are a wine buff, you can get a Wine Spectator rating (for us, virtually anyone who advertises in Stereophile is reviewed as the best in class). Those are just a couple of examples. What is a novice to do? Heck, what is an experienced audiophile to do? We can't listen to every combination of all equipment in our living rooms.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that we can make this hobby more objective (at least not without a lot of new learning). But the inherent subjectivity makes this a very difficult hobby to understand and makes decisions very difficult. There is no summarized way to distill how one system (let alone component) compares to another.

Something that could help would be for manufacturers to cooperate (yeah, I know...) and design various packages of components to sell to folks. The dealer is often doing that as best as they can, but the dealer only carries so many lines. A carefully matched package approach can simplify the decisioning and drop the pricing -- and only the manufacturers can really create these strategic alliances that, hopefully, are formed by listening to the alternatives and compiling good systems. If this were easy to do, it would already be done. But given the currently subjective nature of the business, simplifying the sales presentation and ability to compare would be wonderful. (Consider why most car manufacturers don't sell engines, transmissions and bodies separately).

My two cents. It's hard to put all this in a few paragraphs. Great thread Twl. I look forward to everyone's response.

Ohlala, you're quite right that the subjectivity drives much of the fun and challenge in building a system. It also leads to the hype, confusion, high pricing and chaos which keeps this hobby so esoteric. The first thing I should have addressed is "what is meant by improve?". I defined "improving High End" fairly narrowly: Expanding the hobby to include many more people and being able to narrow the field in making decisions. Other responses clearly had other "improvments" in mind and they are all quite valid and the responses are great -- e.g., Lugnut's response addresses improving the music for all of us *and* expanding the hobby. Great thread Twl!

Asa, don't all people limit themselves by their assumptions whether they choose to do so or not?

Also, while I may have misinterpreted, I don't believe Viggin was justifying the opinions of others who disregard the art and beauty of music. Rather, I read his post as simply suggesting that there are different opinions which are, of course, important and correct to those who hold them.

Like moths drawn to the flame, we audiophiles are drawn to the truth of musical expression. So, in varying degrees and in different ways (as you suggest), we are closer than most to the truth of musical art. Hiend is not a necessary requirement for that, but it is for us. Per many of the suggestions above, hiend could be a home for many more. More people will choose it as a home if it is comfortable and inviting and provides some shelter from the everyday storms of life. I believe that most people do enjoy beauty without it being taught to them. Not everyone will choose to see it when it appears, but more will if we can simplify the offering.