Why Don't More People Love Audio?

It’s too hard. If you’re an enthusiast of most higher endeavors, e.g., exotic cars, watches, etc., you get what you pay for; and it’s instant gratification. If you learn how to drive a Bugatti, it will perform as expected and never be outperformed by a Porsche. Not so with audio. You can spend your life's savings and years fidgeting with your system and still not come close to achieving what you set out to do.

Phaelon, The Bugatti is a total package not parts you put together. At a time when I first started in audio, there were few manufacturers, so you had a Dyna, Heath, Marantz, etc. system or at least their electronics. Also, what do you "not outperformed by a Porsche? In mileage, it might be.

I think it is just a matter of what else you might spend your money and time on. I had receivers and speakers, no television, no computer, only a land line with long distance charges, no earbuds or Iphones, and I was poor. With today's youth, there is time only to text.

"The Bugatti is a total package not parts you put together.”

Hi Tbg. I don’t think we disagree. In fact, I think you just made the point I was trying to make rather better than I did. Sticking with the Bugatti example, one could collect of all of the parts necessary to construct a Bugatti or any other exotic he desires. How many people would have the vision and knowhow to build one? And if your audio plan is to engage one of the self proclaimed experts in our hobby, you better be lucky. Back to the Bugatti example, the expert would take those parts and build you something that will drive... and perhaps very nicely. But still, there was the unrealized potential of a Bugatti.

At least one technical explanation has occurred to me as to why the number 'true' audiophiles has recently declined - despite the fact that most gear quality continues to improve. Over the last 5 years I'd begun investigating the whole topic of power conditioning for myself. Right away I was struck with the fact that not everybody was necessarily satisfied with their solutions, so I learned to proceed cautiously. A couple years ago I came across the Alan Maher Designs website (now facebook only). Although I ultimately tried a few different gizmos from him and was encouraged (absolutely sold was more like it), I eventually came to understand from Alan that the only thing his devices were actually designed to do was to reduce electrical noise - nothing else. Ok, so good, so far. But, the thing is that Alan maintains the idea that "dirty power" from the power company is basically just an audio myth (unless you live within 5 miles of high-arcing heavy industrial motors...like a sawmill, or something). He says (and I've come around to agree with him) that the real source of electrical noise in the home is not the grid, but, in fact, everything that is plugged into the home. Including everything that comes with a sleep mode. Anything that's turned on and is drawing power can generate noise and anything in sleep mode makes 90-95% of the noise the device makes when it's fully on. Of course, every appliance will generate noise - noise that's bidirectional and (despite the fact that it tends to dissipate over distance) will make its way back to the circuit breaker box where it's then redistributed all over the house. I know this is a long explanation, but bear with me. The big problem is that in a modern house, we have a crazy number of devices plugged into the home and almost every one of them these days has a sleep mode. Not only all your appliances, but everything from your clock radio to all your computers, cell-phone chargers, your coffee maker - anything programmable, anything with digital circuitry (which is actually just about everything)...even a wall-wart that's not hooked up to anything and its power light is on...not even to mention your own gear itself - all of the components - everything is throwing noise back to the breaker box - and all that, coincidently, is what Alan's many devices are meant to tackle (at the source, in most cases). But, my point in all this rambling, is that this overcrowding of noise-generating appliances in the home was definitely NOT the case 30 and 40 years ago...! In THOSE homes, only noise was generated when something was in use - and not all that much noise when it was in use. The result?? HiFi's had a much better chance of sounding good for less money back then than they do at all now. A surprisingly much better chance IMO, as it turns out (now that I've had the last 2 years to experiment with Alan's gear myself). Generally, no one has really been aware of this decline in the HiFi environment, in part, because it's been so completely incidious, making its presence felt so slowly over time and only by degrees. It's a real reason why so many people remember their systems of that era so fondly - not strictly so much a matter of sheer nostalgia after all, I think. I can tell from direct experience now, that we would generally perceive these adverse effects on our systems as a more "electronic" kind of sound, a difficulty in achieving system neutrality, harshness, ongoing sibilance problems and a case of the incurable "digital nasties".

Come to think of it, Alan says that flat-panel TV's are likely the single noisiest appliance found in the home, nowadays. But, no wonder if maybe introductory vinyl- or digital-based systems are not turning on quite as many people as they used to...my experience, so far, anyway.