Paul's Posts — 12 September 2011
By Paul McGowan
A fellow manufacturer dropped me a note recently in response to one of my posts regarding the declining acceptance of high-end audio in the home. He writes:
“Audio-as-a-destination-activity is the enemy of the rest of the household. It takes both money and the listener away from the family.
Home Theater is a friend of the family … and much more. As in the MasterCard commercials, HT is priceless to the Mom because it has the possibility of being used to bring the family together for a shared activity.
C’est la vie, c’est la guerre. Redesigning the genetic code is not our job.”
I think what’s interesting here is found in the first line: “audio-as-a-destination.” Or put another way, the proverbial two-channel man cave sanctuary.
I believe much of the perceived shift away from high-end audio (we hear tell about) is actually a shift away from the dedicated sanctuary approach and not two-channel itself.
I have never met a family that does not enjoy music and isn’t appreciative of better performance. Music has a bigger place in the family than home theater ever will.
Home theater is a passing phase. Music is here forever.
The shift in our industry isn’t away from the high-end – it is a shift away from the isolation of the sanctuary.
High-end needs to change its status-quo to one of supporting the family enjoying high-performance audio.
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fig
Many, if not all of the “Man Cave” systems are large, expensive and often unattractive looking to others in the family, especially our spouses. Perhaps minimal systems with speakers that better fit in the decor of the main living area would make things better in terms of sharing with the family. I know it would in my own home as my wife likes my stereo, but wouldn’t have it in our living room, probably at any cost.
Paul McGowan
Indeed, this is a growing problem and one I would encourage loudspeaker manufacturers to address in earnest. It’s one of the reasons I am writing these posts to bring awareness of these issues to the forefront. If you know any loudspeaker manufacturers you’re fond of, forward this post to them and keep hammering on them to start thinking small, powerful and wireless.
I have said many times that it isn’t that people don’t want and aren’t willing to pay for better quality high-end audio, it’s just that our lives and circumstances are changing and the high-end world isn’t following.
There’s no question we know how to build small, powerful, room filling audio products that the whole family would love – we’re just not doing it.
Bazza13
“HT is a passing phase” should create an interesting discussion Paul! I have a 2 channel system in my living room and a HT system in the family room. Not only are my adult children disinterested in the physical size of it all they live in urban condos that have strata restrictions prohibiting HT systems. They stream video on their laptop computers and because I treat them with gifts of higher quality audio products like headphones they are coming around to the improvements that can be made to MP3 music.
Paul McGowan
I have noticed that “adult children” when they get into their 30′s start to care about high-end and get the itch to go. There’s just not much out there that gives them anything to go to. We gotta change that.