REGISTER NEW USERLOST PASSWORD? WELCOME, Logout

What’s wrong with the status quo?

Paul's Posts — 13 September 2011

By

What’s wrong with the status quo?

Yesterday’s post suggested the perceived shift away from high-end audio was not what it appears.  That, in fact, it is a shift away from spending family resources on isolating the audio system – not the lack of desire for high-performance.

We now have entire generations of music lovers who want music throughout the home and appreciate better quality.  There aren’t fewer Audiophiles, there are more.

The status quo defenders would ask us to not abandon the old ways.  They work, they are comfortable.  They will point out that abandonment of the audio sanctuary and the equipment that is dedicated to supporting that precious real estate go hand-in-hand with giving up on audio perfection.

Much hand wringing and fear mongering keeps our industry stuck in the mud.

I believe it is entirely possible to build a new industry around music throughout the home without compromise.

Other pioneers join with me in building this new future.

Where are you?

email Whats wrong with the status quo? Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers

Get new and fresh stories like this each morning by joining the folks reading Paul's Posts. Click here

Related Articles

Rolling it off What’s all the fuss about? Young turks Get that mole!

Share

About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(6) Readers Comments

  1. Ballisticman

    September 13, 2011 at 4:22 am

    More members of the family appreciate the ability of having better high quality sound throughout the entire home than just one dedicated room with ‘do not touch’ components. Distributed sound throughout the home with extreme quality speakers embedded throughout, managed by equally high quality switch devices allow for this shared phenomenon. Our Denon 5308 allows for three modes in simultaneous operation with divers media suiting different tastes thus totally eliminating the argument as to where is the money going for the high end audio allowing for the newer technology.

    • September 13, 2011 at 6:38 am

      and that’s definitely a worthy start. However, I have much higher aspirations and am pushing designers of high-end audio products to do better – to bring their intimate knowledge of what it takes to make something really sing. I am sure your setup is awesome and kudos for bringing the family into the fold.

  2. September 13, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    Maybe. Naim didn’t seem to have any luck with their Naim NET products. Most distributed audio jobs use low low quality speakers e.g. Speakercraft. Some companies are making good stuff e.g. James loudspeakers and are doing great as a result. It is certainly a very interesting and fast moving area of the industry.

    • September 13, 2011 at 5:18 pm

      Indeed. Keep the comments coming because this is the way we get the word out. maybe some designer is looking for a leg up on this subject and will find inspiration here.

  3. September 14, 2011 at 2:38 am

    Well, I think that listening to music (different from only ‘hearing music’ concept as it means that probably you use it more as ambiental-music while doing other things) has more to do with a private pleasure. Like reading a book: does anybody use to see many couples reading the same book at the same time? I don´t. On the other hand, there are some succesful solutions for multiroom, like Sonos (get the digital signal from a receiver module and then add a good DAC, for example).

    • Frank LaFond

      September 18, 2011 at 8:40 am

      I think this distinction between listening and hearing is an important one. This quote below is an excerpt from a post by Robert Greene (The Absolute Sound reviewer) on his forum:

      There is a very considerable amount of serious evidence that video has made young people essentially unable to
      listen to music without video in addition. Actually there is evidence that things are even worse than that. Many
      television writers are being instructed by the people who study such things that if their shows are to be successful
      with the young, then the shows must have a low enough content density that one can “text” or websurf at the same time as watching the show without losing the plot line.

      This hardly sounds like an audience that can listen to much of anything. If you read REG’s entire post, he goes on to describe the trends he sees as a professor. I agree we have generations of people who want music throughout the home. If they aren’t actually listening to the music though, I would never call them audiophiles or even music lovers.

Leave a Reply