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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Re: The problem with Hi-Fi dealers (long) posted by Dave Duvall on July 20, 2000 at 17:19:39:
Hi Dave,I have a copy of your Belles 150a review saved on my hard drive--it was one of the key reviews behind my decision to buy one. =) I've been thinking about the audio retail business also although I'm still in college and still a few years away from joining The Real World. Since I like your writing, I'll share with you my top-secret, proprietary thoughts on the audio business. ;)
First of all, the key principle behind any business is you need a demand and then a supply. The supply is easy (there are plenty of hi-fi manufacturers) but what about the demand? People like music, certainly (cf. mp3 craze), but why don't they like superior audio fidelity?
This topic has been addressed quite a lot by the audio press. The top two answers that come to mind for me are 1) the snob view: people don't have sufficient musical training with live acoustical instruments and 2) it's the subjective response (the musical boogie factor) that matters, not the objective acoustic fidelity.
Resultingly, I think there are two approaches to stimulating demand and as a consequent the audiophile industry. The first approach roughly corresponds with #1 above: give people more fidelity and maybe they will begin to appreciate it more.
How to accomplish this? I remember reading a SS! article covering a CES event where NHT had set up a live acoustic ensemble in one room, and their 3.3's playing a live feed of that room in *another* room. Something about this creative attempt really appeals to me. I think more such "random acts of beauty" ought to occur. The artist in me (I've had some training) would love to throw together some publicity stunts. I mean, why must Art (with the capital A) must always be so visual? (I do realize that there are multimedia exhibitions out there--I remember one such at the Hirschorn in DC that used JBL speakers to play the accompanying soundtrack. It sounded good, but could've been better (mo' BASS! =) ).
An idea of mine relating to the NHT exhibit is to set up the same thing at a concert hall. Isn't it natural to target the "refined" music lovers at such events with audiophile equipment? Why not set up a very refined setup at one of those events? I'm thinking a quality diffuse sound field speaker (how about MBL omnis) driven with top notch electronics in the reception room, surrounded by rich tapestries and rich folks hobnobbing with their fancy clothings drinking fancy drinks, and a more traditional head-in-a-vise-sweet-spot holographic setup in a dedicated sound room for the more curious of concert-goers. This would all happen before (or maybe even after) the main event, of course.
My main idea for #1 is just, somehow, get higher fidelity out into the public consciousness. Art and even the commercial version--Advertisements, of some original fashion (think aural billboards or the above concert hall exhibit) would be this first approach.
My idea for #2 is to target the "younger generation" with some serious boogie factor. What about an installation at a "happening" mall, where instead of a Cambridge SoundWorks outlet you have a branch of your own audio business... And instead of the traditional "look at the random piles of somewhat expensive electronic gadgets we have spread around the flourescent-lighted showroom floor", what about setting up a sort of dance club? A kind of back room, dimly lit, cranking out the tunes at a decent (but not hearing-damaging) volume?
I've been to a few dances in my college career and I know that the better dances seem to have better audio equipment. (This usually translates to more subwoofers with less distortion). Why not put together a *real* audiophile dance room? How about 4 REL StudioII's, one in each corner, and some good quality horn speakers (I'm thinking Avantgarde Trios) playing the rest? I'm sure such a dance would be a revelation to the mallrats who happen to stumble in. Once hooked, you could introduce them to the relatively lower-end equipment, in separate sound rooms (well insulated of course). Just make sure to not shake down the rest of the mall complex. ;D
The idea behind my approach #2 is to demonstrate that subjective enjoyment of music IS somewhat correlated to the quality of transduction. I think, if anything, the REL and Avantgarde setup ought to put the fear of AudioGod into them young'uns.
Anyway, as you can tell, I've had fun with these ideas. Hope you did too. There are plenty more where these came from!
Andrew =)
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Follow Ups
- I gots ideas! - AndrewH 07/21/0022:25:46 07/21/00 (1)
- Re: I gots ideas! - Dave Duvall 10:03:09 07/22/00 (0)
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