Death of hi-fi predicted; podcast at 11

[unixronin]

"Apple Computer, on the bus, with the iPod."

According to this article, the iPod — or, more accurately, the current ubiquity of music-on-the-go via a small portable player — is killing hi-fi.  JVC and Kenwood just merged in an effort to cut costs and stay competitive in a shrinking and crowded market, and the parent company of Denon, Marantz Boston Acoustics, Snell Acoustics and McIntosh is up for sale.

Comments

[skellington.livejournal.com]

Well, some of this article is a bit of an exageration..

"CD Player sales were $36.2M" Well, who buys a dedicated CD player instead of a DVD player? (In 2006, there were 20M DVD PLAYERS sold for, I'd guess, well over $1B in sales.)

And the thing is, with a digital output, ANY DVD player is going to produce absolutely gorgeous sound, if you put a decent amplifier in front of it.

So the end result is that the only "Hi Fi" component you need is a home theater amplifier, and then a half dozen digital devices for sources.

And home theater rooms, and home theater systems, are selling just fine.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

"CD Player sales were $36.2M" Well, who buys a dedicated CD player instead of a DVD player? (In 2006, there were 20M DVD PLAYERS sold for, I'd guess, well over $1B in sales.)

A sound point, though I'm frankly annoyed that my dedicated CD player died. Being magazine-fed and optimized for playing CDs, it did various things that my DVD player, however versatile it may be at playing almost any existing standard-definition optical media, simply doesn't do. Random-shuffle play, for instance, or CD-tape synchro recording.
(Though the last is somewhat moot because, well, (a) my tape player died too, and (b) who records CDs to tape any more? The advent of readily-available CD-ripping software and the commodity portable MP3 player has made the Philips compact cassette effectively obsolete.)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I do think the DACs in most mid-fi and better dedicated-CD players are a touch better than the DACs in the commodity-grade DVD/CD/MP3-CD players though. Maybe it's just my imagination.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Ahem. I record CD to tape because my car does NOT do CD and I do NOT wish for it to.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, OK, point. :) I guess I need to figure out whether I can fix the tape deck, then ... though the chances are slim, especially considering it's 16 years old now and there probably aren't any replacement parts available.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

*points out the mini-stereo on the carved table that has a CD player and a tape recorder*