Re: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?

[Robert Hodge <rjhodge@xxxxxxx>]

Brave ???????  GAD ! I think not !!

BH

>>> thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx 6/18/2007 3:23 PM >>>
We need to wake up to the fact,that the "golden age" of recorded
sound,and the  playback of same,is over,and it's not coming back.It has
been quite a while,since I heard a record that has really impressed me
sonically,and production-wise,be it vinyl or CD.The last one that comes
to mind,is "Rock Star God",by The Makers, and that came out in 2000.

The long,slow death of all music formats is well underway.We have
entered a world where The iPod has become the new reference.This is the
brave new world we have entered.There will always be an interest in what
used to be called"high end audio",or "HiFi".That will never fully
die,but it will always be a tiny niche market.It is just one small part
of the general decline of society.Economically,
socially,culturally,politically,or any other yardstick you care to use.

                                       Roger

Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Hi Don:

Unless you live in Silicon Valley or an area where Wall Street bonuses
get spent, I think you might 
want to talk to some high end dealers. Yes, the $1000 "cinema in a box"
market is borderline 
mainstream (although I only know 2 people out of maybe 100 I've asked
who have a surround system and 
view DVD's in surround sound, and both of them are audio
professionals), but the high end market is 
in the toilet according to the audiophool mags. There will definitely
be a market to sell $50k 
surround cinema systems to the latest dot-bomb millionaire, but that is
the definition of fringe. 
Any SACD sales figures I've seen (and they're elusive because no one
wants to admit to the 
mainstream media or Wall Street what a total failure the format has
been in the marketplace) are so 
low as to not cause a ripple vs. CD. They might stand up as a ripple
vs. download sales but we all 
know that a lot of downloading is done outside legal sales channels and
the only hard figures I've 
seen on numbers of songs sold come from Apple.

I'm not sure how you measure the labels you mentioned as "overtaking"
anyone. Except for Naxos, most 
of these are shoe-string operations selling into what may well be a
profitable niche, but still a 
niche. If you're talking the small and shrinking
recorded-classical-music market, yes the small fry 
are relatively big players in that space. But how many people under 50
buy classical music 
recordings anymore?

Listen, I wish more than anyone that good music and truly high-fidelity
recordings (both classical 
and jazz) weren't going extinct, but the market is a cruel mistress and
when people don't have an 
interest in buying something, there is no incentive to make it. And
culturally/socially, I think 
it's wrong to force something down unwilling throats (especially when
it's unwillingly subsidized by 
their tax dime) just because an elite somewhere considers it high-brow
or "refined" -- if the pepes 
aren't interested, they're not interested and the market will give the
poeple what they want.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] OK - Does Anyone Know More About This?


> On 15/06/07, Tom Fine wrote:
>
>> Er, OK Don but the fact is the major owners of content have pretty
>> much abandoned the format. Yes, some small labels catering to
>> audiophiles do continue to make releases, mostly classical music
but
>> some jazz. Fact is, SACD failed as anything approaching a
mainstream
>> format.
>
> Good music isn't mainstream anyway. And what you call "small firms"
are
> overtaking the majors - Hyperion, Chandos, Naxos, BIS etc have been
> building their catalogs for the past 20 years while the old majors
have
> been winding down.
>>
>> You raise a good question about quad uptake vs. SACD and you might
be
>> right but note that SACD-enabled players are not all DVD players by
a
>> long stretch, so they are a tiny subset of the installed DVD base.
>
> Not all DVD players can play SACD, but a good proportion can,
including
> most of the better ones. So people who are serious about Home Cinema
can
> generally also play SACDs in surround dound.
>
> Hi Fi dealers now sell a lot of Home Cinema gear.
>
>> Also note that DVD-audio pretty much failed as a mainstream format,
>> too, although some niche players are definitely active in that
format
>> too.
>>
>> Bottom line is, more than 2 speakers for music-only listening is
just
>> not appealing to most people despite how much you and I might like
>> listening in surround sound.
>>
> There seem to be a lot of magazines called "What Home Cinema" and
the
> like. I think this is a thriving industry.
>
> Regards
> -- 
> Don Cox
> doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> 


       
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