IMO and IME, the equipment is brick walled and going in circles, with many a misstep along the way.
Subtle changes upward, yes, but overall, it’s always been there, fully available in the parts quality costs. Modern times... has wreaked havoc in the mid level quality available for a given set amount. Big economics story there, so complex that just about any viewpoint can be fleshed out into seemingly making sense.
We’ve been forced into being smarter. And quality has suffered, in some ways. It would be a long story to define it.
without really getting into the story behind it...you can take a mediocre device from the 60’s to 90’s and intelligently upgrade it... to being the equal of anything expensive and top-flite in today’s market.
Fundamental changes are not happening as fast as some might try to hawk into the extant moments.
It’s a mature market, for the most part, which means established methods and ways. True disruptions are going to be few and far between due to this maturity and the inability of an adjusted and staid sytem to recognize such. A staid and controlled system will most times reject anything truly new. Whether any bits of new appear or are recognized is up to the given person(s) and group. Groups are notoriously conservative... so new in most cases, for a group... is likely just a minor difference wrapped in a flag that appears new.
My problem with digital, is that it has spent 30 years simply trying to equal a LP. just trying to equal an LP.
Which is unbelievably pathetic.
I’m not against digital but that does not qualify as innovation that takes the desires of the market pinnacles further, that’s an innovation of a different type; one that is about the users and holders of said signal storage and playback, not about true innovation in qualities. Radically different unrealized mediocrity for everyone!
By 1993 or so, after much testing, I rejected digital as a botched job that had nothing to do with high end audio, but was obviously grasped by high end audio in the desire for sales and multiple versions of flags were wrapped around it and promoted as hard as can be. It was nothing more than a bottle of 2 year old scotch that was nice but it needed to mature into a 30 year old scotch and that was a long way away.
meanwhile, I was not going tho throw out my widely available 30 year old scotch to promote and drink immature bad tasting and nearly toxic - 2 year old scotch. I was at a pinnacle and still moving forward, why go backward? What the hell was everyone’s major malfunction? Oh yeah, markets are based on the new, not the used or traded. Just the new. So the 2 year old immature and bad tasting scotch was promoted to the average man in the street.
This is a sort of comparative story of where everyone was with analog in the early 90’s. This is not the only thing that was going on through those time periods but it was definitely a part of it.
Subtle changes upward, yes, but overall, it’s always been there, fully available in the parts quality costs. Modern times... has wreaked havoc in the mid level quality available for a given set amount. Big economics story there, so complex that just about any viewpoint can be fleshed out into seemingly making sense.
We’ve been forced into being smarter. And quality has suffered, in some ways. It would be a long story to define it.
without really getting into the story behind it...you can take a mediocre device from the 60’s to 90’s and intelligently upgrade it... to being the equal of anything expensive and top-flite in today’s market.
Fundamental changes are not happening as fast as some might try to hawk into the extant moments.
It’s a mature market, for the most part, which means established methods and ways. True disruptions are going to be few and far between due to this maturity and the inability of an adjusted and staid sytem to recognize such. A staid and controlled system will most times reject anything truly new. Whether any bits of new appear or are recognized is up to the given person(s) and group. Groups are notoriously conservative... so new in most cases, for a group... is likely just a minor difference wrapped in a flag that appears new.
My problem with digital, is that it has spent 30 years simply trying to equal a LP. just trying to equal an LP.
Which is unbelievably pathetic.
I’m not against digital but that does not qualify as innovation that takes the desires of the market pinnacles further, that’s an innovation of a different type; one that is about the users and holders of said signal storage and playback, not about true innovation in qualities. Radically different unrealized mediocrity for everyone!
By 1993 or so, after much testing, I rejected digital as a botched job that had nothing to do with high end audio, but was obviously grasped by high end audio in the desire for sales and multiple versions of flags were wrapped around it and promoted as hard as can be. It was nothing more than a bottle of 2 year old scotch that was nice but it needed to mature into a 30 year old scotch and that was a long way away.
meanwhile, I was not going tho throw out my widely available 30 year old scotch to promote and drink immature bad tasting and nearly toxic - 2 year old scotch. I was at a pinnacle and still moving forward, why go backward? What the hell was everyone’s major malfunction? Oh yeah, markets are based on the new, not the used or traded. Just the new. So the 2 year old immature and bad tasting scotch was promoted to the average man in the street.
This is a sort of comparative story of where everyone was with analog in the early 90’s. This is not the only thing that was going on through those time periods but it was definitely a part of it.