Very interesting question, Onhwy61!
I think Brian's post is very accurate. Is it American to have the "do one thing and do it right" attitude? I am not sure, but over time, there have evolved speaker companies, electronics companies, turtable companies, digital companies, and cable companies.
You are right to bring up the fact that European companies are more holistic in the audiophile experience. You could also argue that perhaps because of this, they tend to take a very different view of cable. Europeans are quite nonchalant about wire, viewing it in a light more inline with mine - you need good cable, but it shouldn't rival the cost of your loudspeakers. Whereas the cable industry(virtually all American companies) seems to have evolved with the hype that AudioQuest, Kimber, and MIT began putting out their(for their own survival) own, "you need cable because your system doesn't sound as good as it should!" ads.
I think Brian's post is very accurate. Is it American to have the "do one thing and do it right" attitude? I am not sure, but over time, there have evolved speaker companies, electronics companies, turtable companies, digital companies, and cable companies.
You are right to bring up the fact that European companies are more holistic in the audiophile experience. You could also argue that perhaps because of this, they tend to take a very different view of cable. Europeans are quite nonchalant about wire, viewing it in a light more inline with mine - you need good cable, but it shouldn't rival the cost of your loudspeakers. Whereas the cable industry(virtually all American companies) seems to have evolved with the hype that AudioQuest, Kimber, and MIT began putting out their(for their own survival) own, "you need cable because your system doesn't sound as good as it should!" ads.