It seems real clear that the market is changing with the advent of home theater and all the associated stuff that goes with it. I just bought a new piece of audio gear (FM tuner) from my local high-end dealer. When I ordered this piece, I was shocked to see that out of seven listening rooms in the store, four were dedicated to home theater/plasma TV's. The main entrance room was also chock full of video stuff. They are evening selling home theater furniture (leather sofas and loveseats) along with light diming switches to control room lighting. Gone is the wall of high-end accesories (cables, recording cleaning items, etc., etc.). Gone are the big two channel setups that folks like us depend upon for learning about and auditioning new equipment. How is one supposed to audition new gear and make intelligent purchasing decisions when the majority of items offered for sale relate to video and watching movies? You can't audition audio equipemnt on the internet.
You can't blame dealers for going this route - they are in business to make money. The market is changing and they need to keep abreast of it to stay alive. However, where does that leave those of us who still value two channel? It makes one wonder how long some of the top high-end manufacturers can stay in business.
You can't blame dealers for going this route - they are in business to make money. The market is changing and they need to keep abreast of it to stay alive. However, where does that leave those of us who still value two channel? It makes one wonder how long some of the top high-end manufacturers can stay in business.