More potential bad news for some big names...

It is quite easy for every bozo and his uncle to sell a speaker out of his garage these days with big margins. In spite of his severe lack of aptitude, he’ll buy drivers from somewhere, slap it on a board and send it to some paid YT reviewer to launch himself (start to look legit outta nowhere).

Magic word here is APPTIDUTE The bozo I am getting my open baffle speaker is a genius when it comes to sound. He has a pedigree with the world’s most famous music producers and recording artists.

To their credit, these younger listeners tend to be more open to differing opinions surrounding gear and how it’s implemented in their systems ( even supplemental EQ, gasp!). The headphone community seems to have a lot less gatekeeping, that the traditional 2-channel hobby has in spades. Source: try asking a question about CD players here.

Yesterday, the bozo from above lent me 2 of the best headphones in the world to take home and decide which one to get. Today I am listening to the RAAL 1995 $7k Magna and $10K Immanis and it is incredible. The Immanis is better than the $160k 2-channel system that I heard this summer. Not as good as my Yamaha NS5000 but damn close.

I am listening to this with a used $450 Schitt Aegir amp, a $1200 Schitt Mjolnir v3 preamp, and a DAC I will be getting rid of soon, the Schitt LIM. The quality of sound these head-fi guys are getting is nothing to laugh at.

I have the very best headphone amp for these headphones packed up sitting in a box, The RAAL VM-1a. If I put that into the mix and take out the Schitt amp and preamp it would be impossible to sell the amp. I need to sell the amp to buy the phone.

I was talking with the bozo above about head-fi guys vs 2-channel and he also said how open minded and helpful they were. They also tended to be young. There is some resentment to the cost of the uber phones like the 2 I have at home now. However, there are some amazing lower cost phones like the RAAL CA-1a and the Meze Empy.

Mitch Barnett of Accurate Sounds CA is creating EQ filters for the Immanis as I write this. That dude is an EQ genius, but for my ears I will not use them for the Immanis. In this case the EQ are done using Convolution filters which can run in ROON. I use the term genius because how he found all the tragic errors in my used Thiel CS3.7 2-channel speaker. The head-fi guys are all on-board with EQ or open minded about it unlike most hear that eschew EQ of any kind.

Say what you want about Andrew Robinson, but at least he is willing to tell you when he doesn’t like a product, unlike 97% of the audiophile review industry.

The high end has been in a slow motion collapse as evidenced by the explosion of companies exclusively doing 50-100k entry level products.

It has fooled people into thinking it’s a sign of health. There actually has been no explosion, it’s just companies doing less and less volume, trying to cater to the ever shrinking pool of rich boomers with niche products that are the hobbyist equivalent of collectible art pieces.

As time goes by and boomer spending power declines one consequence will be used prices start to fetch a lot less v retail value than before and I think that is occurring now.

if Andrew Robinson's name keeps coming up: he is very smooth... on camera

not on camera he is an arrogant thin skinned bully. But that's just what I experienced in the comments several times.

Back to the subject:- re @deep_333  if I get old, I will sure give away everything I can. It better be enjoyed  by someone(s) long before I am gone :)

Like every year I went to Capital audio Fest on Sunday. It was great, I felt like I was the only one there. Had several rooms to myself like the big Focals. Exhibitors started packing up around 3. Show goes to 4.

Somehow the industry thinks that one can just sell things without advertising or promotion. No posts on forums what to expect, what is new, why it is relevant and why one should care. How are people supposed to know about this show? How is it supposed to attract younger visitors which are future premium buyers?
 

Why are  the shows not structured to show entry level rooms up to ultra premium so visitors don’t get turned off by $150.000 Siltech speaker cables right away.

Unfortunately unless one buys McIntosh it’s an immediate 50% off retail once opening the box. Not even luxury cars devalue that fast. Shows that the value proposition is off.

Why are there not more manufacturers offering upgrades to their equipment instead of planned obsolescence every 2-3 years to give some sense of long term value to the buyer? I.e my 20k Esoteric K01x is now several generations behind. It was bought in 2018. Why could one not offer, DAC board, drive upgrades to keep customers coming back? I would never buy another Esoteric again at this speed of “innovation” in CD players. It does sound good, also not needed at this time..

Last thing is that many of the people building these products are small companies with no succession plans. Why buy an ultra expensive product from someone that is hopefully another 5-10 years able to support the component? Could be solved via properly supported and licensed repair shops across the US.

Many problems today can be addressed. It would take the industry coming together  that would help everybody to benefit instead of just increasing prices.