"Progress.. I see what you mean, but most of the progress made today and through the last decades appears to be working around how to keep costs at bay through mass production, convenience (i.e.: size, consumption, etc.) et al. and hereby lessening the impact of such factors."
There's a difference between mass market products and high end audio components. What you are talking about here, applies mostly to lower end gear.
"If one were to read all hifi magazines through the last 30-40 years and follow the development of how the reviewers reflected progressively positive on the coming iterations of, say, Mark Levinson amps, the current versions should almost sound as good as to cure severe illnesses as a side effect. It's symptomatic to much of the hifi industry at large: reveling so locally, and navel-gazingly, as to miss the bigger picture."
Then how would you have them write the reviews? Its not like they can see the future and hold off on giving a component a rave review because future models will sound better.
