Yes across the board with regards to stuff-- I'm probably just too old to fit that generation, but we're having fewer kids and doing so later. I.e. Not setting down. Looking at houses in Portland (guess who's moving here in droves?), I can buy a larger home (well, theoretically) much nicer shape that is only slightly less walkable for barely any more than a heap of junk that is extremely central. Which reflects in used furniture costs -- have a look at going rates of mid-to-high-end dining room sets. They're sitting on the market forever. Knick knacks and collectibles are equally lost on us.
Which is to reinforce that small and unobtrusive is the order of the day. If I make another speaker design, it will be either ceiling based synergy corner horns or some form of wall mount. Floor space is too precious and integration is key. Let a phone/tablet do the digital stuff and bake in the dsp/amps into the speakers. I very much think you're on the right track.
Big sound systems are not a status symbol for us as is clearly the case with some members of this thread.
George, if you branch this late thread direction, please grab this as well.
Which is to reinforce that small and unobtrusive is the order of the day. If I make another speaker design, it will be either ceiling based synergy corner horns or some form of wall mount. Floor space is too precious and integration is key. Let a phone/tablet do the digital stuff and bake in the dsp/amps into the speakers. I very much think you're on the right track.
Big sound systems are not a status symbol for us as is clearly the case with some members of this thread.
George, if you branch this late thread direction, please grab this as well.
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Regardless of how you define millennial, and how you view economic factors and changes in the distribution of wealth, it's a cop out and a complete denial of the failures of the "hifi" industry to suggest that this alone is at fault.
Luxury products are thriving in many different sectors.
I'm uncomfortable using the term "millennial" because its too broad and imprecise and well as borderline pejorative in some cases. However the urban dweller who is the dominant younger market lives in a smaller apartment, works a lot does not spend a lot of time in the apartment. His/her experience of life is very different from most on this forum.
Buried in spaceistheplace's great outline is a core difference in expectations of audio. Those of us who grew up before computers and all the magic modern tech has provided experienced music in a classic venue. A room with a stage or similar at one end of a space with an audience arrayed around that space listening to the musicians. Whether its the Grateful Dead at the Greek theater or Zappa at the Avalon Ballroom or a riveting performance of Wagner the format had a commonality. Reproducing that experience was what the audio thing was about. The advent of the Walkman, the ipod and using headphones lead to a fresh music experience that is different with no need for the reference to watching musicians on a stage, the need for a classic stereo stage with depth etc. has far less relevance. Why would you go to an audio show to see big ugly objects that won't fit in a clean modern space to make a stereo sound that you are not really interested in?
If you go to classical concerts, live musical plays etc. with few exceptions no one will be under 50. That is the market that responds to music on a stage being reproduced. What Kindhornman is targeting is a different market where music is a different part of life, consumed in different ways. A single box that can create a "stereo like" sound field is a much better fit and more useful. A speaker that needs to be 3' from walls and carefully positioned is too much trouble. Not because it would not sound better but because that's not what its about.
As for the Chromecast Audio device they are $35 and well worth a try. An Amazon Echo Dot is similar but no digital available and no multiroom yet. However you can talk to it. I think this is the best use of voice interaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5bYtcjWcPQ
Buried in spaceistheplace's great outline is a core difference in expectations of audio. Those of us who grew up before computers and all the magic modern tech has provided experienced music in a classic venue. A room with a stage or similar at one end of a space with an audience arrayed around that space listening to the musicians. Whether its the Grateful Dead at the Greek theater or Zappa at the Avalon Ballroom or a riveting performance of Wagner the format had a commonality. Reproducing that experience was what the audio thing was about. The advent of the Walkman, the ipod and using headphones lead to a fresh music experience that is different with no need for the reference to watching musicians on a stage, the need for a classic stereo stage with depth etc. has far less relevance. Why would you go to an audio show to see big ugly objects that won't fit in a clean modern space to make a stereo sound that you are not really interested in?
If you go to classical concerts, live musical plays etc. with few exceptions no one will be under 50. That is the market that responds to music on a stage being reproduced. What Kindhornman is targeting is a different market where music is a different part of life, consumed in different ways. A single box that can create a "stereo like" sound field is a much better fit and more useful. A speaker that needs to be 3' from walls and carefully positioned is too much trouble. Not because it would not sound better but because that's not what its about.
As for the Chromecast Audio device they are $35 and well worth a try. An Amazon Echo Dot is similar but no digital available and no multiroom yet. However you can talk to it. I think this is the best use of voice interaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5bYtcjWcPQ
Yet several prominent oldsters here claim little interest in classical music. The last place I lived had a large community living room with a full sized Steinway and a Martin DB45 kept in tune for impromptu use. Occasionally someone who could actually play showed up and I still say no reproduced audio at any price point really came that close.
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Looking around, my friends in that age group buy expensive stuff not because of quality, but more like for achieving a desired social status. With the purchase, they are in fact making a statement rather than filling a true need. They dump the expensive stuff as soon as the fashion moves elsewhere.
Can't wait to see the day when the iCrap brand will fill the sewers. I use a noname digital player during the daily transit, and could not hear a shred of a difference to an iPod with 64bit technology, a x10 faster GPU, a Retina display, and Metal (wtf?) technology, that would justify the x10 price.
I used the word millennial for convenience and in an attempt to communicate effectively with the poster I was responding to. It is the only use case in recent memory and I'm not much a fan for similar reasons.
To suggest that we have disparate needs is flawed. Also to suggest I am not very familiar with live music and appreciate it is further flawed and bordering on absurdity.
I don't sit here listening to music with a chromecast, actually some things I'm listening to this very moment have been designed by mr. curl in this thread. And it's next to shelves full of albums containing some of the artists you've referenced. I have seen much live music and am able to compare what I hear now to what I experienced then.
I would very much like a stereo image with depth.
The issue is that you cannot provide one that also meets the other needs I detailed, which is your shortcoming not mine.
Is it a design requirement that in order to achieve real stereo live reproduction it has to be ugly as sin and require a forklift to enter my front doorway?
Surely, you have discussed more complicated things in this long thread than the problems inherent in making something attractive or less than 400 lbs?
This is the kind of thinking that widens the rift, as it becomes a "kids these days" and "when I was your age" and "had to walk both 10 miles both ways in the snow" kind of drivel.
The persons inquiry was how to reach people in a given demographic. I think I answered that well. I don't necessarily share the same goals as my peers and was providing a well rounded response to address the posters questions and concerns in general terms.
I was not going to reply but maybe you are not aware....
Metal is a graphics technology which is hardware accelerated but based in software. A GPU is a graphics processor. A Retina display is a screen. It is very good that you did not hear a difference in playback because of these things because they have absolutely nothing to do with sound- then you would be experiencing synesthesia.
There are things out there that don't just play music, but serve other functions as well like the iPod did.
The iPod will no longer be produced so at least you have that going for you.
This is not any kind of development.
You are describing a necessary condition of capitalism. Of course there are outliers, but this has to be the norm.
This has been the case for a very long time and will still be the case long after we are both dead.
If you would like other options I have a directory of monasteries I can provide to you.
Space, outlier here. I´m glad you took yourself out of that description. I take concern with that thinking and behaviour that you described, I will not go into much detail except voice my opinion that it is not particularly good. I hope good has a similar meaning for you as it does for me. For most people today it is not good, not bad, it just 'is'.
He's being grouchy and (with merit) wondering what all the ostensible advantages such new "stuff" actually has. Literacy is certainly not lacking, I promise.
As far as your rant about huge boxes/etc, speakers are still mechanical/acoustic systems. There's physics involved with why big boxes moved well into the room make a lot of sense. There are huge compromises to be made to push one's speakers against (or onto) the wall and made smaller. Not saying those compromises aren't worthwhile, but they're compromises nonetheless.
In my day it was Davy Crockett hats, having the first color TV or a record player with a real diamond "needle". Though I still think it's funny that the 60yr. old real osmium 78 needles were proven fake with current mass spectrometer technology.
And believe it or not getting a Mohawk.
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