BAASnotes.com – Bay Area Audiophile Society

Event: Focus on Single-drivers

Our BAAS event this Saturday will focus on high-efficiency, single-driver speakers partnered with “flea-powered” amps.

For those who have not had the pleasure of listening to these minimalist systems, ‘first contact’ can be a revelation. To begin with, you’ve probably not heard speed and dynamics in this combination. And then there’s the coherence, which is pretty much as good as it gets.

But there are always tradeoffs. For speakers sporting 100dB+ sensitivities, noise just can’t be tolerated. Next is bandwidth. How can we ask a single driver to produce all ten audio octaves? How about eight of them? And we might also mention coloration. Not only do we demand (at least) 8 octaves, but we want flat response through all eight. Flat impedance would be nice too (preferably >8 ohms). Finally, low distortion (e.g., no ‘shouting’ allowed).

Mighty tall order!

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Say Goodbye to the ‘Audiophile’

Well, the CNET Blogs recently published yet-another article describing the extinction of the high fidelity audio industry (click here).

In that article and its comments, many reasons for the imminent demise were cited – with the iPod portrayed as the #1 assassin.

FWIW, here’s my version of the decline:

• It begins with the record companies and RIAA joining Microsoft in “missing the internet boom.” Response to downloads = lawsuits & DRM. Opinion on jewel-boxed (yuck) CD’s = perfect forever. Huh?
• The next gremlin was the poor broadband coverage in America (and the world). This makes downloading SLOOOOWWW. The market’s response was massive ripping to MP3. Would it surprise you to learn that many 30-year-olds have never purchased a CD?
• And finally came the final ingredient of the perfect storm: the mighty iPod. It’s limited memory made compression even more vital. And its hyper-mobility meant that listening was done primarily in distracted staes (during workouts) and/or noisy environments (city streets).

Put all of these together and stir for a generation or so, and we have a listening public where 128kbps is ‘good enough.’

And how about the dastardly contribution of the vendors? After all, aren’t $6K cables a sign of Caligulic excess? Come on. Who cares? There’s plenty of great hi fi gear that’s affordable, fun, and 44kbps or better. Think Oppo, t-amps, and HornShoppes/Ushers/JohnBlue’s/etc….