BAASnotes.com – Bay Area Audiophile Society

The Death of the Audiophile

We all know that our hobby and its supporting industry are not exactly booming. The the current recession has been particularly devastating.

A key challenge facing the industry is the lack of interest by younger adults, the new generation of listeners and buyers.

The latest CEpro/Electronics House survey of 30-something men drives this reality home.  (Be sure to review the slideshow as well.) The respondents were white-collar and tech-literate – the center of audio’s traditional target market.

As the article’s subtitle suggests, the respondents prefer content (and convenience) over reproduction importance.

Key points for audiophiles:

• Only 14% of the young men considered themselves audiophiles
• As many listen to music on clock radios/boom boxes as dedicated stereos (20% in each case)
• 76% had not purchased a CD in the last year

Yikes!

If it’s any consolation, they didn’t care much about Blu-ray, HDTV, or universal remotes either.

And their likes…96% watch online video and 84% own iPods….

by Bob Walters

Digital Audio Sources Compared; Playback Designs Shines

Last Saturday, BAAS members were treated to state-of-the-art digital courtesy of local vendor Playback Designs.

Indeed, one of the distinct highlights of the event was hearing from Playback founder and chief designer, Andreas Koch, who is an icon in digital audio innovation.

The Playback MPS-5 made sweet music, regardless of digital source – and we tried several.

In fact, we auditioned:

• A $4 12′ TOSLINK cable;
• A $1000 USB-to-SPDIF converter;
• A $1400 FIREWIRE-to-SPDIF converter; and
• The built-in drive on the MPS-5 (both on CD and SACD)

in formats:

• 24/176 PCM
• 24/96 PCM
• 16/44 PCM
• SACD; and
• CD

OK, so which sounded best?

Well, I would say that HIRES PCM (176/96) and SACD topped members’ preference lists. As to sources, Firewire and SACD were generally the winners, but lowly CD did surprisingly well on some material – the latter perhaps a tribute to the abilities of the MPS-5 on that media.

BAAS would like to thank Andreas Koch and Jonathan Tinn, the co-founders of Playback Designs for making this possible. Well done!

by Bob Walters