audio:american_audio_ages
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audio:american_audio_ages [2018/10/15 23:39] – [CD: quality and competition] mithat | audio:american_audio_ages [2021/05/10 20:10] (current) – mithat | ||
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**Abstract** | **Abstract** | ||
- | We establish that a relationship exists between an age' | + | We establish that a relationship exists between an age' |
</ | </ | ||
The following is a descriptive analysis of factors that have impacted developments in consumer audio over the last several decades in the USA. These accounts are not based on specific or targeted research. Rather, they reflect the author' | The following is a descriptive analysis of factors that have impacted developments in consumer audio over the last several decades in the USA. These accounts are not based on specific or targeted research. Rather, they reflect the author' | ||
- | The conclusions reached are (1) that there is an intimate relationship between audio delivery media and sociological changes in user bases; and (2) the sociological | + | The conclusions reached are (1) that there is an intimate relationship between audio delivery media and sociological changes in user bases; and (2) the sociological |
===== The major ages of audio ===== | ===== The major ages of audio ===== | ||
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The first major challenge to the LP was the compact cassette. While originally it was incapable of delivering results comparable to the LP, several technological innovations led to it performing well enough that its physical advantages over the LP began to assert significant appeal. The greatest of the physical advantages was the medium' | The first major challenge to the LP was the compact cassette. While originally it was incapable of delivering results comparable to the LP, several technological innovations led to it performing well enough that its physical advantages over the LP began to assert significant appeal. The greatest of the physical advantages was the medium' | ||
- | Around the time that the cassette started to approach hi-fi quality, people in the U.S. stated becoming more concerned with physical fitness, | + | Around the time that the cassette started to approach hi-fi quality, people in the U.S. stated becoming more concerned with physical fitness. As a result, many began to make activities like jogging, running, and other solitary workouts part of a regular routine. This led Sony to develop the Walkman, and this ushered in a whole new way for people to engage with recorded music. |
The audio performance delivered by the Walkman and similar products that followed was high enough that users began to use Walkman-like devices over a broad range of activities. And because the Walkman demonstrated that reasonably good quality audio could also be portable, a big shift in user expectations regarding portability resulted. | The audio performance delivered by the Walkman and similar products that followed was high enough that users began to use Walkman-like devices over a broad range of activities. And because the Walkman demonstrated that reasonably good quality audio could also be portable, a big shift in user expectations regarding portability resulted. | ||
- | One class of product resulting from the increased expectations of portability was the boom box. While small and portable LP systems had existed for some time, their convenience was limited by that medium' | + | One class of product resulting from the increased expectations of portability was the boom box. While small and portable LP systems had existed for some time, their convenience was limited by that medium' |
- | This rise of low-cost personal and social cassette-based playback equipment put pressure on the kinds of systems that evolved around LP playback for bedroom-community lifestyles. Mainstream manufacturers of these systems started to look for ways to maintain profits, and one of the common | + | This rise of low-cost personal and social cassette-based playback equipment put pressure on the kinds of systems that evolved around LP playback for bedroom-community lifestyles. Mainstream manufacturers of these systems started to look for ways to maintain profits, and one ways they achieved |
==== CD: quality and competition ==== | ==== CD: quality and competition ==== | ||
- | The digital CD (compact disc) was introduced as an alternative to the analog LP in 1982. Unlike the other delivery media discussed here, the introduction of the CD didn't coincide with sociological changes in its target user base or general population; it represents almost entirely only a technological innovation. However, a strong nod to the portability requirement brought about by the cassette age is evident. Retail distribution channels were clear in their desire that any new medium designed to supplant the LP not force them to change their existing handling and merchandising, and a form of optical disc about the same size as the LP was already available for video content delivery. In spite of this, Philips and Sony opted for a format that was less than half the diameter of the LP. | + | The digital CD (compact disc) was introduced as an alternative to the analog LP in 1982. Unlike the other delivery media discussed here, the introduction of the CD didn't coincide with sociological changes in its target user base or general population; it represents almost entirely only a technological innovation. However, a strong nod to the portability requirement brought about by the cassette age is evident. Retail distribution channels were clear in their desire that any new medium designed to supplant the LP not force them to change their existing handling and merchandising. A form of optical disc about the same size as the LP was already available for video content delivery, and this seemed to match the requirements of music retailers. In spite of this, Philips and Sony opted for a format that was less than half the diameter of the LP. |
The launch of the CD was accompanied by promises of " | The launch of the CD was accompanied by promises of " | ||
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About the same time, the increasing availability of video media and equipment for its playback provided increasing competition for consumers' | About the same time, the increasing availability of video media and equipment for its playback provided increasing competition for consumers' | ||
- | One user expectation raised by the rise of video-centric systems was in the area of remote control. As remote control of televisions and VCR players became standard and ever more capable, consumers began to have similar expectations of convenience from their audio equipment. High-end audio manufacturers were generally slow to adopt to and sometimes | + | One user expectation raised by the rise of video-centric systems was in the area of remote control. As remote control of televisions and VCR players became standard and ever more capable, consumers began to have similar expectations of convenience from their audio equipment. High-end audio manufacturers were generally slow to adopt to and sometimes dismissive of this user expectation of higher convenience. |
==== Computers and convergence ==== | ==== Computers and convergence ==== | ||
- | The personal portable path of audio consumption embodied by the Walkman eventually lead to the introduction of portable devices that played back data-compressed digital audio files. The primary means that music was loaded onto these players was the personal computer, and it wasn't long before vast legal and illegal networks for distributing digital music files came into being. The rise of the "MP3 player" | + | The personal portable path of audio consumption embodied by the Walkman eventually lead to the introduction of portable devices that played back data-compressed digital audio files --- the first of which was released in 1998.((Tony Smith, "Ten Years Old: The World' |
- | An almost immediate consequence of the rise of the MP3 player was that for a new generation of users the personal computer became | + | An almost immediate consequence of the rise of the MP3 player was that for a new generation of users the personal computer became |
Concurrently, | Concurrently, | ||
)) | )) | ||
- | In sum, for a new group of tech-aware users, the personal computer presented the opportunity to virtualize their media collection---and thereby grow its size and convenience of access phenomenally---as well as to converge the required hardware, with a single source acting as the master repository and source for all media in both personal and social contexts. This opportunity evolved almost organically from available technological innovation interacting with shifts in user competencies and requirements. | + | In sum, for a new group of tech-aware users, the personal computer presented the opportunity to virtualize their media collection --- and thereby grow its size and convenience of access phenomenally --- as well as to converge the required hardware, with a single source acting as the master repository and source for all media in both personal and social contexts. This opportunity evolved almost organically from available technological innovation interacting with shifts in user competencies and requirements. |
- | The high-end audio field as a whole missed | + | The high-end audio field as a whole missed |
- | A headphone-centric market that embraced (or possibly resulted from) computer-based audio did manage to establish itself. | + | A headphone-centric market that embraced (or possibly resulted from) computer-based audio did manage to establish itself. |
High-end audio would eventually begin to embrace the possibilities in computer-based audio, but by then the ship had already sailed. Users who had pioneered the computer as music source had moved on to the next innovation (discussed below), leaving no user base to champion the change. Had the industry embraced rather than denied its users, the medium, and its general applicability earlier, the high-end audio niche might have developed to have relevance to a significantly greater number of users. | High-end audio would eventually begin to embrace the possibilities in computer-based audio, but by then the ship had already sailed. Users who had pioneered the computer as music source had moved on to the next innovation (discussed below), leaving no user base to champion the change. Had the industry embraced rather than denied its users, the medium, and its general applicability earlier, the high-end audio niche might have developed to have relevance to a significantly greater number of users. | ||
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==== Smartphones and downsizing ==== | ==== Smartphones and downsizing ==== | ||
- | Computer-based audio satisfied an increasingly large group of users' desire to virtualize and converge content and hardware as well as to have flexible platforms for both personal and social listening. | + | Computer-based audio satisfied an increasingly large group of users' desire to virtualize and converge content and hardware as well as to have flexible platforms for both personal and social listening. |
< | < | ||
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relationship with phone as "life repository" | relationship with phone as "life repository" | ||
</ | </ | ||
- | ==== What's next? ==== | ||
- | Without doubt, future changes in sociology and technology will occur, and these changes will impact mainstream audio consumption. The exact changes that are likely to happen are not clear. However, for the near future, we can engage in some speculation. | ||
- | Sociological trends we expect to continue include reurbanization/ | + | ===== What's next? ===== |
+ | Without doubt, future changes | ||
- | For those with means, one possible outcome is an increase | + | Sociological trends we expect to continue include reurbanization/ |
- | ===== Implications | + | One possible outcome |
+ | ==== Implications for high-end audio ===== | ||
A relationship between an age's dominant audio delivery media and the sociology of that age is evident. Equally evident is the impact of these on successful audio system design. | A relationship between an age's dominant audio delivery media and the sociology of that age is evident. Equally evident is the impact of these on successful audio system design. | ||
- | High-end audio has hung tenaciously to the formal paradigm first evolved in the LP/bedroom community era: large speaker systems with several large and separate electronic units performing specialized functions. In each succeeding era, this formal paradigm has become less relevant to the requirements of the general population and especially the requirements of younger users. This has led to the high-end market operating in an increasingly narrow niche. | + | High-end audio has clutched |
- | To put it another way, the high-end industry has shown great conservativeness // | + | To put it another way, the high-end industry has shown great conservativeness // |
- | The high-end' | + | The high-end' |
- | Given that the depth of the high-end niche (which is to say, the interest on the part of existing | + | There are strong indications |
In the absence of profound change, the fate of high-end audio in America is clear. | In the absence of profound change, the fate of high-end audio in America is clear. | ||
audio/american_audio_ages.txt · Last modified: 2021/05/10 20:10 by mithat