Indiana Lang of Emptor Audio in Orlando, Florida, recently mourned the growing popularity of low-fidelity audio as high-fidelity stereo audio collapses.
Mr. Lang, in part, wrote in Home Theater Review,
“Welcome to the soundbar era, where convenience trumps tradition, and stereo systems have quietly faded into irrelevance. This isn’t just a shift in gear—it’s a cultural reset in how we listen, buy, and think about sound.”
I feel Mr. Lang’s pain.
But his comments are more of a reveal than a reset.
Convenience has always trumped high fidelity.
I hope my gray-haired view of the audio landscape can ease his woe.
In The Beginning
Early audio enthusiasts built amplifiers and speakers in their ‘garages’.
Some eventually closed their garage door to open a brick-and-mortar HiFi shop.
Others migrated into successful manufacturing.
Let’s take a moment to thank Saul Marantz, Sidney Harmon, Bernard Kardon, Ed Villchur, Frank McIntosh,
and many others.
Boomers Rock
Waves of young 60s rock-in-rollers, inspired by the music, raced to their record shops.
They stacked and played their vinyl on compact record changer players.
By the late 1960s, young rockers were dumping low-fidelity record players for high-fidelity stereo component systems. The HiFi shop and manufacturers rode the wave.
.
Mass-market King-convenience
Success led to the arrival of the mass-market stereo chain store.
The chain store and low-fidelity manufacturers exploited the popularity of high-fidelity audio.
They introduced convenient, lower-cost, lower-fidelity compact stereos, rack systems, personal portable audio, and car audio.
They added an AM/FM tuner, cassette player/recorder, and a pair of speakers to the compact record player.
They introduced “It looks like high-fidelity” rack systems on the retail floor. The rack system was a low-cost floor-standing cabinet that included low-fidelity components partnered with low-fidelity speakers.
In addition, Sony’s Walkman and portable boom-box radio/cassette players flew off retail shelves.
And car audio allowed consumers to take their cassettes, and eventually compact discs, on the road.
The common mass-market low-fidelity link was King-Convenience.
& Home Theater?
The arrival of the stereo HiFi VCR
and the Laser Disc then connected the TV to the audio system.
The addition of large-screen TVs, Dolby Surround, AV receivers, rear speakers, and the powered subwoofer catapulted HiFi shop and chain store sales.
It was the birth of Home theater.
And Home Theater’s mass-market success lay in the popular convenience of a theater in your home.
Where did HiFi Stereo fit?
The HiFi Stereo shop expanded retail square footage to accommodate mass-market products.
Home theater became the big ticket.
In addition, the custom installation of home theater systems, distributed multi-room audio and video throughout the home, and automated control, became a leading source of revenue.
The HiFi Stereo shop had evolved into the Audio and Video dealer, who prominently featured home theater in front-showrooms. High-fidelity stereo relocated to dedicated back-showroom demonstrations.
The Audio Shop Fades Away
Ever-increasing main street large square-footage rent, operating overhead, plus non-enthusiast commercial contractor installation competition, diluted the AV Dealer/Hi-Fi stereo shop’s market share and profit.
Some still survive at an off-main-street, reduced-square-footage location.
Many more have faded into retail history.
Bottom Line
Convenience has always trumped high-fidelity stereo audio.
Today’s compact stereo is a TV soundbar.
Today’s portable audio is the smartphone.
The Bluetooth wireless speaker (wireless if you don’t count the AC power cord)
is yesterday’s Radio Shack table-top radio, less the AM/FM tuner.
The reveal is that high-fidelity audio was always, and still is,
a small square-footage music enthusiast business.
Maybe it’s time to return to some version of the original HiFi enthusiast’s garage.
That’s It
& Check out these links:
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