I agree with much of your post. I would not want more people to become obsessed 'audiophiles'. But a nice pair of speakers on the end of a reasonable amp will take an iPod to a new level. No need for fancy cables, stands, or any equipment that costs more than a couple of hundred squids a pop.

Sadly most of what people listen on is far worse than that. The TV is quickly becoming the main 'music center' in peoples homes, and a mobile phone with really bad headphones when they are out and about. It is scary how people will listen to that sort of thing when it hardly sounds like music at all.

The hi-fi industry is being squeezed at the moment and as such it is becoming more and more 'high-end' so you will see more dodgy tweaks and audiophile behavior that just help fuel the self destruction.

I really hope that things like small active speakers that connect wirelessly to computers, iPods and DVD players take off and re-introduce the mass market to better sound. Then they may explore a bit higher up the chain too. At the moment those things are still quite unheard of and a big market push by philips, sony, panasonic etc might help. Most likely they would keep the features and cut the quality though...