What next for audio?

if it reduces much more the enthusiasts will be holding meetings in a phone box.

 

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that is beautiful, my dad had one witch eventually i managed to retrieved to my room, wonderful it was,

 

in my opinion rob, audio is personal preference as to how you enjoy the pleasure that music gives to you, there are those (excuse my opinion) that are tone deaf or just can be arsed to play vynil and prefer the simplicity of I'S and other simple methods of music reproduction, i somewhat is fanatical and love my so called original t/t and cd and dab tuner.

 

Devialet D-Premier is the future electronics for high-end audio.

Not because of its ADH technology how awesome it sounds, but because of the convenience and software upgredeability, what its DSP core engine provides. Inputs, outputs are configurable, you can reprogramme your SPDIF input to an SPDIF output or to a phono input if you want and you can load your settings from an SD card. You even can optimize the gain of the phono input to your cartridge, using reprogramming of the DSP. You can reprograme the output power if you need more or you feel less is enough.

Etc.

Practically limitless convenience, Modern home decor friendly chassis, no heat, wall mountable, light, does not need huge shelves, etc.

Sounds really nice, too.

 

A personal thing but I think endust4237 makes a really valid point. I hope we see that kind of kit become more prominent.

My ideal hifi would be a visual control unit (somewhere between iphone and ipad size), no visible boxes and some small but full range loudspeakers - driven by "my" sources and "paid-for" sources.

Many years ago it looked like loudspeakers were heading that way with the M2 and M3 actives from Meridian - but if you look at recent photographs from CES 2011 exhibitors, some manufacturers are trying to persuade us to go for "prestige purchases" of huge size - presumably to display to ones family and friends. Unfortunately.

 

I think the impossibility of repair on the Devailet and the likely huge cost of a main board replacement will be it's down fall in the long term.

In this day and age boxes should be smaller and simpler, complexity serves no purpose for the end user.

 

You what? Audio equipment these days should be more simple and less complex? Perhaps that is true of it's user interface but certainly not of what is inside, and that does serve the end user. Unless of course, you want to do away with streaming devices, up-sampling DACs, DSP crossovers, or even anything with logic control inside since that makes it complex.

 

Yes I believe audio equipment should be less, not more complex, complexity and technology aren't interchangeable terms, perhaps you don't actually understand what I wrote.

Whereas I'm sure both of us could fix anything that failed in a Squeezebox, and fault find without recourse to the schematic are you suggesting you could do the same for the Devailet? No of course you couldn't because it's very complex as well as being technologically advanced, whereas the Squeezebox is just technologically advanced, but elegantly simple in its execution.

I wasn't proposing a return to rose thorns and wax cylinders- which appears to be the conclusion you have jumped at.

I don't believe that the massive integration of multiple devices into a single box of great complexity serves users in the long run. Especially when they are constructed in such a way as to make their repair effectively impossible or particularly cost prohibitive.

 

check out the new M.F. M6I 500 INT.

 

I think the Devialet points the way forward, especially in its irreparability. The next generation of audio products will be smaller, integrated, proprietary in design and almost impossible to be repaired. All that happens is the price needs to drop 50-fold!

 

Simon, wax cylinders are exactly what came to mind, lol.

It seems to me that technology and complexity are pretty much interchangeable here. I'm not sure what's inside a squeezebox exactly, but I imagine it's very complex since it's basically a small computer isn't it? I think what may seem simple these days is in fact very complex, only we build with IC blocks and don't see the true complexity. A gain clone amp looks simple, but it sure isn't.

In a similar way I imagine if the Devialet went wrong, the problem would be tracked to the IC responsible for the failed operation and it would be replaced. I guess the PSU would be most likely to fail, and whatever ICs it blew out would be changed out.

I've done exactly that on Behringer processors. I've no idea how it fully works on the processor side, but I can usually track the problem to the responsible IC.


Anyway... I do believe integration is the way forward.

 

FWIW, and after one's admittedly substantial initial outley, the Devialet carries a full five year parts and labour guarantee which can be extended further after the initial five years. It also has an on-screen diagnostic which identifies any fault characteristic and location. Inside, no wires and all modular - so it's probably the case of a dealer replacement of a module - so provided Devialet continue to exist the unit's longevity looks sound.

 

Hi,

We may see a Renaissance of good cheap gear, once the revolting commercial music labels have collapsed and indies take over again, as there will be people who will record decently, while people on a budget will want to hear it and will perhaps again purchase sound quality over appearance. So there will be a point to make something good and affordable, but perhaps I'm just dreaming.

The High End industry meanwhile is busy shovelling it's own grave by trying to sell at ever higher prices to an ever shrinking size market. It will be even more expensive in then years than it is now and even smaller in size.

The EU and Britain will make selling (possibly even using) Class A and generally tube amplifiers a criminal offence.

Yes, absolutely, however in general they have been doing the opposite up till now, I would say that quality in affordable(ish) gear peaked in the 80's and even at the very high end little has appeared that really outdoes the best from those days.

Give me top of the range Kenwood turntable with a Denon DL-103R Pickup, Luxman Amplification (say C-02 Pre & M-05 Power), a Marantz CD-12 combo (or Philips LHH-1000) for CD and a pair of the big Diatone 3-Ways (with a 15" bass) or a pair of JBL Studio Monitors from the 44XX Series or 15" Tannoys, all fully serviced and as-new and I shall not be unhappy at all...

I CAN conceive a speaker system that receives digital audio wireless, uses DSP to compensate speaker (driver) and room problems (including LF distortion and dispersion) and has simple, single button setup. We already have the CPU horsepower available, Moore's law makes sure it will soon be quite cheap too.

This could be driven directly from a Storage/Control PC that also drives my 3D TV (or projector) wireless and can be remote controlled simply (without the need for a tablet, but the ability to use one).

However the general public is more interested in having an hang on the wall soundbar that sounds okayish, projects some form of surround(is) sound and is cheap, High Enders seem to want the latest 150K Speaker and Amp.

Revolutionary and in principle dramatically cheap to make speaker technologies already exist, yet they have been completely ignored buy both the mainstream market and audiophiles.

Mr Rice and Mr. Kellogg would be quite chuffed I'm sure.

Depends. TO me using a computer as music source is ancient history, taken as given since at least the mid 2K's. I can see storage moving my own HDD into a "cloud", but then you would have to haggle with the RIAA to prove that these CD-rips are really from CD's you paid for and all that.

The only revolutionary option I see is when we can tap directly into the brain for auditory and visual (and other) stimuli. It could possibly happen this decade, maybe next. When that happens humankind will change forever of course, because we may also be able to "upload" ourselves into computer systems, or maybe non of this will ever be possible.

Meanwhile I'm having outside bet on a localised nuclear conflict (my money is on India and Pakistan, with a sidebet in Iran/Israel) putting us all into a place where HiFi will be without consequence.

Ciao T

 

Thorsten, I'm too excited and pleased to see you back posing after all these years to read that at the moment. I'll have a good read later

Welcome back and great to see you on here again.

Regards,

Rob.