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Expanding High End Audio

Posted by lenw (A) on May 7, 2006 at 15:04:46

The latest issue of The Absolute Sound (TAS) has a very good letter to the editor from Alan Taffel who is a TAS senior writer and president of Taffel Communications, a strategic marketing consultancy based in Washington, D.C. He was responding to a TAS roundtable discussion the previous month regarding expanding high end audio.

Mr. Taffel believes the industry is spending far too many R&D dollars to achieve small performance improvements, offering a bewildering array of similar choices, keeping prices high to maintain margins, and continuing to tweak old technology. He says this has led to severe fragmentation with no one having enough marketshare to achieve long term cost reductions. He believes suppliers should divert some R&D resources away from incremental performance gains toward bringing flagship performance down to lower priced models. He uses the Thiel CS3.7 as an example of using geometric techniques rather than typical exotic materials like Kevlar or diamonds to bring the high rigidity of the best and costliest drivers to much lower price points.

Mr. Taffel thinks the industry has gone as far as possible with traditional approaches as evidenced at this past CES. He says virtually every CD and LP based system displayed the same strengths (tonal purity, precise imaging, dynamic and detail resolution) and weaknesses (inability to replicate large scale dynamics or space, inability to convincingly transport the listener to the recording soundspace, and a lack of the harmonic openness and effortless rhythms of live music).

So he wants to direct the remaining R&D to the still major distinctions between audio systems and the real thing by investing in new approaches rather than old ones. He says the promising areas of exploration include higher-resolution digital, DSP which can potentially remove the listening room from the equation, and multi-channel audio.

Lastly he says suppliers can head off financial failure by seeking out strategic partnerships and mergers. He says the alliance between Rotel, B&W, and Classe’ is an excellent example with each of these companies planning to stay within its core competencies. He concludes this approach is the opposite of the course the industry is currently headed.

I have some current reservations about DSP and multi-channel audio. DSP reminds me too much of the old equalizers which were hard to use correctly and often degraded the sound. But I suppose if it could be done using computer technology – it might work wonders since rooms are at least as important as audio reproduction equipment. My understanding of multi-channel audio is that it requires very closely matched speakers and ancillary equipment front and rear to be completely effective. I’m also skeptical whether it would work well in a open South Florida style FR with lots of glass and high ceilings like mine.

But Mr. Taffel does sound like he knows what he talking about to me. I’ll have to do some serious thinking before investing in new equipment for awhile after reading his letter. I certainly hope the manufacturers listen to this kind of constructive input before high end audio as we know it gives way to the MP3/PC phenomenon.

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