Is High End dying?

I was going ask this question in a new thread but it seems quite fitting here. I wonder if folk who spend such inflated prices hear anything different. Let me expand. I don't mean sonically! As pointed out some bold claims have been made and I for one have seen £200 kit wrapped up with a £1000+ price tag. I mean is there a placebo effect for want of a better word. Do they hear something that isn't there? We all want our new purchase to sound remarkably better and I imagine the greater the outlay the greater the want.

As I mentioned on the new comers page I myself made mistakes before uni and when I was younger, I thought that throwing money at the task would deliver the desired solution. I lost my favourite sounding setup this way and all without really giving it a thorough audition. I just assumed at the time mr big name was selling me more than snake oil.

I think in no small part though magazines do a large disservice to their readers. I can't mention manufactures names but a certain pair of top iems where given a glowing review in a (again name removed) monthly audio magazine. Now if you head over to, I believe I can mention this head fi or the largest popular online store you will be lucky to find one or two folk who speak kindly of them. Obviously sound is a very subjective thing and that reviewer may like them.

All I can echo is do your homework and above all let the the things on the side of your head and the squishy bit in the middle tell you it's what you want or need...

I've waffled enough today, apologies



*just an edit, in a couple of my posts I may have sailed close to the T&Cs myself with the mention of certain brand names. All were used in context but I have amended where necessary)

Edited by 11rushgarrick11 - 10 Feb 2013 at 12:50pm

High End, by definition, cannot ever die. It is, after all, just one end of a relative scale, and you cannot have a scale with only one end....

In the context of this thread, High End can either be taken to mean audio equipment that has been engineered to deliver sound quality as close to perfection as the limits of technology allow, or alternatively audio equipment that by inference must do this because of a price bracket it occupies that is pitched somewhere in the upper reaches of the stratosphere. It is to the latter that I think Graham was alluding in his earlier post.

Equipment that delivers High End audio quality is generally going to come at a higher price than the average. However this does not automatically mean it has to be priced out of the reach of most of us mere mortals. Graham's products are a continuing testament to that.

As well as the law of diminishing returns, I think that there is a certain snob factor involved too, where The Emperor's New Suit Of Clothes syndrome comes into play. How many audio reviewers would dare to risk their reputation by suggesting that an amplifier costing $10,000 performs no better than one costing $1000. And, how many people, having spent that kind of money, would admit privately to their friends or publicly on an audiophile forum that they had got it wrong? None - they would reason that they had actually not spent enough and needed to throw even more money after a vain pursuit of an impossible grail!

What is this audio perfection anyway? Surely it is no more than the recreation in one's own front room of exactly the same listening experience as if you were at a live performance. But hang on a minute - the PA systems and loudspeakers used at a live concert are hardly state of the art in terms of audio quality, and as everyone knows, the sound in an audio system is only as good as its weakest link. So the quest for audio perfection in fact boils down to achieving the faithful reproduction of an imperfect source (I know this doesn't apply quite so much to studio recordings, but you get my drift). And all the while, most people are completely oblivious to the fact that their ear's sensitivity to upper frequencies is gradually and inexorably deteriorating with age...

So, like everything in this life, the attainment of perfection is an impossible dream. Let those with the financial resources and the Quixotic urge to do so pursue it if they must. Personally, I'm happy to accept the best performance for money compromise that I can get, and despite my relatively modest set-up in terms of cost, I think I'm more or less there.

Edited by hotmog - 10 Feb 2013 at 12:39pm

Hotmog..... so eloquently put !!

Edited by 11rushgarrick11 - 10 Feb 2013 at 12:45pm