How Global is our hobby & the audio industry?

[80B]

Since getting back into the audio groove last year, it's been interesting to see how global things are. I was reading Sal's post about the Esoteric SACD player and you guys really got on an interesting OT tangent about British & German gear. Below are impressions based on our consumer end and those of the industry.

Audiophiles and Consumers

The fact of the internet and forums allow for us to converse regardless of our location fulfills the promise of the internet. I've got great information and advice as well as have made friends here from all over the world.

Taste in gear seems to have no national traits. We've obviously got a lot of Mc fans here from all over (so this is not an 'unbiased sample group'), but our ears seem to differ as individuals, not particular national groups.

Musical tastes know no boundaries. I was a bit surprised by Jerry's taste for 70's rock, not associating that with Singapore, but then again, one of my favorite local rock bands is based in Singapore (Tanya, the house band at Club Anywhere, although it's been 3=4 years since I've been back). On our travels, we've always enjoyed picking up CDs of local talent we've listened to live, be it from a Ceilidh in Prince Edward Island, a Jazz band on the street in New Orleans, or a small orchestra playing at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

In the same vein, how cool is it that Howie can give us the recommendation of Blue Coast recordings from Hong Kong, when that music was produced in California, and all of us, anywhere, can download it right away in HD?

Quality is making a comeback - iTunes is upgrading the quality of the MP3s it sells, and Apple will probably support high def recordings at some not-to distant time, if only to pursue another path to growth. The iPod was low-def because of the technical limitations of drive space and transmission times (yes, and earbuds on the subway isn't exactly your prime listening spot), not because someone said 'we don't want CD quality' for the iPod/iTunes.

A/V Industry

The mass-produced stuff is dominated by the Japanese, and is generally of very good quality and reasonable price.

The high end is dominated by manufacturers all over, but particularly it seems those based in the U.S., UK, Germany, France Italy and Denmark come to mind. Japan has some, but I think of Japan more when it comes to high-quality CDs and remasterings.

Even though we think of manufacturers as being of a nationality, there's a real global aspect to it. B&W uses Danish woodworking, Wilson uses some Focal (France) drivers, and D&M is (as I understand it) a hybrid Japanese and to some extent U.S. company. Just as with the automotive industry, national identities become blurred when you look more closely at ownership and manufactured content.

Chinese manufacturers are coming up with some pretty cool tube gear, and innovating in a way that puts them on a path to establishing brand recognition on their own.

Production in low-cost countries can be of high quality, but this needs to be managed very closely. Some companies are more successful than others, and if it benefits me as a consumer, where something is made is less important than the value of what I'm buying. That being said, there's an intangible cachet about origin that is often based on objective quality standards of workmanship and materials. I've seen a parallel when we bought a piano for our son a few years ago.

American manufacturers are alive and kicking, be it the venerable McIntosh or the guys who have a vision and produce a product here (think Thiel, Wilson, and a lot more) when you normally hear about US manufacturing jobs all being shipped offshore. Innovation, perseverance and well-run operations help these companies set trends vs. being driven by trends.

OK, so this was long and rambling, but the overall point is that we live in a great age where we can listen to our gear from all over the world and communicate our impressions to each other instantaneously through the great enablers of technological innovation and globalization. Do you have other examples or observations? You Rhapsody guys can certainly chime in....

[Masterlu]

It certainly is a great time to be involved with our hobby. Not for nothing but this site sure came about at the right time too!

Thanks for all who made it possible, you know who you are!