| Retrospective | 20 Years of High End by Myles Astor |
| Thirty years ago, a recent college
graduate walked into Audio Exchange, a high-end audio retailer then located
on 8th Street in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village. Until then,
this music lover only had heard the likes of audio equipment stocked by
Tech Hi-Fi, and nothing could have prepared him for the sensory kaleidoscope
ahead. It was love at first listen. Never had he heard reproduced sound
like that! Eager to learn more about high-end audio, he left the store
with a copy of the then fledgling audio publication, The Absolute Sound
(Issue No. 9—and he still has it!) in his pocket. Oh, by the way,
the high-end system that launched him on the quest for the Holy Grail
was a then state-of-the-art audio set-up consisting of a Linn LP-12 turntable,
and Audio Research tube electronics driving a pair of original Quad ESL
speakers. As they say, the rest is history. This poor cancer lab technician, earning all of $8,800 per year, scrimped and saved many, many jars of pennies, eventually purchasing some used high-end gear. His first audio music rig consisted of Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers, a modded Hafler DH200 amplifier and 101 preamplifier and a Rega Model 3 turntable equipped with a JVC 7045 arm (with adjustable VTA!) and an AudioQuest cartridge. Much has changed in both this audiophile’s life and in high-end audio over the last 20 years. Both have matured and grown wiser with age and both continue to always look for new areas to explore. The high-end audio industry has gone from being a group of small entrepreneurs building equipment on kitchen tables to real companies replete with factories, P&L statements and marketing arms. Consumers have gone from being Beta testers to knowing that the equipment they buy won’t blow up. As one reflects back on these 20 years, it’s clear that certain events helped shape the course of high-end audio as we know it at this moment in time. Some of these events are truly positive; others, not so. The balance of these events is what has determined the present state-of-affairs of high-end audio and includes some of the following historical occurrences. #10: Failure of the Academy for the Advancement of High-End Audio (AAHEA) A golden opportunity to promote and popularize high-end audio was frittered away by the manufacturers. Originally the idea of Harry Pearson, founder of The Absolute Sound magazine, AAHEA was formed in large part to gain high-end audio recognition within the electronics industry, most notably CES and EIA (in part because, at that time, CES was considering eliminating high-end audio from its electronics shows). While high-end audio garnered some degree of respect within EIA, AAHEA also failed miserably at gaining market share within the consumer electronics market. For instance, why the industry couldn’t host its own high-end show instead of relying on a magazine escapes many to this day. The answer most often given: High-End manufacturers didn’t have the expertise and resources to host a consumer show. Sorry, but if Stereophile could produce high-end shows (with a couple of bumps along the way), so could the high-end industry. |
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