A5 to the Rescue?
 Last month I argued that new
methods of distribution that might give wider access to large libraries of recorded music
might not be good for those of us who value high-quality music reproduction. One reason
for this is that online distribution makes certain choices more attractive to users and
music companies alike: low-resolution versions of those recordings, to speed up download
times and decrease the hard-drive space required to store them. This means that the
recordings people have at home may not even be of sufficient quality to merit using some
of the equipment we feature on GoodSound!, to say nothing of the equipment you can
read about on Ultra Audio.
Coincidentally, an open letter has recently circulated on
audio websites, including the SoundStage! letters page from the
American Association for the Advancement of the Audio Arts (A5), which hopes to become an
industry-wide group dedicated to promoting high-end audio. I’m sympathetic to their
cause, and their success would assuage my concerns about the future of high-quality audio.
Unfortunately, several things in the A5’s letter leave me questioning how effective
such a group might be, and wondering exactly what their goals and purposes are.
The A5’s letter suggests that we should not be overly
concerned about the current condition of the audio industry. They give two pieces of
evidence for this. One is that the level of performance one gets from audio products today
is much greater than ever before. This is hard to argue with -- here at GoodSound!,
we routinely feature products whose value far outweighs their cost. Indeed, this month we
feature NAD’s inexpensive C320BEE integrated amplifier, which could easily serve as
the permanent heart of many people’s music systems.
The other evidence the A5 gives are the great growths in
sales of the Apple iPod and satellite radio. The group suggests that because those who
have bought iPods and/or subscribe to such services are already turned on to music, the
battle is already at least half won -- we need only turn them on to high-quality sound and
they’ll join our ranks.
I don’t think it’s that easy. First, consider how
people use these technologies. The iPod is used mainly while commuting, at the gym, or
running errands. That a person wants to listen to music on the go does not mean that that
person wants to listen actively to it at home. Satellite radios are marketed much more for
use in cars than in homes. Again, the fact that someone enjoys music while driving does
not mean that he or she wants a great home system. Most important, both of these products
are usually used in situations in which listening to music is not the primary activity,
but a byproduct of it. Just because a great number of people stuck in cars or working out
on treadmills listen to music while doing so does not automatically suggest that this is
the number of people who want great systems in their homes and just haven’t realized
it yet.
The A5 does suggest some positive steps that they will take
to advance industry concerns. The idea of increasing the ability of members of the
industry to communicate with one another is great, but was this a problem to begin with?
At the level of individuals, I can’t imagine that it is -- if I’ve never had
difficulty getting hold of industry people, surely those much higher in the audio food
chain don’t. Many Internet forums already give customers and potential customers
direct access to manufacturers. There may be a lack of such communication at the corporate
level, but to organize interaction among various companies requires time, money, and
staffs of people willing to do the organizing. If so, where are such funds to come from?
Smaller manufacturers may not be able to afford it, and the value to large corporations
such as Sony is probably nonexistent.
What I found most interesting about the A5’s letter
were their descriptions of how they plan to get the message out to the public about the
value of high-quality music reproduction. First, they suggest ads in upscale magazines,
such as Wine Spectator and Architectural Digest. I’m not sure what this
reveals about their thinking, but they seem to assume that those with disposable income
are automatically good targets. It’s not clear to me why that should be assumed;
targeting music magazines such as Paste and Rolling Stone makes much more
sense to me. The readers of Paste obviously care about music; that can’t be
assumed about the readers of upscale magazines about wine, food, and buildings.
This and a few other ideas in the A5’s letter made me
think that the group’s goals aren’t necessarily to introduce the public to
high-quality music reproduction, but to high-priced music reproduction. If so, this
seems extremely shortsighted. A much better approach would be to introduce people to
high-quality products that are not necessarily extremely expensive. Almost everyone I know
has first gotten hooked on products from such firms as NAD and Rotel, and then gone
on to more expensive lines. You can’t expect the current owner of a
home-theater-in-a-box to run out and spend thousands of dollars on speakers. Usually, one
crawls before one walks.
I was disheartened to see that the letter made no mention
of what I think is one of the leading causes of people’s not caring about
high-quality audio: the lack of music education, both formally, in school, and in more
informal situations. Pop music is currently thought of as background music, not as
something that demands full attention, and exposure to classical and jazz is much more
limited. If we don’t encourage in children and young adults the appreciation of music
as an artform worthy of their complete attention, then the audience for high-quality music
reproduction will only continue to dwindle.
One manufacturer that I think has done a good job of
advancing the cause of high-quality music reproduction is HeadRoom. Their website provides
lots of information about headphones in a way the casual but interested reader can
understand, they have supported user forums on Head-Fi, and this past year HeadRoom’s president, Tyll Hertsens,
undertook a tour of the US with a trailer full of headphone gear -- including the
competition’s products -- in order to educate people about headphone listening. True,
his audience was mostly already confirmed headphone geeks, but this is the sort of program
that, if adopted by others and brought to music clubs and university music departments,
would probably do more good than advertisements in non-music-related magazines.
If it is to succeed, the American Association for the
Advancement of the Audio Arts will have to offer more clearly defined goals and plans.
While their open letter offers some guidelines, the ideas expressed in it lack the
precision required to woo potential members and achieve its goals.
…Eric D. Hetherington
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