My heart says you’re absolutely right, and further when I was a young man in the mid-90s (and had reasonable cash flow) decent hifi was absolutely affordable. The album was still a luxury good, and that was the point. Happy days when your young friends were curious about these new things.
The album could still be a luxury good as resolution/s and channels can increase (though I really can’t see Dolby Atmos finding much of a market outside of gearheads) but otherwise our relationship with the record is fundamentally and irreversibly different… thanks to the delivery offered by internet. Music consumption is not in the least bit scarce, mass market audio kit is indeed acceptable, and what’s worse (my) cash flow is nothing like it perhaps was for my parents’ generation… a perfect storm crashing against how the business has been historically. Yes, there are more well-heeled consumers that shop for good audio kit, but in a relative sense I believe that demographic isn’t growing.
But who knows? Having audio separates and something like Roon is cool. And affordable streamers are proudly Roon-ready. I’m certain there are people that are well aware of this little history lesson and are moving with it.
I think the article is half wrong. Go into the record stores where I live (London) and they’re mostly full of young people and generally very busy. My local secondhand store has a wider age range. My son, age 27 and his girlfriend are massively into vinyl. They and their friends just don’t have high-end audio. They have a hand me down system donated by me and his girlfriend‘s father, who is an audiophile, one of only two that I know in my entire social circle. Of course headphones have largely taken over, but there will likely remain a place for static audio amongst a relatively small crowd of music lovers of all ages. Whether the youngsters want more expensive systems when they grow up and get lethargic, who knows, and who knows whether there will be any megabucks audio manufacturers in existence when the time comes. If half of them go bust, they won’t be missed.
Roon is a good control point and if it is embedded in future music systems, it will survive. I use it mainly in wireless speakers installed in my ceiling.
Roon is not for audiophiles, it is for someone who needs the convenience of playing music anywhere in the home, for me I have audio devices in around 12 places in my house, so Roon allows me play music in any room that I happen to be in.
I’ve only became interested in hi-res audio myself during my early 40’s. I’m 47 currently. Before that I’ve been more than happy with Spotify and a Harman Kardon 5.1 audio set to listen to music and watch movies. It lasted me for about 20 years.
Only since early 2023 have I been actively upgrading my entire home’s hi-fi. Kicked out my 20 year old LCD TV and replaced it with a 55 inch 4k model. Same with my BluRay drive. And then of course got myself a full set of Cambridge Audio equipment in my living room + new JBL speakers.
To top it off buying a Bluesound Node X and a pair of PreSonus active speakers for my office.
I’ll be set for a long time now.
With Roon being the beating heart of the whole system. I’ve went lifetime nearly 2 years ago, so it is paid fully for the future.
Would it be fair to say that some good people seem more interested in the audio hard- and software than in the music, and in the way in which various combinations of audio equipment enhance music?
I know I was once.
But if we start with the music - the precision with which microphones are deployed (the Tallis Scholars tech team has always used just one, centrally-placed, for instance; higher resolution recording certainly reveals vocal ‘wobbles’; close micing may pick up sonic artifacts in, say, the string quartet, harp and acoustic guitar) - couldn’t those criteria help us to evaluate trends and tendencies in Roon, and further?
Convenience is one thing. Having 3 zones myself and when away from home Roon ARC on my iPhone. But I also like sound quality. Otherwise I might just as well place smart speakers across my home and stream music to them through AirPlay.
I suspect Roon is only considered audiophile because developing a proprietary file management and streaming system when Roon exists is basically reinventing the wheel.
It’s near impossible to ignore Roon these days and even my preferred system, Innuos Sense, facilitates Roon either as a Roon endpoint of HQ player end point.
I have about 9 or 10 zones in my house, none of which are audiophile systems, and my wife loves it.
I suspect not strictly accurate , I have used Roon for 8 years on a single zone . I only have one zone , a headphone amp. No speakers, just a 5.1 soundbar on the TV not connected to Roon. I use a BT speaker in the kitchen based on a small number of flacs on an old iPad.
Headphones have many hidden advantages , you go wild and upgrade for under $2000 and get really hi end product. Add to that a collection of diverse headphones allows you to experience a complete different sound at a whim. No 2 headphones will be identical.
Do that with amps and speakers and the $ will be very much different. So they are not just for the cell phone/Spotify end of the spectrum.
I have been 100% headphones for at least 10 yrs , we have a decent soundbar on the TV but that is not that great for music.
I think I must be a musicophile. I listen to music in my listening room for hours at a time every day. While I enjoy the great SQ of my modest system, I don’t feel compelled to spend vast sums of money chasing SQ I probably could not hear anyway.
For me, Roon facilitates my love of music and allows me to listen at home, away from home, and in the car. I never play music casually around the house. It’s either in my listening room or with Focal Clear headphones in our family room.
I don’t know what the future brings for Roon or anything else, but for the present, Roon is a wonderful happening that has added much joy to my life as I have retired from work and all my other hobbies.
Agree 100%.
Not too mention there is no need to consider speaker placement, arrange the room to achieve that ideal sitting position, room acoustics etc.
I have only 4 x headphones + 1 x IEM + 1 x BT headphone only used outdoors for travel convenience and I have all that I need.
My speaker setup, Kef LS50W2’S + 2 x KC62 subs is still in situ but unplugged while I decide whether it should all go on eBay.
If you talk to members of Gen Y or Gen Z, no matter how much they are interested in music and fascinated by trends like vinyl and streaming, they usually dismiss the idea of having a vast selection of components and big speakers in their home. They grew up with headphones, one-box-systems controlled by their smartphone and that is how they merely define ´hi-fi´.
They might discover superior sound quality eventually and be ready to invest in it but I doubt they will come back to the idea of having a traditional stereo chain and big speakers.
For me, it looks like Roon ARC is a step towards Gen Y or Gen Z. I know from discussion with young people that they show interest. Could ARC be a key for opening the door to the young generations of music lovers?
It can’t even challenge PlexAmp in that space yet. Which is leagues ahead in features and usability. I think you might be right as headfi is where it’s at for the new generations they are more plugged in more of the time. But they are also less album people and more about the playlists. I don’t know many at my work of the younger gen that listen to albums at all they are all Spotify, Apple Music and playlist driven. Which is why we have seen Harman push Roon to add all this playlists stuff of late. An area Roon is very behind in compared to any other app. Not something I have any interest in myself as I only use them now to add music I want to buy as a reminder I don’t actually play them.
The younger people I speak with about music have no knowledge of remastered music either or what it is.
I don’t know of anyone other than me in the real world who has several versions of a same release.
