A lot of great information here, even if it is sobering to read and applies to two formats that are sinking toward total extinction.
This is kind of off-topic, but I have to say something about the listening style that is often said to be one of the main reasons for surround music's unpopularity i.e. people no longer wanting to sit down and listen to music. And here, I'm talking about people where music is part of their life and love listening to it for its own sake,
not the people that have always been around that only use music to fill in the background while they broil a steak and grate cheese for their twice-baked potatoes in the kitchen or read how their team did in the sports section of the newspaper.
---> I can TOTALLY understand the attraction of being able to take your music with you and listen to it anywhere, because I own an MP3 player myself (not a iPod but a Sansa),
but what I don't understand is the notion that it is uncool or wrong or whatever term you want to use, to listen to music at home and without headphones. Where did THAT attitude come from?!
Why in the heck would having earwax-encrusted earbuds constantly stuck into the sides of your head be easier than listening to music emanating from speakers - stereo or multichannel - one sits in front of, which is much closer to what you hear at an actual live performance? I don't mind headphones that much but afterwhile it bothers me because of the unnatural (to me) inside-my-head effect and so the majority of my listening is carried out with a room w/speakers in it.
My own tinfoil-hat/amateur psychologist theory
concerning this issue is that certain MP3 player companies, not intentionally btw because MP3 players
are mainly designed for portable use, have made it seem that listening to music by yourself with anything
but their product and a set of headphones is equivalent to using a landline telephone and not being a member of the "right" social networking sites w/100+ friends on your page.
I think to counter this unpleasant notion that at-home listening is something only loners and electronic geeks enjoy would take a concerted effort on the part of the companies who sell gear for that purpose - e.g. Pioneer, Yamaha, Sony, Onkyo, etc - which would probably not be cheap to implement but it's got to be cheaper in the long run vs. the loss of profits they must be experiencing the past 8 years and the decreasing profits they will experience in the future because of the attitude so many young people seem to have concerning home playback gear.
And this may sound heretical on a surround music forum, but to help sell the idea of listening to music at home, IMO gear manufacturers and retailers of that gear need to stop pushing surround systems so hard. I sold that equipment for three years at a major retailer and trust me,
not everyone cares about having sound effects zooming over their head during a movie or hearing the string section swell up behind them during a Beck tune. They. Just. Don't. Care. And many people simply don't want to have speakers, no matter how small, scattered around the room, especially the living room.
For more proof of this, as another member already mentioned, how many times have you walked into someone's home who bought a multichannel system and have all five speakers are stuck on top of their RPTV and the subwoofer stuffed
inside a nearby storage cabinet? It's obvious they don't care about surround sound but they were forced into it because their is hardly any plain ol' stereo gear available and in my experience, there is never a stereo demo system at any of the major retailers to get these people's attention.
And as far as retailers and manufacturers & their shareholders are concerned: how many people won't buy
ANY music playback gear because of the above scenario i.e. they don't want surround sound but there is little stereo gear available for them to purchase? There is no way to gather statistics for how many make up this group of system-less people (unless they intentionally told the store's manager they
didn't buy anything) but I am sure
X number of these people are out there.
Plus it sure doesn't help when Blowz and other companies have made it seem that only tiny plastic speakers and a bass box, all of which can be hidden, are the best way to listen to music at home. This to me makes home gear even more like something to be avoided, almost something to be embarrassed about!
@:
It seems to me like many people are getting caught up in this wave of "new" and abandoning perfectly good gear and methods of entertainment that are still totally viable even in today's smartphone and multitasking-obsessed world.......and that's too bad. Having
both options, music you can take with you and music that can be experienced at home in a more realistic manner, seems like the better scenario to me, for music fans and the people who sell that gear.