My congregation! Ladies and Gentlemen! I tell you, there is a Pod! Some heathens choose to ignore him and burn for all eternity in the depths of hell, while Air Supply plays a continual concert of doom. Others have seen the light, and they opt instead for superior listening experiences.
I say, for the hi-fi community, there is hope. When I came to Stereophile, the first assignment Mr. Mejias gave me was to assess how I, as a young person, felt about the world of hi-fi. When my official term of Summer Intern was over, I had nothing. Well, I had a lot of stuff in my head, but nothing that I was ready to post on the blog. There was so much pressure. What had I learned here at Stereophile?!?!
So much.
I learned what a phonostage is; I gained a view of the inner workings between PR agencies and all of your favorite manufacturers; I learned a little bit a German; how your loudspeaker's sensitivity and impedance should match the capabilities of your amplifier; the names and music of various salsa artists; the difference between a magnetic panel and electrostatic loudspeaker; I learned that headphone amps exist; SACD is a music format; JA is a Deadhead; hi-fi doesn't have to be expensive; hi-fi should be for everyone.
And you know what? I think we're on the cusp of a new era in audio. Music is on everyone's minds. The iPod and digital mediums have taken over the world, and I believe it's fair to say that people are listening to music more often than ever before because of that little box-thingy.
Most people start off with those little white earbuds. On the day I borrowed his, I told Stephen that I felt like a "hot chick" walking down the streets of New York ¹. But recently, the earbuds have been disappearing. I've been seeing the Sony MDR-V150s a lot lately. Tons of people have them! I now see them more often than earbuds, except for on hot girls.
Hi-fiers: Here's our chance. People are listening to music. And they want more from it. Get out there. Advertise. Tell your friends, because the opportunity is here. Whether or not they'll bite is hard to say. I would need to do some extensive surveying, focus groups, and observational research to really tell you, but I don't have the funds. Maybe people aren't interested in hi-fi. Maybe they just want that little bit more from the MDR-V150s, but don't care enough to spend over $50 on some headphones. This may all be true, but we'll never know unless there is an all-out attack. I want everyone who is into hi-fi to get out of their cottages and pull out their pitchforks and torches because there's going to be a revival tonight. Praise the Almighty. Praise Pod!
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Footnote 1: I assured Ariel that he was not, in fact, "a hot chick."
—SM
—SM
