What Sonos continues to update is not quality of sound reproduction but access to music. While that may fit into the realm of customer service what is its true value? How much music do you need instant access to? How many people require a library of 60,000 songs to meet their daily music interests? It is nice but hardly spectacular and when it comes to music reproduction, who cares?

When it comes to audio reproduction many find that older equipments really do create the best quality reproduction. You can spew signal throughout your home but if it sounds tinny and lifeless why bother. An instrument produces music in a spatial orientation that faces the listener, not in surround sound. An orchestra is a collection of instruments and a solo vocal is the finest of all the instruments. Vintage stereo gear is some of the best ever designed or constructed. McIntosh, Scott, Fisher, Klipsch, JBL, Tannoy to name but a few whose devices are considered timeless. The beauty of the application of vacuum tube valves has been rediscovered in modern devices as well.

Audio reproduction is one technical arena that has evolved away from a purist analog pinnacle using digitally canned methods that focus on quantity, not quality. There are companies that seek to apply new materials and design to high caliber reproduction. Sadly the prices of their products are far beyond what is easily accessible. A little knowledge, a little money and a little effort will allow a person to cobble together the best of the old and the new into some truly spectacular set ups.

I pretty much agree. The reason *this* field is open to upgrades is that what you are really paying for - the sound system - doesn't need upgrading.

I'll believe obsolesence is dead when a video game maker can do the same thing, for example using hardware from 10 years ago to run their newest and greatest graphics-intensive game.

If I'm paying that much money - and I'm not - I certainly wouldn't start with degraded digital signal. I'm happy to listen to music on my laptop, but then I'm not paying monthly fees for it.

JonFrum:

If I'm paying that much money - and I'm not - I certainly wouldn't start with degraded digital signal. I'm happy to listen to music on my laptop, but then I'm not paying monthly fees for it.

Digital signals aren't necessarily "degraded." Its perfectly possible to get a complete reconstruction of an analog signal from a digital as long as it was sampled at the nyquist frequency and losslessly compressed.

Digital can actually be of better quality too if we are talking about music being transmitted (e.g. a radio receiver) since you can apply error correction methods.

Although the most pure audio equipment is still analog equipment, digial equipment does have its place, especially if you need to apply post processing effects to reduce unwanted noise in the original signal.

"I'll believe obsolesence is dead when a video game maker can do the same thing, for example using hardware from 10 years ago to run their newest and greatest graphics-intensive game."

won't ever happen. You can always make a more realistic looking game, that's the great thing about the games industry. Just making a face that is actually indistinguishable from a real human is at least 20 to 30 years off in my not so humble opinion.

The purist audio is one heard live. Typically it will not be perfect because it is performed by imperfect humans. It will be straight from the instrument to the ear, from the position listened to and then gone.

Analog audio seeks to reproduce this event introducing as few technical changes to the process as possible. Using the finest devices they record the event in a seamless analog signal. It is then recovered in the same seamless format by a source device. Then ideally the signal gets minimal electronic handling to get it from the source to the speaker. The less the electronic intervention the less opportunity there is to introduce artifact in that signal. Deliver that 20 watt pure analog signal into a high efficiency speaker with the best driver/crossover design and you're in audio heaven.

Digital takes the same live performance and deconstructs it into a digital stream. Sampling rates, signal massaging, reconstruction referencing all have to be worked to reconstruct the signal back into an analog format for speaker usage (speakers only accept analog signals).

Most people did not listen to high quality audio in their analog days. At that time those systems were just as costly and unattainable as are the ultra high end devices today. Consequently the reference point moist people use to judge audio quality is poor to begin with. Generally digital products actually perform better on a more consistent basis the did poor quality analog. Uninitiated listeners are not only satisfied they are pleased with digital equipment. Yet should they ever experience the pure sound of good analog devices they would be amazed. I have been party to that event on many occasions.

I agree. Video game hardware is not in the realm of planned obsolescence. That term refers best I think to products that the designers clearly designed with short product life and limited features in mind for their business plan to insure future business with upgrades and newer products. With real-time CG rendering, the technology just keeps improving. You can spend a fortune for the best graphics card or just a little for lessor cards but it won't matter, both will be totally obsolete within 3 to 4 years.

Now, an interesting question might be whether even this cycle will more or less end when truly photo-realistic graphics can be rendered in real time in say 30 to 50 years. I think it will at least slow down some, but OTOH I think it's clear that computer rendering will be able to increase in complexity for centuries to come.

On the audio side, I agree with those pointing out the limitations of all current digital audio. But, it remains true that really high quality audio is a micro niche, of interest to about 0.01% of the population, and there it will remain. Blu Ray gives some hope for radically improved, higher resolution digital audio, but even that is questionable as consumers increasingly seek $100 theater in a box systems to play it back on.