Audiophiles are taking part in a hobby. We seek system components that are to our individual taste. We look for that special speaker or amplifier and playback devices. Most don’t want everything packed together, but for the masses, that works. The exciting thing is to see more affordable components that are performing like the high end stuff.

Most people don't listen in a way where they would even recognize better recording quality. In the 70s Every broke college student still had something like a 17 WPC Pioneer receiver, turntable and a pair of KLH speakers, which mops the floor with the Bluetooth speakers and sound bars with which most people listen to music now. Would bands like Fleetwood MAC, Steely Dan, The Beatles and Pink Floyd have even bothered to put so much care into recording quality if they knew so few of the listeners would even notice?

The problem is that to keep selling product they think they need to keep changing it up. They want to keep selling DAC's to people that already own a DAC and they want to sell a DAC to new purchasers as well. Given how long ago they sorted out the DAC designs I am tired of them milking it as well. Give us one affordable uncompromised design and move the bus along! Design a reference amplifier circuit then mass produce the heck out of it!!!

I am 41 and I love home audio. My son is 11 and I have been playing and listening to music with him since he was a baby. He loves music and audio equipment just like I do. I think that is the future if we want this to continue. You can get into this hobby for cheap and that is hownyou get young people interested.

The documentary, Sound City by Dave Grohl, is a superb view of the life of recording studios, how technology changed music production, the business, and the joy of multitrack studio sessions. A lot of famous musicians are in the movie. Highly recommend!

I love how music and equipment has evolved over time. I started with 45 records, then 8 track tapes, LPs, cassettes, laser discs, CDs, iPods, DVDs and now streaming. Went from all-in-one stereo with box speakers, to portable boomboxes, to separates and now Bluetooth and wi-fi speakers. I love that I can listen to my music anywhere. In every room at home, in my car, my boat and outside. I like some new Music and love reissues of classic rock. The future will hopefully be as exciting a journey as the past journey has been.

- great Class D amps like my NAD c298 (little brother of NAD M23) which replaces my already great class a/b Parasound 2125v2. - amplifiers have trigger input, extra set of RCA outputs for subwoofer, gain knob - lossless music like Apple Music - preamps with home theater bypass, tone controls treble/bass and balance controls and subwoofer - speakers with AMT tweeters like GoldenEar BRX - streamers with native app Apple Music like Eversolo DMP-A6 - R2R dac like Denafrips Pontus II 12th-1 - DDC like Denafrips Iris 12th - $6k+ system may benefit from highend cables like Cardas Parsec RCA and 10 AWG speaker cables - today’s amps need to run cool because my home theater is a 7.4.4, powered by 10 amps!

We're so lucky that excellent components are available across the board. Probably direct to consumer Hypex class D amps (eg: Buckeye) and speakers (eg: Ascend, Philharmonic) have made the biggest difference.

Ridley Scott directed Alien. And Hannibal. And a bunch more great movies. One of the best directors right now.

Room correction.....an 80's Technics 12 band stereo EQ to go with my Klipsch synergy f2's and NAD 325BEE receiver. Because I'm old school, and like having the ability to manually tune to my listening preference.

One widely unexplored concept from the hifi community is DJ gear. I am working on putting together a system utilizing a high quality rotary mixer/amp as I find engaging myself in mixing music to be more of a fun/active listening experience. Factoring in the fact that many dj softwares now include streaming services (algoriddum day pro now even including Apple Music streaming as well as Tidal with the dj add on allowing people to separate and remove vocals, drums, etc.) makes for some really cool options and fun things to do while listening to a huge catalogue of music. Would love to see you and other hifi aficionados take on some high quality dj mixers paired with good speakers

- today’s amps need to run cool (class D like my NAD c298, Parasound zonemaster 2) because my home theater is a 7.4.4, powered by 10 amps!

Also from Donegal, Ireland

This reentry brought me to you and Andrew Robinson and gives me a part of the hobby to enjoy

My home theater is a 7.4.4, (mixed use music 2.2) powered by 10 amps! So today’s amps need to run cool,efficient to not trip 15A breaker box fuse. I upgraded to the NAD c298. amp (similar to NAD M23). Apple Music lossless

Sheet! I missed this again!!!!! Haha! Greetings from Chicago! God bless Randy! Happy 4th!!!!

Pete here from New Zealand. It was 2am when you aired and whilst I love you Randy, I love my sleep more. Thing about Chi-Fi is that there's a lot of Chinese getting more wealthy and turning to new pleasures. So when we talk about the future of Hifi, we mean western hifi and it probably will be more and more influenced by the East simply because Chi-Fi is selling to a much larger consumer base and so making more stuff and innovating more. It's the Chinese way.

😂 I knew exactly who you speak of. Rick Beato ...and yes music of the day is getting weak...

After watching this channel for a long time, I recently replaced my original Vanatoo T1s. I bought the Schiit Modi 3 to work as my PC sound card. That runs into the Yamaha A-S301 and into Klipsch RP-600Ms. I am more than pleased with this combination. Thank you Randy.

Embrace Dolby ATMOS because it is the future, likely from Apple Music at a small cost for great pleasures the likes of which we have never seen. Just get a new Sony Receiver, a few more speakers, and connect to an iMac.

WiiM Amp now has room correction as well via ota update.

Slash's new blues album is a masterpiece of production quality. That is all.

Fosi dropping the ball hard on this V3 Mono kickstarter, quick way to lose current and future customers is to not deliver and then also ignore complaints on the kickstarter site. Sorry, but the customer service is about as bad as I have seen myself and based on the comments on the kickstarter page I am not alone, by far. Likely I have become a "former"

I hope you start w/ the B&O Level - this is the best example of a future speaker today

Future is Class D like US based Buckeye Amps I see a lot of stuff out there well under $1000 and even under $600.

Good morning from Las Vegas!!🎉

My reentry into the audio and home theater is recent but my simple 5.2 system serves both pretty well

Randy what part of NE you from? I'm from Lincoln, love the people and don't miss the weather. I live one mile from the ocean in Southern San Diego. We ran our air conditioner only 3 days last year.....honest.

Sorry, all these smaller than average boxes with only digital touch everything just are a turn off. It's just not what gets me. I like nobbs, switches and dials when they are available. And, yes there are enough new gear to satisfy this need. Luv your channel ❤️

You could talk about the grass growing and I would listen to

Missed the link to get a cup. :( Popular music is not recorded for us. It is recorded for cellphone IEMs and bluetooth speakers. Some genres (EDM, orchestral) are very well recorded. All in ones probably will be qavailable but not take over the market. The problem with them is the upgrade sales that drives manufactureres profits. Separates invite future sales which is more profits. Which is why home theater is the maninstay of most companies. The home theater is the main profit center which supports the hifi products. The Chifi is making inroads with new listeners.

My biggest barrier in my hifi journey is my spouse. She is happy with a sound bar or a bt speaker. My hifi is actually my garage system. I have a WIIM amp coming and it will go in the garage too.

Morning from Newcastle Australia

Chinessium is a must to keep the hobby affordable for entry! The problem is customer service and warranty. At some point China prices themselves out of the market no matter how good due to lack of warranty and customer service!

Happy day! Do you know the way to San Jose, Ca.

I’m not a fan of active speakers. I’ve had issues with powered speakers and a powered sub I have just died today. Give me passive speakers with separate amps. I have speakers that are over 20 years old and amps older than that. Separates last. Built-in power doesn’t. Check the warranty. The companies are telling you active doesn’t last. It’s almost impossible to repair and usually cheaper to buy a new one. They want you to buy it, have it stop working, junk it and buy a new one. Be smart, as the Dead sing, give me something built to last.

Was not even notified

I have a Laiv Harmony dac. Their overseas support was swift and satisfactory. Love the product!

I'm your audience - I watch KZfaq! Just bought KEF LS50 Wireless II & love it

My wiim pro shot a crazy 12v trigger signal to turn on my emotiva basx and made some crazy noise.... since then my schiit modius hasn't worked.... while waiting for my geshelli to arrive, I doubt I'm going to use wiim anytime soon again as I hate damaging gear

Good morning from Joe Newcastle Australia 😊

I come from the era of home audio and live performance music and I miss having separate 31 band EQ and an active crossover my present really basic trx393 avr doesn't give me options to do things like that I guess my next move is emotiva mr1l I use our fire cube for my streaming services

Active speakers (where the amp is built in) is bundling too much into one.

Thanks!

Vinshine's relationship with Denafrips is rumored to be on the rocks.

Directly heated SET amps are the best sound i have ever heard.

Sir Walter… Steve is from Raleigh 😆😆 Sorry I missed today. Had to change a headlight, a fog light and a brake light bulb in the wife’s car. Like old Xmas lights, when one goes out they all go out! 😂

Market will push both, all in one products and hi fi separate components. Nowadays reviews and even comments on forum and yt are created for feed the hype, more often IA is used for it.

From KC?

Hi from the netherlands

Some of us remember 70's era stereo consoles. Big and heavy. When any one thing broke, it was toast. This all in one trend is no different. Terrible trend. And companies will certainly cheap out on internal parts sooner or later.

Wiim ultra is NOT better than the Wiim pro as a streamer according to Wiim. :( Was hoping for some streamer improvements.

Powered speakers suck! Why would I want a compromised speaker with an even more compromised amp? If you get a bad amp or bad speakers you can always change out the offending object.

The problem with the music is that where we used to have FM/AM and 4 channels of TV, now there are a million + effective channels and only so much actual talent. AI, beats and crap fill up the vaccuum. Also in the same vein, too many tools, not enough pros.

whazzup from Jax-on-ville Flo-Rida ?!??!?!

I feel speaker placement. Yes fifty percent of your sound quality

JBL 104 Concentric with WiiM Mini 👍😎 Check em out ! ... Perfect home audio system extension to a main WiiM setup.... JBL 104 often on sale @ £100

The future of HiFi is the company that makes gear that is at the common mans level of prices while being quite amazing. This goes for headphones and speakers as well. $5k? $10k? Even $2k?! No and no! A 16 year old cannot afford such things. The future are the companies that can help start the hobby early for people instead of mid to late 30's.

A vintage BOSE review would be nicely different. Have a wide mix of vintage and new hi-fi and pro components...but BOSE are always in the mix. Great video looking forward to the next one! 🇨🇦

Sweden in the house✌️

Still looking for an all in all solution with usb-b. Sub out. And a better punch. Please found it.😎

Powered speakers seem to be mostly for people that do home recording. Since home recording is dominated by DAWs connected to computers such as Pro Tools and Logic Pro. I think there's also a place to have powered speakers replace soundbars due to the superior sound especially if they have hdmi arc inputs.

Your ears probably wrong, what's going on on this channel

Boston ma

Hey. Ontario Canada online.

First . . . it's "Chi-fi", not "fun fi". Second, technology is exactly like a speeding freight train. I don't recommend it, but feel free to stand on the train tracks, protest, yell, cry and see what happens. You can poo-poo Ai all you want, but the truth is, Ai technology is in it's infancy and won't be maturing for at least 2 or 3 hundred years. By 2033 (or sooner, possibly much sooner), you will be able to buy a sleek, shiny electronic box with fancy lights, a big screen on front, and will perfectly match the rest of your current gear. There will many versions that range in price from $300 all the way up to $3,000. It will have all the connections needed to connect to your existing gear, plus some. Inside will be housed an extremely powerful, local Ai specifically designed to create whatever kind of music you can imagine on the fly, at your request, within a second or two. The music will range from being totally original to something that sounds an awful lot an existing artist or even combination of artists. It will make fantastic, amazing music that YOU want, when you want it. If you don't like the music, you will be able to collaborate with the Ai to shape it and mold it into what you want. If you hear something you like, you'll be able to make more of it and even store it on an internal storage drive, save it to the cloud, or possibly even burn it to a built-in, high resolution optical disc drive. I could be wrong, but I sincerely believe that is the most profound change to Hifi that we will see in the near future. Edit: I could also see a similar set-top box being made specifically for video games (XBox Series Ai?), and perhaps a specific set-top box for creating totally original tv shows and movies, on the fly, at your request, using your parameters.

Active speakers could represent a significant trend in the future. With built-in amplifiers precisely tuned to match the speakers, they offer more accurate sound and frequency responses, akin to Monitor Speakers. Additionally, active speakers eliminate the need for complicated setups, making them plug-and-play and highly user-friendly, especially for beginners. Future models might even come equipped with built-in Dirac Live technology or support external Dirac devices for enhanced audio calibration

I like Hi Fi cause am real tired of listening to all the political stuff. It sends me away. As I get older 75, I am always looking for good tweeters.

Ah yes.. music is getting weaker.. AGAIN..OLD ARGUEMENT since before the dawn of the internet. No cred, it dead. Put the zombie down. Otherwise good chat Randy.

Class D to continue to fall out of favour. More high power class AB chips to become available.

Like many over saturated indystries ....Music quality and hifi equipment is a forest of good, bad and mediocre dross...with occasional works of brilliance that might never be found 😂