The audiophile stuff was a spending war, and some people were willing to spend huge money. The problem is that such systems often cost more than a sports car, and you can imagine which one sold and which one didn't with young men with unlimited funds. Speed or (perhaps refined beyond the potential distinction within the human ear) extreme music? People who had the money for music tended to buy the recorded music.
There was huge money in the audiophile world, at least in theory. Someone might buy it. The only problem was that the people who could afford to buy such equipment with their huge incomes were busy developing real estate or making bid deals in business. They had little time for passive listening to music. A Porsche made far more sense to the fairly-young in this group.
A music critic looks at this:
There was huge money spent in marketing the super-high-end stuff. Who bought it?
Around 12:10 you will hear two names among twenty or so who bought speakers that cost $20K a piece and required incredible power to run back in the 1990's. They are two people whom you would not want to be associated listed on the brochure. I would not have found "Elizabeth II of the UK", "Emperor Akihito of Japan", "Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands". "King Juan Carlos of Spain", or heads of royal households who own the oil wealth so troubling. The promoter of this equipment mentioned that two very nasty people were among the purchasers.
There was huge money in the audiophile world, at least in theory. Someone might buy it. The only problem was that the people who could afford to buy such equipment with their huge incomes were busy developing real estate or making bid deals in business. They had little time for passive listening to music. A Porsche made far more sense to the fairly-young in this group.
A music critic looks at this:
There was huge money spent in marketing the super-high-end stuff. Who bought it?
Around 12:10 you will hear two names among twenty or so who bought speakers that cost $20K a piece and required incredible power to run back in the 1990's. They are two people whom you would not want to be associated listed on the brochure. I would not have found "Elizabeth II of the UK", "Emperor Akihito of Japan", "Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands". "King Juan Carlos of Spain", or heads of royal households who own the oil wealth so troubling. The promoter of this equipment mentioned that two very nasty people were among the purchasers.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.