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Comment by cmiller1 | Hacker News Reader

So now they get to sell way lower end products with their newly purchased McIntosh logo slapped on with a huge markup! Everybody wins except the consumer!

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For better or worse, the logo and markup is the reason this segment of the market buys these products. Cost-conscious customers always had and will retain the ability to get high-quality audio at a reasonable price.

Sadly I think the most cost-conscious way to get truly great quality audio these days is to buy/restore used vintage equipment. There isn't really as much of a market for high end but still affordable for mere mortals audio equipment as there was in the past. Prior to the invention and proliferation of home video playback which started in the late 70s and later the proliferation of home video game consoles people used to spend most of their home entertainment budget on audio equipment. The budget you'd set aside for buying a large TV, a few game consoles, etc. instead would be spent on a stereo so there was a much bigger market for audio equipment in what would be the $1-4k in today's dollars range.

Personally I use a set of big box speakers made by Bozak in 1958.

With modern digital electronics and their economies of scale, isn't getting great audio quality trivial nowadays?

I would've assumed anything from consumer brands in the upmarket range (without going all the way to "audiophile") would give you more than enough quality where the limiting factor becomes the room and physical environment rather than the playback equipment?

The physics of building a speaker have changed very little over the last several decades and companies give consumers what they want. Unfortunately for people that want great audio most consumers these days want smaller sizes and sub $500 price points so that's what the market is currently full of. There are some good options out there but not as many as in the past. Consumers want $100-200 soundbars so that's what there are hundreds of.

Another thing I forgot to mention about consumer preference is in amplifier design. Consumers prefer overall loudness over absolute fidelity, so Class D stereo amps are what's available.

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