Hi-Fi: Too Expensive, Too Exclusive, Too Many Speakers?

2025-09-12

This week, SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage’s Doug Schneider and Dennis Burger to discuss three issues holding hi-fi back and how we’d fix them. Is there too much emphasis on astronomically priced products? Is the industry ignoring potential new customers? Are there just too darned many speaker companies? . Sources: The Record Centre: https://therecordcentre.com/ “The Dynaudio Contour Comeback: Legacy and 20 Black Edition Loudspeakers”:

This week, SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage’s Doug Schneider and Dennis Burger to discuss three issues holding hi-fi back and how we’d fix them. Is there too much emphasis on astronomically priced products? Is the industry ignoring potential new customers? Are there just too darned many speaker companies? .

Sources:

The Record Centre: https://therecordcentre.com/

“The Dynaudio Contour Comeback: Legacy and 20 Black Edition Loudspeakers”: https://youtu.be/xJ1GvkM6ats?si=ZCjvuqvH-piOB90m

“The Most Dangerous Myth in Audio”: https://www.soundstageaccess.com/index.php/feature-articles/1174-the-most-dangerous-myth-in-audio

Chapters:
00:00:00 Announcement
00:00:31 Introductions and the obsession with oligarch audio
00:16:49 What even is an audiophile?
00:19:52 Record shops as the new nexus of hi-fi?
00:27:05 Part of the problem or part of the solution?
00:30:22 Are there just too many speaker companies?
00:35:17 Why bother?
00:58:19 What we’re listening to
00:59:31 Outro music: “Chasing a Hurricane” by Leva & Patric Lemieux

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