Why High-End Audio Matters

If you work for the audio industry—or just write about it, as I do—these are disturbing times. Here’s the good news: Sales of audio products grew by 29 percent last year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Now here’s the bad news: Component audio sales actually fell by 16 percent. The growth in sales was driven almost entirely by portables, led by the skyrocketing iPod. Why is that bad news for an audiophile? Because high-end audio—the good stuff—is a subset of component audio, not portable audio..

Read on over at Designtechnica.