Look at the life-cycle of consumers and music. First you don't need a good or great system to listen to most of the crap that mascarades for music. The people who listen to rap and pop are the target audience for good audio equipment. As integration with digital music continues within the main home entertainment area there will be companies who will find a way to take it up a notch.

I have lot's of music on iTunes and refuse to hook my iPod into my hifi because of the compression technology. Coltrane on CD can be excellent and I don't want to sacrifice anymore through my iPod.

I think as people get more into music, jazz, classical and some blues I think they will be looking at more ways to enjoy their systems. I have a high frequency hearing loss yet I can hear the difference in a great system vs. a Japanese amplifier.

Will it every reach "mass market potential"..no but quality over quantity will always find a niche. I can tell you that when I was playing with the idea of upgrading my audio I was frustrated by both the variety of components and the prices. I mean $20,000 for a set of speakers and $12,000 for a turntable is my mind is a bit absurd and even if I had the money I just dont think that I would spend the money. Thank God for the Arcam Solo and my local Audio dealer who made me the light of deal and of course Stereophile magazine which perked up my interest

Rich,

I am 59 and thoroughly enjoy my IPod playing back WAV files. I do not have any MP3s in it. I tried some free MP3 downloads from ITunes and gave it up do to the sorry quality.

I have hooked my Ipod up to my stereo(s) and the sound was OK, but not anything I would do any long term listening on. I do keep a spare stereo mini to RCA breakout cable with me if someone wants to hear some tunes I have in my 20g Ipod.

I have enjoyed the FLAC downloads in my computer, and the Milwaukee Symphony MP3 dowload was ok, but again not where we want to live full time. I did it more to support the Symphony's efforts.

Yes there is some high priced audio gear out there, but there is also some excellent mid-line prices products (talking high end here) like the Quad CDP2, Rega Appollo, and others and even incljuding the $2900 Ayre CX-7E or the $2K Marantz SA15 CD/SACD Player and the PM 15 integrated amp Cheapskate owns that I am sure would be at the very least Class B Stereophile and may be Class A worthy.

I think the goal is for me to live within my means and own the best I can and be happy with what I have at the moment. As I get older it is more about the music and gear bargains I can find. I get just as much joy out of helping someone get into this hobby as I did when I first listened to the Triangle Celius or the remarkable Quads at Walt liederman's home. Just because I cannot own the Quads does not make them bad or over-priced. To me what I heard makes the Quads worth every penny. I can easily see why people would lay down $10K for them.

The reason John Marks loved the Magnum Dynalab MD 208 reciever was that at just under $3K it sounded great after a long breakin and the FM tuner is excellent and a great way to access free music. That would be an excellent cornerstone on which to build a excellent high-end audio system. I think your Arcam Solo also fits this bill. With some efficient speakers like the Triangles it would be magical for sure. The fact that Art Dudley gave high praise to the $350 Rega P1 shows there is little snobbery going on at Phile to me. Look at all the sub $1K speakers they review and like.

These days I am complaining less and enjoying what I have more. I am happy for the people who can own the best.