Vote

A truly high-end high-rez digital radio format.

Contentment and satisfaction in what you have told yourself brings you happiness?

Better DIY sources. I think that DIY is a good way to learn about high end and also to save a little green.

What about some real high-end gear for satellite radio?

Analog CDs.

Can anyone advise me how to make my listening room sound like the Disney Concert Hall?

We need wireless connections for equipment! A whole new world for antenna design, transmitter and receiver design.

A simple, short, and practical course in electrical engineering fundamentals in audio design. I hear a lot of engineering jargon, but get the feeling sales and review people are just repeating mumbo-jumbo with little understanding. Of course, there are exceptions like JA and DO, but for the rest of us it's just weird science.

Something like the Cambridge Audio music server but under $1000.

Music worth buying.

I would like to see an analog source with the convenience of a CD or mp3 and resolution, bandwidth, signal to noise and dynamic range exceeding the best of currently available media. Perhaps a top-notch digital source will come along someday to negate this desire, but right now a good vinyl or reel-to-reel rig beats any consumer digital source, yet they still have their own limitations. In the past few decades all of the technology gains focused on writing ones and zeros in the smallest space, etc. How about a little focus on writing an accurate analog signal with similar efficiency?

Give me a SACD DAC and I'll be done.

Sure - replace the damned bad CD with with a better format. I am talking to recording studios...

A high quality CD/SACD player with additional digital inputs for a DVD player, an iPod, and a Mac/PC. At least one would be USB. All would have access to a high quality inboard DAC. Possibly some kind of volume control so this could serve as preamp for those inclined.

Digital processor (DAC) with hard disk storage and all kind of inputs, including decoding all kind of formats, maybe even wireless connection. All this in high-end quality...

It's not exactly audiophile, but we need a practical way to receive Internet radio in cars. I understand it's right around the corner.

For home listeners, progress still needs to be made concerning the room/software/loudspeaker interface. I suspect progress will continue, in small increments, in terms of the transparency and low distortion of source components, amplifiers, and speakers, but today's best components sound plenty good when the software and room cooperate. Perhaps the next step will be more choices among powered loudspeakers with DSP: Meridian has a head start, but we need other high-end manufacturers to compete in this area, with less emphasis on home theater configurations and more on simpler, user-friendly setups for those of us who love stereo. I was impressed when I heard the B&O powered speaker, but the DSP on that system isn't available for user adjustments.

Free Beer

A mainstream hi-fi (but non-high end) DAC for the average listeners' iTunes computer.

We need to have more than one audio input in headphone amps. Also, a built-in DAC for digital inputs would be nice.

Properly designed speaker decoupling mounts. For example, when the floor of a recording studio is "floated", designers use mounts of Sylomer under a concrete slab, and tune the MSM (mass spring mass) system to 7-12 Hz . The tuning frequency should be 1/3 the lowest frequency that the speaker can produce. It would be really nice to get rid of energy being transmitted though the floor and walls all over the house, so we can listen without many complaints from neighbors, not to mention the gain in audio quality! Now, I DO NOT mean cones and spikes, etc, since they can't be tuned precisely based on weight (and since they really do the opposite of decoupling). Probably too much to ask for though!

Are there any unfulfilled audiophile needs still waiting to be met? Yes. Reasonable and realistic equipment prices. Just because something is expensive, doesn't mean it's worth it. You do not necessarily always get what you pay for in "high-end" audio. If gear were more realistic in price, more people would be interested in it. I get the distinct feeling that equipment prices are artificially high in order to keep out the unwashed masses by intimidation. We complain about people not being interested in audio, yet manufacturers consistently price most people who actually have to work for a living out of the hobby. Real smart.

Audiophile quality *virtual* mulit-channel for two channel systems.

Maybe a standardized way to rate things like power, distortion, efficiency, frequency response. So many times i see Frequency Response rated at +/- 5db, and other times +/- 2db. Or amplifiers rated at 5% distortion, and others rated at below 1%. Also it would be nice if there were a way to cure impedance mismatch. Possibly a industry standard impedance, kinda like what is used to cable systems.

1) A ***real*** universal remote. 2) Self-cleaning LPs!