Jana Dagdagan

Hi Jana,

Interesting stats, thank you! (I think the rise of headphones and turntables/vinyls sales indicate consumers' strive for maximizing their personal audio experience)

3D and binaural audio via headphones can truly elevate our sense of realism. The launch of products like the new Smyth Realiser A16 (currently on Kickstarter) is key.

Imagine the functionality and even higher performance-level of Smyth Realiser built into the headphones of the future; I am certain we are getting there within 5-10 years.

I once met with an Apple executive who told me that Apple constantly tries to minimize the physical dimensions of its products and improve the performance at the same time. I see this philosophy being adopted in the audio industry which is a good trend.

Regards, Babak
Hi-Reality Project
www.hi-reality.com

Here is the link to Smyth Realiser A16 on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1959366850/realiser-a16-real-3d-audio-headphone-processor

Thanks for the cool info!

It looks as though a pair of headphones was sold for every teen and adult in 'Merica in the past two years, at about 15 bucks per set. Ubiquitous is good, as a certain percentage will migrate toward quality.

With a trend toward smaller places, more apartment dwellers, people living in mom's basement, etc...this is a nice, polite trend that allows people to enjoy the hobby without making the neighbors 'unwilling audiophiles,' too!

I never thought of it as a solipsistic thing. Especially, since most 'audiophiles' tend to have one chair in their listening room, so what's the diff?

Thank you posting the cool info.

I'd be concerned that nearly all of these purchasers, and to a growing extent audiophiles, don't actually have their full attention on the music. i.e. it's "background" music. My impression of serious loudspeaker systems that were purchased for attentive listening at realistic volume levels, is that the users were not cruising the Internet or reading the newspaper while attentively listening. 'Attentively' is of course redundant in that last phrase. So my concern is mainly for what happens to the music 'industry' due to the dominance of audiophile headphones. Unless users can truly multi-task and give due attention to listening while doing other things, the industry will begin to reshape itself around the concept of background music listening.

For me is to prodect my neighbours. When I move my head and the source of sound moves in the same direction, that's the opposite of natural sound. Many people seem to feel challenged to increase the loudness more than appropriate. So their hearing abilities are impaired too early in their lives. But binaural recordings are really impressive. First real soundstage delivered by headphones.

Training programs for impaired persons. New possibilities in skill training. Musical simulations ( to play in a combo ). Much, much more interesting than to hear only recorded music.