Good point. My wishes for hi-fi was for the following:
More efficient amps: We already have amps with distortion levels that are ridiculously low (0.0004 was the lowest I have seen as of yet). Let's stop waxing the brass in the distortion room, and move on to making the amp more efficient. Yes, there will be a step back at first, in terms of distortion, but that's how things work...when your at the top of the mountain, you have to climb back down to go up the next one.
STANDARIZATION: I cannot say this enough...imagine a chorus singing that word over and over again s I type this...that is how bad I wnat to emphasize this. Having two hi-fi formats right now (DVD-a and SACD) is not helping things, although it does line the equipment maker's pockets since they have to sell two or even three disc players. Standardization is a must if audio is to advance. If we are using the same transport, then we should get backwards compatibility. In my opinion, it should be assured backwards compatibility from the mid-range products on up, including our hi-fi formats.
Speakers: Very little improvement...and too much marketing spiel. Problem is we are nearly at the pinnacle of a driver design that is nearly 80 years old! We have ribbon drivers that have shown what they can do...we should start seeing more of these. The moving ccone loudspeaker still has it's place due to being a great design...but maybe horns or ribbons will be the next thing, who knows? All I ahve seen are baby steps, and lots of weird experimentations (those are good though).
Cables: we need a fixed standard on cables, just to end this "x cable is great, yous sucks" junk. This would yield the single best advancement, since all gear could in theory be specced with those cables, and thus be designed to perform best around them. Nothing exotic here, just good ole RG-6 and zip cord. No need to get crazy and tell everyone "our speakers were designed around gold plated titanium, with symmetrical diamond studs on teh jackets"...that's just crazy talk
The biggest advance is in surround sound, with better processing methods and such.
In the end it's a money game...a good part of audio companies either think their stuff sounds pleasing (thus no desire to improve), or they don't care about anything but their wallets. Marketing isn't about telling your product as it is, it's about making people want your product....which is where things went wrong...people are hyping poly dome tweeters a audiophile gear, pressed paper cones with paper surrounds as quality, and amps that put out 2000w despite only taking 6w from the wall (computer speakers in this case).
In the end it's mostly about profits. Part of why I am so interested in learning to make my own gear is how tired I am of the lack of truly good gear at reasonable prices. Like the decline of quality stereo receivers....the only ones left are either poor quality, or massively overpriced.
