PS Audio: When it’s just good enough

Paul McGowan writes:

Alan Sircom suggests that the problem with getting newcomers into the high-end is they already find their means of reproducing music “good enough” – so why spend more time and money getting something better?  There’s some truth to what he writes.

I would put forth the argument, however, that it is in our nature as humans to want more: to tolerate good enough only for as long as we are unaware we can do better.  Once we realize others have moved from good enough to better, a fixed percentage of us want what’s better.  It’s always been that way and always will be that way.

So the challenge remains the same: how do we let people know there’s something better and what happens when they go looking?

Imagine for a moment our industry hired a PR agency to spread the word there’s something better out there.  The agency started placing news stories and articles about the subject – perhaps even ads – something clever like “If your music at home is “good enough” then please don’t read any further.”  A certain percentage of curious people would take the call to action and read further, do a little investigating.  But what would they find?

In some cases they might find a friendly dealer who could hold them by the hand and get them into a nice affordable high-end system – but frankly, it’d be hard – a stretch for that to happen.

So I think the first part of the equation might be easy – getting people to know there’s something better than good enough.  The second part of the equation, what happens when they go looking, is a lot more difficult.