Is the Home Stereo Dying?

There was an interesting CNN.com article last week called "The Death of the Home Stereo System" by Todd Leopold.  According to the article, consumers are leaving bulky component stereos behind for portable devices and headphones.  It's a real phenomenon.  Most people are now comfortable downloading their music and storing their music in the cloud.  Listening to music seems to have become a more and more personal and introspective event.

Why would anyone want to maintain a full-sized component stereo system?  I can think of three good reasons:

• To play large collections of music on CD, vinyl, and tape
• To play music through powerful high quality speakers
• To maintain tangible, physical, ownership of a music collection.

 In addition, there are a lot of intangibles that I enjoy about music on CD.  For example, I like reading the little booklets that come with a CD or cassette.  Many people love the album covers that come with vinyl records.

There are also some things I really dislike about the whole MP3, Smartphone, thing.  First of all, I don't like data plans, texting, and high fees.  I also don't like earbuds.  I hate the way people using portable devices lose situational awareness of the world around them.  I also live in a city full of people who will kill you for your iPhone5.  I do like streaming internet radio and connect my Barnes & Noble Nook to my stereo on a regular basis.  I guess the MP3 revolution is simply technology that I am not comfortable with.

But, here is the thing.  Shouldn't the technology you use for recreation be comfortable to you?  Listening to music is supposed to be fun and relaxing.  I don't feel the need to find a website, download MP3, pay 49 cents per song, and build a playlist before playing music.  It sounds like way too much work for me.  I'll stick to selecting my CD, putting it into a player, and pressing play.  It simply works.  It sounds better and it is much less of a pain in the ass than signing your life away to some unknown online entity.

Plus, if the mass market home stereo really is dying, there should be some awesome deals out there!