The audio market is at a critical point due to prolonged corona damage and lack of semiconductors. Take a look at the hot topics of 2021 that shine even in the headwinds!
The endless Korona-ka that has continued since 2020 has been prolonged. While costs such as raw materials, labor costs, and transportation costs have soared, and all kinds of things have risen in price, it has become difficult to obtain semiconductors and other parts in the audio industry, and many manufacturers have been entrusted with the appearance of new products last year. And news of big price increases is coming in one after another for both domestic and foreign products. In the industry, it can be said that this year will be a crucial moment, but the sound quality around TVs is increasing due to the demand for nesting, and the number of records produced that continues to rise due to analog re-evaluation, CDs are re-evaluated here. There is also a lot of positive news, such as increasing popularity worldwide. Meanwhile, what kind of products appeared in 2021? Focusing on looking back on new products, I would like to look back on last year's movements, taking into account trends such as lossless streaming, immersive movements, and new developments in the car audio field. ■ Despite being affected by the shortage of semiconductors, each company's unique efforts are shining. First of all, it can be said that high-end products of domestic brands were particularly popular in the digital player-related fields. Preamplifier, network playback function and balanced drive headphone amplifier are integrated, including Accuphase 50th anniversary commemorative models "DP-1000" "DC-1000" and TAD "TAD-D1000TX" "TAD-DA1000TX". Introducing the Esoteric "N-05XD" that built a new style of, and the SOULNOTE "ZEUS system" that achieves overwhelming performance with its own ZERO-LINK connection. Steady evolution in the high-end field continues. The semiconductor industry still seems to be in the midst of great turmoil, but I remember that the entire industry was severely damaged by the fire at Asahi Kasei Electronics' semiconductor manufacturing plant, which manufactures AKM DAC chips used in many audio products. new. In response to this, instead of a general-purpose DAC chip, in addition to Marantz and Esoteric, which have been developing discrete DACs, original design discrete DACs such as LINN "KLIMAX DSM / 3" and TEAC "UD-701N" are available. Models equipped with it have begun to appear. When using existing DAC chips, some brands responded by replacing them with chips from other manufacturers, and it can be inferred that the designers were greatly troubled by making sounds, which also seems to have led to an increase in development time. The fact that the product renewal of the brand, which has a large market share in the popular price range and has undergone model changes every year, was postponed last year, can be seen as a major blow due to the shortage of semiconductors. However, asahi Kasei has announced that it is developing a new chip for audio earlier this year, so I have high expectations for future recovery. ■ Expectations for amplifiers with built-in streaming functions and HDMI-equipped machines In the amplifier field, many models from domestic and overseas brands have appeared, but among them, Luxman's new amplification feedback circuit "LIFES" has made a surprising leap forward. The "M-10X" and "L-507Z" were impressive. A certain kind of "sound that does not feel the presence of electricity", which seems to be due to the drastic reduction of distortion, may be a new dimension of audio reproduction. As a sign of a new trend, ROKSAN "Attessa Streaming Amplifier", JBL "SA750", ARCAM "SA30" (with HDMI input) that has re-landed in Japan as a receiver that supports streaming with full size or similar components ), Technics network CD receiver "SA-C600" etc. have appeared. This type of streamer amplifier is expected to become more widespread in the future, and in particular, the installation of an HDMI input that enables fusion with living AV may become a trend. ■ B & W's 800 series has undergone a major overhaul. Speakers, which are attracting a lot of attention for active SP, have the impression that they are crowded with products in the popular price range of 100,000 yen or less to 200,000 yen. Various high-cost lineups including the "Reserve" series of Pork Audio, which re-landed in Japan for the first time in decades, the new entry "Emit" series of Dynaudio, and the premium class "SB" equipped with the gravity mount of Technics. -G90M2 "and" SB-C600 ", sealed male Crypton" KX-0.5II ", JBL is the smallest L series" L52 Classic "and" 4309 ", new Silver series of monitor audio, long-awaited Denso Ten Eclipse series In recent years, a relatively large number of attention products have appeared from domestic brands that have been pushed by overseas forces, such as the new model "TD307MK3" and the limited full-range unit "FE108SS-HP" from Fostex. bottom. And, after all, what attracted a lot of attention was the appearance of the D4 series, which is the latest line of the 800 series, which is B & W's flagship line. From the drastic renewal of the housing structure to the detailed parts of the magnetic circuit and vibration system, the sound of a new frontier that has been opened up through careful version upgrades is truly remarkable. Expectations are rising for the appearance of the 700 and 600 series, which will be renewed in the future. In terms of the future outlook for the speaker field, active speakers with built-in amplifiers will be more popular in Japan. KEF "LS50 Wireless II" was the first to support lossless / high resolution playback of amazon music, and last year, the latest model "A100 BT5.0" of the blockbuster AIRPULSE, Krypton's 2-way active speaker "KS-55 Hyper", In addition to the appearance of JBL's active studio monitor "4305P" announced at the beginning of the year, B & W's original mesh network technology wireless speaker product group "Formation Suite" has landed in Japan earlier this year. More high-quality active / wireless speakers will appear in the future. As mentioned in the article at the beginning of last year, what is expected of speakers in this field is to solve the problem of compatibility with amplifiers and to expand the base of speaker playback users by saving space. As for monitor speakers, active speakers such as GENELEC and IK MULTIMEDIA, which boast a large share, are being equipped with a simple and highly accurate sound field correction function using a dedicated microphone, which is also a threshold for beginners against the big wall of setting. It can be said that it is a key function to lower. In addition, hybrid types such as the paradigm flagship "Persona 9H" and the avant-garde "XD series", which are equipped with a dedicated amplifier only in the bass part, are beginning to appear in the high-end field, and are against the biggest difficulty in speaker playback. , I would like to expect the challenge of products that insert scalpels with modern technology. ■ Record playback reborn with cutting-edge technology. In the area of analog disc playback, where vacuum tubes are also quietly attracting attention, players did not see any noticeable movement of domestic brands, but VARTERE, which was founded by Toraji Moghadam, who created the masterpiece TMS and his XERXES, founded Rokusan. The landing in Japan was the big news last year. The company's core machine "MG-1 PKG", which has a beautiful multi-layered structure of thick acrylic, seems to be getting a lot of attention in the industry. In addition, SME's new model "Model 6 Classic" and Lega's entry model "Planar 3 mk2" have also appeared. As for cartridges, the MC cartridge "LMC-5" released by Luxman for the first time in decades, the DS AUDIO "DS003" optical cartridge equipped with a new generation vibration system, and Yakusugi, which is over 2000 years old, are carefully selected and bodyed. Introducing the analog relaxation "EX1000" used for. Even in modern times, the evolution of analog reproduction is being sought. There are many phono equalizer amplifier related products from domestic and overseas brands such as Oracle "PH200 MK3", VARTERE "Phono1 MKII", HEGEL "V10", Phasemation "EA-1200", CS port "CMT1", etc. In addition to its appearance, the phono equalizer amplifier with a built-in integrated amplifier is tending to be strengthened, and it has become a product development that makes us feel the high need for this field as usual. Along with the demand for nesting and the popularity of records, tube amps will be quietly attracting attention. The "300B" genuine product, which has begun to be reproduced by Western Electric Company in the United States, has been on sale in triode in Japan since November last year, but it is said that orders have already flooded and the delivery date is after spring. The company said that several new models of tube amps were introduced last year, and that it is also busy repairing second-hand purchasers. Furthermore, even in the easier and cheaper fields, cheap small amplifiers of Chinese brands seem to have gained a certain degree of popularity, and like analog, the unique world view created by "vacuum tubes" is cut off from audio as a hobby. But it seems to be an inseparable existence. ■ Current situation surrounding subscriptions such as licensing issues The big news about subscriptions was the announcement of the end of service of mora qualitas. Various factors can be expected, but it is an event that shows the difficulty of lossless streaming services as a fundamental business model. Is this kind of service currently advantageous for companies with overwhelming capital / sales power, including license negotiations? It has just been news that the launch of Spotify HiFi, which boasts an overwhelming number of members, has been delayed due to licensing issues, but the situation surrounding audio equipment is likely to change significantly depending on the lossless provision of Spotify. Other trends such as TIDAL and Qobuz, which is expected to be serviced in Japan due to the acquisition of Xandrie's e-onkyo music, are attracting attention, but in addition to negotiations on licensing issues, how It is expected that the key will be to attract the number of users in Japan, and it seems that landing in Japan is not an easy initiative. On the other hand, it seems that the implementation of the amazon music playback function, which is one of the streaming services with a high market share, has a limited number of compatible audio devices due to reasons on the Amazon side. In fact, except for chromecast built-in and airplay connections, we can only find a few full-size hi-fi audio devices that currently support native playback of amazon music. In general, now that subscription listening has become the mainstream of music listening, it can be said that the fact that amazon music, which has a large market share, does not spread to high-fidelity audio equipment is also a big loss for expanding the base of audio. It's a part that can't be straightforward because of the speculation of the provider, but I'd like to expect a lot of cooperation in the future. As a tip for improving the sound quality of such network playback, it seems that the keyword of optical isolation of network links is attracting attention. This isolates noise by once converting the network connection into an optical signal. Normally, the method of connecting a dedicated device and converting it to an SFP terminal that handles optical signals is common, but EDISCREATION's unique component "FIBER BOX 2" that completes the optical conversion process in one device has appeared. That was also impressive. From a high-fidelity audio point of view, especially streaming playback using the Internet line and file playback using the LAN start with selecting a router, and first of all, care for peripheral devices such as hubs and cables is also important. With the spread of know-how and countermeasure equipment related to these, the attractiveness of audio playback using networks will expand further. ■ Possibility of new audio playback-Immersive audio and in-vehicle entertainment-Other topics include immersive audio content such as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio (360RA), which have been released on Amazon music and apple music. Has appeared. Of course, these are focused on playback on earphones, headphones, soundbars and integrated wireless speakers, but given the fact that pure music content in immersive format has been extremely scarce so far, these contents have been enriched. May also lead to an increase in interest and needs for "immersive playback by speakers". As for the production base, Apple's DAW software "Logic pro" is equipped with the production function of "Dolby Atmos" by default, as well as immersive support of major studios, Dolby Atmos, Sony 360RA, and Auro-Max. In addition to the fact that production software (Creative Suite) can be obtained from tens of thousands of yen and the threshold for content production has dropped significantly, the possibility of new musical expressions will be expanded, and immersive content will be enhanced in the future. I would like to expect from you. From a broader perspective, Sony has announced its entry into the EV business, and Sennheiser has announced the development of its own stereophonic technology "AMBEO" for in-vehicle entertainment. Deployment is also a topic. It is unlikely that high-fidelity audio will be introduced directly, and it can be expected that the fundamental sound quality will be different, but music playback that can be enjoyed in real space using speakers, which is different from earphones and headphones, is possible. If it becomes widespread and the sales of the content increase, it will naturally lead to the revitalization of the music production industry and the audio industry centered on speaker playback. ■ High-quality audio equipment makes the joy of music even greater As for music software, Remboato "Hoshi o" released from the new label "nagalu" by Shinya Fukumori, a drummer / composer who debuted from ECM in 2018. "What to row" was brilliant. Aiming for a unique sense of humidity, we mix in "monaural" and pursue a high-quality feel as a product with an elaborate CD package. The fresh music produced by a new generation of Japanese jazz musicians with a unique sense from Asia is rich in music and sound quality, and it is different from transient fashion. I felt the possibility. I think that it is very valuable for the audio scene in the future that such efforts arise from a new generation of musicians. Looking back on last year's audio trends, I am keenly aware of the magnitude of the existence of music in the headwinds of this global virus epidemic, which is under great stress. When I listen to the new albums released these days, I feel that there are many people who seek deep introspection and comfort in terms of music and lyrics. Audio equipment that makes music entertain with high-quality sound is an entity that further enhances the joy and value that can be obtained from such music. In that sense as well, it can be said that it is time for audio to become a kind of "practical", not to mention audio as a hobby. Manufacturers who couldn't announce new products last year are gradually beginning to see the existence of new products. It's a crucial moment, but I hope that the audio industry will make a leap forward this year as well. ] +>
Saburo Ikugata