I love modern hi-fi but can we bring back these classic features?

[What Hi-Fi?]

Hi-fi is undoubtedly smarter than ever but have we sacrificed something along the way?

I love modern hi-fi but can we bring back these classic features? : Read more

 

[Romulus]

Becky is absolutely correct in her observations, the same 'modernisation' has been inflicted on laptops. Now all laptops want to be Notebook slim, I still have my old Dell Inspirion 1525 and I just wanted a new Dell Inspirion laptop with may be more advanced GPU etc but without losing out on the features my old Dell LapTop has, from my research if I want a laptop nowadays with all the ports and features of my present laptop I am looking at top custom 'tough' built laptops for about £2000 or more! Also I noticed that with advanced technology is no guarantee that it will work normally most of the time. My track pad on my old present laptop (Dell Inspirion 1525) works fine , I just took it for granted that all track pads work normally... When I tried the new 'notepad' slim Dell Inspirion in Curry's , it became an ice skating rink for the poor cursor! From the internet it soon became apparent that that particular model of Dell Inspirion laptop the track pad has problems but however it has other properties that other laptops do not have according to the users of this laptop. They got around the problem by using a mouse; but its a poor reflection on 'modern technology' that people are forced to use an alternative method inorder to use this latest slim stylish looking bendy laptop....

 

[cobraBLACK]

You could solve some of these problems by using a Harmony remote (or one of the new universal remotes coming to the market soon).

 

[Krzystoff]

Most streaming device manufacturers have a touch screen version, eg. Amazon has the Echo Show, since Becky mentioned Alexa. If you want a high end solution, it will be up to the component manufacturers to add such a display, but the same is true for TV - a coffee table tablet supplied with your new TV could offer a vastly better experience than using a tiny losable remote or even a Harmony version. This approach will work for your music too, though you don't want a situation where every device has its own remote tablet.
Another thing that I've wanted for years on hifi is for all active speakers to have USB power and audio in series, eliminating clumsy messes of separate cables, power points everywhere and avoiding unreliable, laggy Bluetooth for audio streams. There's something to be said for the purity of component amps and heavy two wire audio cables to passive speakers, but surround systems should keep things simpler and flexible so you can add another few speakers without needing to upgrade your amp equipment.

 

[suburbansky]

Have you got any personal experience of Harmony or others? The only dedicated "HiFi" product I've come across so far is the Revox Studiocontrol which looks great but seems proprietary to Revox - and comes at €950 price tag... Oops.

STUDIOCONTROL C200

The STUDIO CONTROL C200 is an Android based and Google certified control with docking station. It is made of aluminum and equipped with a…

revox.com

 

[suburbansky]

Addendum: According to the Logitech website, the entire Harmony range has been discontinued, and there seems to be no successor.

 

[cobraBLACK]

Addendum: According to the Logitech website, the entire Harmony range has been discontinued, and there seems to be no successor.

Correct, which is why I mentioned the coming models like this:

I've had a couple of the Harmony flagship remotes and they're amazing really. I have the last one, the Elite with hub and it's a shame it's been discontinued but all that means so far is that they're no longer selling it directly and they won't be developing any further.

If the time comes when new hardware isn't controllable or whatever then hopefully successors like the YIO will be even better.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Nothing does more/better than Pronto did many years ago (with a few exceptions), so I'll be keeping an eye no that.

 

[Duug]

The account of the rental car that uses a phone to unlock was gut wrenching. We are not drifting into a technocratic dystopia. The frog has been boiled. 🤢

 

[Duug]

Becky is absolutely correct in her observations, the same 'modernisation' has been inflicted on laptops. Now all laptops want to be Notebook slim, I still have my old Dell Inspirion 1525 and I just wanted a new Dell Inspirion laptop with may be more advanced GPU etc but without losing out on the features my old Dell LapTop has, from my research if I want a laptop nowadays with all the ports and features of my present laptop I am looking at top custom 'tough' built laptops for about £2000 or more! Also I noticed that with advanced technology is no guarantee that it will work normally most of the time. My track pad on my old present laptop (Dell Inspirion 1525) works fine , I just took it for granted that all track pads work normally... When I tried the new 'notepad' slim Dell Inspirion in Curry's , it became an ice skating rink for the poor cursor! From the internet it soon became apparent that that particular model of Dell Inspirion laptop the track pad has problems but however it has other properties that other laptops do not have according to the users of this laptop. They got around the problem by using a mouse; but its a poor reflection on 'modern technology' that people are forced to use an alternative method inorder to use this latest slim stylish looking bendy laptop....

Sorry to hear of your predicament. Curious if you saw that the HP Spectre series have touch screens. Maybe that is a work around? Not sure if you require certain ports but I have used that one and I found it to be pretty decent and the display is quite sharp. Audio by B&O. I believe that they should cost between £1000-1500.

 

[suburbansky]

Correct, which is why I mentioned the coming models like this:

 

[robdmarsh]

Interesting that the article has a picture of the Node 3. I had one of those and I couldn't stand it: plastic wrapped minimalist "chic" with proximity sensors! Wtf?!

 

[suburbansky]

Interesting that the article has a picture of the Node 3. I had one of those and I couldn't stand it: plastic wrapped minimalist "chic" with proximity sensors! Wtf?!

I've got one too, not a fan of the plastic and the feel - but it's a fine device nonetheless. The dealer had suggested to just "store it away somewhere out of sight" when I bought it; he definitely has a point, as you don't actually have to fiddle with the device to run it.

 

[robdmarsh]

I've got one too, not a fan of the plastic and the feel - but it's a fine device nonetheless. The dealer had suggested to just "store it away somewhere out of sight" when I bought it; he definitely has a point, as you don't actually have to fiddle with the device to run it.

Sorry, don't like the sound either, detailed but meh. And I can't use Amazon HD app natively with it and BluOS is horrible.