I have quite an elaborate yet spendy surround sound theater in a room I added to my house just for the theater. I still buy new and listen to vinyl records on a new Thorn turntable. I also have quite a collection of CD's that are analog as well as digital recording or renderings. The older analog stereo music sounds much better on direct stereo with all the enhancement features turned off in the AV processor. The new music, of course, sounds better as it is encoded with the enhanced features that the AV amplifier processors can take advantage of. Also, there is a sound quality of analog vinyl records that nothing digital can come close to.
That being said, for the majority of the consumers in this country they don't know the difference, can't hear the difference, and don't care. So I would have to say the days of home stereo systems are already long gone.
For me the the stereo isnt over i just dont buy hard copy music anymore its all downloaded or coming from satellite radio or radio stations in the car when driving.
I'm tired of watching the news on tv and decided to go through some of the music I have stored on my hard disk.
As I'm an old fart, most of you would hate what I'm listening to, e.c., Singers Unlimited, Ray Coniff, Henry Mancine, The Carpenters, Taco, Beatles, Captain and Tenile, Jareau, 5th Dimension, and ABBA, among a few.
I;m an old fart as well. My choices are all over the place but i particularly like a well played guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn Alvin Lee, Mark Knofler,Ted Nugent, bands like Uriah Heep,Queen,