Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

It's been a few years since my serious "dealer days." Surrounded by the newest gear and with a focus on performance over convenience, I invested in additional amplifiers, video processors and expensive sources. Over that period of time, I inched away from CDs and moved to iTunes (lossless of course), eventually graduating from DVD discs to a server. I think what happens as we get older is we become far more engrossed in important things, and have less time to fidget (this is something I believe that causes audiophiles to have less respect than they should: who really has enough time on their hands to do the tweaky things they do?)

Part of this evolution or devolution, depending on who you ask is based around the Apple "iLife" system philosophy. Never before have we had the ability to eschew wall controls and giant remotes in favor of distributing audio around the house from our smartphones. Streaming DVDs to an iPad or the 360 for the little ones is appealing, especially since their attention span (and mine) is too short to fuss with finding a disc, turning on the theater and sitting to watch. Having my rather basic computer serve all multimedia to the entire house as opposed to a multi-thousand dollar Kaleidescape-style setup makes sense, and it's easy. My two year old knows how to swipe on my iPhone, which in my opinion is a mark of excellent design. Thanks to these hand-held controllers, system control, traditionally a huge part of a system's price tag is effectively rolled into the relatively cheap price of the iPhone and a few well-edited apps. Even gaming is moving away from the TV and onto my iPhone. Ask me 10 years ago if I ever thought I'd be in that place. I happened to stumble on this CNET article, which reinforces the idea that as we get a little older, we value convenience even more:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57490921-71/apples-fanboys-have-all-grown-up/
"Fanboy" is a little strong, but that's fine.

The high end clings on, and it should. Smart dealers know when and where to target their amazing audio and video systems. For those that employ babysitters, housecleaners and have wives that don't expect the owners of these systems to actually kick in around the house, this makes sense. For the rest of us, having the best performing gear assumes a lesser position compared to spending quality time with the kids and focusing more on reality. I believe this also allows us to focus more on the content, and less on the gear itself.