philligr's comments

His comment about classical betrayed this a bit. It was pretty ignorant (in the pure sense of uninformed) and confusing.

So what options would you recommend? Genuinely curious.

I'd like to get my friends and family on Signal or Riot but I can't get anyone to use them.

Everyone uses SMS (or talks about using Whatsapp but might or might not actually). I was using Google Hangouts long before Whatsapp or Signal started being taken up and now they assume that's what I'd prefer, like that's how I should be communicated with, even when I'd prefer something else.

It's strange.

I worry a bit about the audio space. I think there's a lot of good competition out there but see it as becoming increasingly siloed due to network effects of connectivity standards. Maybe this has changed but it kept me from purchasing some Sonos equipment a few years ago and Apple seems hellbent on pulling everyone into it's system to lock them in (I say this as someone who owns Apple products).

I think the backlash against Bose is a bit undeserved. There's plenty of good products by other companies now, but Bose still makes some really great sounding equipment. A lot of the criticism of their products I think is a kind of contrarism due to the hype that existed at one time. I have one pair of speakers of theirs that every so often I become convinced I could find something better by now, but when I actually listen to the alternatives, they sound nowhere near as good (including Sonos and other, audiophile type brands).

It seems there's always these cycles of one or more brands being the hipster equipment to buy, some audiophile non-conformist backlash, and then the reintroduction of a new cycle.

That being said, it's hard for me to imagine any brand having standalone audio only stores, except maybe a couple of locations or something. People either buy blind online (which leads to really distorted statements about relative quality on the internet imho) or go somewhere to compare multiple brands' products in person.