Digital music streamed from the internet is not only killing off the CD, but is also impacting the hi-fi business. Classical audio systems are giving way to compact digital speakers with wireless connections.
At the recent IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin the trend could be plainly seen with many multi-room systems made up of networked digital speakers being presented by the main hi-fi makers.
The competition between the speaker brands is now shifting from the quality of woofers and bass units to the field of software as the industry dreams up new things to do with these smart speakers.
For example, industry heavyweight Harman, which owns brands such as JBL, Harman/Kardon and Infinity, is using its own algorithm in speakers to improve the quality at replay of MP3 music which has suffered from extreme data compression.
Multi-room pioneer Sonos has software to determine whether a pair of speakers should play in stereo or mono, depending on whether other speakers are in use nearby. That eliminates the need for an amplifier and an array of dials.
Meanwhile in the realm of the car, digital speakers are arriving on the market that actively suppress road noise. They use sound waves to create "white noise," reducing the need for the car manufacturer to install extra sound-proofing.
The small A2 Bluetooth model from Bang & Olufsen subsidiary B&O Play uses software to analyse the music being played and then shuts down the parts of the speaker that aren't needed.
The sound quality is not affected but the device can run continuously for 24 hours on one battery charge as a result.
Amazon's Echo speaker plays music according to voice commands and also allows users to order articles from the world's largest online retailer by voice.
For the future, the fantasies go even further thanks to the so-called Internet of Things - the networking of everything and everybody - and the growth of wearable technology playing a key part.
For example, speakers could automatically start playing music when a smart-watch or fitness band reports that the householders are awake.
Or sensors could analyse a person's mood and health condition and then adapt the music selection and sound settings to match.
That's the direction the industry is going in.
Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal has spoken of a trend towards "smart audio" where speakers don't just play music but are also interfaces in the networked home. "Manufacturers who don't invest in the networked future and software will find it difficult to survive," he predicts.
B&O Play is also thinking about how speakers can be integrated into the "smart home" of the future. CEO Henrik Taudorf Lorensen says "there's a lot of excitement in the industry," but so far a shortage of outstandingly useful ways to marry up these technologies. He's critical of the current struggle between the various companies over the formats to be used for multi-room systems.
Sonos CEO John MacFarlane has spoken of the privacy issues if speakers in the home are able to listen in all the time so they can respond to voice commands.
"If it ever happens that the NSA [the US National Security Agency] can eavesdrop on any cloud service, the providers might as well give up," he's warned.
Despite this he believes that voice control will prevail in the future - provided that speech recognition software works better than it does today.
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