In one of my videos, which you can watch here, I take folks on a tour of the new Octave studio's control room.
Octave Studios and Octave Records are passion projects near and dear to Terri and my hearts. We make some of the best HiFi equipment in the world so, to us, it makes sense that we'd also indulge in the creation of what's being played on those systems.
Others watching our channel seem to have other opinions. Lots of finger-wagging about staying in our lane. Comments like "recording studios don't make HiFi equipment, and HiFi manufacturers should not make records."
What is it about new ideas and directions that make people feel threatened? I see it manifesting itself in so many ways.
More than a decade ago, we had a similar reaction when we first launched the DirectStream DAC. It was a revolutionary new approach to digital audio. Instead of doing what 99.99% of the world was doing—using off-the-shelf chips to make our DAC—we, and a tiny handful of pioneers at the time, chose a different path.
We innovated in service of better, and that threatened a whole bunch of people.
I suppose we all react differently. Big changes made me excited. Others feel threatened.
In the end, we move forward. Some willingly, others...begrudgingly.
Progress.
