However homogenised the major companies would like to make home entertainment, there remains a core of consumers impervious to such efforts. No, nothing will stop the relentless march of convergence, nor should it. Some people genuinely want to have 'wired homes' and really do revel in a push-button world. They just don't represent the rest of us. Mercifully, we have both cottage industry die-hards, and a few enlightened multinationals. No foolin': some of the major players do find room in their glossy catalogues for products that don't involve USB or SCART. But before you think for even a millisecond that I'm suffering a bout of optimism, don't. We're still looking at the beginning of the end, if not its middle, and any rallies I've noted lately, with precious few exceptions, come from the usual suspects. (Let's be honest for once, huh? I mean, you could inject sodium pentothal into the collective arses of Classic Records' Michael Hobson, analogue champion Michael Fremer and anyone still making IPs, turntables, arms or cartridges, and they'd still tell you that 'the LP is making a comeback.' But they're deluded. Gerry Marsden fronting the 97th version of the Pacemakers at a workingmen's club in Cleethorpes is a 'comeback,' too, but I don't see EMI waving £35m under his nose. Some perspective is needed.)
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