Senior Audiophiles - Audiophile since the 60-70's?

I think audio is a lot like cars. I used to tune cars by listening to them or driving them. Now the chip needs to be read by the computer. Not as much fun but clearly better.

It is still a fun hobby and now you meet interesting people even across the world thanks to the internet.

hi my favorite decade was the 60's. there were many great panel speakers available at that time. the tube amps and preamps were wonderful.

there were no audiophile accessories as we think of them today.

the sound of a good system was much better than what passes for so-called high quality audio systems.

a lot of todays expensive systems are headache generators.

Jnhapp, you raise an interesting question regarding CD (and MP3, though I don't feel that MP3 and "high fidelity" belong in the same sentence). Anyone who has been in this game since the 60's or before would surely recognize that every medium since the reel to reel tape has been a lower fidelity medium. Today, the LP still hangs on as our highest fidelity commercially available medium, though I know many would argue against me on that point. Truth is, I can't listen to CDs once I've been listening to LPs in the same session.

The point I wish to make is this: CDs hurt the hobby in the sense that the marketers discovered that convenience was far more marketable than fidelity, and that fidelity could be created with ad copy. I feel this has dramatically delayed the evolution towards higher fidelity mediums. LPs are fraught with problems, and yet they still have more music in their noisy grooves than the best that CD has to offer to this day.

On the other hand, CD really expanded the market by generating a lot of interest in sound reproduction at a time when the entire industry was in need of a shot in the arm. People started to actually listen to this new technology and started demanding higher quality, and the quality has been improving for the past 20 years, though to me it has felt as though progress has been very slow coming. Today, however, we are able to purchase some really fine CDs. Tremendous progress has been made in the medium since its inception, and hopefully SACD and DVD-A will lead to the evolution of new higher resolution formats that will finally surpass the LP entirely.

In conclusion, I feel CDs inception was a deterrent to the quest for higher fideltiy in the short to intermediate term, but long term I think it has the potential to take high fidelity to new highs as well as grow the market at all levels. Of course, that's just one man's opinion.

Theloveman:

Actually, marketers discovered convenience's marketability with the cassette tape. Audiophiles from that era forget the advice that we were given at the time. We were actually advised to make cassette copies of LP's for most of our listenting, as LP's scratched too easily. LP's were to be saved for those special critical listening sessions.

It was just that cassettes, especially prerecorded ones, were just so bad. Every LP purchase was essentially a double one. You purchased both the LP and a high quality blank tape for the backup copy.

Cassettes though still kept alive the idea of audio as a hobby.

If CD's represent anything, it is the end of audio as a hobby. The technology of sound medium is what the story is, not the equipment. CD's and technology, in general, also represented women taking more of an interest in audio. Prior to that there would be audio magazine articles on how women's hearing was skewed to the treble end of the spectrum and men preferred the lower registers. Women who dig technology, the convenience it brings, and the integration into the home are a major group now for manufacturers to satisfy.

I left LP's behind quite awhile ago, because they weren't worth the bother. I really like turntables, not the warped, noisy medium that was played on them. I do miss the pageantry of buying and unwrapping a new album though and looking at the artwork, etc. CD's don't engender any real satisfaction in that regard.

Be well,

Rich

Great thread! Really enjoyed reading all the stories and history.