Hi Vinny
I know there are some old schoolers around, but most of them have moved on from High End Audio since the push for "discrete" in the mid 90's. Most newer speakers (including drivers) are far less musical than the older speakers. You can evidence this by the folks walking around saying their speakers are so revealing they won't play "bad recordings". Well that's a bunch of road apples. High enders over the last couple of decades have been lied to about the state of affairs with recordings. High End Audio has been in decline since the mid 90's and most of the folks are in denial. You have a couple of reviewers right now who couldn't find their way out of playback session to save their lives. How do I know? They were once clients of mine begging for help. Pre-90's you had people making their recordings sound good on their systems, post 90's people aren't even being told that every recording is different. The concept of tuning in a recording is a lost science except for a few folks adjusting their TT's and Tape heads. The rest think plug & play, speaker placement and wishful thinking is what this hobby is about. This whole chapter of the hobby is one big mess, while the rest of the music lovers are getting into listening, and one by one realizing the High End Audio is nothing more than a revolving door sales club. Praising the new and damning last years models. Today's High End Audio is coming to a painful death, and the only ones who don't know it are the guys who still have a little money in their man cave account to burn. Hey, this isn't me talking, these are the words from the folks getting ahold of me to help them get back on track or to at least get somewhat tuned up. Most of the older folks who call me wish they could go back to one of their systems between the 70's-90's. They were sold the ladder climb only to find they were already there, they just needed to tune things in.
I'm a speaker designer as well, but ask me after all these years and all these new driver designs did I end up going back to simple woofers and paper tweeters? I use 1 cap in my speakers, and my speakers are as light as a feather. They have tuning bolts on them so your can adjust the vibrations, simple right? Their built like a guitar. These other older designers have their stories as well, and together the hobby was about music. Then the paradigm broke and it was all about money over the soundstage. Hobbyist were so compulsive they never even took the time to look at why sound was great back in the mid 80's. Spend this, buy that, upgrade. High end audio created a guilt driven fever that was completely based on false advertising. Let me just say this in closing on my long windedness. How did a hobby that was based on tuning in every recording because they knew every recording was different and unique end up with only a volume control? A volume control, that's your adjustment. In the past audiophiles knew what recordings were. High End Audio took things a completely different direction. Only thing is, the rest of the world made even more adjustments available while High End Audio forgot what the hobby even was.
Michael Green
www.michaelgreenaudio.net
