Hello
Quality
‘Originally’
it was listening in a fixed place in a room, dominated by someone, then your
own room. Fixed place leads to a naturally improving system.
You could
bring your LP’s to any dedicated room. Reel to Reels, also portable, was a rich
man’s game, experienced by very few. WWII military in Asia had access to
affordable reel to reel, but pre-recorded content was minimal and pricey. Home
recordings were very possible. Recording radio was a big thing. ‘Free Content’.
I inherited
my rich uncle’s system, otherwise I might never have experienced reel to reel,
my favorite format still.
……………………
Format
Change, Mono, Stereo, ……
I am 71, a
USA baby boomer. I experienced FM making it into car radios, then homes; mono
to stereo: home equipment, phono, portable ‘suitcase’ music systems, tubes to
transistors, development of sealed enclosure loudspeakers, affordable decent
home audio systems, …. And the simultaneous development of access to
reproduction/recording equipment for musicians, thus garage bands, …. The 60’s
oh boy. Reduction in size, thus portability of that equipment was a big factor.
Tube to
Transistor was a huge factor in portability and reliability. Operated without
much knowledge.
Then the equipment
quest, the audio industry, dedicated publications: late 60’s, 70s, 80,s. I
stopped paying any real attention to equipment mid 90’s.
Back to
tubes, lps, reel to reel, content. I listen to my friend’s high end system, his
digital content, sounds terrific, but it’s not for me.
……………………………….
Hello
Portability/Hello Compromise
****8 Tracks
were the Beginning of the End***.
A physically
horrible design, never intended for music. They were invented for advertising
on radio stations. A small amount of tape (thus less stress on the whole
system), to only last the length of ‘that’ ad campaign, then into the trash
can.
But, now,
for the first time, we, the masses, could listen in our cars, our friends cars
(very important to teenagers then), anyone’s hangout, share our content. Goodbye
LP’s, goodbye quality, goodbye quality speakers, hello lousy car speakers, …. ,
repeat, the beginning of the end.
Cassette,
originally for dictation, words, not music, increased in quality and
portability to kill 8 track.
The Walkman then
added Isolated Individual listening, even in crowds and noisy distracting
environments to the portability and sharing, and home recording/sharing was a
rocket.
Content,
reduced size, reduced cost to free unlimited quantity, totally portable.
……………………………….
Where does
that leave us?
Compromise is
what most of us avoid, then, avoiding compromise, we seek perfection, what a
curse.
Propagate
the curse, good luck with that.
