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Do people know what they are missing?

I read the following on barrons.com just moments ago and was shocked to think what folks are missing who have never had “industrial strength audio equipment”. 

BARRON’S

By Randall W. Forsyth

Oct. 4, 2019 8:58 pm ET

The 50th anniversary remix edition of the Beatles’ Abbey Road was just released. Even though I already own a pristine British pressing of the original vinyl LP and the 2009 remastered CD, I will buy a copy of the new version to examine further what is the apotheosis of the group’s work. And it will be through big speakers powered by a big amplifier, not through little white thingies dangling out of my ears.

All of which sounds anachronistic. As my former Barron’s colleague Joe Queenan writes, “Industrial-strength audio equipment vanished from the living room long ago.” Now it’s largely relegated to the so-called man cave, supplanted by spouse-friendly tiny smart speakers that emit sounds, but not music that engulfs you, as audio systems did when Abbey Road was released a half-century ago.

END

An mp3 player or smart phone may be convenient to listen to the music that helps you get through tedious jobs like raking leaves outside or cleaning the rain gutters that are beyond the range of an industrial strength sound system, but it will never replace the big sound of a serious system in my house. 

Am I that out of touch with the present day that all folks want is a 192kb encoded mp3 played through tiny ear buds? 

Every time I let someone listen to my system, they seem amazed. 

I just don’t understand these kids today!

Your thoughts?

vintage_heath
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
I think young people appreciate great systems just fine and I think many of them will do their own systems in time. When I was a kid ear buds and MP3 players were not even a dream, car systems sucked and in order to hear the music right you had to have some sort of system. It was also easy to do a system on the lam. We had several kit manufacturers and the used market was very healthy. Things were much cheaper. Today kids have all sorts of inexpensive stuff so that they can listen, and face it, we may not like MP3 players but relative to the portable stuff we had back then these things are a miracle. 
Young folks will do systems when they have the money and the room. The love of music is certainly there.
n80
2,133 posts
 
I've demonstrated my system for quite a few people. Some were impressed with the sound quality. Some were impressed with the size of the speakers and the speaker cables.
Not a single one was impressed with the SQ enough to spend a single dime pursuing it on their own and all of them thought me odd for caring and I'm not even a serious audiophile.
So yes, I think we're out of touch. And yes, it is a loss for those who will never appreciate good music reproduced properly. When I was a teenager most boys my age wanted the best sound system they could get. And there was, at the least, a Circuit City in every city.

But it isn't just the fans. Production quality of new music tends to stink. Even bands who work hard on production in the studio are letting the dynamic range of their stuff get compressed to the point where no level of equipment is going to make it decent.
I know beating up on millenials is a common cliche'. And I know I'm a typical old man even before my time.....but I think in most aspects of life and stuff in general they have lost the appreciation for quality. And when a generation doesn't know what quality is, or care about it even if they do.....then quality is no longer a marketable commodity.

schubert
7,386 posts
 
For of the music of today  a car radio is overkill . It's not the mass has bad taste , they have none at all .
But will stand in line all night  to drop a grand on 1phone version 25 which
is just version 1 with cheaper build .
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
6,033 posts
 
schubert
For of the music of today a car radio is overkill .
You do realize that car radios have tuning controls, right? I ask because it sounds as though you're listening to the wrong radio station for your tastes.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Duh , Its ,not a matter of taste , there is good taste and bad taste .
In the US 90% of the population has bad  taste and that is a conservative
estimate .
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