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  3. 166674-149575

Hi end audio equip sounds better today than in decades past due to tech - T/F

I am in a hi-end audio store today, speaking with the owner, who has been in the audio business for almost 40 yrs. Super nice guy. Can talk up a storm - but as a good thing... where someone like me can learn a thing or two.

He said something that I found curious... audio equipment (pres, amps, rcvrs, speakers) sound better today than just 20 years ago, b/c ’they didn’t have the same technology back then we have today'. Why? Better materials, better components, better r/d... the stuff just sounds better in today’s world, he is telling me.

Coming from someone who doesn’t know any better.... is there any truth to this?
riffwraith
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,976 posts
 
I think so. CAD has been extremely helpful. Simulation can be done much quicker today. Computers have opened up possibilities which didn't exist 30 yrs ago. All that said, I'm not sure if they work for us, or we them.

IMO there is Far too much dependence on them today. IE. the only ones to profit from computers in retail is the bean counters in accounting. Customer service is often much more irritating with their oft useless menus. Usually when I need tech service I need a human that can reason. But they too are in short supply today. 
gdnrbob
4,450 posts
 
Yes.
jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
yes
rajugsw
218 posts
 
YES ! Down with Vinyl...LOL ! Give me Digital DSD/PCM all day and you won't take it "from my cold dead hands". 

Seriously though who'd a thunk Apple and a white box the size of a pack of smokes would revolutionize/degrade/wake up how we listen to music today 20 years later ! mp3's/AAC's forever (ugh! - I have so many that are replaced now with AmazonHD streamed via Bluesound node 2i).

Cheers !
ghdprentice
7,098 posts
 
I have actively pursued high end audio for fifty years. Each decade has been market by a sizable improvement in sound. At first it was basic design using available components, then carefully chosen components, then advances in materials, then designers have components designed for high end audio. It is pealing the onion and closing on reality through different designs, tubes, semiconductor, etc. competition drives companies besting each other.

Every component I have replaced that was over ten years old greatly surprised me how much better it was. I am sure that will not end anytime soon.
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