When Was The Audio Golden Age?

Anybody know that the concept of "golden era" is relative...😊

But here we spoke about the last 100 years in audio playback reproduction. Not about the dinosaurus takes on the world  before comets strike them ...

And sorry but it is not only about sound  quality  which rely now as much  on acoustics than on the gear but about the offerings of combined S.Q. with low price...

The audiophile era begun few years ago in my opinion being 73 years old soon  ...😋

Will it go on ?

Probably the technological and psychoacoustics improvement allied to industrial manufacturing always lowerede cost price (robotisation) will not stop.

To me, the "golden age" of hi-fi began after WWII and especially with the advent of the LP. Marantz tube gear, big Bozaks, KLH 9s. Raw drivers, DIY, and pretty hands on. (Of course, there is the pre-war WE and Klangfilm equipment, originally designed for theater). 

I got into this "hobby" in around 1970, coinciding with the dawn of the first generation of "high end" (a term I think Harry Pearson claimed to coin). 

As to what is the "greatest" era for gear, I think that depends on what you are after. 

When were Snell A/IIIs made??

I’ll tell ya what; it sure as crap ain’t today.
When a depressingly high number of people think they’re “listening to music” on a f**king cell phone speaker the size of an M&M, or think, “ok, now I’m really listening to music when I stream data over the internet through a Bluetooth speaker the size of a golf ball,” we are definitely not in the Golden Age of audio today.
The fact that there are always a few people who are seriously interested in maximized audio fidelity and/or rich people who can afford high-end stuff is irrelevant to the larger picture. Good for them. They are a sliver of the total population and the other 90% are punishing their senses (in the case of these uber-rude dum-dums that subject others to their noise pollution in public places, punishing others as well) with shrill noise pollution spitting out of a cell phone speaker, not “listening to music.”
Actual music being played in a physical space used to be normal.
Now “normal” is something that vacillates between indistinct, shrill noise pollution screaming out of a cell phone speaker and crap sound from streaming data through a little speaker that fits inside a purse.

The golden age was the first of such, followed by the silver, bronze, heroic and iron ages. The term denotes times of plenty with no strife. Audio seems to be immune from that, going it’s own way and has quite the road to travel. I refuse to think it all lay in the past as that’s too nostalgic for me. That’s vanity.

All the best,
Nonoise