When Was The Audio Golden Age?

The ratio S.Q. and price has increased meaning we can afford better system at a lower price. It is a golden era.

But musical classical education which existed in some school 60 years ago dont exist anymore.

On this aspect it is not a "golden era" ... For sure ...😊

Then we must define the acoustic perspective from which we spoke : musical or gear focused...

For those like me who are very centered on acoustics,  Roman Vitruvius using Greek architecture acoustics methods, the same which will gave us Hemlhotz resonators for example already lived in a "golden era" ...😊

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1950s into the 80s. Tubes were plentiful and inexpensive. Everyone built their own amps. Recordings were crystal clear. Folks sat around and listened together. Music was awesome. 

Perhaps you are right! You are not alone thinking such , i  had read it a lot and it is the reason why i bought my Sansui and my AKG K340 products born exactly at this era end.

Nobody ever build an headphone so complex after ( too costly to design it  well said Kennerton guy )

And i dont think that many amplifier of today beat the Sansui alpha in the range quality pieces, quality design and price today...if we transpose inflation cost...

Anyway for cheap and low cost  good product we cannot beat our times i think ...

But i am not an audiophile market specialist... 😊

1950s into the 80s. Tubes were plentiful and inexpensive. Everyone built their own amps. Recordings were crystal clear. Folks sat around and listened together. Music was awesome.

I think the golden age of audio is normally thought to be the 50’s and 60’s because of the quality of the recordings. At that time the art had reached its peak before solid state and digital really compromised the recording industry.

As far a playback, it has never been so good in most respects. But I think some still think back to the 50’s and 60’s in playback because tube amplification was ubiquitous. So, most everything sounded natural and musical regardless of how truncated or attenuated the treble and bass. Low level systems and high end systems were magical.

Over the following decades transistors and then digital allowed a huge reduction in noise floor and increase in detail and bass… but it was often at the cost of the heart and soul of the music.

So, where we sit now is that we have an incredible variety of sound types available with details and bass so far beyond anything dreamed of back then but there are a few companies that have managed to keep the emphasis on the heart and soul of music and added the details and bass. I have to say that only about 20% of the high end systems I listened to over the last twenty years captured the music… most are sound spectacles in slam and detail but to me are missing most of the music.