When Was The Audio Golden Age?

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.

A case could be made that it was when there were VERY affordable heathkits, hafler kits, and dynaco kits, to introduce people to the experience of HIFI.

Of cvourse there has been great technical progress since those times, but much progress has been ignored due to the likes of spotify and lossy digital encoding.

Why invest in multi-thousand $$ system if you have a lofi source and can't hear any improvement over a boombox?

Golden age = Now

For example, I used to have one of the Wilson Wamms from the 80s. Inflation adjusted price is ~100k.

My current Borresen X6 (20k ish....) kills that Wamm’s hiney on all counts....No contest, not even remotely. Heck, a X3 (10k ish) kills that Wamm, no contest.

Trashy old vinyl VS modern hires official studio masters (8 bucks a pop?!?!).....No contest.

I think of a Golden Age as a time when obstacles were overcome and a spate of innovation took the art to a higher level.  The mature vacuum tube era of Marantz 9 and McIntosh MC275 through MC2301. The application of Theil-Small filter theory to reflex speaker design.  The arrival of mature solid state designs by James Bongiorno…GAS in particular, when harshness was tamed in high power transistor amp designs.  The maturing of computer assisted design in loudspeakers, bringing KEF 105s and B&W DM6.  We may be now entering another such period, with enhanced analytic tools for speaker designers and the perfecting of new amplifier designs like Purifi and GaN FETs, and improved room correction like DIRAC.

The 50s and 60s stand out for the quality of recordings. If we define “the best era in audio” as the greatest opportunity to maximize the enjoyment of music it is now. The technology continues to advance and for those willing and able to invest in a little more than entry level gear great choices exist to suit almost any taste and any room.

What makes this era the best, however, is the unprecedented access to an endless variety of relatively well recorded music for next to nothing. A Qobuz or Tidal subscription puts the work of a seemingly endless number of artists at your fingertips. To me, there are few greater advances in the ability to enjoy critical listening than this one. When I started this journey you bought a record then maybe an 8 trac often for one or two songs you knew you liked. Unless you were fabulously wealthy ( I wasn’t) you sure weren’t going to pick up a dozen albums at the record store of unfamiliar artists just to see if they suited your taste.

 The affordable access to virtually any music out there has increased my listening enjoyment more than any other advancement. I’ve discovered artists that have brought me untold hours of listening enjoyment that I would never have experienced until relatively recently, even better, the sound quality of streamed music now rivals that of physical media- not something I would have said that long ago. And the availability of products like Roon makes it even better 

so, for the ability to immerse oneself in the joy of listening to music in a serious way- this is it IMHO