When Was The Audio Golden Age?

I think the late 1960's through the early 1980"s are often referred to as the "Golden Age of HiFi". General consumer interest was at it's peak, a multitude of retailers were selling stereo equipment, returning GI's from 'Nam were bringing home huge Japanese systems bought at the PX for a pittance, the receiver wattage wars raged among the major equipment players and such. I concur that modern stereo equipment generally sounds better and is more price effective, especially when adjusted for inflation. What I do miss, is looking inside of a good quality mainstream amplifier and seeing huge transformers with painted metal cases, massive soup can sized output capacitors, a line of MOSFET transistors on beautifully cast aluminum heatsinks and yards of nicely routed point to point hand wiring among discrete components. I'm sure an amp like that is available today for $25,000.

The golden age of music started in 1955 and ended when the calendar turned to January 1st 1980 for the most part with some exceptions. That is different from the question asked about the audiophile golden age. I think technology has continued to improve and progressed where the very best sound has to be today and has to put us into the golden age for the audiophile. Having said that, in the 60s I had a pioneer amp 25wpc and Kenwood speakers (when they were made in Japan). I remember that combination sounded wonderful and when I got rid of them, I spent years chasing that sound that I let get away. Today if you have the money better sounding equipment can be found in many different combinations. Therefore sound and music has disjointed somewhat so you really have to say today has to be the golden age for the audiophile because of the sound you can get from your stereo.

Late 50s to early 60s for recordings with the invention of stereo.

Now for equipment with the constantly evolving streaming technology.

It’s been a Stairway, pick a step, call it Golden.

Your actual experiences, age related, count the most, reading audio history can be fascinating, but living it is/was quite another thing.

Costs: Initially a rich mans game becomes affordable for ’well off’, then everybody can buy ’it’. I suspect the ’well off’ stage is your age related Golden Era.

Economic Advancement: boom or bust cycles are very much involved. Wage growth was a steady climb up to 1973 (I graduated college 1970), then stagnated.

"A startling fact is that average real wages have grown by only 0.7 percent over the half century beginning in February 1973. In February 2022 dollars, wages have grown over this period by $0.18. There is no question that an $0.18 increase over a half century is correctly interpreted as stagnant"

Thus, did the Golden Era end in 1973?

Many members here (not all) then and now are way above average earners, much higher disposable income.

Technological Advancement: During any war, or race to space, technology advances then trickles down. Also format wars push things along: 45/33; Betamax/VHS ......

then standardization (not always ’best’, think laserdisc/beta/vhs) yields profits for manufacturers to invest in the next thing.

Speakers have been a never ending quest for manufacturers and consumers.

Mono to Stereo, in any format was each a revolution.

Reel to Reel, wire to tape, dictation to music, mono, stereo, dolby, dbx ...

Turntable/Tonearm/Cartridge/Stylus Shape/Moving Coil .... each step by step

FM radio, Multiplex Stereo FM

Cartridges: Dictaphone; 8 Track; Cassettes; VCR; VHS; SVHS

Discs, this format, this size, ours is better than theirs ....

Broadcast, Streaming

On and On it Goes.

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Recording (ignore content) also advanced by technology and affordability: think major labels, expensive recording studios; early equipment allowing garage bands, darn good garage band equipment; anybody can record anything at home, phone in tracks .....

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I think the End of the Golden Age for Me is when accessories, some/lots of ’snake oil’ entered the game. I think it coincides with when measurements became unmeasurable.

Personally, I primarily prefer Vintage, equipment that sounds as involving as current production. What is Vintage? How far down the stairway do you go?

 

 

Modern analog equipment based on old design. Great selection of cartridges, tubes, and passive speakers available today.