When Was The Audio Golden Age?

Recordings were crystal clear. Folks sat around and listened together. Music was awesome.

Small market recordings beg to differ on being crystal clear. I have some 50s and 60s jazz and blues recordings from local New Orleans labels and the SQ is OK and few are just bad when it comes to clarity of recording. 

Maybe if you focu only on big label recordings and certain 1st/2nd pressings would the statement that records from the 50s and 60s were crystal clear be true. And only if you were listening to that vinyl on a high-end system from that time. The majority of people were listening to music on console systems and cheap set-ups, not high-end or DIY setups. 

My late 70's Pioneer SX-1250/Denon DP59L Turntable/Denon DL-103R/Magnepan 1.7i are good enough for me.  Every day is "golden".

You are not wrong!

Yesterday i entered ectasy with my Sansui alpha  from year 1980 and my AKG K340 from year 1979... Ratio S.Q. /price  impossible to beat !

Every night is golden!  😊

My late 70's Pioneer SX-1250/Denon DP59L Turntable/Denon DL-103R/Magnepan 1.7i are good enough for me.  Every day is "golden".

@erik_squires wrote:

When were Snell A/IIIs made??

I believe they entered the market in ’84 and were replaced by the A/IIIi’s a few years later, if memory serves me correct.

@phusis Sorry, that was kind of a rhetorical question. 😂