When Was The Audio Golden Age?

@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. 😂

For me it was 70’s -90’s. I call it the Audio Center days. I recall 6 dedicated audio salons on Oahu. 2 "high end". Hanson’s place in Kahala and super underground Alston. Lafayette, Holiday Mart, Shirokiya and tv repair shops had their stereo corners. I don’t know if the military PX still sells stereos. Lots. LOTS of military were into stereo. From high mass market high fi, went crazy. The "Power Wars". Then this guy Mark Levinson shows up with a 25 Watt power amp. I don’t remember $2500 pr. or $2500 per channel. Stax, Magnepan, Audio Research, IRS, HQD, Hill Plasmatronics, Luxman, Wilson Audio, Koetsu, Linn... came on the scene.

However, I recognize and appreciate the advancements of audio today. But not as exciting for me as it was back in the day.

The boom-box Radio Raheem carried around sounds better than the typical stuff today.
It’s dishonest to frame this as though it’s ‘20s-‘60s vs. today, as though the ‘70s-‘90s never existed.

I was graduating University of Michigan in 1980 when a friend got a job as a salesman in a high end audio store.  I remember a wall stretching to the ceiling filled with McIntosh components.  He let me bring a few records in and listen for a few hours after closing time.  From then on I was seduced by the high end but it was a quarter century before I had disposable income to spend on anything but mid Fi (Graduate School and Family obligations disposed of anything previously).

  How that stuff would compare to my current gear is anyone’s guess.  My rose colored glasses aren’t known for improving my visual acuity.  But that night was an awesome memory