Those simpler times.....

Simpler times in audio ended when I was about 15, heard a reel to reel deck in a nice system, wasn't going back to no damn clock or transistor radio! This was the 70's.

In about 1973 I encountered my first audiophile, he had a pretty much all Dynaco system with Thorens tt (later a Linn LP12). Wow, now I could really hear my favorite rock recordings, almost like live to me. It wasn't long before I had pretty much the exact same system.

My audiophile bud and I were also very much into the concert scene at that time, at least one concert a week on the Ann Arbor/Detroit circuit. Live music was simply awesome, especially in the smaller venues. Hard rockin' bands were the scene around here, Rationals, MC5, Stooges, Iguanas, Up, SRC. Being audiophiles, and seeing so many of these bands (and the nationally touring bands) live, certainly helped to create an obsession with higher quality audio at home.

Anyway, I can't remember a time where audio quality and love of music didn't go together. Yeah, I listened to clock radios, our big Magnavox console and transitor radios, but I never got close to the music until I started attending concerts and/or hearing my friend's Dynaco system.

A recent return to vinyl has required me to listen analytically once again. I just don't know another way of listening that allows me to ascertain sonic deficiencies, and make changes needed for musical enjoyment. Yeah, I wish I could just put any old equipment in my system and enjoy it, audio life would certainly be easier. I just don't think there's any bringing simpler times back once you've been bitten by the audiophile bug. I would like to meet just one reformed audioholic!

I also think that some of our thinking about simpler times is fond reminiscing, we are romanticizing the past. I recall the zeitgeist of those times, there was a feeling in the air that was totally exhilarating! I wish I could reproduce those feelings today, unfortunately, those times are gone, no bringing em back, no matter how hard I try. I suspect many of us are trying to evoke those old feelings when we play these records.

I remember lying on my bed and listening to a suitcase system, the ones where you had to disconnect the speakers and place them on either side of the room and the main body of the case was where the amp and turntable was. This was about 1967, and the main thing I remember was that the lyrics were the most important thing, it was the message that the Doors and Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe and the Fish were sending to us, that we were a special generation and we were going to change the world! Well that lasted for about 10 min. and then we were boogying on the dance floor to the sounds of Disco snorting mass quantities of white stuff and all of a sudden Bass mattered and subwoofers were born. But the sound of that suitcase system was all I needed in 65'

Reminiscing about simpler times is of course not a phenomena limited to audio systems. I think more and more people are starting to become overwhelmed by technology and how it often intrudes or is forcefully injected into their lives in unwanted ways.

Still, everyone has some technology out there that serves them so well that they could never give it up. That need is what fuels the continuous evolution of technology and the services (or disservices) that it delivers.

The technology that goes into our sound systems is surely the one technology that true music lovers could not live without. In some cases, the technology itself can easily become an obsession as well.

So what's wrong with that? It's an honest hobby. Between music and the technology that goes into capturing and reproducing it, there is much to learn and think about. And it is a constructive, positive thing in most cases I would think.

There are surely many things we could spend our time otherwise that is far worse.

Plus, we may all be obsessive nut cases at heart, but that's besides the point. Nobody forces us to spend our time with the hobbies we chose.

I was thinking about this same thing lately. In the 70's I blew nearly all my summer job college money on my first upgrade ... went from a Denon one-box "component" set-up to a Marantz 1060 integrated, Thorens TT, and Advent speakers. Speaker wire? Didn't think about it. Just clear jacketed unterminated garden variety wire. Interconnects... what?

But the music. At the time, I felt like that was a killer system! Even took it to do sounds for a good sized dance hall disco happenin'. Like most have said, I just enjoyed listening to music and never thinking about my equipment. It was R&B, rock, funk, and jazz all the time ... with a little space left for school. Yes, those were definitely simpler times.

I loved those simple times too. I remember the times I got drunk and would wake up without a hangover.
I remember the days when I could eat anything and did. Great food and wine was wasted on me.
I remember the dating scene. A little kissing, lots of sex, no demands, no diseases. Wow was that great! Every day had so much potential for new experiences.
I remember the music (not 'audio)' in those days - all live, or over a portable radio.

Then one day I got a home audio system and I discoved 'imaging'.
I got married and found out I had to work.
I had kids and had to raise them.
And sex, well I guess there is still no issue with diseases anyway.

Getting old is really a drag - about the only thing that has gotten better is my audio system, and that is in direct relationship to my ability to listen thru the audiophile aspects to actually focus on musical content. Hard to whistle and chew gum at the same time!

Here comes the grim reaper now. I best hide.