What's improved the most?


A simple question that has often been the subject of debate: if we were to take the various components that contribute to music reproduction, the actual recording, then the turntable/CD player, cartridge, cabling, amplifier, and finally the speakers, then which of these components have improved the most over, say, the last forty years?
Or, another way of putting it: suppose we could assemble a 'super-system' from each of the last four decades, what would the difference be?
To be frivolous, I would say things are potentially more expensive than ever before, but if we eliminate the systems for the uber-rich, what would the results be?
57s4me
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First of all, forgive me Elizabeth. Computer-aided design is just that, an aid. Ts parameters have been probably the most important factor in speaker design for a very long time. So they've been getting it right for just about as long, the main limiting factor being speaker driver design and the limitations of the materials themselves. Probably what you meant to say. The level of hit and miss you alluded to is relatively constant in comparison.
There were always good speakers, just not so many of them.
There were NO good IC's and speaker cables.
Right now, this very day, a pr of KLH 17's with the Dynaco tube stuff available then, hooked up with oh, Analysis Plus Copper oval wire, would make music on a very high level
and satisfy any rational person, if not a audiopile.
Magnat Superflow speaker cable will never be beat, made in the seventies. Same goes for silver Litz ICs.