First world problems. Many of us have so much extra disposable income that we can afford to try any lame idea and tweaks that come along. Not saying that tweaks and uber expensive cables, conditioners, isolation etc don't work. But confirmation bias is very high when when adding these purchases to an already good system. Hardly anyone makes crap anymore. Even modest systems (sub $2000), provide a wonderful listening experience.
Audio: what took so long ?
It seems everyone is reporting very positive-changes to playback -fuses, power cords, speakers. The question is, what took so long ?
My reasons:
-The Big Boys did enough (Bell Labs. etc). Radio, cinema-sound, electrical recording-methods. The Depression -1930, no more serious research.
-Shrinking market, less R&D. People started listening to headphones (late 1960s), car audio (w/ its improvements 1980s+90s), then MP3.
-Perfectionist speaker co. had other markets (1970s). Horn/waveguides dominated audio in the 50 &60s, but the market was peaking-off. So an opportunity to expand into studio-monitors, live-sound & the home-market w/ cones. Only exports (to Japan) kept the horn alive. This, while panel speakers invaded high-end, wreaking-havoc on amplifiers and ultimately going backwards on sound.
-EE engineers go into computers, microwave & networking. Audio just wasn’t fun anymore.
-Cheap parts -it took too long to understand, never mind produce, the contacts we have on connectors & fuses. Transistors, regulators, transformers also saw a leap. More study into materials and metals.
-With no serious study, how could we have (proper) speaker placement ? Or speaker stands ?
I’m proud of what’s (finally) being done. But if wasn’t for the Japanese, Danish (and maybe Germans) serious audio would have gone the way of the player-piano or drive-in restaurant.
My reasons:
-The Big Boys did enough (Bell Labs. etc). Radio, cinema-sound, electrical recording-methods. The Depression -1930, no more serious research.
-Shrinking market, less R&D. People started listening to headphones (late 1960s), car audio (w/ its improvements 1980s+90s), then MP3.
-Perfectionist speaker co. had other markets (1970s). Horn/waveguides dominated audio in the 50 &60s, but the market was peaking-off. So an opportunity to expand into studio-monitors, live-sound & the home-market w/ cones. Only exports (to Japan) kept the horn alive. This, while panel speakers invaded high-end, wreaking-havoc on amplifiers and ultimately going backwards on sound.
-EE engineers go into computers, microwave & networking. Audio just wasn’t fun anymore.
-Cheap parts -it took too long to understand, never mind produce, the contacts we have on connectors & fuses. Transistors, regulators, transformers also saw a leap. More study into materials and metals.
-With no serious study, how could we have (proper) speaker placement ? Or speaker stands ?
I’m proud of what’s (finally) being done. But if wasn’t for the Japanese, Danish (and maybe Germans) serious audio would have gone the way of the player-piano or drive-in restaurant.
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- 19 posts total
- 19 posts total