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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.
jonnie22
jonnie22 OP
42 posts
 
There was -but a lot of that came from research done at Bell Labs or Western Electric (in the 1920s/30s). This gave us great audio in the 50s.

But more R&D was needed and we got it (in pieces) starting around 2000. Machining beryllium, OCC copper, CLD supports, carbon foam (for room acoustics), Thermal-Trak and GanFet transistors.

A LOT is happening. I was just wondering why the sudden jump in the past 20 years.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,227 posts
 
Not most. All of it is wrong. The USA is the absolute best at mass production. In WW 2 it out produced the rest of the entire world by a factor of 10! It is just that we would rather build cars and military items rather than Hi Fi gear.

All of what has been done with contacts, switches etc. has been to improve durability and prevent corrosion. The real science behind wire and conductors is very old. Everything else is marketing BS of the highest order. Thank you Monster Cable.

Materials science has improved a lot over the last three decades and this has certainly influence mechanical items such as speaker drivers, cartridges and 787s. Todays cartridges are superior due to better, more accurate construction techniques and much better diamonds with more advanced profiles. Now we are going to hear from chakster about old Stantons and Pickerings that used simple hyper elliptical styluses (the stereohedron) which in no way compare to modern line contact styluses like the Gyger S and Soundsmiths OLC. I can't tell how many cartridges I got with crooked cantilevers and cockeyed styluses. I see none of that now.
jonnie22 OP
42 posts
 
The post was not anti-American. It was trying to figure out where audio-based research was happening. Before 1930, it was all American. This moved into our homes in the 50s -it took time due to depression and war.

Then I see the Japanese audio scene, the Munich and Polish audio shows. Then, how most young-engineers go into other areas of electronics -not audio. But this point happened globally, not just U.S..

Because I feel bad, I've started a new post "American Audio"...
Post removed 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Don't feel bad, most threads are shot-gun affairs. If a stray pellet hits a target somewhere call it good. 

The way it starts, "what took so long" and all the rest sounds like you just could us a little more perspective. Plenty of people were doing this stuff back in the early 90's. J Gordon Holt didn't come from nothing. By the time Ted Denney released his AC Master Coupler there already were a slew of them, it was just his was so much better it sort of crossed a threshold to where a lot more could notice. But people were doing this same thing long before, and it has only accelerated since.

Where there is a legit revolution is in field control. Here though I think it is similar only in this case started with Jack Bybee. It took a while but then we had Tim and Krissy with Perfect Path, and now a whole slew of them doing more or less the same. Whether they talk about it or not.
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