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.
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.
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.
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.
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"...
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.
Maybe the next end-lol tweak will be Musk's Neutralink. You will just "think" your system to be good! "A chunk of the human skull is taken out and a chip is put in place". Musk said the patient would then be stitched up - and you wouldn't even be able to tell someone has one". Great idea ... 🙄
Hey, I have been involved in the design of direct machine to human brain interface technologies. They have been used to pilot aircraft, in advanced solider robotics, to quell neurological and psychiatric disorders (such as Parkinsonism and in obsessive compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder), and in a variety of other applications over the past 30 years. I do not know of any studies using direct stimulation of the human auditory system with the exception of advanced cochlear implants in those patients with inherited hearing loss.
See: O’Rawe, J. A., H. Fang, S. Rynearson, R. Robison, E.S. Kiruluta, G.A. Higgins, K. Eilbeck, M.G. Reese, and G.J. Lyon. Integrating precision medicine in the study and clinical treatment of a severely mentally ill person. PeerJ 1 (2013): e177.
I would like to order the distortion-erasing chip for my brain please. The OP's premise strikes me as pretty far off. This statement made me cringe,"while panel speakers invaded high-end, wreaking-havoc on amplifiers and ultimately going backwards on sound."
Unfortunately, much research is focused on commercial returns, but plenty has trickled into audio from unexpected places, from Napster, Texas Instruments & onward. Silicon valley advances during the dark 80s, 90s etc. laid the foundation for many of the recent commercial advancements that so many are now touting.
Hopefully someone is doing some research now to find a better way to measure what sounds more like real music so profiteers will find a way to build and mainstream "the absolute sound". Cheers, Spencer
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