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Do people know what they are missing?

I read the following on barrons.com just moments ago and was shocked to think what folks are missing who have never had “industrial strength audio equipment”. 

BARRON’S

By Randall W. Forsyth

Oct. 4, 2019 8:58 pm ET

The 50th anniversary remix edition of the Beatles’ Abbey Road was just released. Even though I already own a pristine British pressing of the original vinyl LP and the 2009 remastered CD, I will buy a copy of the new version to examine further what is the apotheosis of the group’s work. And it will be through big speakers powered by a big amplifier, not through little white thingies dangling out of my ears.

All of which sounds anachronistic. As my former Barron’s colleague Joe Queenan writes, “Industrial-strength audio equipment vanished from the living room long ago.” Now it’s largely relegated to the so-called man cave, supplanted by spouse-friendly tiny smart speakers that emit sounds, but not music that engulfs you, as audio systems did when Abbey Road was released a half-century ago.

END

An mp3 player or smart phone may be convenient to listen to the music that helps you get through tedious jobs like raking leaves outside or cleaning the rain gutters that are beyond the range of an industrial strength sound system, but it will never replace the big sound of a serious system in my house. 

Am I that out of touch with the present day that all folks want is a 192kb encoded mp3 played through tiny ear buds? 

Every time I let someone listen to my system, they seem amazed. 

I just don’t understand these kids today!

Your thoughts?

vintage_heath

Showing 3 responses by mijostyn

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
And Schubert, are those the deplorable's? 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Schubert, and I am sure you can't possibly imagine how Trump got elected. This is a big country with segments of the population that look at life quite differently. Music is not a matter of taste. It is a universal phenomenon and more a mater of what you grew up listening to than taste. There is great music in all genres. You don't like the blues, listen to Howlin Wolf do Smoke Stack Lightening. Don't like classical listen to Brahm's 1st symphony. Don't like country Listen to Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Don't like Jazz listen to Bill Evans Waltz for Debbie. What is good or bad music is a mater of taste. There is no definition of good or bad taste there is just taste.
What I find interesting about us audiophiles is that we have records of music we really do not care for but we play them because the recording complements our systems. Our kids don't buy music because it complements their ear buds. 
There are more audiophiles today than ever. Just look at the Market. Somebody is buying this stuff or these companies would disappear and they seem to be doing quite well. Back in the 60's you could count the number of high end electronics manufacturers on one hand.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
I think young people appreciate great systems just fine and I think many of them will do their own systems in time. When I was a kid ear buds and MP3 players were not even a dream, car systems sucked and in order to hear the music right you had to have some sort of system. It was also easy to do a system on the lam. We had several kit manufacturers and the used market was very healthy. Things were much cheaper. Today kids have all sorts of inexpensive stuff so that they can listen, and face it, we may not like MP3 players but relative to the portable stuff we had back then these things are a miracle. 
Young folks will do systems when they have the money and the room. The love of music is certainly there.
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