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Hi end audio equip sounds better today than in decades past due to tech - T/F

I am in a hi-end audio store today, speaking with the owner, who has been in the audio business for almost 40 yrs. Super nice guy. Can talk up a storm - but as a good thing... where someone like me can learn a thing or two.

He said something that I found curious... audio equipment (pres, amps, rcvrs, speakers) sound better today than just 20 years ago, b/c ’they didn’t have the same technology back then we have today'. Why? Better materials, better components, better r/d... the stuff just sounds better in today’s world, he is telling me.

Coming from someone who doesn’t know any better.... is there any truth to this?
riffwraith

Showing 2 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,377 posts
 
I have actively pursued high end audio for fifty years. Each decade has been market by a sizable improvement in sound. At first it was basic design using available components, then carefully chosen components, then advances in materials, then designers have components designed for high end audio. It is pealing the onion and closing on reality through different designs, tubes, semiconductor, etc. competition drives companies besting each other.

Every component I have replaced that was over ten years old greatly surprised me how much better it was. I am sure that will not end anytime soon.
ghdprentice
6,377 posts
 
 @alexbergeri just happen to be listening to Mingus, Ah Um, one of the great albums from the late 1950s... I have lots of them... they are spectacular.

But old speakers? Really? I can’t remember anything of much merit other than Quad... the others boomy distorted high frequency. I have been delighted as one boom has been resolved into its component parts and articulated. But I haven’t listened to any old vintage speakers in decades. So what are some of these old classics that sound so great today?
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