What was your first significant experience with quality audio (then) and how does it compare with your present system (your now).
Do you think we strive to return to the past and remain in those influential times? Are our choices psychological, nostalgic even....?
God no- on all counts! As a kid in the 70's I spent endless hours researching and shopping, eventually building a classic "vintage" system of JBL, Kenwood, Pioneer, and Technics. This was wonderful for back then and better than anything I heard all through college and for years afterwards.
Therein comes the problem. In the beginning I was in band, and comparing components to real live acoustic instruments. 20 years later the system itself had somehow become my standard. It wasn't nostalgia, I still had it!
When shopping my ears were so attuned to this sound I was actually turned off by gear I now am quite certain was actually a whole lot better. Will spare you the gory details of how I eventually broke out of this cycle, and skip to the punchline.
After buying some much better Linaeum Model 10 speakers it took me a while to find a buyer for the JBL L7 speakers. The ones that had replaced my vintage L25 Jubals. Many weeks went by listening to the Linaeum, long enough for that JBL sound to be a distant memory.
When a buyer turned up and I had to hook the JBL up to let him hear, the volume was turned way down low at first but even so it was like an ice pick in my ear. No kidding. Physical pain. The buyer was a co-worker, and I was earnestly trying to talk Ron out of buying them.
That is how much disdain I have for systems then vs now. Now is so much better, it is like the Enterprise Holodeck compared to a flickering old silent movie. No going back. Never again.