Senior Audiophiles - Audiophile since the 60-70's?

I think really Senior Audiophiles got started in the 50s, as I did. Heathkits, Knight kits, Eico kits and DIY projects from electronics magazines got the hobby started for my generation. With the advent of transistors, the kit building hobby took a dive, and the high end products of the early 60s were McIntosh and Marantz, not really affordable gear for the rest of us! There is so much cool stuff today for audiophiles of every persuasion and budget that I think this is really the golden age of audio, although much of the stuff from the 50s still sounds great! (But tubes expiring and hum were no fun then.) The big question to me is did the CD help or hurt the hobby; and what about MP3?

I would not trade my current system for the best system I had in the 50s to date. Some of the components would be ok, i.e., Dynakit Stereo 70s and some of the McIntosh amps. But the big difference today is the lack of hum and noise in the system, and the quality of turntables, arms and cartridges. Another feature of todays equipment is the use of invert switches. After I read Johnson's The Wood Effect I became, and am, very aware of out of phase LPs. (CDs are almost never out of phase.) I use my invert switch all the time, and it makes a huge difference. All in all, todays pre-amps and record playing systems beat all of the golden oldies in every respect, but power amps are not much better, IMHO.