I suppose it depends on how you define ’golden age’.
Is it about the product being ubiquitous and all pervasive?
The answer would be a simple yes, since every household had at least one.
Is it about the quality standard of the product?
The answer would be yes and no. The large majority of turntables served the purpose of playing records, but were of mediocre quality, indeed in contrast to the high quality of the recordings and the records themselves (like those 50’s and early ’60’s blue notes, Decca’s, RCA living stereo’s, etc.)
At the same time the brands that dominated this record player mass market also manufactured statement products to secure their reputation and boost sales of their cheaper products. Even after 40 years or more these state of the art products are still the ’golden standard’ for many audiophiles. We all have our favorites: the big EMT idler drive, the big Japanese direct drives, the big Micro belt drives, the Thorens Reference, etcetera. So yes, it was also the Golden Age of the (serious) Turntable.
Is it about the profitability for the manufacturers?
Record players sold by the truckloads and obviously made a nice profit through their economies of scale. But I would say that today’s market is the real Golden Age of the Turntable Manufacturer.
In my country The Netherlands we say that the 16th century was our ’golden age’. It was a period of international trade and great wealth accumulation, albeit only for a very small group. Ring a bell?
Their wealth gave rise to the city of Amsterdam and sponsored the great art of Rembrandt and others. The global elite in our hypercapitalist world no longer buy portrait paintings from artists to show off their good fortune. They buy other ’trophies’, like boats, cars, wristwatches and, yes, turntables. So perhaps the 'Gilded Age' of early 20th century industrialist society is a more apt comparison.
Anyway, it’s a Golden Age for manufacturers of these luxury products. It took a while, but high end audio has finally managed to tap into this world. It explains the current exorbitant prices and - probably - large profit margins.
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The Dutch Golden Age was between 1575 and 1675, so roughly the 1600's and not the 16th century as I wrote. Apologies for this stupid mistake..... 😕
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Tulipmania was the frenzy of the booming 17th century Dutch merchant economy. Not unlike the speculative financial ’products’ in our current global economy, that wreaked havoc in 2008.
Are you suggesting Turntables are today’s Tulips? 😂 |
@mijostyn, you don't bother me in the least, but you sound a bit pissed off yourself. I'm happy for you that you enjoy modern turntables and cartridges. Why can't you let other folks enjoy the old stuff? Turntable won't bring down the economy, so there's no reason to get upset.... |
Those ’Golden and Dark Ages’ in analog were not synchronous either.
The Golden Age of analog recording probably ended in the late ’60’s, with the introduction of solid state and multitracking. Many of the great audiophile labels (Decca, RCA, Mercury, EMI, Blue Note, etc.) already lost their way in the ’70s, years before digital arrived.
The Golden Age of analog record players - Turntables - ended in the early ’80s on a real high, with the various statement tables like technics SP-10mk3, Pioneer Exclusive P3, Kenwood L-07D, Denon DP-100, Sony PS-X9, Micro SX-8000mk2, Thorens Reference, etc. This came to an abrupt end with the arrival of the CD.
Of course the later ’80s and ’90s were the Dark Age of ’perfect sound forever’, but the vinyl Renaissance that started early this century is developping into another Golden Age. The market is getting bigger, there’s more competition, more R&D, etc.
All that is great, but what’s new? To many ’experts’, the current King of Turntables is the TechDas AirForce Zero. This is a Micro SX-8000mk2 ’in extremis’, to the tune of $150k. It is even developped by the same designer, who must be of a venerable age by now.
So while I haven’t seen much real innovation in turntable, tonearm and cartridge design, this certainly is a Golden Age of the Phono Amplifier, both tube and solid state. As much as I enjoy the ’old stuff’ for turntables, tonearms and cartridges, you do need a top level modern phono amplifier to bring out their best.
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@petg60,
"Only thing that changed is media revealing what we were not aware of at the time"
If by this you mean audiophile reissues, even that ain't the truth. The best original vinyl pressings from the Golden Age will sound better than those reissues. Really? Really. |
Dear petg60, the only thing the audio 'press' does is to hide the truth and try to convince us that the newest is always the best. It is what keeps the business going. They're the industry's mouthpiece.....
Dear Nandric, do you mean Turntables ARE today's Tulips? They seem to follow the "buy cheap and sell expensive" theory of 'mercantilism'. Come to think of it, so do Cartridges. Even more so, as they don't require much stuff to buy at all, cheap or otherwise. But everyday higher prices......
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Deur Nandric, collecting cartridges is one of the most rational obsessions I can imagine 😊. Not at all like Tulips or Magical Financial Products.....
But it's not always easy to explain why certain 'objects' are expensive. Scarcity is one reason, obviously. In the 17th century pepper was scarce in the West and the Indian Company controlled the market, they were one of the first monopolists.
Desire and obsession is another, often fuelled by agressive brand marketing and peer pressure. This is how luxury markets like designer fashion operate: $1000 sneakers or $10k handbags anyone? There's absolutely no relation between the actual cost of making these products (modern slavery) and their market price.
But when both reasons coincide, prices really explode. Like in fine arts, classic cars and any number of truly rare objects of cultural importance.
Where does this leave our little hobby? Some 'old stuff' is rare and desirable because of their classic design, performance or reputation. Some Turntables and even Cartridges do apply. Some of the 'new stuff' is rare because it is manufactured in 'limited editions'. The high prices make these products desirable as 'trophies for the rich'. Their validity as high quality products is justified by glowing reviews of the audio 'journalists', who are an extension of the marketing strategy.
Everybody has to decide for themselves if they want to play along with their game.....
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@mijostyn, actually we may not be that far apart. I also made gradual upward steps over many years to increase performance level. From 1990’s Krell amplification (KRC HR + KPE Ref and FPB600) to 2000’s Boulder (1008, 1010 and 1060) and from 1990’s Magnepan MG20 to 2010’s MG20.7. In these cases newer really was better. As a digital source I use a 1990’s Krell 20i cd player, because digital is not my priority and this machine can still pretty much hold its own, even against latest generation players.
However, I did go back to the ’old stuff’ with vinyl playback. Why? I had worked my way up to a TW acoustic Raven GT SE with Black Night battery drive, Reed 3P tonearm and vdHul Colibri XPW African Blackwood (the one with the platinum coils, no longer available). This combo sounded great, but the TW gave persistent speed issues (even after two service trip to the manufacturer) and I lost confidence in that table.
I decided to try my luck with a Micro RX-1500 and simply couldn’t believe my ears. Initially it took some effort (adding a stainless steel one-on-one replica of the RT-2000 plateau, CU-180 copper mat and R-15 mass loaded stainless steel feet) but the performance with the same Reed/vdHul combo was eye (or ear) popping. This definitely didn’t sound like a backward step in any way. I haven’t missed that TW for even a ’micro’ second.......
The Micro also invited the possibility to add more tonearms (and cartridges), a prospect I simply couldn’t resist. Enter the FR-64s and Audiocraft AC-4400 tonearms and a whole range of cartridges from Ortofon, FR, Dynavector, Ikeda, Takeda, etcetera. All ’old stuff’ from the 20th century. To my disbelief I noticed these ’oldies’ could perform at the same level as the Reed/vdHul reference, played on the same Boulder/Magnepan system. I started to see a pattern.....
So this is not some ’nostalgia for the old folks’, but an truly open minded comparison on a level playing field. No mistake, I still love my Reed/vdHul set up, which is still considered reference grade by many so called experts, but I can equally enjoy many of the vintage arm/cartridge combinations I listen to. In some cases even more so.
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