When Was The Audio Golden Age?

Does the "Golden Age" question refer to recording or to advances in equipment?

If recording, then the 50s and 60s. If equipment, then circa 1972 - 1995. This was a period where we still had brick and mortar establishments and people got to hear equipment easily. Also, the tube made a comeback (thank you, William Z. Johnson), and triggered a rush towards achieving the "absolute sound."

That is no longer the case. When people discuss music, they refer more to the "features" of a component, very rarely actually addressing the music itself (which IS the purpose, no?). This, by itself, is less "involving" than what the High End scene was like even 30 years ago.

And "The Future" does not - to me - automatically indicate that we will make advances in reproducing music (and I mean, unfiltered, unprocessed and un-manipulated, which removes nearly the entire pop music kingdom of recordings as far as sound quality goes). People discuss soundstaging and imaging instead of talking about the music itself. And you have critics online who had no idea what acoustic music sounds like, which is ironic: the whole High End came into existence because of a desire to make music sound more as it did in the symphony/opera hall or jazz club. Given that classical and jazz music are the least known to younger audiences, hearing a trumpet the way it was actually played seems less an imperative than whether or not it has ’x-inputs" or the newest datachip. Passion and curiosity to create magic thru either tubes or transistors drove the first wave of "The Golden Age"; I’m uncertain what direction we are headed in right now. But with AutoTune, mediocre singers (clearly, a stunning voice is not a requirement for fame in the music arena nowadays) and with the amount of manipulation that is visited upon so many recordings, this is most certainly NOT the "Golden Age of Recordings."

There was a time when people were more attuned to music, and that changed around the very, very early 21st century. The move seems - in this era -  towards tech-in-audio, and away from (unaltered/acoustic) music as heard with minimal electronic intrusion.

@whart, I agree. But I believe there to be a difference between "good sound" and "true to life," not that you are not saying this. I just see people confusing advances in "sound" as "better." I suppose they are better if that is all that is required as a measurement, but to advance actual sound towards a lifelike facsimile? That does not happen as much as people believe it, unless they listen to less complex music such as pop or rock, which are highly manipulated in the mixing process and therefore will not reveal that which is truly likelike.

The "Golden Age" seems to have lasted into the 80s - maybe even 90s. At that time, the readers of Stereophile and The Absolute Sound were mostly classical and jazz music lovers (singers, too, of course!) and the designers were designing with this in mind. I don’t hear that as much when I listen to components that are touted as "top drawer." I hear them as technically correct, but a living, breathe facsimile of the concert hall (symphonic, not articially enhanced concerts such as rock or pop) experience, they are not. But I don’t think it matters that much if what  people are listening to are synthesizers, drums and other electronically-generated instruments. 

It’s possible to have a "Golden Age" that won’t mean the same thing to everyone. Frankly, I think it helps to be older because there was a time when any grade school student heard the school band at least 3 or 4 times a year, and went to parades (more acoustic music), and usually heard a symphony or something unamplified at least a dozen times while going K-12. That is not the case anymore. It stopped in the 80s in schools (most of my family were educators, so I know this to be true). People can get thru their entire education without once hearing a flute or a violin. If one doesn’t know what the "real thing" sounds like, then the Golden Age that some speak of is simply more features, more "tech" which, as I have said, does not lead to truly better sound. So, for some, the Golden Age is now. For me, it’s been gone for at least 25 years, but there are still developments going on for the younger listeners.