When Was The Audio Golden Age?

You are not wrong!

Yesterday i entered ectasy with my Sansui alpha  from year 1980 and my AKG K340 from year 1979... Ratio S.Q. /price  impossible to beat !

Every night is golden!  😊

My late 70's Pioneer SX-1250/Denon DP59L Turntable/Denon DL-103R/Magnepan 1.7i are good enough for me.  Every day is "golden".

Perhaps you are right! You are not alone thinking such , i  had read it a lot and it is the reason why i bought my Sansui and my AKG K340 products born exactly at this era end.

Nobody ever build an headphone so complex after ( too costly to design it  well said Kennerton guy )

And i dont think that many amplifier of today beat the Sansui alpha in the range quality pieces, quality design and price today...if we transpose inflation cost...

Anyway for cheap and low cost  good product we cannot beat our times i think ...

But i am not an audiophile market specialist... 😊

1950s into the 80s. Tubes were plentiful and inexpensive. Everyone built their own amps. Recordings were crystal clear. Folks sat around and listened together. Music was awesome.

The ratio S.Q. and price has increased meaning we can afford better system at a lower price. It is a golden era.

But musical classical education which existed in some school 60 years ago dont exist anymore.

On this aspect it is not a "golden era" ... For sure ...😊

Then we must define the acoustic perspective from which we spoke : musical or gear focused...

For those like me who are very centered on acoustics,  Roman Vitruvius using Greek architecture acoustics methods, the same which will gave us Hemlhotz resonators for example already lived in a "golden era" ...😊

Anybody know that the concept of "golden era" is relative...😊

But here we spoke about the last 100 years in audio playback reproduction. Not about the dinosaurus takes on the world  before comets strike them ...

And sorry but it is not only about sound  quality  which rely now as much  on acoustics than on the gear but about the offerings of combined S.Q. with low price...

The audiophile era begun few years ago in my opinion being 73 years old soon  ...😋

Will it go on ?

Probably the technological and psychoacoustics improvement allied to industrial manufacturing always lowerede cost price (robotisation) will not stop.

I think OP is right. Since the last decade there was an offer in quality and improvement at such low price which was never seen before.

But there is not much acoustics basic consciousness in most audiophiles yet,all attention is focused on the gear pieces not on what we do not see ... We must wait audiophile acoustic A.I products yet to come....( Dr. Choueiri is the first such offer but not yet A.I. driven )

😊

Myself i did not wait...And i used modest tools and basic concrete means for minimally acceptable acoustics results ..

Then i had the two feet and the head also in "the golden era" for acoustically educated audiophiles: right now...