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When Was The Audio Golden Age?

I looked at the Vintage section here for the first time.  It made me speculate on what other forum users would view as the best era in Audio.  For me it is the present.  The level of quality is just so high, and the choice is there.  Tube fanciers, for example, are able to indulge in a way that was impossible 3 decades ago, and analog lovers are very well set.  And even my mid Fi secondary systems probably outshine most high end systems from decades agoHowever when one hears a well restored tube based system, play one speaker from the mid to late 1940s it can dazzle and seduce.  So what do others think?  Are we at the summit now, or did we hit the top in past and have we taken a few steps down?

mahler123

Showing 2 responses by tony1954

tony1954's avatar
tony1954
1,166 posts
 

Seems to me a true "Golden Age" of audio doesn't exist. The Golden Age is the future, not the past.

We may be nostalgic about a certain look or style, but with audio it all comes down to sound. The only possible exceptions might be true analog record production and music in the 1960's and 1970's.

 

tony1954's avatar
tony1954
1,166 posts
 

@tylermunns 

"When a depressingly high number of people think they’re “listening to music” on a f**king cell phone speaker the size of an M&M, or think, “ok, now I’m really listening to music when I stream data over the internet through a Bluetooth speaker the size of a golf ball,” 

Your statement is correct, but your premiss is wrong.

I don't think today is any different from any other era. There has always been a very small percentage of the population that value sound quality at a ridiculous level, while the masses are more than satisfied with a transistor radio, an 8 track tape or a bluetooth speaker.

In fact, I would argue that more people listen to higher quality sound reproduction today, than any point in history.

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