The golden age of music started in 1955 and ended when the calendar turned to January 1st 1980 for the most part with some exceptions. That is different from the question asked about the audiophile golden age. I think technology has continued to improve and progressed where the very best sound has to be today and has to put us into the golden age for the audiophile. Having said that, in the 60s I had a pioneer amp 25wpc and Kenwood speakers (when they were made in Japan). I remember that combination sounded wonderful and when I got rid of them, I spent years chasing that sound that I let get away. Today if you have the money better sounding equipment can be found in many different combinations. Therefore sound and music has disjointed somewhat so you really have to say today has to be the golden age for the audiophile because of the sound you can get from your stereo.
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I think the late 1960's through the early 1980"s are often referred to as the "Golden Age of HiFi". General consumer interest was at it's peak, a multitude of retailers were selling stereo equipment, returning GI's from 'Nam were bringing home huge Japanese systems bought at the PX for a pittance, the receiver wattage wars raged among the major equipment players and such. I concur that modern stereo equipment generally sounds better and is more price effective, especially when adjusted for inflation. What I do miss, is looking inside of a good quality mainstream amplifier and seeing huge transformers with painted metal cases, massive soup can sized output capacitors, a line of MOSFET transistors on beautifully cast aluminum heatsinks and yards of nicely routed point to point hand wiring among discrete components. I'm sure an amp like that is available today for $25,000.
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@tylermunns
In the sixties people were happy with AM transistor radios and jukeboxes. I remember car radios being blasted for all they were worth. Idiots that can’t appreciate how to reproduce music properly, or are interested in using music to assault others, have always been with us
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"And I'm surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come" - Buzzcocks 1978
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I agree regarding the 60’s and 70’s. Huge gains in speaker technology, turntables, and then you had the receiver wars. I would compare all the monster receivers of the 70’s to the muscle car era on the 60’s and early 70’s. They can’t outperform modern vehicles but great lookers and still a lot of fun to own and use. Every town had at least one local stereo shop and a decent size city had multiple.
Then you have the dark ages. Started with the near death of vinyl due to the cd and the invention of 5 channel surround. You could hardly find anything that wasn’t black and the focus was running 5 and then 7 channel systems that ran double duty for movies and music play back.
We are now in another golden age though. Great speakers, huge gains in digital, tons of options for high end audio whether from the companies that weathered the storm and recovered or new boutique manufacturers. The only thing missing is you have to go to a large metro area to see great audio. We have your Best Buy’s etc but the small local shops are long gone. That’s a metro area of about 1m. Hard to compete with the internet.
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The term Golden Age has traditionally referred to the 1050’s and 60’s, when the KLH 9, Quad ESL, Klipschorn, Bozak, and Hartley loudspeakers were state-of-the-art (along with the Hartley 18" subwoofer)---with the new AR-3 nipping at their heels, powered by either Marantz or McIntosh tube electronics, and a Thorens TD-124 or Garrard 301/401 turntable fitted with an SME 3009 arm and a range of cartridges. These were all products of the WWII generation of hi-fi engineers, who got to work after returning home from the war.
The next era began at the dawn of the 1970’s, with the appearance of Bill Johnson (Audio Research Corp.), Jim Winey (Magnepan), and countless others whose new products replaced those listed above. But those 50’s/60’s products held their value, and are now of course considered classics, in general more so than those of the 70’s.
Then there are the recordings and resulting LP’s, primarily the RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence. They were brought to the attention of 70’s-era audiophiles by Harry Pearson and his colleagues in The Absolute Sound Magazine, and thereafter rose dramatically in value.
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Today is the current peak with computer modeling, testing, measurements, and materials engineering plus the ability to analyze and compare results quickly has improved so many manufacturing practices. The improvements in fuel efficiency and horsepower/weight improvements in cars is amazing.
I would expect that improvements in hifi would continue with advancements in modeling and engineering.
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The 50s and 60s stand out for the quality of recordings. If we define “the best era in audio” as the greatest opportunity to maximize the enjoyment of music it is now. The technology continues to advance and for those willing and able to invest in a little more than entry level gear great choices exist to suit almost any taste and any room.
What makes this era the best, however, is the unprecedented access to an endless variety of relatively well recorded music for next to nothing. A Qobuz or Tidal subscription puts the work of a seemingly endless number of artists at your fingertips. To me, there are few greater advances in the ability to enjoy critical listening than this one. When I started this journey you bought a record then maybe an 8 trac often for one or two songs you knew you liked. Unless you were fabulously wealthy ( I wasn’t) you sure weren’t going to pick up a dozen albums at the record store of unfamiliar artists just to see if they suited your taste.
The affordable access to virtually any music out there has increased my listening enjoyment more than any other advancement. I’ve discovered artists that have brought me untold hours of listening enjoyment that I would never have experienced until relatively recently, even better, the sound quality of streamed music now rivals that of physical media- not something I would have said that long ago. And the availability of products like Roon makes it even better
so, for the ability to immerse oneself in the joy of listening to music in a serious way- this is it IMHO
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I think of a Golden Age as a time when obstacles were overcome and a spate of innovation took the art to a higher level. The mature vacuum tube era of Marantz 9 and McIntosh MC275 through MC2301. The application of Theil-Small filter theory to reflex speaker design. The arrival of mature solid state designs by James Bongiorno…GAS in particular, when harshness was tamed in high power transistor amp designs. The maturing of computer assisted design in loudspeakers, bringing KEF 105s and B&W DM6. We may be now entering another such period, with enhanced analytic tools for speaker designers and the perfecting of new amplifier designs like Purifi and GaN FETs, and improved room correction like DIRAC.
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Golden age = Now
For example, I used to have one of the Wilson Wamms from the 80s. Inflation adjusted price is ~100k.
My current Borresen X6 (20k ish....) kills that Wamm’s hiney on all counts....No contest, not even remotely. Heck, a X3 (10k ish) kills that Wamm, no contest.
Trashy old vinyl VS modern hires official studio masters (8 bucks a pop?!?!).....No contest.
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A case could be made that it was when there were VERY affordable heathkits, hafler kits, and dynaco kits, to introduce people to the experience of HIFI.
Of cvourse there has been great technical progress since those times, but much progress has been ignored due to the likes of spotify and lossy digital encoding.
Why invest in multi-thousand $$ system if you have a lofi source and can't hear any improvement over a boombox?
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I think the golden age of audio is normally thought to be the 50’s and 60’s because of the quality of the recordings. At that time the art had reached its peak before solid state and digital really compromised the recording industry.
As far a playback, it has never been so good in most respects. But I think some still think back to the 50’s and 60’s in playback because tube amplification was ubiquitous. So, most everything sounded natural and musical regardless of how truncated or attenuated the treble and bass. Low level systems and high end systems were magical.
Over the following decades transistors and then digital allowed a huge reduction in noise floor and increase in detail and bass… but it was often at the cost of the heart and soul of the music.
So, where we sit now is that we have an incredible variety of sound types available with details and bass so far beyond anything dreamed of back then but there are a few companies that have managed to keep the emphasis on the heart and soul of music and added the details and bass. I have to say that only about 20% of the high end systems I listened to over the last twenty years captured the music… most are sound spectacles in slam and detail but to me are missing most of the music.
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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.
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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.
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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" ...😊
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The golden age was the first of such, followed by the silver, bronze, heroic and iron ages. The term denotes times of plenty with no strife. Audio seems to be immune from that, going it’s own way and has quite the road to travel. I refuse to think it all lay in the past as that’s too nostalgic for me. That’s vanity.
All the best,
Nonoise
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I’ll tell ya what; it sure as crap ain’t today.
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,” we are definitely not in the Golden Age of audio today.
The fact that there are always a few people who are seriously interested in maximized audio fidelity and/or rich people who can afford high-end stuff is irrelevant to the larger picture. Good for them. They are a sliver of the total population and the other 90% are punishing their senses (in the case of these uber-rude dum-dums that subject others to their noise pollution in public places, punishing others as well) with shrill noise pollution spitting out of a cell phone speaker, not “listening to music.”
Actual music being played in a physical space used to be normal.
Now “normal” is something that vacillates between indistinct, shrill noise pollution screaming out of a cell phone speaker and crap sound from streaming data through a little speaker that fits inside a purse.
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When were Snell A/IIIs made??
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To me, the "golden age" of hi-fi began after WWII and especially with the advent of the LP. Marantz tube gear, big Bozaks, KLH 9s. Raw drivers, DIY, and pretty hands on. (Of course, there is the pre-war WE and Klangfilm equipment, originally designed for theater).
I got into this "hobby" in around 1970, coinciding with the dawn of the first generation of "high end" (a term I think Harry Pearson claimed to coin).
As to what is the "greatest" era for gear, I think that depends on what you are after.
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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.
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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.
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Golden Age can be given at any point of time and it all depends on how and when you label it
Was it when copper was cheap enough to make faucets and tea kettles?
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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...
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I think now for sure, and I think there is still lots more to come in the digital space, active speakers and Class D. All these improvements will trickle down to make serious hifi more accessible. Meanwhile I still like my separates and passive speakers.
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