Why Does My Current Music Sound So Much Better than It Did in the 80’s?

I have a pretty good stash of 80's and 90's vinyl and previously owned many cd's from same era. While much of the vinyl is pretty bad, overly compressed and electronic haze, the cd's are absolutely atrocious, have all the vinyl liabilities, then add crap analog/digital converters then is use, hopeless!

Now with streaming I can hear these same recordings, re-mastered, most sound nothing like the original releases, either on vinyl or digital. If done well, these recordings become very listenable, even on my main system.

Hormones no longer raging?

Ha, twoleftears!

of course it would take an exceptional circumstance to remember what a stereo sounded like 40 years ago, likely requiring the exact same music.  My system at that time did sound good.  But what I’m sure I did not hear the was notes that sounded real and present, like they were live just a few feet from me.  I never experienced that until I started listening to my present system. I started with an AirPort Express, then Apple did a software upgrade and my music started cutting out.  I found out that Apple had made an Airport Express with a higher kbps, so I bought one for $20.  That did the trick, no more cutoffs and the music sounded even better.  There’s an analysis of them by Ken Rockwell who concludes that they have “fantastic audio quality.”

One of the big differences from 40 years ago and now is a dramatic drop in the noice floor and increasing differentiation of discrete sounds within the music. There are lots of other changes. But I think those are the two main ones.

I have followed the cutting edge (distantly at first… with a very low budget… but increasing over time) for the last fifty years. What is possible now at a relatively modest budget… and even more at a less modest budget is incredible. 
 

If you were to upgrade to even a Bluesound streamer or better, inexpensive integrated amp, and some contemporary floor standing HiFi speakers (B&W, Dynaudio, Sonus Faber… etc), you would just fall over in awe of what audio can be today.