The Golden Age of audio gear

[FrantzM]

Well ... Windows Vista Audio engine is much better than that of WIndows XP .. So it is a progress on that front .. maybe the only one where I would put Vista and progress in the same sentence

 

[jazdoc]

Since I'm a front-end type person, I'd say the biggest advance has been in digital playback. It has certainly gone from the early gens of unlistenable playes to relatively listenable products such as PD, Stahl-Tek, Neodio, Audio Note, etc.

I do think that there have been tremendous advances in digital over the past 20 years. However, the advances in analog (including improvements in older technologies) have if anything, widened the gap between state of the art vinyl and digital. Unfortunately, SOTA vinyl is significantly more costly than digital. At the less pricey end of the equipment spectrum, digital competes more favorably with analog.

 

[fas42]

Here is an interesting paradox for those who have objectivist roots. If electronics from the 1970s and 1980s measured as well as electronics from 2012 (and I’m talking preamps and power amps here), how can you reconcile your objectivist mindset and say that 2012 gear could possibly sound better even if it really does?

Because, slowly, very, very slowly manufacturers are realising that it is all the little things that count: the quality of the connectors, volume controls, power supplies, interference countering measures. They don't talk about it because it isn't sexy, and because the cummulative effect of sorting out all these seemingly minor elements is often hard to measure.

The equipment today sounds better because the quality of the elements making up the system are balanced, there are less poor performing items in the mix. And all those people who don't believe this, who own modified R2R had better pull out all their tarted up bits, and replace with stock standard parts as per when the machines were manufactured.

Frank

 

[NorthStar]

It's all about the latest and best quality parts that it's all part of the true Golden Age.

Every single little parts in an electronic audio component and in a loudspeaker system with careful design in regards to acoustics and sound propagation (on & off axis), is important to the overall sound quality.
And age ain't that great to electronics; parts lose their flavor, their energy ....

Yesterday they built fantastic and solid amps and preamps, with the parts available at the time.
Today, they are doing the exact same, but in a different time frame.
And it is with time that audio generally improve, so are the quality parts, and all that Jazz, even the music recordings.
And they mix, they record, they capture those moments with today's improved machines.

Tubes I love (my guitar amp), but it is a character, not the vogue.
And if I'm more inclined to character electronics than vogue, it is my choice.
But my choice doesn't mean the best, it only means MY best. Me, and me only.
Each one of us has his own Golden Age. Mine started in the mid 50s and is still going on in 2012. :b

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

Today is a great day to be alive and still kicking. :b
And our gear is great with those sophisticated and efficient Room Correction & EQ systems.
And it can only get better with time; thanks to all them great sound engineers across the globe.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Well ... Windows Vista Audio engine is much better than that of WIndows XP .. So it is a progress on that front .. maybe the only one where I would put Vista and progress in the same sentence

People had real issues with Vista and many actually switched back to XP. In fact, most computers ran faster with XP than Vista

 

[MylesBAstor]

Because, slowly, very, very slowly manufacturers are realising that it is all the little things that count: the quality of the connectors, volume controls, power supplies, interference countering measures. They don't talk about it because it isn't sexy, and because the cummulative effect of sorting out all these seemingly minor elements is often hard to measure.

The equipment today sounds better because the quality of the elements making up the system are balanced, there are less poor performing items in the mix. And all those people who don't believe this, who own modified R2R had better pull out all their tarted up bits, and replace with stock standard parts as per when the machines were manufactured.

Frank

I don't think that it's as much the designers didn't know about these little things, as much as the parts didn't exist. How long ago was it that Jung and Curl published their paper on the importance of capacitors? So we knew which had the lowest dielectric absorption but making the values needed was another story.Take Teflon caps for instance. People knew they sounded better but with the technology of the day, they couldn't build a Teflon cap larger than 0.1 or 0.25 or so uF. And that cap cost $50 15-20 years ago. Nowadays, you can get much better quality caps as well as Teflons in the range of 2 uF. Now they'll still cost an arm and a leg (I think I paid something like $270 for a 1 uF for my tape preamp). Same goes for resistors. Much quieter nowadays due to better design, construction and materials.

 

[treitz3]

You read my mind, Myles. The technology with the components within components have come a long way. I have experienced this first hand with a multitude of gear. The end result is quite pleasing, but not always, to these ears. I look forward to more advances.