Quote Originally Posted by Sir Terrence the Terrible
This thread is really disturbing to me. I reading everyone waxing nostolgic on me, yet when I talk to the audiophiles and speaker designers of the 70's, they say everything was not all that rosy. There were alot of bad speakers back then, just as there are now. There was some poorly made equipment back then, just like now. There were ALOT of bad recording back then, and there are ALOT of bad recordings now.

We do not hear in mono, we hear binaurally. A mono recording of a live event would be an acoustical distortion.

The Bozak speaker mentioned earlier was very good, but so is the new high end thiel speakers.

Things were not any better than they are today. More personal, perhaps, but not better. We tend to think that the time period we cherish was perfect, and any other time period is flawed in comparision. That is a distortion of the mind.

Alot of speakers back in the day measured pretty poorly, and distortion levels were very high. When you add in the tube amps of the day, what folks thought was more musical was just more dirty. Enough DBT has been done that has determined that ultra low distortion, and a flat frequency response makes a speaker sound good with most all musical material(and movie mixes as well). Most of the speakers back in the day were tailored to the genre of music the designer liked. That means it only sounded good with one type of music. I prefer speakers that sound good with all material, and that means recordings with warts sound like recordings with wart. I do not want a speaker who's tonal characteristic flatter a certain genre of music.

I just hope this thread is just a trip down memory lane, and not a bash on technology of today. If it is the latter, then it becomes a two way street, because I am going to tell you that most speakers designed today DO sound better than those thirty years ago. I think Floyd Toole would agree with me on that!
Have you A-B any of the speaker systems listed ? There are no speakers that sound good with all materials. Have you listen to a JBL Paragon ? or an Electro-Voice Patrician. Is a 50 year old Steinway Concert Grand piano inferior to a present Steinway Concert Grand ? How would you compare an 18th century Stradivari violin with one built today ?

The speakers I listed were high -end speakers , not the run of the mill speakers.
My point is that the high end speakers of pre 1970's will hold their own with high end speakers of today.
High end speakers built before 1970 did not need amplified sub woofers to achieve
detailed bass response !

There was bad speakers built pre 1970 and there are bad speakers built today , the only difference is there are more bad speakers built today and fewer audiophiles.
The absence of audio shows has not allowed present day audiophiles to preview many of the different speaker and audio systems today.
There are auto shows !

McIntosh was involved with the public pre 1980's. Mac held audio clinics , one could bring their Mac to the Mac clinic and have it brought up to spics without charge. Mac would test amps not built by McIntosh free !
Judging by your Japanese audio equipment , it would be hard to speak to a person when inquiring about your audio gear.

There is no bashing of today's audio equipment but a compartive analysis . No difference than comapring a Farrari Daytona to a Farrari Maranello.
The difference is we all hear different. I might add auto buffs may drive a Farrari Daytonta,
and compare it to a Maranello. What I am reading here is that few AR members has ever heard are seen a Jensen Imperial ! How would they know that the new speakers are better ? I will also add there are few audio magazines and fewer audiophiles ,most of the
few audio magazines left are having a hard time publishing , video is in audio declining.
The least important item in a Home Theatre system is the audio !



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