Hifi golden era

[insider9]

Getting more and more into old gear. The older I go the better gear I find. My oldest speakers are late 80's design and amp dating to late 90's/early 00's.

Is there such a thing as a golden era for hifi? I'm particularly interested in amps and speakers but feel free to discuss other gear.

If such thing exist are different brands better at certain periods? I really fancy getting a Japanese made vintage amp.

 

[nick8858]

I have a modern amp, currently being used which can stream, play CD's etc etc. Also have a lovely 70's Pioneer receiver, the ones with the wodden end cheeks and nice knurled knobs and a stunning light display. Sounds just as good to be honest and a real looker at night. The modern one is for sure convenient, the older one a much nicer visual treat and it has controls like "balance" (not everyone has the luxury of being able to sit plumb in the middle of the speakers. For interest the cat prefers the old Pioneer as it gives off heat from the top and its nice and warm in winter. New one gives out no heat at all so she's not keen on that one. Does like the remote CD drawer opening and closing though. One last thing, the FM tuner on the old Pioneer is streets ahead of anything else I have owned. Picks up anything with no noise whatsoever.

 

[chebby]

In terms of sales and numbers of people buying hi-fi then I think the 'Golden Age' must have been the mid 1960s onwards for about 20 years.

My choice would be a Thorens TD160 with SME3009 Mk2 and Shure V15 with a Tandberg receiver and Sony reel-to-reel tape deck. Rounded off with some nice JR149s

After that there was the decline into home video rentals, computer gaming, ghetto-blasters, Walkmans etc.

 

[MajorFubar]

I think it varies. The 10-15 years following the invention of a particular source or technology usually sees the biggest acceleration in performance and maturity, with each new generation showing genuine exciting improvements over its predecessors in terms of performance, price and facilities. Then after it's matured and reached a plateau, it all becomes a bit meh.

 

[insider9]

Ok, so amplification wise would you say best period would be 80's?

 

[Gaz37]

HiFi reached its pinnacle in the 80s with the Amstrad tower system.

Think about it, a tuner, twin cassette deck, turntable, amp, graphic equaliser, 3 way speakers and, most importantly, a myriad of flashing lights, switches and sliders in a bespoke cabinet all for £79.99 from Kays catalogue.

It all went downhill after that.

Please don't try to argue you know I'm right

 

[tonky]

In terms of sales and numbers of people buying hi-fi then I think the 'Golden Age' must have been the mid 1960s onwards for about 20 years.

My choice would be a Thorens TD160 with SME3009 Mk2 and Shure V15 with a Tandberg receiver and Sony reel-to-reel tape deck. Rounded off with some nice JR149s

After that there was the decline into home video rentals, computer gaming, ghetto-blasters, Walkmans etc.

Love those JR149s - The best pair of speakers I never bought. - It seems Falcon Acoustics demoed their prototype version of the JR 149s at a recent hifi show in Germany. Not sure when they will become commercially available though ( or the price tag either). - Be nice if it happened.

Cheers Tonky

 

[Gray]

HiFi reached its pinnacle in the 80s with the Amstrad tower system.

Think about it, a tuner, twin cassette deck, turntable, amp, graphic equaliser, 3 way speakers and, most importantly, a myriad of flashing lights, switches and sliders in a bespoke cabinet all for £79.99 from Kays catalogue.

It all went downhill after that.

Please don't try to argue you know I'm right

The Amstrad factory was down the road from me. I heard that final test was a kick.

 

[insider9]

Best memory of Amstrad for me is this beauty

 

[nopiano]

Ok, so amplification wise would you say best period would be 80's?

It's highly debatable, but I was a big fan of Harman/kardon receivers in the '70s, with Acoustic Research AR3a or LST speakers. Then Linn, Naim and Dalhquist seemed amazing (anyone remember John Jeffries in Eastbourne?). But the 80's when we first heard Audio Research valve preamp with Krell class A power amps into Sonus Faber speakers, that was my life changing audition!

 

[Gray]

In the 80s (or early 90s) I had a Harman Kardon PM650 amp. Massive, heavy thing it was. Well made though and a nice matt champagne gold.

Sounded really powerful (though only nominally 50W per channel I think)

I always remember the dealer was offering 5% off, but strictly only with 'Any' trade-in.

I gave him a plastic pencil sharpener, that was actually broken - and he took it (true)

My Mum told me I was taking the p*ss.

 

[nopiano]

In the 80s (or early 90s) I had a Harman Kardon PM650 amp. Massive, heavy thing it was. Well made though and a nice matt champagne gold.

Sounded really powerful (though only nominally 50W per channel I think)

I always remember the dealer was offering 5% off, but strictly only with 'Any' trade-in.

I gave him a plastic pencil sharpener, that was actually broken - and he took it (true)

My Mum told me I was taking the p*ss.

Great tale! That's exactly how they sounded. The decent ones had twin power supplies, i.e. a transformer for each channel.

 

[Gray]

x

 

[insider9]

In the 80s (or early 90s) I had a Harman Kardon PM650 amp. Massive, heavy thing it was. Well made though and a nice matt champagne gold.

Sounded really powerful (though only nominally 50W per channel I think)

I always remember the dealer was offering 5% off, but strictly only with 'Any' trade-in.

I gave him a plastic pencil sharpener, that was actually broken - and he took it (true)

My Mum told me I was taking the p*ss.

Great tale!  That's exactly how they sounded. The decent ones had twin power supplies, i.e. a transformer for each channel. 

+1

I wouldn't mind a nice dual mono HK either.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

My first hifi was from little woods catalogue it was a Philip's stacking system a separate TT , cdplayer , twin tape decks and a amplifier it was the most expensive hifi in the catalogue which took me a year to pay off 1987 the year also at that time the other make I remember was a Aka I think it was if you had one them back then you had some money .

my first proper separate what to me was proper hifi was a techniques Su600 with a Sony cdplayer , techniques twin tape deck , Jamo speakers which boomed like crazy and I just used the standard bell wire cables that came in the box . And I thought it sounded lovely 1990 then after that things just went crazy and things started to get more expensive the more I went up the ladder of hifi world but hay I would not change anything I love the hobby of buy great hifi and music ,

.but I reckon maybe the golden era was the start of the 1990s even though I do like the classic marantz , Yamaha amplifiers of the 1970s-1980s I think they look cool I have come close a couple of times of buying a classic amplifier .

i think there are probably a lot of different amplifiers that were top of there class from different decades that are standout models and probably give a modern amplifier a run for its money .

 

[lindsayt]

In terms of the equal best sounding equipment ever made at the lowest brand new retail prices, adjusted for inflation:

Turntables. Early 1980's with the statement Japanese direct drives.

Cartridges. 2017. Some great classic cartridges are still made plus some additions to the high end over the last few years.

Digital source: 1994 to 2017.

Amplifiers. 2017. Boutique manufacturers.

Speakers. 1950's to 1970's. Klangfilm, JBL, Altec, EV, Bozak at their peak, making purist speakers.

Commercially available recordings: 1950's to 1990. Loudness wars after that led to large decline in dynamics.

 

[Gray]

In the 80s (or early 90s) I had a Harman Kardon PM650 amp. Massive, heavy thing it was. Well made though and a nice matt champagne gold.

Sounded really powerful (though only nominally 50W per channel I think)

I always remember the dealer was offering 5% off, but strictly only with 'Any' trade-in.

I gave him a plastic pencil sharpener, that was actually broken - and he took it (true)

My Mum told me I was taking the p*ss.

Great tale! That's exactly how they sounded. The decent ones had twin power supplies, i.e. a transformer for each channel.

Mine had only the one large, conventional mains transformer but was otherwise dual mono - there was plenty of room inside for it.

It also had the largest output transistors I've ever seen made by Sanken and they had plenty of heatsinking. I think Hi-fi News said it delivered peaks of 40 amps in their lab tests, other amps in the group test hit around 15A. That's what attracted me to it!

 

[plastic penguin]

@Gaz37

"HiFi reached its pinnacle in the 80s with the Amstrad tower system."

You're fired! *biggrin*

I believe the so-called 'Golden era' and nostalgia is inextricably married. I look back on my old Pioneer - loved it at the time - but probably would hate it now, even compared to a modern, entry-level Arcam. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia as long as it's in context.

 

[insider9]

In terms of the equal best sounding equipment ever made at the lowest brand new retail prices, adjusted for inflation:

 

Turntables. Early 1980's with the statement Japanese direct drives.

Cartridges. 2017. Some great classic cartridges are still made plus some additions to the high end over the last few years.

Digital source: 1994 to 2017.

Amplifiers. 2017. Boutique manufacturers.

Speakers. 1950's to 1970's. Klangfilm, JBL, Altec, EV, Bozak at their peak, making purist speakers. 

Commercially available recordings: 1950's to 1990. Loudness wars after that led to large decline in dynamics.

Interesting, especially regarding amplification. I'll definitely look into the speakers how come are they mostly American?

 

[lindsayt]

insdider9, you could add Quad with their ESL 57's to the list. And Vitavox. I 'm not aware of any other British manufacturers that have produced speakers that sound equally good as the best examples from JBL, Altec, EV at real world prices as low as what those companies were selling for in their heydey.

Living Voice produce speakers that are about equally good as anything ever made in the Olympian, but the retail price is doolally crazy at £270k. Therefore I wouldn't include them in the Golden Age of speakers.

Apart from Quad and Vitavox, British manufacturers have not been into purist speakers in the way the classic American companies were. And this shows in the looks, size, low manufacturing costs and overall sound quality, with non-purist designs scoring on the first 3 and losing out on the 4th.

On the amplification front, whilst today is the golden age in terms of world class performance for the lowest brand new retail price - if you buy from someone with low overheads who knows what they're doing; there is something called Depreciation. Which makes a huge number of older amplifiers highly attractive today from a price to buy / performance point of view.

 

[Al ears]

@Gaz37

"HiFi reached its pinnacle in the 80s with the Amstrad tower system."

You're fired! *biggrin*

I believe the so-called 'Golden era' and nostalgia is inextricably married. I look back on my old Pioneer - loved it at the time - but probably would hate it now, even compared to a modern, entry-level Arcam. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia as long as it's in context.

I'd quite agree, and therein lies the rub, as they say... Nostalgia to a point is age dependent and so, apparently, is ones perception of the 'Golden Age' with us oldies possibly pushing the start-date back further than the twenty-year olds out there. These tend to read about those lovely Japanese superamps whereas we oldies might have actually owned one... ;-)

 

[plastic penguin]

@Gaz37

"HiFi reached its pinnacle in the 80s with the Amstrad tower system."

You're fired! *biggrin*

I believe the so-called 'Golden era' and nostalgia is inextricably married. I look back on my old Pioneer - loved it at the time - but probably would hate it now, even compared to a modern, entry-level Arcam. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia as long as it's in context.

I'd quite agree, and therein lies the rub, as they say... Nostalgia to a point is age dependent and so, apparently, is ones perception of the 'Golden Age' with us oldies possibly pushing the start-date back further than the twenty-year olds out there. These tend to read about those lovely Japanese superamps whereas we oldies might have actually owned one... ;-)

Quite agree. The deeper message in my post, I suppose, is that the 'Golden era' also included a lot of 'tat'. During this period my sis-in-law had a Waltham music centre. It was only good because you could record onto a tape without one of those hand-held tape recorders.

But my first proper set-up was non-british brands: JVC receiver, Hitachi Tape deck (both Japan), Solavox speakers (Scandanavian), Garrard TT (USA)...

 

[Gaz37]

Now there's a name I'd forgotten.

 

[Al ears]

Now there's a name I'd forgotten.

Probably for the best... ;-)

 

[insider9]

On the amplification front, whilst today is the golden age in terms of world class performance for the lowest brand new retail price - if you buy from someone with low overheads who knows what they're doing; there is something called Depreciation. Which makes a huge number of older amplifiers highly attractive today from a price to buy / performance point of view.

Thanks Lindsayt for some great suggestions!

That is the attraction I can't resist. The value on some of the gear is insane when compared to what's available new. I admit that the main reason I'm looking into it.

I'd quite agree, and therein lies the rub, as they say... Nostalgia to a point is age dependent and so, apparently, is ones perception of the 'Golden Age' with us oldies possibly pushing the start-date back further than the twenty-year olds out there. These tend to read about those lovely Japanese superamps whereas we oldies might have actually owned one... ;-)

Quite agree. The deeper message in my post, I suppose, is that the 'Golden era' also included a lot of 'tat'.

I appreciate it and would love some of that experience. Nostalgia has no bearing here though hence the post. It's a fine balance between buying a fine sounding unit and good looking 'tat'. But you got to know where to start and joint experience of all of you here is invaluable