Reminiscing - The Best Years of Hi-Fi?

[pekers678]

Dear all,

When were the best years in Hi-Fi, was it the 1950s, when mono was kicking off? Was it 1960s, when stereo was first introduced and new formats such as quadrophonic boomed and bombed very quickly. Was it the 1970s, when big was better, and (don't quote me, my opinion) everyone began looking to some fine Japanese equipment (Sony, Pioneer etc.) to replace our out-dated British makes. Was it the 1980s, where things began to get technical and Philips promised us all "the pure sound" with some silver shiny disk thing, or was it the 1990s where everything Hi-Fidelity died and some small compressed mp3s took over. Or, is it yet to come? Your opinions please!

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="pekers678"]The What Hi-Fi Forum seems to be lacking in posts at the moment, so.....[/quote]

Anything but...

 

[Andy Clough]

For me it was the 1990s, when MiniDisc (Sony) was battling it out with Digital Compact Cassette (Philips). Only kidding!

Mind you, I still have some of my favourite music on cassettes from my student days...

 

[timwileman]

i have some cassetts about somewhere...............only place i have to play them is in the car!! toyota sound system is cd and cassestte! how retro is that!

 

[Andrew Everard]

I reckon late 70s when I first got into all this stuff: Sansui SR-222 turntable, one of the first NAD 3020s and a pair of Mordaunt-Short Pageants. And all the bits are still working in disparate corners of the family somewhere.

The 'mind of its own' Amstrad tuner - not one of Sir Alan's finest moments, but rather hi-tech for the time - fired itself fairly rapidly.

 

[gregory]

andrew i had the exact same system, only selling the ms pageants quite recently a supertest of those components and something from today would be quite interesting, project, cambridge and mezzo's spring to mind. for me though it has to be the sixties, valves vinyl and horn loaded speakers.

 

[pekers678]

So do you think that in this era we are now trying to relive the good days? Horn-loaded speakers are still available if you have the cash, and vinyl is making a massive comeback. Valves are back in fashion (Fatman iTube...) and old makes are reinventing themselves (Tannoy making a comeback etc.)?

 

[gregory]

not so much reliving the old days but hearing what old technology sounds like compared to today's digitally formatted music. i like many others moved with the times but always had a turntable kept a valve amp and had high efficiency speakers. my older brother never handed down his old horn loaded speakers. i now know why. but i did like the seventies with all the new Japanese hi-fi and the specialist British companies springing up and yes in a nostalgic way, for me it was a nicer time to discover hi-fi but it does make me wonder why so many people are to turning to valve amps and as you say vinyl is making a massive comeback, although i never felt it went away. I'm looking forward to hearing other posters thoughts on the next 3 decades as i have fond memories of the eighties as well. good post this one

 

[Anonymous]

I would say that today is the best years of Hi-Fi, as we have access to what we had ten years ago, and newer technologies, with which to listen to our music and watch our films from the 80's on.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd say the late 70 through to the 80's mainstream wise, but today we have the best selection at very good prices taking inflation into account. The general public will always be the general public and won't really care, but I think in the more audiophile community it is definitely valves and vinyl.

 

[Anonymous]

1979 was THE best ever year for hi-fi. Think Wharfedale Diamonds, Wharfedale E-series, JVC A-X9, Pioneer SA-9800, Marantz Reciever Death...shame the music was so god damn awful!

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="richardjlarby"]I would say that today is the best years of Hi-Fi, as we have access to what we had ten years ago, and newer technologies, with which to listen to our music and watch our films from the 80's on.[/quote]

I'm with Richard on this one. I've got my iPod for travelling (no bags full of cassettes and AA batteries for the Walkman like it once was); music streaming at home for background listening; CD player for everyday listening; turntable, cassette deck and Revox for analogue-tastic easy weekend mornings....

 

[pekers678]

[quote user="silly"]The general public will always be the general public and won't really care, but I think in the more audiophile community it is definitely valves and vinyl.[/quote]

I couldn't agree with you more, I just love vinyl at the moment, and I find it really depressing when you go onto the Yahoo Answers Consumer Electronics> Music section and all you can see are queries about broken iPods, iTunes not working, people taking hours to transfer their music from one PC to another.... not one decent question on hi-fi separates!

So, why if iPods are so flimsy, take hours to work out, and then are forgotten when another version is created, are they so popular? In the 1970/80s every home had some kind of proper hi-fi system, from the original Cambridge Audio A1 (it was good!) to "groundbreaking" Technics CD Players (e.g. SU-V1), yet now all you ever see are iPod docks that are 1mm thick and from people you've never heard of!? Will there be a day when everyone forgets about what real hi-fi is and just accepts this new-found phenomena?

 

[Anonymous]

I can see the appeal of ipods, they are cheap, they are also cheap, and thirdly they are cheap. Plus you can throw them away easily, they have no pride of ownership, they are small, convenient, and sound quite good too, but for me in no way would they replace vinyl.

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="silly"] ipods have no pride of ownership.[/quote]

I think several million iPod owners might disagree with you on that one. My 13 year-old stepson is immensely proud of his iPod - just as I was of my Walkman AND my turntable at his age.

And that's maybe the issue - if you use (as I do) an iPod/iTunes for what it's great for (mobile entertainment; easy media streaming for background sounds at work/home) and retain a 'proper' hi-fi set-up for serious listening, you're getting the best of both worlds.

The challenge is getting my stepson's generation to be interested in anything much beyond pocket-sized (don't worry, the indoctrination has begun in earnest...)

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]music streaming at home for background listening[/quote]

Clare, streaming isn't just for background music. It can be CD quality and upwards.

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="darrenwm1"][quote user="Clare Newsome"]music streaming at home for background listening[/quote]

Clare, streaming isn't just for background music. It can be CD quality and upwards.[/quote]

Indeed, it can - but as i've been ripping digital music for many, many years, i've got a right mish-mash of formats/bit-rates, so not all of it's particularly happy being scrutinised via a decent hi-fi.

And it's odd - even the lossless tracks i've been busily ripping for the past couple of years tend to be used more for convenience listening (at home or on the move) than dedicated listening: am more likely to play the original CD/LP on my main system, as I love the process of disc selection etc. All part of the ritual....

 

[Anonymous]

Clare, on another thread you said you could here a difference between Apple Lossless and PCM - I assume you mean WAV - but I can't remember the exact wording.Anyway, please can you elaborate on the sound differences you heard? In which way was it better?Also, what kind of digital streaming solution do you use and what is your HiFi?Thanks, Clare.Darren.

 

[Clare Newsome]

I may have mentioned a test we did several years ago comparing the original CD (PCM) with an Apple Lossless copy, in which in blind testing a group of listeners preferred the CD original. But it wasn't a massive feature/rated test, just a small experiment. Must repeat it sometime soon with FLAC/WAV....

I sense you feel i'm somehow hostile to streaming? Far from it - which is why we based our entire demo around the technology at the Bristol Show this year.

It's just not top of my personal system-tweaking agenda right now, as i'm very happy with the sound i'm getting from my set-up, which includes Mordaunt Short Performance 6 speakers, Quad pre/power amp, and Densen CD player (though i'm eyeing up the new Roksan Caspian). And as streaming isn't my main source/concern right now, an Apple Airport Express does the job nicely.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]i'm eyeing up the new Roksan Caspian[/quote]

Rubbish CD drawer though.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Ah, but the sound.... Feel the Densen's days may be numbered (sorry, Thaiman).

 

[Anonymous]

Clare I didn't see that demo but I am impressed as it is very high-tech.Regarding your test, when you compared the original CD to the Apple Lossless file do you mean the CD was running in real time on a computer?

 

[pekers678]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]

Odd - even the lossless tracks i've been busily ripping for the past couple of years tend to be used more for convenience listening (at home or on the move) than dedicated listening: am more likely to play the original CD/LP on my main system, as I love the process of disc selection etc. All part of the ritual.... [/quote]

I couldn't agree more, for me it is all about your own little methods of how you clean the vinyl, and looking through your CD collection for a single on an album you don't know the name of. It almost takes the fun out of it when you simply search for the song on iTunes...

Incidentally, does anyone have any ideas on how to clean vinyl? By that I mean, how do they clean it day-to-day, I don't mean buy an Okki-Nokki (or whatever) from Stamford Audio. I mean do you clean with an anti-static brush, or do you use a cloth etc.? Personally, I prefer a brush, placing it on, then sweeping dust off and sweeping from inside label to outside edge of vinyl, then bouncing the brush on top when I can't get that bit of dust out and it keeps spinning round triumphantly...

Edit. And if anyone can reminisce some of the terrible ways in which they used to clean their records, and the cleaning products they brought in good faith only to find that they completely ruined their original Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon 180g vinyl, post 'em as well.

 

[John Duncan]

Hey, I'd buy it off you if a) I didn't have a Primare (rrrooowwwllll) and b) it didn't have sharp corners. You know what I'm like.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="pekers678"]Incidentally, does anyone have any ideas on how to clean vinyl[/quote]

Knosti's Disco AntiStat. I may have mentioned it elsewhere, I forget..........