chebby:jc.com:
What I find hard to understand ( as one in a similar age bracket to some of the other posters) is
a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (mp3, reduced dynamic range) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without wires coming out of their ears, and
b) why the implied assumption that if it doesn't have a handle to wind it up, the older audiophile will not be able to cope.
25 years ago in the early 1980s you could have said....
"a) why we are being swept along by the tide of mediocrity (CD, clinical harsh sound) that is being driven largely by "yoof" and their inability to function without a remote control and a Sony Walkman hanging out of their ears?"
You are just suffering from "rosey tinted past" syndrome. I remember back then the market comprised 95 percent cheap 'tat' masquerading as stereo or hifi back in the 1970s and 80s. Only a small fraction of what people used was what we now think of as good classic gear and most 'yoof' could not afford the good stuff (as they cannot today).
I know that an iPod Nano sounds 10 times better than the average Sony Walkman from 30 years ago. (And I am not talking about the Walkman Professional) and a decent pair of active PC speakers will sound light years better than a 1970s Amstrad or Fidelity 'rack system' and probably won't set fire to themselves either!
It is false to compare really great classic hifi from another era to what kids are buying today. You have to compare with what kids were buying back then and it was (mostly) pretty dire stuff.
For every Thorens/SME/Quad system there were 100s of people using something like a cheap Sanyo music-centre with an arm only tracking it's worn stylus courtesy of a 2p coin blu-tacked to the headshell and radio reception from a wire hanging down the back of the 'sideboard'. 'Yoof' would be using something
like this.
No rose-tinted glasses here - I know the past sounded rubbish. The difference is that I knew there was something better, if only my bank balance could stretch to it. I suspect (I know, another sweeping statement) that many people today consider the idea of actually listening to music in one place (in front of a "gram - o - phone", to quote Not the Nine-O'Clock News) a little strange, so "hifi" doesn't even appear on their radar. Finally, dynamic range (always a compromise if you don't want your needle to skip - or use (it was an old halfpenny, not 2p coin) extra weight) is often sacrificed so that everything sounds loud all the time.
The real issue for me, however, lies in my point b) and the notion that the "older generation" can't cope with modern technology. Maybe true for a few, but I suspect not many in reality.
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