The Stereo System: A Lost Technology?

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I have pulled up to cars playing Jazz, Classical, County, and yes Vintage Rock. You have to pay attention to all of them, not just the ones that offend you.BTW they love the thumbs up from the geezer! :thumbsup:
Regards,
Jim
I am waiting for that day.:cool:
 
Just sitting and listening to music is what is lost. The iPhone is destroying the very fabric of our societies from complete distractions (driving, the family, friends) to the music. I live near a high school and all the kids walk by looking at there iPhones. They are missing the world. They only know how to communicate with letters and numbers (How R U?) They are also destroying language. Although I do like them listening to their rap with headphones or earbuds....I'm all for that.....

'ner
 
This is how it was: Department stores had the junk; mid-fi shops were everywhere, and I mean there were lots of them; high end stores were few, typically 1-2 per 100,000 population. Some of the mid-fi shops did carry the odd high end piece. I remember a few that would have exclusive rights to a particular high end brand and would flog all the different mid-fi gear to make ends meet. I had a particular sequence of shops I would regularly visit. The mid-fi shops would quite often be so packed I would turn around and walk out. The high end shops did have the odd busy Saturday. Business there was mediocre but steady. By the mid-eighties, you would see high end gear being displayed in the store front windows with the big hand drawn signs "LOOK" with the big eye balls and steep discount price. That's when the high end shops turned to mid-fi to stay alive. Mind you a couple of recessions in the mean time didn't help matters. In any case stereo sales during the 70's were big time. The match that started the fire was lit in the mid-late 60's when 'component' systems were the rage and consoles were becoming old fashioned. Stereo gear has always been a high priority among the masses. Owning a Victrola way back when was considered a big deal. Before TV, families/friends would gather round the radio that the fortunate ones owned.
 
No. It's like pornography. I know it when I hear it. Definitions never work in audio. Your Acoustats won't melt if you call some earbuds hi-fi.

Now if you're talking about filling a room with lots of beautiful sound, that's different. Lots of people under 40 have never experienced that. I can make jaws drop with an old Sansui 555A, the same flacs through an outboard DAC, and a pair of 2-way Ascend Acoustic monitors.

One man's fish is another man's poisson.
Your response seems a bit fickle. It's your 'different' that begins to approach my definition:)
 
Well, there is a huge and still growing headphone culture that's somewhat similar to home hi-fi culture, just scaled down. This does replace home stereo for some people, and complements for others (like me). Even 20 years ago it was quite difficult and expensive to get very good sound from headphones, especially portable ones. Now it's really easy and quite cheap. You can get cans like DT880 for less than $200 and a source that does them justice for around $150 - new with warranty. Try to get the same SQ with home stereo for that kind of money. A good headphone system won't fill the room with awesome sound, but it will fill the listener's ears with awesome sound, and for many people that's what matters.
 
Just sitting and listening to music is what is lost. The iPhone is destroying the very fabric of our societies from complete distractions (driving, the family, friends) to the music. I live near a high school and all the kids walk by looking at there iPhones. They are missing the world. They only know how to communicate with letters and numbers (How R U?) They are also destroying language. Although I do like them listening to their rap with headphones or earbuds....I'm all for that.....
All that's missing is a shake of your cane and a hearty "get off my lawn!"

The young people you're deprecating almost certainly know more about the world because they communicate with each other using their phones, and have continuous access to news and information that we wouldn't have dreamed of when we were their age.

By the way, "txt spk" hasn't been a thing for a decade, since autocorrect and on-screen keyboards made it generally easier to write correctly than use abbreviated text.

Here's a thing for all you prematurely-aged codgers: The world is not falling apart because it's different from how was when you still had hair and could see your dick past your belly. You're simply getting old. You can either give in to getting old -- in which case the world is only going to look worse and worse -- or you can decide to be young.

If you decide to be young, the world will start looking better. It'll be better, too.
 
I hope that when I'm my mothers age (71), I'm as capable of adapting to the world around me as she is. She jumped onto the VOIP bandwagon early to save money on phone service. She manages a pet care side business from her smartphone, promotes it on social media, and uses the MSOffice suite in her laoptop to create flyers, business cards, and write up service contracts.

My mother has me 100% convinced that being old is a state of mind that one can choose to avoid. She even managed to keep her mind and body sharp while never making much more than 40k/year as a social worker before she retired. And that's not a lot of money around here.

I hope I'm like her when I'm old.
 
As a wise older friend told me 30 years ago - "It's not where you are at, it's where your heads at"
Regards,
Jim
 
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