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In writing about the original XLO Signature 4.1b AES/EBU digital cable, I put up photos of the Late Spring 1994 TAS and September 1995 Stereophile. The mid-90s were high-end audio's golden years. It was a time when reg'lar folk left mid-fi, and transitioned to the high-end. And, once people sampled the goods of that era, there was no going back to mid-fi.
Alas, revisiting those mid-90s issues of TAS and Stereophile shows just how bad today's industry is. Those mid-90s articles and reviews were written with such detail. You had to read them several times, absorb the information, arm yourself with data, take the time to do your homework and make comparisons. Today, no one looks forward to receiving the latest issue of these magazines. And when we do finally open them, we go through them in one sitting (unheard of in the mid-90s), and toss them straight into the recycling bin.
So my reader sent me an email stating, "Damn you, Lummy! I miss those [mid-90s glory] days. It shows just how far we've declined. Why'd you have to open old wounds, and poor (sic) salt in them?"
So then others in my audio circle chimed in on why today's state of high-end audio pales in comparison to the mid-90s golden era.
First off, if we go back to the mid-90s, we'll recall that the media kept cramming that awful grunge down our throats. In an effort to push back, Fight's War Of Words and Sepultura's Chaos A.D. pummeled grunge. Seattle's own Nevermore then came out with power metal, which still chugs along today. The smarter listeners latched on to the prog rock of, for example, Dream Theater. Going in the opposite direction of grunge, adult contemporary made a comeback. The younger generation ditched electric guitars all together, and went with Hi-NRG and Eurodance. Rap went mainstream. And finally, many acts from the 70s reunited.
Along those lines, people are tired of the audio press cramming tubes and vinyl down our throats. By constantly aping tube and vinyl religion, we've lost sight of the music. One of my readers wrote, "You're right Lummy. You always say it doesn't matter whether it's tubes, vinyl, paper, rock or scissors. It's about how it works, looks, and preserves the music."
I have many readers, who lament that all this computer audio is "soulless." Many of these veteran audiophiles are good at setting VTA, dialing in tracking force, balancing anti-skate, adjusting azimuth, and twiddling the phonostage settings. But even these guys, who have endured that torture for decades, sigh about file types, sample rates, storage devices, playlists, backup drives, et. al.
If you're John Atkinson, you'd throw your hands up, and plead, "If I can't have tubes, vinyl, and computer audio, what's left?"
Exactly.
So to my audio circle, I posed the issue of, "Do we even want to bring our hobby back to the quality level of the beloved mid-90s?" After all, more and more of our long-time audiophiles are ignoring the audio media and the Stereotypical Audiophile dogma. These veterans finally ditch the audio excess, get something appropriate for their rooms and tastes, and then just drop out.
The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Follow Ups:
nt.
When it was all really new and exciting.When my college roommate and I, having gotten a pair of Servo-Statik panels with some bad drivers, called Infinity, and Arnie said, "I've got some lying around. I'll send them to you." And he did. Gratis.
When we first started to realize how much goodness was hidden in those grooves pressed in the 50's and 60's.
When someone coined the term "high end."
When that same roommate and I earned much of our college costs by buying old Mac tube gear from the Sunday NY Times classifieds and selling it to Japanese dealers. (Process: get the paper when the first Sunday bundle was dropped off at dawn on Thursday. That bundle included "merchandise offerings." Call every ad, and get on the subway with cash. If there were too many ads, hire helpers, give them cash, and send them out too. Pot dealers made the best helpers because they understood about getting the deal done. We got almost everything for two years, generally sold at a ridiculous markup, and sometimes more. Our Japanese buyers did the same, and their customers paid small fortunes for the gear, which they treasured and enjoyed immensely.)
When the Maggie 1U's bisected the dorm room and met in the middle.
When we had double Advents, then double nines, then double LaScalas.
When we heard the Decca cartridge, and realized everything we knew was wrong.
When some guy modified the Dynaco FM-3... and his name was William Z. Johnson.
When every JBL speaker looked just so f**king cool. (And when we sold the coolest-looking of them all, the Ranger Paragon, which meant we never had to listen to it again!)
When the biggest McIntosh dealers were Pacific Stereo and Hi-Fi Fo-Fum.
When we drove too fast in an Alfa Giulia (or BMW 2002) with the Dahlquist ALS-3's making everything so much better. Yes, Dahlquist car speakers. Oh baby. And no, there was no such thing as a "Beemer" then.
When we walked into Harmony House, heard the original Quads, and realized everything we knew was wrong.
When the Braun tri-amps arrived.
When we realized that a Mac MC-2300 *could* drive the 21 pairs of speakers in the big demo room... in parallel, and that the meter lights dimmed on the loud notes.
When dads would pile the wife and kids into the station wagon and drive two hours each way to a hifi store on a Saturday to buy a "stereo."
When we tested Cerwin Vega's claim that you could plug their speakers into a wall socket.
When, perhaps a trifle stoned, we played with the fast forward and rewind of the Ferrograph 7 for hours.
When we realized that the Bozak Concert Grand was in fact NOT boring, but exceptionally good, as was the Mac ML-4.
When a Mac amp clinic would bring hundreds of people into a hifi store on a Saturday. So many that a salesperson would stand on the counter and shout, "When you're ready to buy, raise your hand!" And they would raise their hands, showing their cash, and wait patiently to get their KLH compact, or their Pioneer receiver, Dual turntable, and KLH speakers.
When we sold so many KLH compacts that we talked of putting in a chute from the upstairs stockroom down to the cash register.
When the music was endlessly exciting, because without the music it's all pointless. Stevie Wonder with brilliant album after brilliant album. Rock going in so many directions, much of it really good - ELP, Stones, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Steve Winwood's 100-or-so bands. Moondog would fly out to do album signings, then return to his spot on the sidewalk on 6th Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street, and compose in his head, which was covered, as always, with his Viking-style helmet with horns. Orchestras were busy, and for the most part funded. The opera stage was charged with the talent of a young Pavarotti, along with Sutherland, Pliska, Kraft, Merrill, Tucker, Domingo, Milnes, McCracken, Peters, Morris, Corelli, Gedda, Resnik, Bergonzi, Scotto, van Stade, Tebaldi, Horne, Price, Norman, Verrett, Bumbry, Mitchell, and Sills. We organized into teams every year to keep our spot on line for the 2-3 days it took to get our Horowitz tickets at Carnegie, though some of us secretly loved Rubinstein more, and we all knew that tall kid from Shreveport was really exciting.
The 70's were very good.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
Edits: 10/25/14
!
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
That is a beautiful posting by Bill Way, and brings back many, mostly happy memories, unlike Luminator's sour complaint. I would have kept my KLH 6 speakers forever except the tweeters gave out. Fortunately, at that moment a man named Dave Wilson appeared on the audio horizon with his Watt/Puppy series, and I have stayed with it right up to his superb Sophia 3.
and had plenty of time to sit around and think, talk, and dream audio. Then Stereophile came to my attention in about '81 and suddenly became my new ad-free Bible with typographical errors. What a revelation. The audio store guys could no longer bully me out of ignorance!
From my POV the 80's were it: The birth and transfiguration of mid-fi to the perpetually unattainable audio icon. Exciting times.
...and the early 1980s before CDs took over.
Nice post.
Great stories WW.
I have many readers, who lament that all this computer audio is "soulless." Many of these veteran audiophiles are good at setting VTA, dialing in tracking force, balancing anti-skate, adjusting azimuth, and twiddling the phonostage settings. But even these guys, who have endured that torture for decades, sigh about file types, sample rates, storage devices, playlists, backup drives, et. al.
Although I'm an aging boomer, I've found that "soulless" computer audio has allowed me to spend more time listening to music and - rediscovering music I had forgotten I had via random play and lists. Would you rather spend 10% of your listening time shuffling disks in and out of pre jitter-free CD players?
If the *magic* of the musical experience is constantly having to futz around with tonearms, count me out. I still have to deal with that periodically with a Souther and a SME, but that's not where my enjoyment lies.
+1 another vote against "soul-less" computer audio. The fun lies in swapping out an LP or CD.
I prefer listening to music.
!
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
others prefer the ritual. Fine by me. :)
You're as full of it as ever!
Every hobby thinks the sky is falling, to some extent.
Ham radio has been self-proclaiming its death since the end of spark gap, the beginning of AM, the beginning of SSB, FM, no-Morse Code licenses, etc, etc.
No, the hobby might not *look* the same it did 20 years ago. But change is inevitable...
Jim J.
Indeed. 1994/95 was a great time for me as well. I did transition from mid-fi to entry level hi-fi gear. Of course I read my subscriptions to TAS, Stereophile, Audio Magazine and Stereo review (remember those publications?). Additionally, this was a time of great discovery that remains true/with me today - aftermarket cables/power cords- and the difference(s) they make!
Hey, who moved my post from Inmate Central to Critic's Corner?Anyway, I have a long-time audio friend, who, for years, has been fond of writing, "It's all your fault, Lummy!" Every now and then, I come across an audio product from the mid-90s. Such is the case with the XLO Signature 4.1b. So if the product came from the mid-90s, it's only natural, that I write about the period when the product first came out.
While many audiophiles miss the digest-sized issues of TAS and Stereophile, they all agree that, in terms of popularity and quality, the mid-90s were Stereophile's peak. Because of interesting product types such as interconnects and DACs, the high-end audio industry experienced explosive growth and excitement. Even within power amps, we saw different types of tube technologies (e.g., SET, regular triode, high-power push-pull) AND different types of SS (bi-polar, single-ended, MOSFET, digital switching, and even different biasing schemes). Audio products finally left the dark ages, and started incorporating wireless remote control. And yes, we discovered after-market powercords and powerline conditioners.
So open up a mid-90s Stereophile, and you will find that it covered a wide range of product types, in multiple price categories. Just take a look at the length, depth, and quality of the writing. Many of the reviews incorporated a life story, and tied the product and/or the music to that life story. Thus, audio didn't exist in a vacuum; it was part of the rich tapestry of music, art, family, and life.
But anyway, every time I highlight how long it's been since the mid-90s, my audio friend uses his "It's all your fault, Lummy!" quote. He says I make him feel old.
Many of my old audio friends have dropped out. I am happy and gratified, that they have taken care of the audio portion, and have moved on. They are now enjoying not just music, but life. OTOH, I feel abandoned. All the nice people leave, and we're left with the old cranks (oops, like me).
Those of you who have followed my blogs know that, when I was in high school, I worked in the school's library. Through that, I was able to read the subscriptions to Billboard, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and Stereo Review. No, the school did not subscribe to Audio, High Fidelity, Stereophile, or TAS. But I was indeed aware of these magazines' existence.
My classmates complained that Stereo Review didn't tell us how a product sounded. One day, while I was inserting the metal security strip into a Stereo Review, my classmate and his freshman sister walked in. She saw a Polk Audio ad featuring Matthew Polk, and remarked, "Dude, with those lips, that guy thinks he's [Aerosmith's] Steven Tyler!"
Edits: 10/23/14
Gremlins...
additionally, I miss all of those sweet cd players from the mid-90's.
I use a DAC from that era!! I love my Kinergetics KCD-55 ultra. It was in the creme-de-la-creme of DACS from that period and still sounds more musical than most of the uber dacs of today.
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