Guest Editorial: Why did audio stop being about audio?

13 minutes ago, bluesman said:

After 761 responses to this well written and very interesting editorial (thanks, Joel !), I still haven't found anything to which I wanted to respond except Chris' initial comment.  I didn't respond on publication because I took that wish as no more than the innocent observation of a young man (OK - a relatively young man......) on "the good old days" that he heard about but sadly missed.  I was fortunate enough to live them to the fullest, and I can confirm that it was a great time for creative, intellectually curious thinkers and all who craved and valued sensory input of any kind.  But after reading hundreds of comments, many of which relate in some way to what Bobflood calls "the meanness of our time", I've thought a lot about what happened to those good old days and why we are where we are.

 

My family valued art, literature and music enough to have an abundance of each in our home.  When I was born in 1946, my father (an early adopter for sure) had a Stromberg Carlson audio system with a huge "Acoustical Labyrinth" speaker system built around a 12" field coil woofer.  We had hundreds of his family's 78s dating to 1920, along with my parents' collection of show tunes, assorted classics, and jazz (featuring my father's favorite performer - Nat King Cole).  He bought a Webcor 181 wire recorder in 1953 when they became available for sale, and his friend Rudy Kuba (who owned the local electronics store and was "the" local service guy) spent a lot of time at our house.  When stereo became available to the consumer (about 1958), we had the first RCA stereophonic system - and I still have "Sounds in Space", the demo record that came with it. So I started hanging around audio people & stores and learning about audio electronics at a very young age, building a 2W amplifier when I was 9 or 10.  I had several friends who shared these interests.  More than a few became amateur radio operators like the principal of our elementary school (whose call letters were K2SOX!) and we hung out together regularly.

 

I went to college in the Boston area in 1964, where I discovered a world of audio greatness that (for me) centered around the AR "sound room" and the KLH shop (both in Cambridge).  My friends and I got to see, hear, and play with the best of the day, which included the KLH 9, the ARx series, Hegeman's CItation 2, Marantz's 7& 8, McIntosh (whose stuff was far from prized by most of the audio press back then but sounded great to me) and a ton of amazingly good stuff from the likes of Eico, Dyna, etc.  We got to talk about it all with the engineers, designers, etc who made it happen. And because I was already a professional musician, I was invited to some great private listening sessions and jams.

 

When I moved to Philly for medical school in 1968, I found a new haunt called Danby Radio, owned and operated by an ex-lawyer who fell in love with audio after returning from WW II.  Dan was one of the first dealers for every major audio product that came along between his opening in about 1950 until he retired and sold the business about 40 years later.  He designed speakers with Fred Martin, and together they installed the first modern sound reinforcement system in the Phila Academy of Music.  I got to hang with his technician and customers (who included most of the known names in Philly music, from the conductor of the Phila Orchestra to the cream of the local band leaders and sidemen.  I made demo tapes of solo instruments for him on the high speed Crown SX724 he found for me, and we did extensive testing and tweaking of a lot of stuff using my instruments and these tapes side by side.

 

When I fell in love with Rogers LS3/5a speakers around the beginning of 1975 and told Dan about them, he got a hold of some and decided he wouldn't sell them because he thought they were "cold" and not well suited to his customers' listening rooms and habits. He also hated inefficient speakers and was offended by the combination of their 15 ohm impedance and limited power handling. So I found & bought a pair elsewhere (which wasn't easy) and still have & love them today.  He asked me to bring them for A-B comparison with his favorites.  I remember spending the better part of a Saturday in his showroom with about a dozen other people while I was still a resident, going back and forth comparing multiple systems to my Rogers using the AR test record, my demo tapes, and a series of very fine vinyl played on a Thorens TD125 / SME.  We tried different electronics using some great pieces, including early Sony SS monoblocks, a Yamaha B2, my Marantz 7 and 8, his Mac 275, my Citation 2, the first Apt Holman preamp (which he loved and brought in for me to try) etc. Everybody had a favorite or two and at least one combo that they hated - but voices were never raised and we were all still friends when we left.

 

Almost everybody (including my wife and my audio dealer) hated the Infinity Reference Standards I grabbed for a song from their original owner when his wife gave him the "it's me or them" ultimatum.  They remained in my home for about a year, as I recall, before I couldn't stand the "size doesn't matter" sarcasm and got rid of them.  My Crown IC150 & DC150 were equally unpleasant to many.  I also had a few guitar amps whose sound displeased my bandmates and leaders. Etc etc etc.

 

Although this could continue for another few thousand words, the narrative has reached the point at which comments in and on this thread fall into context.  Up to the middle '70s, interaction among the serious audiophiles with whom I was hanging was almost entirely well informed and politely collegial, despite some very serious differences of opinion.  Dan was so open to criticism that when I insisted I heard a slight difference in the mids between a pair of speakers he'd designed and built, he tore them open and found a bad cap in the offending crossover even though he didn't hear it.  We brought our own equipment to each others' homes and shops for comparative listening, and we used our own instruments to compare live to reproduced sound.  We learned from each other, and we often ended up trading stuff back and forth.  I even traded my modded Marantz 7c to Dan for the Apt Holman after swapping for what we thought would be a few weeks so we could each experience the other's current favorite (a frequent event).

 

Although there was no internet, there was an active community of audiophiles who expressed themselves in the analog equivalent of the web (club and professional journals).  Groups like the Boston Audio Society had monthly journals in which we wrote up and published our opinions, findings, studies, experiments, observations etc.  Letters to the editors of consumer audio publications were well used outlets for pent up thoughts, opinions, and emotions.  Some were a bit smarmy, and a few threatened to cancel subscriptions - but most were nicely written and interesting, whether or not you agreed with them.

 

When the "audiophile press" came along, reader exchanges with each other and the editorial staffs seemed to become sharper and not infrequently more strained.  This new schism was perpetuated by many condescending comments from audiophiles and their publications about the consumer audio press and its readers.   And as audio equipment became more complex and sophisticated, it did what tech does - it began to outpace the knowledge, skill & experience of many users.  

 

This hotbed of emotion boiled passions on both sides, in a kind of audio global warming.  As it inevitably began to ignite flames among the most volatile and flammable, discourse grew sharper - and the burn redirected attention from civility to reducing the distress.  Dealers like my friend Dan Greenfield have largely disappeared, and there are simply too few places in which we could gather like we did in days of old for face to face discourse, even if we wanted to do so.  I strongly doubt that many AS participants would drag their audio equipment to club meetings and gatherings of friends so we could all experience and play with it.

 

We had serious, knowledgeable people around to keep up honest and educate us when we were wrong (which was often).  The founders and designers of legendary equipment were accessible to us, and they shared their thoughts freely.  The staffs in places like the AR and KLH listening rooms and most high end dealers knew their stuff - no one was trying to say whatever they thought it took to get us to buy anything.  No one brought religion, politics, mental health, metaphysics, philosophy etc to the conversations.  No one insulted you if they didn't sell what you came to buy.  Your opinions were just that, and you had to support them if you wanted to convince others to change theirs.  It was clear to all (OK, to most) that measurements didn't describe everything we heard - so we looked for new things to measure and new ways to measure them.  Does anybody remember slew rate?

 

Getting your hands and ears on stuff became harder and less frequent, and experience shifted from the above world to whatever one could learn from the internet.  People began to express themselves in real time through web posting, which eliminated the fun factor of getting together in each others' homes and shops.  And many audiophiles found themselves left behind in the knowledge race because of all this. We're increasingly isolated from each other, which leaves us with no real time filter through which to express ourselves to each other.  And what Bobflood refers to as the "meanness of our time" crept into our little corner of the world from the otherwise unrelated realm of life in modern times.

 

Life was simpler in the good old days.  Many people seemed to feel better then about themselves and their lives than they do now.  We didn't take everything personally, and we saved our energy for the experiences we were having instead of wasting it on arguments. There was rarely any alcohol or other intoxicant present, and even those few who hated each other for business or philosophical reasons were generally civil about it.  Yes, it's a shame we can't have that world back again.  But maybe we can create a modern version by remembering and embodying at last some of what I describe above. 

 

Yes, Chris - those were great times.  They truly helped make me what I am today, and I'm forever grateful for them.  But the 21st century's also a pretty cool place to be, and I have to believe we can bring back the fun and feeling of those great days.  All it will take is some personal reflection by each of us to decide how much we want them.  I hope reading the above will ignite a better flame or two.

Wow, do I feel like a newbie who isn't worthy :~)

What a great post @bluesman

14 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Wow, do I feel like a newbie who isn't worthy :~)

7 hours ago, crenca said:

I would be interested tapatrick how you think 'identity' escapes the trap. 

I’m responding to the specifics of what you wrote to aid understanding of each other:

2 hours ago, bluesman said:

But maybe we can create a modern version by remembering and embodying at last some of what I describe above. 

Thank you @bluesman

SO, I'm an occasional visitor to this site and I think I've read enough of this thread to ascertain that this LONG LONG thread is routinely repeated on every similar site/magazine/blog related to audio extant.  And has been for just about as long as I can remember.  We're ALL privileged to have the resources to indulge this hobby in varying degrees.  Be kind to each other and give up on having to be right all the time.  Moving on now.