Does Anyone Miss When Audio Was More Conservative?

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

Nostalgia colors perception, or memory of it. There is little doubt that today's gear is superior sounding to my ears than yesterdays gear and that is across the price range.

 

The first revelation into the high-end and what that might bring to SQ came in the 90's with the then SOA Levinson products, Transport and DAC. I had good gear before but it wasn't in the same league. There was hype aplenty in Stereophile and elsewhere and the cost was obscenely staggering, more than a fancy car. Now, I had a very skeptical negative expectation bias but an audiophile friend and I enjoyed doing the rounds of dealer showrooms and checking out gear. The fact that I couldn't afford the MLs nor had ANY intention to purchase obscenely expensive, waste-your-money on stupidly expensive gear, shamelessly did not make me hesitate to "audition" them. "Why, certainly I'll have a listen, don't mind if I do". My jaw dropped and my eyes swelled with tears. I did end up owning them and still own them. Great memories and great nostalgia, and I will never sell them.

 

Then one day my laptop playing dig files over usb was sounding as good as my ML transport playing CDs. Again, I had massive negative expectation bias against the laptop but times move on.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

43 minutes ago, Digi&Analog Fan said:

've heard Levinson on several occasions and they usually sounded like they lacked openness and some other qualities. The one time Levinson impressed me was when I was in Michigan around 1987 and I heard a limited edition Levinson amp which cost I believe $28,000 Whew! It did impress with large Magnepans.

 

I'm only talking about the Mark Levinson 31.5 transport/30.6 Dac combo. Touted to be the best at that time and I agree. Then again others disagreed preferring Wadia or the belt driven top model CEC model at the time. For amps it has always been Gryphon I have returned to, but owned and auditioned many

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

2 minutes ago, Digi&Analog Fan said:

Heh, if you have Gryphon you have some great amplification! That is one of the amps I would like to hear along with T+A, LFD and top of the line VTL. Which of those could I afford. None. In my past post I was just implying that to my ears Levinson was overrated not matter what category of component. He was impressive in that he married starlet Kim Cattrell. 

 

While I have auditioned a great many Levinson products over the decades it is only the Mark Levinson 31.5 transport/30.6 Dac combo that I ever purchased. It was to my ears way better than their other gear.

 

You need to also remember that by the time these products came out Mark Levinson the man had sold the company and was making other stuff, none of which I bought. AFAIK Mark Levinson had nothing to do with Madrigal which produced the Mark Levinson 31.5 transport/30.6 Dac reference products. Harman bought Madrigal in 1995 but abandoned the "Mark Levinson" 31.5 transport/30.6 Dac reference products. Some of the team responsible were reunited by an ex Harman employee who co-founded Bricasti. The bricasti has similarities to the heyday ML of old, striving for excellence.

 

Gryphon is simply awesome.The Mephisto unbelievably awesome. I also like VTL....and Kim Cattrell !

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

29 minutes ago, One and a half said:

Mixing tracks from LP, radio tracks to cassette was a favourite pastime, since there was no playlists! Time and again, tapes were chewed, even the TDK Chrome tapes,

Hi Gary

wow that brings back memories. I had a draw of TDK Chrome mix tapes I threw out a few years ago. I probably should not have but it was probably 20 years since I had touched them and no way of even playing them....if they still played.