The death of the home stereo system
 

I still have a fairly great system from over the years. And it's probably been at least a year since i've even turned it on. Nice speakers hooked to my computers have replaced everything.

THE FULL ARTICLE

I still have two 2010 gold edition turntables, 6ch mixer, a VT1, graphic equalizer, two pitch control cd players, mini disk and a twin cassette deck. The amp is from the early 90's all valve components. The only thing that is a generation later are the speakers. It plays great and I have no reason to replace it. Besides I have close to 3000 LP's and 45".
If I want to listen to stuff on downloaded from iTuners I hook it up to my HDMi via the surround system of my TV.

If you talk to people born in the last 15 years about buying an album, they don't know what you are talking about. I have an Akai 10" reel-reel that still sounds and plays well. A few years ago when my youngest daughter was in college she and a few of her friends stopped by the house for FREE FOOD..and I had it running. None of her friends had ever seen one.

All of my music is MP3, mostly from iTunes and Rhapsody. I don't have a "home stereo" but instead listen to my music on my computer, my car, or basically any electronic device. Hell, thanks to Google I can access my music anywhere I want so long as I have my cell phone.

I just want affordable and comfortable bluetooth headphones for the gym. Is that an unreasonable request?

If you don't mind very high levels of compression, then no.

http://www.whathifi.com/news/best-wi...to-buy-in-2013

I unhooked mine several years ago. Had been using it with the television as well and one day just got sick of how many items I had to pay for electricity-wise and took it all down. Last month my electric and gas bill was 88 bucks.. music to my ears. Nice headphones are still a must for me though for real music.

For as much good as computers and the internet have done for the world, there is a serious social price being paid. Add the careers of designing, manufacturing and selling stereo equipment to the same list of careers that have been phased out because of computers.

It makes you wonder what careers are next to be replaced by technology.

No kidding the streets are absent of children.

I still buy CDs or DVDs from artists or bands I like just to have a physical copy with artwork the same way I sometimes collect books on subjects I find interesting. But I do all my listening on my computer from the ripped CDs or via online like Youtube because I have very loud speakers and a subwoofer for each of my PCs that sounds great.

I recently purchased a pair of Grado SR325 - and it's unbelievable how great they sound. Made by hand in Brooklyn, they use an air-chamber system that reproduces sound like I've never heard before thru headphones.

http://www.gradolabs.com/page_headphones.php

I haven't purchased a "real" album or magazine in about 5 years. Everything I watch or listen to or read is now completely digital.

I have zero interest in albums & turntables. The last that I had was thrown out about 3 years ago. I turned it on and listen to it for about 5 minutes but the sound quality simply does not compare anymore (pops & cracks and wobble and whatever). Garbage. I threw out our last VCR about 4 years ago along with all of our old tapes too. Garbage.

People who say Analog sounds "better" or "warmer", are wrong. They are replacing the inherent noise that comes from the friction of vinyl against a needle plus scratches as "warmth" when all it really is is "noise". You can say that you prefer the sound of vinyl, but to say it sounds better than CD's is a delusion.

I also threw out some old cassette tapes that I had when I was a kid. They would have been fun to listen to except that whatever they had on them faded away I'm sure.

Goodbye, youth.

I store all my music as 320kb mp3s and cant tell a huge difference from cds, but I still hook my computers into home theater receivers using hdmi. There's no reason you can't have good quality sound just because you enjoy the convenience of mp3s or flac.

Yep i'm the same with CD's and DVD's.

Some things i just want to own a "proper" copy of, rather than something digital which can't be seen or touched...

yeah same here

i have a kenwood stereo that i bought with the money i made from my first job back in 1993. i was so proud to have it back then. it still works great but now just collects dust and occasionally gets used as tv speakers in the basement. i've also got like 20 big boxes full of cds that have never been unpacked since we moved.

I still have one I use it every chance I get. I'm planning on changing it for smthg newer tho.

just recently put mine in a box, all i have now is a TV thats connected with my computer and a Bose Solo

I run my computer through my old school 300 watt Au 5900 Sansui amp to properly crank the tunes.

Still got my system from the 1980s Complete with groove tubes/Macintosh clone stereo tube amp and Paisley SPL (rare, hand made) monitors.

I have never ever heard another stereo that sounded as good as mine. Not new ones not old ones. (Fucking Loud)

I did go 100% digital (MP3 320) on my music collection. It's just easier. Plays just as well to the great stereo via cable or Bluetooth.

before you guys junk it all, there is a pretty large resurgence of tuners, amps, turntables from the 60's 70's 80's We are featuring a vinyl night in our club, on tuesday nights,people bring in old lps and we spin them , getting pretty decent turnouts. :thumbsup

That must be one of the dumbest things you've ever said.

First of all, all of the people that designed and manufactured stereos are still in fact doing just that. They still make stereos and CD players; I bought one for my kid the other day.

Then factor in all of the new things they get to design - Computers, laptops, tablets, mp3 players, video servers, wireless devices and routers, and everything else. The amount of items they design now has increased ten fold. Not to mention cell phones and all of the devices they use.

We still listen to music. The devices we use to listen to music have changed. They don't design huge stereo systems, instead they design smaller mp3 players and wireless speakers.

In this case, the social implications are just the opposite. They still design stereos. But the field has expanded so they design and manufacture so much more.

I was at an event Saturday and saw a new (to me anyway) style of projector. It caused me to wonder if the style would work with reel-to-reel music tapes.


http://craftbeerguy.com/wp-content/g...mfest_2782.jpg

The bulk of my sound system is downstairs in the rec room (now a home theatre area) and we only fire it up when watching the TV. The Bose301s in the front are the newest addition, the bigass Audiosphere's in the back are close to 20 years old - but still rattle the windows and shake the dust from the ceiling.

The living room has a small but powerful portable system (dual cassette with 3disk CD changer) that we often haul outside to the back deck in the summer...and input MP3s to it from an android tablet.

Mostly I just use the laptop in the office hooked to a Yamaha system (with subwoofer)...or the headphones.

I can't see why it wouldn't work, but it seems impractical. It makes the projector that much wider and when it spools the film back up it's going to beat down the edge.

blaBLAABLAAAABLAAAAA.. Think Japan, Taiwan, China, India. Commander Intellect.
Nothing in electronics gets made in the US anymore.

I remember my grandparents had a hifi console, which was basically a music coffin lol

Oh, ok.

http://windhaming.com/american-made-audio-list/

Sounds like a huge Telefunken cabinet system my parents had in the 50s. Two slider doors, radio on the left, turntable on the right...and half a dozen speakers along the bottom. I recall they paid a small fortune for it back in the day.

Did it ever? The only stereo brand names I can think of is... Japanese.

Magnavox, Sylvania, RCA

now list any that sell more than 50 pieces a year :winkwink:

Thought we were talking about audio kit, not electronics?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._manufacturers

EXACTLY.

Automation and globalization have created a situation where we can make more than we need by utilizing many less people than we already have in the workforce. Until society comes to grip with this new fact, all the rest is pointless. People wll be unemployed even if they are smart, hardworking, professionals with a great attitude... it's not about being a freeloader anymore. What do we do with them? Wars don't kill massive amounts of people, plagues don't either. We're going to have standard unemployment of 25+ percent in this century, not the 5-8 percent it used to be historically. That doesn't suddenly make those other 16 or 20% of people bums and idiots. The best ideas I've found are shortening the full time work week so more people are employed to do fewer jobs and everyone has more time off (aka a 30 hour work week) or significant tax credits for one parent in a household with kids to stay home. Essentially making room in the workforce by having society pay people to stay home and raise their kids not to be criminals. It's a big problem and one that will continue accelerating until we have less than 10 percent of the whole population working. The rest will all be done by automation and improved efficiency.

As to music specifically, check out what Neil Young is doing. He is starting a high end music distribution site because most people these days have gotten used to heavily compressed music. Even if you have great speakers, playing files from iTunes through them defeats the purpose.

It's good that a few boutique manufacturers are still out there. I admit, It's been years since I could call myself an audiophile, but I did not know a single name on that list.

audiophiles love this phase since they can pickup some great equipment for dirty cheap

I could name some, also noticed Hafler is missing, maybe because they transitioned to professional equipment.

I know someone who just spent $280 on a new turntable.. seems to me that back in the 80's a pretty nice turntable was only a hundred bucks or so.

Actually, plenty of careers have ended or at the very least been interrupted due to change in technology and trends over the past 15 years.

What makes you think the guys who were working in home stereo 15 years ago are the same people now responsible for smart phones and all the new sound tech we have today? In many or even most cases, they aren't.

Technics 1210 MKII was about 500-600 Euro here - the only turntable i ever took seriously (as a former DJ)

I had to go and Google when Vonnegut wrote Player Piano.. it was 1952. The man was a visionary at how closely he called out what the future would be like. I remember reading it in the 1970's and even then I didn't believe it. Yet here we are.


Edit: I bet money that Obama read it.

I used to work in an AV store. Went back to visit and to my surprise, there is no more car audio department. Gone! I was blown away.

the good old stuff's the best. Old school amps, turntables (always kinda old school), cassette decks, love this shit. Have not a sinlge mp3 on my computer (i think) :thumbsup

i used to claim i was an audiophile, that's pretty much what it is right, a claim? lolz.

anyhoo, fun times with macintosh, nakamichi, thorenz, i forget the rest.

but yeah, adios.

i did do myself a favor a while back and put a dac preamp in-between my computer and my behringer active truth studio monitors- i actually prefer the audio from a monitor over a loudspeaker, but i'm a former audiophile you know. i *believe* i noticed an overall increase in the quality of the audio.

perhaps give a dac preamp a whirl if you haven't yet, maybe they put it on some sound cards these days, not sure.

If you had to scotchtape a penny on the tonearm, you probably weren't an audiophile.

indeed, about 3 new places opened here at flea markets dealing in the stuff:thumbsup

we're both prolly of that age group that caught a pretty cool tech wave. my first phonograph was my older sister's and pink. it only played 45's which we had to insert the adapter (or not!) to get the 45 to play, i'm pretty sure 1 of those was the bay city rollers.



but i graduated from there to pioneer i think, then later to the thorenz, which was pretty nice.

have you seen the captain kirk douglas gibson?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/deta...FXBo7AodxVwAIg

http://www.premierguitar.com/ext/res...KirkSG_WEB.jpg

If they failed to keep up with technology, yes, they are out of a job. But if they kept up with the technology there is more work than ever - instead of designing just stereos, there is so much more to design.

still have a decent stereo but mainly just for movies as computer has good speakers hooked up so use that mainly for tunes while I'm working