Is Hi Fi getting better or worse?

On the surface , a silly question because money no object , you can buy a spellbinding high end system but in the real world , was a 1970s Sony Music Centre better sounding than a Bose Dock? or was Dual 505/Nad 3020/A&R 18 better than a Project/Cambridge Audio/Q Accoustics.

I am using a friends 25 year old Meridian 207 CD player. It is sonically excellent & I am confident there s nothing that could top it under £800.

All opinions welcome & please a respect for others and there music equipment choices, thanks .

 

Better? For sure. Technology is improving all the time. I expect your Meridian player is still good, but there would be something out there that would surprise you.

 

I miss old gear. ADS. Cizek. SAE. GAS. Dahlquist. Tandberg receivers. Onkyo TX4500MKII. Luxman from 1978. Original Quads over the ELS64.

I'd buy a new pair of ADS 810's or Dahlquist DQ10's in a New York minute.

Great stuff.

 

I'd say "getting better all the time", just based on my faith that technology does, in fact, march on. That doesn't mean that hifi from the past didn't get it blindingly right from time to time: the enduring interest in tubes, vinyl and hi-eff speakers being but one example.

ls35a, I was tempted by a pair of 810s at Hawthorne recently; but they were gone pretty quick!

 

Yes

 

I guess it depends what you classify as "Hi Fi"?

 

Mine is getting better, no doubt about it.

 

I've only been in the hobby we call HiFi for 20 years but I'd say without a doubt it's gotten better in that time. Improvements have been made in speaker design, DACs, amplifiers, headphones, source material, etc.

Bill

 

Digital playback = better
Speakers, amps, preamps, turntables = no better

 

I can say that digital from my mac mini/NAS FEEDING into a Schiit Gungnir DAC is better than my Oppo 105, which is miles and miles and miles of anything digital I had heard from the 80's and 90's. Especially the 80's. That was some godawful noise. Although I had a nice stereo in the late 70's (Luxman/Dahlquist), what I have now beats it easily. (well, unless you were sitting in the right place and then the Dahlquist's would throw down a sound stage that is rarely matched, even today). And look at the vinyl options we have now. Turntables and cartridges have improved significantly. And vinyl pressings are a lot better, albeit more expensive.

 

Headphone hi-fi is getting better. Much better. Even over just the past 5 years. There are very very few old headphones that compete with modern headphones.

 

IMO only. Digital improvement has "stalled" since the early 2000's. Yes there are more options now (FLAC/WiFi/DSD, etc. decoding), but sound improvement shows little, if any improvement. That may take a code change in how digital is read? Analog playback, dollar for dollar, may have suffered. You take a modern $2,000 table and compare it with equal one price wise (inflation adjusted) table of the late 70's/early 80's.......any big sonic improvement? The older tables were mass produced or used components that were - so offered lower production costs (?). As far as tables the only real change is in the materials used (MDF, carbon fiber, acrylics, to name a few). As far as amps are concerned, hard for me to gauge that, amp components wear down, the ones I have heard may be past their prime. As far as tubes go...ain't it hard to beat those old ones from when everything was glass? The tubes alone probably put those in another class. Again, all IMO.

 

I think today's inexpensive digital, and inexpensive speakers with newer driver materials, and even inexpensive electronics, generally when taken as a whole offer better sound than comparably cheap mass market stuff did 30 or 40 years ago. But as with anything, when it comes to individual pieces, you can find a great sounding older inexpensive pieces.

 

For the price, better. Low priced, or high priced, either way the sound is better.

 

Classic gear is benefiting from improvements in technology, as are turntable motors; tonearm tolerances have definitely improved as have materials/design in solid-state amplifiers and especially speakers. Just think of how far cone material and crossovers have come thanks to computer-aided design.
There are many examples, but personally, I feel like this is the best time for hi fi ever.

 

I agree strongly that speakers have made great strides, I am not convinced digital has since, oh say, 2003. Nor am I convinced turntables have. Carts maybe? As far as amps, on the ledge on that one.

 

Willie!!!
What can I do to convince you!!!

 

way better. it's now easier than ever to put together a system that is pretty transparent, detailed, and flat freq response etc. which means for me at least the recording accounts for a greater percentage of the overall sound than ever before as the equipment gets out of the way. this is both a good and bad thing.

 

Well, I dont know if this type of stuff is considered as "hi Fi", but I am blown away the advances in digital technologies.

Unlike it was in the early 2000's a consumer doesnt have to be a wiring and routing genius to hook up a multi format player (the good old Pioneer Dv-563) with digital optical, coaxial digital and 5 channel analog connections! I may be losing some resolution, but man I love the simplicity of wiring up my Onkyo 818, OPPO 93 and my Samsung 63" Plasma with HDMI cables.

In addition you have room correction set up software, and support for several excellent sound DSP's like DTS.

Last, the OPPO players are simply mind blowing.

My simple mind has finally understood the concept of buying music in "name your rate"/24 bit FLAC format, and storing it on my computer, along with my home studio masters. I simply fire up the OPPO which displays my music files on my computer through the network and plays them on demand. Hell I dont have to go digging through hard media, and, for the most part the SQ is better!

 

A payoff always helps!!! I'm sorry, not convinced it ain't better, just not convinced it is.....I think you have to look at categories Which ones do you feel are REALLY better?.

 

My CD player is that old,God had one!.

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/digital-sources/cd-players/arcam/alpha-7se/prd_116780_1586crx.aspx

 

I'm still broken-hearted that my '90s "Star Trek" Rega Planets' transport died; dang, what a musical player. However, I am much consoled by my Rega DAC!

 

From my perspective, YES!

The biggest advancement? Tweeters. RAAL ribbons are getting to be incredible, the beryllium domes and diaphragms are amazing, not to mention TAD's beryllium coax reference drivers. Also some amazing plasma tweeters out there too.

I've been going to RMAF for many years now and the overall sound quality has improved quite a bit over the years, part of that is vendors are learning how to set up their demo systems better, but its also from better drivers.

Woofers have gotten better too but not quite as much... for instance I just ordered these AES drivers to test out, the specs are pretty awesome, and that's due to technological advancement.

http://www.aespeakers.com/drivers.php?driver_id=74

Digital may have stalled out a bit, but quality is coming to the masses, for example the Sony HAP-Z1ES has incredible sound quality for $2k.

Cables and wire now benefit from UPOCC technology, this makes a BIG difference.

Amps? No. Tubes still are king, but we do have better passive parts so that is a small step forward.

 

Stereo systems are getting better all the time. Unfortunately, the software we play on them seems to be getting worse....... Win one, lose one

 

In truth I cannot remember what my earlier gear from forty years ago sounded like. Indeed I listened in a different way and of course what I had was cheaper.

I can only assume improvements, like there have been improvements in all technologies.