The Golden Age of Audio...is Now

Excellent points.

 

Yes, it is a great time to be an audio enthusiast, and you can put something together that sounds very nice without going broke. New turntables are still coming out at pretty much all price points, and vinyl is kind of a thing again, which is fun. DACs are a blast - make your entire digital collection sounds "new" again. Speaker technology is quite advanced now. Tube amps are still being made. And vintage stuff is out there. Kits are out there that copy the vintage stuff. Run-of-the-mill portable stuff sounds surprisingly good and it blows my mind that my phone, almost as an afterthought, can play 24/96 files and sounds insanely better than my little ol' Sony Walkman from really not all that long ago. Huzzah!

And every day that goes by means more music to check out.

So count me as one who agrees about this being a golden age of sorts.

Unfortunately this golden age of audio reproduction coinciding with a dark age of audio production, however.

 

And it is about time as well

Will be interesting to see if it last's

 

It was 1958-1963, before solid state and transistors gained prominence.

 

I've been lurking for a while, and this is my first post here.

It was computer audio that got me back into music. With just my sound card, Foobar, and headphones, I'm having a blast. I'll eventually upgrade my hardware, but am concentrating first on learning about source quality, building my library, and catching up on lots of great albums that I haven't heard. I'm sticking with CDs for now, which are an incredible bargain.

 

Have you tried hirez files? Pretty easy to get started and terrific sound quality.

 

And the opposite of an incredible bargain, unfortunately

 

Uh... pretty good point you got there. Kinda shifts the discussion away from the same tired 'ole discussion we have here a lot and back to what we as audiophiles should probably care more about.

 

Thanks, Lee S!

Yes, the Golden Age of Audio is now. And tomorrow will be even more Golden.

My prediction is that true high-end sound for costumers tomorrow will cost "nothing". Only speakers will cost money.
Everything will be technology driven. Those companys that will not change, will end up like Kodak and Nokia. There will be no market for megabucks amps from Mark Levinson and Krell.
I read that latest version of Hypex Ncore modules sounds fantastic. In side-by-side comparison with todays best A-class amps from Luxman, the Ncore had even more beauty and harmonic textures in sound, than Luxman. And of course, D-amps sounds more open and distortion free than anything else.
Watch out for NAD M22 (Master series) with Hypex Ncore, 2x250W that was released a few days ago. Only $2.990.

So the future is high-rez files into a D-amp.
The latest digital can sound even better than the best 33 rpm Lp's released, as some of the SHM-SACDs proves, Imo. And the next version will be DSD 5,6 Mhz, or higher sampling rate for consumer market. Or PCM.

I am unsure how big HQ multichannel sound will be in the near future.

NAD with Ncore technology:

 

I hope the new Hypex sounds good but my experience with Hypex in the Channel Islands amps has not been good.

 

I have not heard Hypex myself, but I have read much positive things about it lately.

But the last D-amp from NAD, the M2 was really good (not Ncore) So if this new M22 is clearly better, then is must be something.

It will only be a question of time before D-amps outperforms conventional amps on every sonic parameter.

 

Don't forget Class G...!

http://www.arcam.co.uk/products,FMJ,Integrated-Amplifiers,a49.htm

 

Yup, they are getting closer... I am currently testing a Crown XLS 1500 DriveCore amp, got it for $262 on ebay and it's pretty amazing... sounds a lot like NCore.

The Crown also has a built 24 dB crossover, for bass/subwoofer duty this amp is going to be hard to beat at any price. The midrange isn't as good as my pricey SET amp but it's actually better for rock and electronic music.

 

There will always be a market for extremely expensive items simply because they are extremely expensive.

 

That, and the debate about the benefit of hirez over redbook, are why I'm sticking with CDs for now.

 

While it's true some "hi-res" music may not sound better than CD, it's almost always because the files are either upsampled 16/44.1 or else so over-mastered and compressed that they don't have very good sound in any format. Almost everyone who has spent the time to get good quality digital playback notices the improvement in sound quality with 24/88.2 or better PCM (and SACD).

 

Yep.

 

1000% right!!!

 

I spent all weekend with three amazing sources of digital playback. The golden age is now!

 

When 99% of releases have crap, squashed sound (at recording and mastering stages) then your point is, unfortunately, moot!

Tomorrow will be Hammer Horror of louder, more "no noised" and more squashed music. Aaaaaaah!

 

Okay, that sounds reasonable. I have some questions, so I'll start a new thread. I'll post a link shortly.

 

Can't edit my post above to add the think. Here's the new thread: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/moving-from-cds-to-hi-res-downloads.389492/

 

I disagree strongly that the Golden Age of Audio is now. Any generation without a "Tice Clock" to turn the electrons in the right direction cannot be a "Golden Age".

 

Uh, the Tice Clock was nearly two decades ago. I'm not arguing the Golden Age of Audio was then. I am saying it is now...as in 2014.