70's Ideology?

[restorer-john]

maybe a better thing to do would be to think about various claims or concepts that were part of the '70s zeitgeist* but are not viable claims today

maybe things like damping factor or slew rate


* see: no Latin!

Damping factor and slew rate are both perfectly valid measurements, be it today, or in the 1970s. Whether you attribute them with significance in relation to reproduction is another matter.

 

[Wes]

yes, that's why I used the word 'claims'

 

[EJ3]

Indeed. Calls for a little quid pro quo, in fact.
e.g.,
Veritas vos liberabit.*

Ad hominem attacks by some folks notwithstanding.



_______________
* My alma mater's motto, as it happens.

My answer to you is:

Touché!

I would like to present to you a small smattering of varieties of English (with influences from many languages, dead or not [& I do not guarantee it to be fully inclusive]) normally spoken within the United States {also not including the many varieties of English spoken elsewhere}:
United States[edit]
American English:

• Cultural and ethnic American English
  • African American English ("Ebonics")
    • African-American Vernacular English
  • Boontling
  • Cajun Vernacular English
  • Hawai‘i English
  • Latino (Hispanic) Vernacular Englishes
    • Chicano English (Mexican-American English)
    • Miami English
    • New York Latino English
  • Pennsylvania Dutch English
  • Yeshiva English
  • Angloromani
• American Everyday English
  • General American: the "standard" or "mainstream" spectrum of American English.
  • American English
• Regional and local American English
  • Appalachian English
  • New England English
    • Eastern New England
      • Boston and Maine: Greater Boston, including most of eastern Massachusetts
      • Rhode Island
  • Tangier
  • Southeast super-region
    • Mid-Atlantic (Delaware Valley)
      • Baltimore
      • Philadelphia
    • Midland
      • North Midland: Iowa City, Omaha, Lincoln, Columbia, Springfield, Muncie, Columbus, etc.
      • South Midland: Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Topeka, Wichita, Kansas City, St. Louis (in transition), Decatur, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton, etc.
    • "Hoi Toider"
    • New Orleans
    • Southern
      • Southern Appalachian: Linden, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville, and Greenville
      • Texas Southern: Lubbock, Odessa, and Dallas
      • Upper Dixie: Smyrna, Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Munster Ireland
  • New York City
  • Northern
    • Inland Northern: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Western New York, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and most of the U.S. Great Lakes region
    • Western New England: Connecticut, Hudson Valley, western Massachusetts, and Vermont
  • North Central (Upper Midwestern): Brockway, Minot, Bismarck, Bemidji, Chisholm, Duluth, Marquette, etc.
    • Upper Peninsula of Michigan ("Yooper")
  • Western
  • Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh)
• Extinct or near-extinct American English
  • Older Southern American English
  • Mid-Atlantic accent

 

[EJ3]

Damping factor and slew rate are both perfectly valid measurements, be it today, or in the 1970s. Whether you attribute them with significance in relation to reproduction is another matter.

Perhaps both Dampening Factor & Slew Rates have both become high enough that they are no longer a factor in the type of audio equipment those of us on this site seek. However, I, for one, would like to see that proven or dis-proven.

 

[EJ3]

What is amazing is how good those Lafayette speakers still sound today.

The local Lafayette franchise had some TV add here and one of my H.A.M. radio friends stated (in one of our general friendly gatherings of non-HAM friends (like myself) "I wouldn't let my dog listen to those speakers". That seemed to be a consensus as most owned some sort of stereo but none said that they owned any Lafayette speakers. Also, I never saw or heard any Lafayette equipment of any type anywhere (except for seeing an add on TV a few times). Being as that I am pretty open minded I would listen to some out of curiosity, if I ever ran across some. But I may be pre-disposed to dis-like it, even if it was tolerable or even better.

 

[Wes]

My answer to you is:

Touché!

I would like to present to you a small smattering of varieties of English (with influences from many languages, dead or not [& I do not guarantee it to be fully inclusive]) normally spoken within the United States {also not including the many varieties of English spoken elsewhere}:
United States[edit]
American English:

• Cultural and ethnic American English
  • African American English ("Ebonics")
    • African-American Vernacular English
  • Boontling
  • Cajun Vernacular English
  • Hawai‘i English
  • Latino (Hispanic) Vernacular Englishes
    • Chicano English (Mexican-American English)
    • Miami English
    • New York Latino English
  • Pennsylvania Dutch English
  • Yeshiva English
  • Angloromani
• American Everyday English
  • General American: the "standard" or "mainstream" spectrum of American English.
  • American English
• Regional and local American English
  • Appalachian English
  • New England English
    • Eastern New England
      • Boston and Maine: Greater Boston, including most of eastern Massachusetts
      • Rhode Island
  • Tangier
  • Southeast super-region
    • Mid-Atlantic (Delaware Valley)
      • Baltimore
      • Philadelphia
    • Midland
      • North Midland: Iowa City, Omaha, Lincoln, Columbia, Springfield, Muncie, Columbus, etc.
      • South Midland: Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Topeka, Wichita, Kansas City, St. Louis (in transition), Decatur, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton, etc.
    • "Hoi Toider"
    • New Orleans
    • Southern
      • Southern Appalachian: Linden, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville, and Greenville
      • Texas Southern: Lubbock, Odessa, and Dallas
      • Upper Dixie: Smyrna, Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Munster Ireland
  • New York City
  • Northern
    • Inland Northern: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Western New York, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and most of the U.S. Great Lakes region
    • Western New England: Connecticut, Hudson Valley, western Massachusetts, and Vermont
  • North Central (Upper Midwestern): Brockway, Minot, Bismarck, Bemidji, Chisholm, Duluth, Marquette, etc.
    • Upper Peninsula of Michigan ("Yooper")
  • Western
  • Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh)
• Extinct or near-extinct American English
  • Older Southern American English
  • Mid-Atlantic accent

and speakin' of Lafayette speakers, they mo' Prairie Cajun than Bayou Cajun, and neither is NoLa

 

[gene_stl]

You'se guys have such je ne sais quoi !

 

[mhardy6647]

You'se guys have such je ne sais quoi !

de nada

 

[Kal Rubinson]

C'est rien.

 

[BluesDaddy]

I've a theory not unlike yours, but a good deal simpler.

With the arrival of digital audio the owners of the (then) quite lucrative hi-fi press became (rightly) concerned that most of the differentiation between different brands would become null and void. When audio became little more than computing (in which there are correct answers and wrong answers), there would be little justification for publications discussing the merits of wrong answers.

So the cult of subjectivism was born to serve as a foil to the "perfection" that seemed to be available for a couple of hundred bucks.

Errr… that's it really

I've often thought this. When the front end no longer offered any true differentiation in SQ and "tweakability", they started finding other components that had their own "sound" rather than being transparent. Speakers were already covered to the Nth degree, but amplification and, the holy grail of profit margin, interconnects and speaker cables!

 

[Robin L]

You'se guys have such je ne sais quoi !

From 1:00:

 

[gene_stl]

From 1:00:

 

[Wes]

does your post mean that the gods hate MQA?

 

[rdenney]

"In matters of taste, there can be no dispute". That's what the Latin means. I was forced to take it for 4 years in a Roman Catholic high school, so I was able to get the meaning. Since few people know Latin (my knowledge is cursory at best) , it's best to just say it in English and get it over with.

That's one of the two phrases I know in Latin, but I'm not sure any English speaker with a modicum of etymology skills couldn't parse 'gustibus' = 'eating' and 'disputandum' = 'arguing' and figure it out.

But then even though I attended public school and have degrees in engineering I did read authors who were unafraid to use their language skills.

Rick "as to audio in the 70's, that's when I first learned to use an RTA and a parametric EQ, so I'm not sure what was wrong about the 70's" Denney

 

[rdenney]

Peter Aczel of Audio Critic fame, along with illustrator Rick Meyerowitz, produced the well known Rectilinear ads of that era. In one of his more humorous moments Aczel explained the West Coast (JBL) v East Coast (or New England--AR, KLH, Advent etc.) 'sound'. This was around 1973-4. If you read closely you'll find Aczel's quip about the possible future of electric cars, about who is going to buy them?

View attachment 137748

To answer the question in the last paragraph: Advent.

Rick "and they made their own drivers, too" Denney

 

[EJ3]

C'est rien.

C'est rien à ce qui nous attend quand ils auront forcé la porte

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Sans doute.

 

[mhardy6647]

 

[egellings]

"Gustibus" and "disputandum" are cognates, which means they sorta look like the English words they represent. A lot of Latin words don't look like English ones, and would leave people wondering. Just use our the native language to get ideas across and get it over with. That way, one can avoid coming across as needlessly pedantic.

 

[rdenney]

What is our native language? Saxon? Anglo-Saxon? Latin? Greek? French? Old Norse? How far back can we go?

English is such a mashup of different language traditions that it doesn’t seem to me that the occasional colorful Latin epithet should present excessive strain on intelligibility.

It could be argued that assuming one would actually need to know Latin to know the meaning of de gustibus non est disputandum is itself a somewhat pedantic position.

But if pedantry is a mortal sin, just about everyone in this forum is doomed.

Rick “doomed” Denney