"The hobby of high-fidelity is fascinating. You have to understand, this is a singularly individual hobby, like no other. Audiophiles who came ‘of audio age’ in the Golden Eraof the 1960’s-1980’s had a relationship with the equipment and aura of audio that simply doesn’t exist today. Certainly not to the same degree, anyway. Today’s equipment—whether it’s a multi-channel theater setup or a 2-channel music purist system—is so uniformly excellent that a lot of the mystique and “skill” of picking out one’s personal system is just not there anymore. That skill is not needed. Speakers, amplifiers, music-delivery devices, they’re all so good these days. The era of blind-luck, hit-or-miss design has long since passed."
And more at:
https://www.audioholics.com/editorials/romance-high-fidelity
I came into this hobby whilst at school, and from the technical side, i.e. I was always into measurements, and how they could be made better. What something sounded like didn't really (and still doesn't) matter, how it performed technically did.
Consequently, at the time (mid-late 1960s) HiFi generally was still very flawed, and so there were many technical discussions in magazines like Wireless World as to the best techniques, and that got me experimenting, trying things out, building and modifying in an attempt to improve things.
Loudspeakers were also a constant challenge, from an old car-radio loudspeaker in a cardboard box (yes really!) through large bass-reflex to sealed box, amplifiers from valves to first germanium transistors and very quickly back to valves, then silicon transistors. The thrill of FM stereo, and building my first stereo tuner, all milestone moments.
By the mid 1980s, it was all pretty much over, especially after CD, as 'pure, perfect sound, forever' became the norm, and everything after that was 'meh'. Apart from louder, cheaper and certainly more reliable, I can't see any progress in HiFi performance in the past 35 years.
I can't see anyone now under 50 or possibly even under 60 having any concept of a time when HiFi was difficult to achieve, involved a lot of knowledge and research, and quite possibly a lot of DIY or if not, then expense. Anyone of that sort of age will be used to buying a box and it just works. Streaming has, I think, finally killed off the concept of sitting and listening to music as an activity, and giving any value to music, it's free isn't it? Just ask Alexa to play it? What do you mean, go out and
buy a CD? In a shop? (what's a shop?)
But then HiFi isn't alone. When was the last time anyone reset the tappets in their car? When was the last time anyone adjusted the jets in their carbs, or the ignition timing? Now, we just buy a car (a computer on wheels) and drive it. Only vintage car geeks tune their engines, just as only HiFi geeks adjust their turntables. As to mechanical watch geeks...
The world has moved on.
S.