Question for the boomers: what was it like to live through major improvements in audio fidelity?

[beeface]

As a millennial, I feel like there hasn't really been any massive improvements in fidelity in my lifetime.

CDs had already been invented when I was born, so unless you're an audiophile, redbook has been as good as it gets for as long as I've been alive.
In fact, at some point, mainstream audio quality got worse, when CDs gave way to 128kbps mp3s etc. Thankfully, we recovered when Internet speeds got faster and storage got cheaper.

Before anyone jumps on me for my first sentence: I don't want to diminish how great it is that you can buy excellent IEMs from Amazon for $25. I do appreciate that audio equipment has gotten better and generally cheaper in my lifetime, but:

I'm fascinated to know what it like to go from 78s to 45s and 33 1/3s, mono to stereo, tubes to solid state, analogue to digital.
The improvements to fidelity in my 36 years have seemed comparatively iterative.

Were there any moments that stood out to you? Anything that blew you away the first time you heard it?

 

[JSmith]

Were there any moments that stood out to you?

Yes, the move from cassette tape to CD... was a game changer.

Also, the shift from basic sound chips like the C64’s SID or early PC beeps to the power of the Amiga’s Paula chip and later soundcards on PCs was revolutionary for home music creation. The proliferation of "tracker" software in the late 80's and early-to-mid 90's let hobbyists and musicians compose music using sampled sounds.


JSmith

 

[DavidMcRoy]

Glacial...until the CD.

The electronics and a few of the speakers were adequate for decades. In the studio, microphones, electronics and analog tape were often adequate. The weakest link was the use of vinyl records as the distribution medium. FM radio and FM Stereo were such a big deal to me that I entered a career in broadcasting.

One of my own contributions in my own local radio market was to introduce the practice of transferring vinyl to tape using a very high quality phonograph playback equipment chain during transfer. I was able to use a turntable, tone arm and phono cartridge with superior performance to rugged "broadcast" equipment that sacrificed audio quality so it could stand up to 24/7 use and abuse. Once captured on analog tape, the sound was consistent, with no record wear and damage issues, and the signal was captured in a state that was pretty much as good as it could be. Live local DJs played broadcast tape cartridges containing the music, not just the commercials. Then digital audio, the CD and PC music storage debuted, making my technique, one that radio programming services had already done nationally for many years to service local automated stations using analog tape drives for music storage, obsolete.

 

[babadono]

it was EPIC

 

[beeface]

Yes, the move from cassette tape to CD... was a game changer.

Also, the shift from basic sound chips like the C64’s SID or early PC beeps to the power of the Amiga’s Paula chip and later soundcards on PCs was revolutionary for home music creation. The proliferation of "tracker" software in the late 80's and early-to-mid 90's let hobbyists and musicians compose music using sampled sounds.


JSmith

That's a great point! As a kid, the advancements I saw in computing and computer-adjacent stuff like video games consoles in the 1990s was amazing. Today is much more iterative.

Our first home computer was an Apple IIe, then an Intel 386, then Pentium 2 MMX - later upgraded with a Voodoo2 graphics card.
In terms of audio, we went from bleeps and bloops to a Sound Blaster with Creative speakers.

In terms of consoles, we jumped from a Sega Master System 2 to a Nintendo 64.

Mind blowing as a kid to live through this in real time.

 

[Leporello]

As a millennial, I feel like there hasn't really been any massive improvements in fidelity in my lifetime.

CDs had already been invented when I was born, so unless you're an audiophile, redbook has been as good as it gets for as long as I've been alive.
In fact, at some point, mainstream audio quality got worse, when CDs gave way to 128kbps mp3s etc. Thankfully, we recovered when Internet speeds got faster and storage got cheaper.

Before anyone jumps on me for my first sentence: I don't want to diminish how great it is that you can buy excellent IEMs from Amazon for $25. I do appreciate that audio equipment has gotten better and generally cheaper in my lifetime, but:

I'm fascinated to know what it like to go from 78s to 45s and 33 1/3s, mono to stereo, tubes to solid state, analogue to digital.
The improvements to fidelity in my 36 years have seemed comparatively iterative.

Were there any moments that stood out to you? Anything that blew you away the first time you heard it?

Not sure about my boomer status, born in -62. The advent of cd felt exciting from sound quality point of view but that’s about it.

 

[babadono]

but seriously hearing horn loaded loudspeakers with DSP crossover time aligned drivers was/is amazing.
Could not wait to get rid of the snap crackle pop going from vinyl to the CD but then the Loudness Wars destroyed the promise of the CD.

 

[Audionaut]

Yes, the move from cassette tape to CD... was a game changer.

Yes, that was the biggest leap for me too:
The switch from vinyl to CD as my primary music source.
Everything else was less groundbreaking and CDs recorded on tape were still excellent.

 

[Soniclife]

As a millennial, I feel like there hasn't really been any massive improvements in fidelity in my lifetime.

CDs had already been invented when I was born, so unless you're an audiophile, redbook has been as good as it gets for as long as I've been alive.
In fact, at some point, mainstream audio quality got worse, when CDs gave way to 128kbps mp3s etc. Thankfully, we recovered when Internet speeds got faster and storage got cheaper.

Before anyone jumps on me for my first sentence: I don't want to diminish how great it is that you can buy excellent IEMs from Amazon for $25. I do appreciate that audio equipment has gotten better and generally cheaper in my lifetime, but:

I'm fascinated to know what it like to go from 78s to 45s and 33 1/3s, mono to stereo, tubes to solid state, analogue to digital.
The improvements to fidelity in my 36 years have seemed comparatively iterative.

Were there any moments that stood out to you? Anything that blew you away the first time you heard it?

I'm Gen X, and was underwhelmed by CD, it's better, but not a game changer, good vinyl playback is good enough to get most of the music across. Adoption of DSP is the big one for me, I missed hifi with good tone controls when that was a thing, they had all vanished when I got my first good system.

You might like this book, it's an enjoyable read about the history of recording music.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

When CD came out, with the exception of the rather low sample rate of 44.1kHz, it was revolutionary in its specifications for domestic listening.

BUT it didn't sound wildly better in high-end systems (with the exception of clicks and pops on bad vinyl). This was because good LP playback was pretty good, especially in the areas where the ear is sensitive. Also, most high-end systems were "tuned" around the limitations of vinyl.

Also very little popular music can exploit CD's vastly superior SNR.

This meant that on high-end systems, CD sounded not much better. For highly-tuned LP systems it often sounded worse to the owners, being described as shrill or lacking atmosphere.

 

[Purité Audio]

CD immediately sounded much better to me and miles more convenient.
Keith

 

[Sokel]

Gen X here.
Nothing groundbreaking apart from the turn to better room acoustics, treatment, etc.
Ease about mediums too with stored music but at the expense of some great album art, info, etc readily available at LP's .

 

[ZolaIII]

Biggest improvement is active DSP use! Not that there weren't good made and behaving semi costume (PEQ alike) EQ's even in lamps time. For me lo fi casete time whose most fun (basement recordings and such). Digital audio got commercially superb with first higher grade Creative Audigy almost at the beginning of millennium (24 bit 103 dB SINAD on Platinum Pro). However DSP use whose hard path from useful user side along with FP rounding back to integer overflows that took time addressing. LP's had and still have warm feeling regarding my when it comes to cover art and promo.

 

[VMAT4]

The invention of the CD was the biggest single HiFi "event", definitely. But the steady improvements in speakers are not to be discounted either.
Also, the cost of equipment is cheaper than ever. My first system cost about $1000 in 1978 or 1979. Let's say 1979. That's $3376 today. Today, I could build an analogous and much better system to my first by buying a WiiM Ultra streamer, a pair of Focal Alpha Evo 80 monitors, and a pair of AKG k371 headphones and still have money left over if $3376 was the budget!

 

[wwenze]

As a millennial, I feel like there hasn't really been any massive improvements in fidelity in my lifetime.

CDs had already been invented when I was born, so unless you're an audiophile, redbook has been as good as it gets for as long as I've been alive.
In fact, at some point, mainstream audio quality got worse, when CDs gave way to 128kbps mp3s etc. Thankfully, we recovered when Internet speeds got faster and storage got cheaper.

Before anyone jumps on me for my first sentence: I don't want to diminish how great it is that you can buy excellent IEMs from Amazon for $25. I do appreciate that audio equipment has gotten better and generally cheaper in my lifetime, but:

I'm fascinated to know what it like to go from 78s to 45s and 33 1/3s, mono to stereo, tubes to solid state, analogue to digital.
The improvements to fidelity in my 36 years have seemed comparatively iterative.

Were there any moments that stood out to you? Anything that blew you away the first time you heard it?

I am a millennial (Defined as: Graduated with engineering degree from government university, can't afford a house), and I lived with 64kbps WMA.

And boy my increase in fidelity has been huge. Mainly because I am from Southeast Asia, didn't own a Sega Mega Drive until 1995, the year PS1 came out. Technology is slower when you're poor.

Didn't have any semblance of proper speakers until I was 18yo, and it was some cheap 3-inch JBL possibly knockoffs connected to the satellite-out of a Sony subwoofer.

Audio technology has been good since a long time ago, those NAD 3020 and Pioneer and Yamaha and stuff measure well even under today's context. Redbook is essentially perfect as you said, so perfect it hasn't changed. But you need to have the money to afford all these audio stuff.

Today, a $50 Samsung Galaxy Buds FE gives you Harman preference curve and ANC.

Here in Asia instead of DVD we have VCD (Video CD), which is MPEG1 video stored on 700MB CD. Cheaper, easier to pirate. I was surprised when I learnt the rest of the developed world skipped over this entirely.

 

[jayapple]

Previously, singers were ranked based on record sales. Back then, it was records or CDs, and one had to queue up to purchase them.

Later on, it was MP3 players and similar gadgets. But records still had a market at that time.
Then, Apple completely killed the traditional music industry. Streaming music and video became the absolute mainstream. This was indeed a case of technology changing life. But there was not much innovation after that!

 

[Fledermaus]

CD was a bit underwhelming indeed IME, since I had a good enough LP rig at the time and was trained to listen through its shortcomings - and the loss of nice covers for sh*tty plastic boxes, not a progress in terms of user experience. Got used to it anyway, and at some point it was vinyl noise and inconvenience that became annoying.
The greatest progress, still IME, took place in the present century with the generalized awareness of room acoustics and the availability of measurements and DSP for all.

 

[Mart68]

I'm late Boomer or early Gen X (born 1968), by the time I was getting into hi-fidelity the watershed moment (domestic digital replay) had already passed and I couldn't afford to buy into it then anyway, only being a teenager with a Saturday job (all money spent on 1 album a week, and beer).

Hi-Fi had already started to move into subjectivism - cult of the designer, 'measures bad but sounds good', little two way speakers with no bass and lacking a proper crossover, cables make a difference and all that malarky. A mire I didn't extract myself from for a long time.

So it wasn't that great, really. Since then we've had DSP, a better understanding of psycho-acoustics and how that relates to loudspeaker design, and the rise of the subwoofer which have all moved things on somewhat. But for those who are younger, you didn't really miss any golden age. Things are a lot better now, overall, I think.

 

[Esprit]

But there was not much innovation after that!

It will probably be AI applied to our everyday audio devices (acoustics, DSP, settings, search and information...).

 

[Esprit]

Here in Asia instead of DVD we have VCD (Video CD), which is MPEG1 video stored on 700MB CD. Cheaper, easier to pirate. I was surprised when I learnt the rest of the developed world skipped over this entirely.

Here in Europe it was used to make "compressed" copies of DVDs.