Which component has advanced the most in the last 40 years?

Blue Shadow

Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Now that we have a place to talk about better gear, let's wear it out and make it an active place to be.

I have old gear. Decent, some very highly regarded, some not so much. But when I talk to the High End Store, we sometimes discuss the improvements in gear over the years. One time, while I was using my single DQ-10 set up, the comment was made that this speaker, well ahead of its time, was more than capable to displaying the difference in amplification that was available today and that amps had progressed farther than speakers in the last couple score. (Score means 20 years here folks, I didn't buy anything for pennies on the dollar).

I was thinking that the materials of construction, attention to crossover details and such would have made speakers the component that has had the most improvement over time.

One reason I say this is because back in the day the speakers were only designed for a single normal listening area. Today we have numerous brands that have flagship speakers that are too large for any but exceptionally large rooms. Magico Q7 and Focal Utopia III speakers will not fit in my house without gutting the entire first floor and reinforcing the floor from below. There were no speakers like that (for home audio) back then.

So what do you think has had the most improvement over the years? Cartridges, Speakers, Amps, Preamps, Turntables, Tonearms....
 
Just speaker design alone has jumped by leaps and bounds. Where Edgar Vilchur had a chalk board anybody today can get software for mapping out enclosure sizes or designing crossovers.


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Over the past 40 years, it has got to be CD players!

Seriously, even going back over the 30 some years of CD players & DACs, I believe the improvement there has been huge. Have a hard time listening to most 1980s models.

Other than that, I would go with speakers. To my ears the best drivers of today are way ahead of what was available in 1970s. Even though some of those older speakers can be pleasurable to listen to. When I have opportunities to listen to today's higher end speakers, I find them amazing.
 
I suppose it could be considered either a component or sub component, but when considering what is possible now with digital filtering I'd say the filtering networks have seen a quantum leap in technological progression likely unmatched by any other piece of electronic componentry in the signal chain.
 
That sounds right to me.

I remember the first few times I heard CD - horrid, ice-pick in the forehead things that had me clinging to my turntable for dear life - a practice that lasted a LONG time.

Now that I'm experiencing what is possible at the bleeding edge of this stuff though - like converting some of those same CDs that killed me in the past to high rate DSD - I'm finding that turntable goes for long stretches unused.
 
That sounds right to me too. IMHO, Digital shows the biggest improvement, followed by speakers. Amps and preamps have improved too, but small increments comparatively. I dunno about TT and cartridges.

In speakers, beyond huge steps forward in materials, there's been a shift from designing by ear alone, to design by computer. Back in the day, a designer with good ears could do great things, but many others were hopeless. Today, a designer with good ears gets to start off with good data, and the results are less prone to chance... assuming you're trying hard; there's still junk out there.
 
Pretty sure I've degraded more in 40 years than any hi-fi component has advanced! 1975, I was 20 and we had more hi-fi shops around here than anybody could imagine. We also had at least one very high end dealer. Every year Kodak would give out a huge bonus and more than a few stores (and car dealers) had feeding orgies around then. Alas, I didn't work there.

There were very good amps, preamps, receivers and speakers. Sure, we can better most any electronics today in technical terms, but to what end? The best sounding electronics then were certainly comparable to the best sounding electronics today. Speaker design knowledge has come a long ways, but an awful lot of the most sought after speakers today seem to come from that era, be they JBL, KEF, Dahlquist or lowly Advents, EPI and Dynaco.

CD players weren't around in 1975. IMO, when they did show up, the larger problem was with the CDs themselves. Nobody seemed to know how to master them well. Today the CD is considered obsolete, so we can say the format was born and died between the two dates in question.

This is hard, but I'm going to say the most advancement might be turntables. There were some great ones way back, but if you look at the hundreds on the market right now, there's attention to mass, resonance, damping, speed control and aesthetics beyond anybody's wildest dreams in 1975.
 
All things digital have advaned the most over the past 40 years. Even analog components like speakers and amps have advanced more because of digital.
 
The ability to stream millions of songs on demand at higher bit rates is a huge leap forward in getting those of us who are analog nuts with large record collections to use digital - sometimes.

That and a step back, to SET and SEP amps driving HE FR speakers, has also provided a leap forward in the enjoyment of music - at least for some of us. ;)
 
That and a step back, to SET and SEP amps driving HE FR speakers, has also provided a leap forward in the enjoyment of music - at least for some of us. ;)

Oh yes - the 'step back' to SET & HE speakers (not full-range for me) was what advanced audio the most in my room over the last 20yrs and that side of things hasn't changed much at all over the last 40yrs. I'll take these old tubes, tube circuits and 70's pro-audio studio monitor drivers over almost all the more advanced new stuff I've heard - it just gets me closer.

It's a fun exercise to mix the old with the new when the end-game is the same and keeping the blinders off can sure be rewarding.
 
Negotiableterms hit the nail on the head, I'd opine, vis-a-vis loudspeaker design today.

... Today, a designer with good ears gets to start off with good data, and the results are less prone to chance...

I'd agree absolutely -- less talent, time, and resources are required today to design and manufacture something decent sounding today. By the same token, someone with reasonable talent and resources can make fine sounding stuff -- not necessarily cost effective, but very fine indeed. The best path for the consumer, I'd say, depends on taste, space, philosophy and budget.

The philosophy today is very different than the pioneering days of "talkies" and the phenomenal work done by RCA, Western Electric, and their kith and kin... but the best things made today (at least that I've heard) don't better the best of the 1930s and 1940s (again, in terms of stuff that I've heard -- and I've had the good fortune of hearing some of the better efforts of the early days of "hifi").
 
Very true.....HE speakers in general, not just FR.

One of my favorite combinations is JBL 4425s driven by the Quicksilver 300B amps.
 
b...ut the best things made today (at least that I've heard) don't better the best of the 1930s and 1940s

I don't have anthing quite that old, but I have some Dutch Philips transformerless amplifiers from the early 1950s, and their matching high impedance loudspeakers, and that combination produces spectacular performance.
 
IMHO, I think it would be computer technology that has moved into audio. A network audio player will eventually make a tuner obsolete. Over 20,000 channels at your disposal gives you more options than a regular tuner. Forty years ago, the only computers were the ones used by the federal government and the armed services.

Back in the 80s I bought my first computer, a Tandy computer with a 640K hard drive. I thought I was shitting in tall cotton because at that time a 640K hard drive was the biggest you could get. Now we are up to a terabyte or more for storage.

We have the ability to stream music from our computer, iPhone/iPhone, or even a memory stick. Blue tooth technology allows you to use any component that is not in the same room as the modem and router.

There is also Audessy, a tool that will calibrate your system to your room. There are a few companies who are still using Audessy, but I think Onkyo has dropped it. Not sure what they will be using, maybe they are coming out with their own.
 
All depends on cost. CDP's,I'd agree with up to a certain extent,but you still can't beat some of the very hi-end golden oldies even to this day. To a lesser extent,same applies to speakers.
Headphones have certainly improved though.
 
Over the past 40 years, it has got to be CD players!

Seriously, even going back over the 30 some years of CD players & DACs, I believe the improvement there has been huge. Have a hard time listening to most 1980s models.

Other than that, I would go with speakers. To my ears the best drivers of today are way ahead of what was available in 1970s. Even though some of those older speakers can be pleasurable to listen to. When I have opportunities to listen to today's higher end speakers, I find them amazing.

nice post

totally agree
 
CD players and DACs. Otherwise, pretty much status quo.

The old TDA1541 DAC chip used in some late 80s/90s CD players is a pretty impressive little beast, and at least one company (Audial) is still making eye-wateringly expensive outboard DACs using old-stock TDA1541A DACs.

My SA-rescue Magnavox CDB471 amazed me the first time I fired it up. Sometime I intend to hot-rod it a bit with an upgraded power supply and op-amps.
 
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Certainly digital has progressed by the largest margin.
Digital anything.
Recording, formats, amplification...

Solid state, I think, has gone nowhere and valve amplifiers have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity not because of any great strides forward but because they continue to present music in a pleasing manner.
That being said I'm using a $40 digital amp that has largely made at least 2 highly regarded valve amps on my shelves redundant and they just sit there looking impressive but collecting dust all the same.
The eye opener as far as speakers go has been my inept yet moderately successful dalliance into open baffle, and I can't help but wonder about how good a properly designed and competently implemented dipole speaker with modern drivers could sound.
One step back and two steps forward.

I think maybe the only reason I hang onto analogue is that is where the vast majority of my music collection resides.
And really the music is what it's all about.

But I digress.

This is making me re-evaluate the direction and current state of my system:
Digital progress.
Moving forward in leaps and bounds.

Art
 
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Class 'D' solid state audio has certainly matured and come into its own.

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