Those simpler times.....

I would move to a log cabin in the mountains and live with no luxuries or modern conveniences...except my system and music has to come with me. And I'm not willing to downgrade either.....

"As Lindisfarne said, he got more pleasure out of his high school system than any since, but I'll bet if he had that same system now he wouldn't be so pleased."

We are over 40, our ears and hearing have undoubtedly changed as well plus we are more seasoned listeners.

However, if I had to, I think I am smarter about things now and I could set my old college system up again today if I could much more effectively than I knew how to do back then. Plus, I still have the speakers (refurbished and custom upgraded) and they are still in limited use.

I also still have some pop/rock cassette recordings that I recorded on that system from vinyl using a gorgeous vintage Philips 312 turntable (look it up, its a classic) that sound halfway decent on my current system. The only major issues I hear are of course tape hiss from the cassette a touch of brightness with dolby off that can be adjusted for, and perhaps less dynamic range than would be desired. I've recorded a few of these to CD and played them in the car for my kids....it sounds as good or better than many commercial CD issues there (who cares about a little tape hiss in a moving vehicle?).

Probably would need a power conditioner and decent interconnects still though to be satisfied (I used standard issue RCA interconnects back then, a sign of my ignorance in youth).

"As phenomenal as all our gear sounds now, let's not forget "those simpler times," when only the music mattered. Let's all remember why we enjoy our hobby as much as we do.............it's the music !!!"

Amen.

Dan_Ed said:

"I am constantly re-discovering LPs I've known for years. Most sound even better now than I remember at that is due to the quality of my system components."

Agree!

Reminiscing about simpler times is of course not a phenomena limited to audio systems. I think more and more people are starting to become overwhelmed by technology and how it often intrudes or is forcefully injected into their lives in unwanted ways.

Still, everyone has some technology out there that serves them so well that they could never give it up. That need is what fuels the continuous evolution of technology and the services (or disservices) that it delivers.

The technology that goes into our sound systems is surely the one technology that true music lovers could not live without. In some cases, the technology itself can easily become an obsession as well.

So what's wrong with that? It's an honest hobby. Between music and the technology that goes into capturing and reproducing it, there is much to learn and think about. And it is a constructive, positive thing in most cases I would think.

There are surely many things we could spend our time otherwise that is far worse.

Plus, we may all be obsessive nut cases at heart, but that's besides the point. Nobody forces us to spend our time with the hobbies we chose.

Once in college I provided the music for an outdoor Halloween party out in the boonies on a farm in Western Kentucky. I set my system (cassette tapes and vinyl only in those days) up on the front porch of the farmhouse facing the main activities occurring in a field about 80 yards off and cranked it up.

Hey now, was that MY system I was hearing? The sound projecting out from that porch into the crisp dark night was INCREDIBLE!! My system had never sounded better. Of course I had never set it up outdoors before. What a revelation! Neil Young, UB40, Bob Marley, The Pretenders, Talking Heads...sounded like they were all performing LIVE on that porch that night!

The core of that system was a Tandberg TR-2080 receiver and a pair of original 80's vintage Ohm Walsh 2s.