Why Does My Current Music Sound So Much Better than It Did in the 80’s?

In the 80’s I listened to classical, including piano and Spanish guitar, and vocals like Joan Baez.  So there were instruments.  Later I added a CD player, listening to the same type of music.

it seems that the quality of what I hear now on radio.garden isn’t always the same high quality though, but when it’s good it’s really good.

I don’t know what it is, but the effect is a whole different level of experiencing music.  Fun!  Since not everything I listen to has the same clarity, I wondered if the quality of the source varies on radio.garden.  Or, maybe my room and speaker placement is ideal for certain sounds.  From what I know, my room is not great for music.  It’s large - 20ft x 40ft, 8ft ceiling - concrete floor, no carpet, Sheetrock ceiling, 6 double patio doors, and the rest is 50% glass.  No curtains, the only upholstery is a couch, and I’ve added about a half dozen 3ft x 4ft utility door mats to soften things.  My listening triangle is in a corner with about 9ft sides.  The subs are turned down to a level where I don’t hear the bass as a separate source.  I’m hearing deficient in high frequencies. Amazing what I get from an iPad.

Ha, fuzztone!

actually my speakers in the 80’s were JBL L222’s, with 14in woofers and even bigger passive radiators.  My current subs do sound great, but also the highs and mids sound very realistic.  Fairly often I’m even startled a bit by how real they sound.

I don’t remember in the 80’s or 90’s hearing an instrument note - such as from a piano, drum or other percussion instrument - sound so real that I have to look around to be sure it was from the recording.  Now that happens more than occasionally, but not most of the time.  Maybe 20-30 years ago the sounds were muddied a bit.  Of course vinyl recordings had turntable rumble.  You could take it off with a rumble  filter, but then maybe some bass was lost too.  From the comments so far it sounds like the major reason is digital recording/playback.

Ha, twoleftears!

of course it would take an exceptional circumstance to remember what a stereo sounded like 40 years ago, likely requiring the exact same music.  My system at that time did sound good.  But what I’m sure I did not hear the was notes that sounded real and present, like they were live just a few feet from me.  I never experienced that until I started listening to my present system. I started with an AirPort Express, then Apple did a software upgrade and my music started cutting out.  I found out that Apple had made an Airport Express with a higher kbps, so I bought one for $20.  That did the trick, no more cutoffs and the music sounded even better.  There’s an analysis of them by Ken Rockwell who concludes that they have “fantastic audio quality.”