The Biggest Successes in A/V Consumer Electronics in the Last 50 Years

gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Last month, we took a humorous trip down memory lane and recounted some of the most glorious failures in audio-video history. Now, we’re going to shift gears a bit and focus on what went right. In this article we’re going to look at the specific technologies and product categories that have paved the way for the role A/V electronics play in our lives today. See what made our list of the most successful A/V consumer electronics for the last 50 years.

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Read: The Biggest Successes in A/V Consumer Electronics in the Last 50 Years
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
I think the greatest AV success include:
1. BluRay
2. 1080p Thin Panel TVs and Projectors
3. DTS & DD
4. AVR
5. HTPC and Streaming
 
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Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
I think the greatest AV success include:
1. BluRay
2. 1080p Thin Panel TVs and Projectors
3. DTS & DD
4. AVR
5. HTPC
Blu Ray, really! Its DVD by a long shot. Blu Ray never obtained the consumer success of DVD.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Blu Ray, really! Its DVD by a long shot. Blu Ray never obtained the consumer success of DVD.
Agreed. I was never really blown away by DVD. It was a very nice format, but I had already been spoiled by laserdisc by the time DVD blew up, so it didn't have a huge amount of personal interest for me. However, I was impressed enough by the blu-ray format to build a home theater system around it. But I have to admit, it has not had the market saturation that DVD has had, not even close. Blu-ray is already falling in sales percentages, and yet you can still buy regular DVDs at most stores.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
DVD does seem to still loom over Bluray, but then look how long DTV took to be a standard :). Lots of dvds and players out there still, surely more than bluray. Streaming is cutting into the lifetime of bluray despite being not quite as good, but still better than dvd...and I'm very limited on streaming bandwidth....with higher consistent bandwidth it would probably be closer to bluray but I still like owning my own disc.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
Blu Ray, really! Its DVD by a long shot. Blu Ray never obtained the consumer success of DVD.
I see your point.

DVD has been more successful than BD by a long shot in terms of sales.

But I was thinking about success in terms of advancement in technology (video quality, sound quality).

BD achieved 1080p, DTS-HD MA, Dolby TruHD.

Nothing has advanced beyond this IMO.

4K has more resolution, but most of us will never notice the difference due to screen size and distance.

ATMOS Surround is gimmick to me, just like 3D video.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
They show a Walkman with headphones and don't even mention stereo headphones as being an innovation? John Koss and Martin Lange made the first ones in the US late '58, around the time Stereo was introduced and at one of the first audio shows after this, John told one manufacturer that another was going to install a headphone jack in their receivers, so the one he told did it, just to steal the thunder from the competitor (I think it was Saul Marantz and Avery Fischer and the roles may have been reversed- it has been a long time since I originally heard this).

It would have happened at some point in the future, but Koss did go to market first and for that, I think we owe him and Marty Lange for the design.
 
S

sterling shoote

Audioholic Field Marshall
Such a well written article, that it made me think, "what's next", and "are we there yet". Looking now at my Home Theatre right in front of me and listening to stereo music from it sourced via iTunes on laptop through Airplay wireless connection, I realize the technologies I am benefiting most from today are CD, and Computer Audio: Music Player, AAC Downloading, CD ripping, and Wireless transmission to Home Theatre system. What is missing from this experience is access to multi-channel music, delivery means to enjoy multi-channel music, and multi-channel music offerings. Seems multi-channel SACD is right now the defacto ways and means to multi-channel music; but, it was largely pronounced dead in the earlier Audioholics article on audio/video failures. At any rate, that's how I am feeling it.
 
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V

vqworks

Enthusiast
Steve, the article was a good summary of great audio and video milestones but there are a few points concerning the cassette, open reel, and VCR formats that could have used some clarification.

There's no question that Dolby B and chromium dioxide cassettes established the cassette format as a viable high fidelity format. But it would have been more appropriate to credit the Advent 200 instead of the Advent 201. The former was actually introduced in 1970 and had both Dolby B and provisions for chromium dioxide. As a side note, the Advent 200 had a Nakamichi-built transport with electronics designed by Henry Kloss. He felt that Nakamichi provided a transport that didn't meet his agreed-upon expectations so he replaced the 200 the following year with the 201, which had a Wollensak transport.

I would have better understood why there was no mention of Dolby C, Dolby S, or dbx (to say nothing of other challengers to Dolby B such as High Com II, ADRES, or Super-D) if you hadn't mentioned the open-reel format's superiority in high frequency reproduction. Generally, this is true. But by the time Teac introduced dbx to consumers in 1978, it was clear that later noise reduction circuits ushered in a new era because the cassette format's tape saturation issue was also being addressed. In fact, all the aforementioned noise reducers (accept for Dolby B, of course) do an exceptionally good job of allowing cassettes to resist high-frequency saturation. Since the early 80s, it has high-end cassette machines could routinely maintain flat response out to the highest audio frequencies at high levels. So high frequency saturation was no longer a real issue and neither was hiss. Dolby C and dbx were incorporated into quite a few machines and the last dbx units made by Marantz sold until the late 90s. At the same time, most people were only aware that the later noise reducers were more powerful than Dolby B. dbx and Sanyo's Super-D are the only two that allowed the cassette format to reproduce an honest 90+ dB of dynamic range.

Regarding open-reel masters, 15 ips was common during the 60s but 30 ips quickly became the standard by the 70s. The former already largely renders saturation a non-issue but the latter allows even quieter recordings.

It would be great if readers could be reminded that until 1983, VCR owners endured poor sound quality. It took Sony 7 years after Betamax's introduction to introduce the Beta Hi-Fi feature to provide hi-fi stereo soundtracks. JVC responded a year later with VHS Hi-Fi and the timing was especially smart on JVC's part because the 1984 Summer Olympics was being broadcasted in stereo. This brought a heightened awareness to general consumers.

Leonard
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I remember reading about 'bubble memory' in High Technology Magazine, back in the '80s- they were jumping with joy because it was capable of storing somewhere around 64 Bytes of memory. Now, we have hard drives using static memory holding more than a terrabyte.
 
S

sterling shoote

Audioholic Field Marshall
Steve, the article was a good summary of great audio and video milestones but there are a few points concerning the cassette, open reel, and VCR formats that could have used some clarification.

There's no question that Dolby B and chromium dioxide cassettes established the cassette format as a viable high fidelity format. But it would have been more appropriate to credit the Advent 200 instead of the Advent 201. The former was actually introduced in 1970 and had both Dolby B and provisions for chromium dioxide. As a side note, the Advent 200 had a Nakamichi-built transport with electronics designed by Henry Kloss. He felt that Nakamichi provided a transport that didn't meet his agreed-upon expectations so he replaced the 200 the following year with the 201, which had a Wollensak transport.

I would have better understood why there was no mention of Dolby C, Dolby S, or dbx (to say nothing of other challengers to Dolby B such as High Com II, ADRES, or Super-D) if you hadn't mentioned the open-reel format's superiority in high frequency reproduction. Generally, this is true. But by the time Teac introduced dbx to consumers in 1978, it was clear that later noise reduction circuits ushered in a new era because the cassette format's tape saturation issue was also being addressed. In fact, all the aforementioned noise reducers (accept for Dolby B, of course) do an exceptionally good job of allowing cassettes to resist high-frequency saturation. Since the early 80s, it has high-end cassette machines could routinely maintain flat response out to the highest audio frequencies at high levels. So high frequency saturation was no longer a real issue and neither was hiss. Dolby C and dbx were incorporated into quite a few machines and the last dbx units made by Marantz sold until the late 90s. At the same time, most people were only aware that the later noise reducers were more powerful than Dolby B. dbx and Sanyo's Super-D are the only two that allowed the cassette format to reproduce an honest 90+ dB of dynamic range.

Regarding open-reel masters, 15 ips was common during the 60s but 30 ips quickly became the standard by the 70s. The former already largely renders saturation a non-issue but the latter allows even quieter recordings.

It would be great if readers could be reminded that until 1983, VCR owners endured poor sound quality. It took Sony 7 years after Betamax's introduction to introduce the Beta Hi-Fi feature to provide hi-fi stereo soundtracks. JVC responded a year later with VHS Hi-Fi and the timing was especially smart on JVC's part because the 1984 Summer Olympics was being broadcasted in stereo. This brought a heightened awareness to general consumers.

Leonard
I'm currently loading Maxell UR Type 1 cassettes to the tray of my Sony TC-K950es, and I've got to tell ya, it's as Hi-Fi as the LP's I'm recording from. I think compact cassettes are still useful. Of course, I'm saying that because I have a 2000 Camaro Super Sport that happens to have a factory cassette player which I need to feed.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I'm currently loading Maxell UR Type 1 cassettes to the tray of my Sony TC-K950es, and I've got to tell ya, it's as Hi-Fi as the LP's I'm recording from. I think compact cassettes are still useful. Of course, I'm saying that because I have a 2000 Camaro Super Sport that happens to have a factory cassette player which I need to feed.
You could always get one of those adapters for portable CD players that fits in the cassette slot. Just sayin'.
 
S

sterling shoote

Audioholic Field Marshall
You could always get one of those adapters for portable CD players that fits in the cassette slot. Just sayin'.
Yes, my wife uses a cassette adapter to listen to music on her iPhone. It's versatile.
 
MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
Interesting read! I still have my Advent 201 cassette tape deck the article mentions. (Does need some repair though!) And my first portable pre-iPod audio device was a Sony Discman (still have it and in working order)
 
S

sterling shoote

Audioholic Field Marshall
Really! Why?
My 2000 Camaro has a factory cassette player. If my wife wants to listen to iTunes from car's speakers the iPhone needs to be connected to an adapter which goes into the cassette well.
 
H

Hellbilly Hobo

Audiophyte
My Oldsmobile Aurora has both a cassette and CD player. With my JCV KA-A7 Cassette deck my homemade tapes actually sound BETTER than a CD player. Paid $500 for it in 1979 and it was worth every penny. No tape hiss with ANRS (automatic noise reduction system) and the highs are not lost like Dolby. Clear and clean sound.
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Enthusiast
My opinion is that the author has a poor knowledge of consumer electronics. There were all-tube stereo receivers long before silicon transistors came around. (Fisher made at least one.) And vacuum tube equipment wasn't particularly unreliable, or expensive. (Remember Dynaco?) At least we weren't subjected to the myth that Sony invented the transistor radio. (Better check. Maybe I missed it.)
 
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