Were the 1970s the True Golden Age for Audio?

[gene]

Stereo gear has changed A LOT in the last 50 years, but some people would still say there was never a better time for sound than in the 1970's. We're taking a walk through time and revisiting a blast from the past with stereo gear from the amazing 1970's. Was this the decade of the real Golden Age of audio?

• The Baby Boomer generation was the largest demographic group in the country’s history, and they were primed and conditioned to be voracious consumers by parents who’d lived through the Great Depression and World War II and were determined that their children would have the opportunities that they never had.
• Technology developed in such a way that great-sounding compact bookshelf speakers, reliable, high-performance receivers and integrated amplifiers, cassette recorders with Dolby B noise reduction and superb, dependable turntables all became widely available at affordable prices at the same time. What were the odds of so many unrelated technical advances-electrical, mechanical, acoustic—occurring at pretty much the exact same time?
• Popular music, fueled by the existence of the huge population pool of Baby Boomers, produced more amazingly great bands in wildly different musical genres (heavy metal/hard rock, country rock, singer/songwriter/acoustic, jazz-rock like Chicago/BST, fusion, Latin-flavored rock, soul/funk, etc.) than at any other time in our collective musical history.
• To meet this demand, stereo stores, record stores and concert venues were everywhere. Everywhere. Each weekend brought another live concert for the ages. All week after that, record and equipment sales would be off the charts.

Every time period has its charms, its special appeal. Today’s best Home Theater systems present an audio/visual experience that is far superior to what the great majority of commercial theaters can offer in return. But the visceral emotion surrounding the acquisition and ownership of today’s gear is not anywhere near what it was like 50 years ago. No present-day AV enthusiast puts a friendship in jeopardy by arguing about their speakers vs. their friend’s, and then goes and derisively waves a magazine test report under their friend’s nose and says, “See?” That kind of raw excitement, that defensive pride in one’s meticulously selected system, fueled by out-of-control 18-22 year-old emotions, was strictly a 1970’s singularity.

Read: Stereo Gear in the 1970s

 

[shadyJ]

Wow, very nice article, Steve! A great chronicle of a heyday of audio. I say 'a' heyday instead of 'the' heyday because I would say there are several defining eras of audio technology that are built on each other. As for the 70's being a golden era versus today, I might just say more yes than no. Obviously, today's stuff is far more advanced, but back then people cared more about audio, and that has to be more important. Today, people take great sound quality for granted, and consequently, they just don't care as much. Back then, it was more than just a niche hobby for a relatively small set of people.

 

[TankTop5]

Wow, very nice article, Steve! A great chronicle of a heyday of audio. I say 'a' heyday instead of 'the' heyday because I would say there are several defining eras of audio technology that are built on each other. As for the 70's being a golden era versus today, I might just say more yes than no. Obviously, today's stuff is far more advanced, but back then people cared more about audio, and that has to be more important. Today, people take great sound quality for granted, and consequently, they just don't care as much. Back then, it was more than just a niche hobby for a relatively small set of people.

I think a better way to say it is the 70’s we’re a heyday for music, the equipment was the icing on the cake! Currently equipment is obviously the best it’s ever been but people are buying equipment for equipments sake and not the pure love of the music!

 

[davidscott]

Thanks for the memories Gene. I was in the USAF in the late 70s no naturally I got into component stereo. The 70s will always be the golden age for me even though I spent more $$ on upgrading in the 80s.

 

[panteragstk]

I voted for 3. I don't know what I voted for.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The greatest thing the 70's had going for it was that there was no Walkman.

The Walkman and the advent of personal audio completely changed the landscape of how audio was delivered. It used to be that you had bulky headphones connected or some tiny little earbud in place, but no real quality portability. It meant that audio that was portable, was large, and loud. It meant that in a home setting, the standard way to get audio was by blasting it if you wanted it loud. You got speakers and cranked them up.

Then, suddenly, things got quiet.

The Walkman ushered in a new age where you could get decent audio anywhere, at any time, and a set of earphones and shortly thereafter halfway decent earbuds were easily available. It didn't cost you hundreds of dollars in speakers, amplifiers, receivers, and equipment for access. For under $100 you could blast your music and you weren't even bothering others in your home. You could travel on planes while listening to a custom mix tape of your own. What could be better?

Now, forty years later, and we recognize what could be better. Or at least the progression of what the Walkman introduced. Wireless headphones that last all day. High resolution audio that sounds better than what the best sound systems could deliver in the 70s, and all of our music stored on a device we carry with us everywhere all the time. Computers that allow a shared experience if we want, or complete solitude when we want it. The ability to go with components that have better designs than any other time in history, and a far better inventory of not only raw materials, but the knowledge of how to utilize them like never before. Built upon that knowledge gained throughout the 70s, before and since.

The push will be forward, as it always is. Directional headphones with surround sound are amazing for many gamers. In ear headphones that sound better and better and better and do more and more and more. It will continue to progress. Hitting a point where we don't carry any of our music with us, but always stream from a cloud, and music we want, on demand. Longer lasting batteries that last for days, or weeks, or longer. The past isn't a bad time, and for those who were teens in the 70s, they easily recognize is as most teens do... it was one of the best times in history. As a child of the 80s, I have my own feelings of those years. But, when it comes to technology, it is hard to best where we are at today, until you ask me again tomorrow.

We aren't in the same public space for music that the 70s enjoyed. That certainly has taken away the required social aspect which music of the 70s and early 80s enjoyed like no time before it. It also holds some melancholy and we are unlikely to ever return to such a time of public audio being the norm. On the plus side, I can watch a new release movie, with high quality audio, at 30,000 feet while flying from NYC to LAX and nobody around me complains.

 

[Jeepers]

Thanks very much for your article Steve, it brings back a lot of memories even though I am 7 years younger than you. For me the 60s were a heyday for music but for equipment it were the 70s without any doubt with all the innovations mentioned in your article.

We didn't have 'Speaker Wars' but one evening one friend in the dorm tested several compact cassettes using his 'Nakamichi Dragon' as source. We all handed over our empty cassettes, the same song was used as test song, recorded on the cassettes, played back and also shown on his oscilloscope to measure the frequency response. It was definitely not done in the most scientific way but it was a lot of fun. TDK and Maxell ended up on top.

 

[Tedpjr]

Two minor comments/corrections - there were a tremendous number of prerecorded RTR tapes (even sold by services like Columbia House) at both 7.5 and 3.75 IPS speeds; and the common size for RTR tapes was/is 1/4 inch, NOT 1/2 inch...

 

[colofan]

It would also be neat to see how audio in the 80's evolved. I remembering doing multi-house destinations going from one stereo to the next. Like the meal at each place. Using CD's as a reference always talking with fellow audiophiles looking for the next level.

Got me started doing DIY for speakers back in the 70's

 

[Mikado463]

totally dependent on ones age, just like cars.

60's/70's for music , 50's/60's for cars

 

[davidscott]

Thanks for the memories Gene. I was in the USAF in the late 70s no naturally I got into component stereo. The 70s will always be the golden age for me even though I spent more $$ on upgrading in the 80s.

Sorry Steve I responded to Gene because he posted the thread but that was a great article. I sure remember the receiver power wars and I remember the technics 330 wpc was on the cover of a couple of the hi fi magazines of the day. Like you I never saw one in person though. My final 70s system consisted of a Kenwood 40 wpc integrated Amp, an entry level Kentwood tuner, a technics lower end direct drive tt with a shure v15iii and a midrange technics tt. New large advents were the speakers. Ah the memories.

 

[jeffca]

Yes and no.

Yes, because owning a stereo really was a thing in the day. I was a teenager and having a good stereo was a point of pride. About half of the guys I went to college with were into having a good audio system. Of course, females didn't care that much and I don't think that metric has changed.

I get the feeling that most teens today don't give a crap about sound quality or having a kick ass audio system. I know most people, in general, don't.

The "No" would be because speakers and amps are several orders of magnitude better than they were 40-50 years ago. Also, with hi-res audio files and Blu-ray, the music you listen to can now be an exact copy of the studio master. That has never been available before.

One thing for sure, damn, that old equipment sure does look GOOD! Even the budget stuff looked great.

 

[JengaHit]

Great article and memories. I was in jr high and high school back then. My dad was an enthusiast; got the bug from him. He had variously: Kenwood, Pioneer, and Sansui receivers; Kenwood integrated (see pic); JVC (see pic), Akai, and Pioneer cassette decks; Advent, AR, and Fisher speakers; Technics and Garrard turntables with Shure & Audio Technica cartridges. He also experimented with "Quad" sound, a precursor of surround sound (see pic of Dynaco Quadaptor). Most of his system mania was fueled by his love of classical music, Duke Ellington, and big band. I have vivid memories of shelves of LPs and cassette tapes. Listening was social for both him and us teens. He was always inviting friends and relatives to listen to the latest new album or find from a used record store. Us kids were always listening to records with our friends in our family/rec room.

I remember several audio camps:
- Casual listeners who still had console stereos, some from the 60s (today these would be like the legions listening on smartphones).
- My dad's hobbyist buddies and our "groovy" neighbors who had the receivers, big speakers, tube equipment, and a good many reel-to-reel tape decks (they had a popular association with the side-burned hipster bachelors in bell bottoms and leisure suits). It was cool to have systems you doted on and spent time building, including DIY kits like Dynaco.
- Kids like myself who followed their dads' lead and saved up for their own cheaper stereo rigs, fueled by the Motown and album rock (and even disco!) of our time: The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Five, Earth Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye, Queen, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Aretha, Lynard Skynard, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Steely Dan, etc.

Yeah, I remember it as a golden age.

 

[lovinthehd]

Well, my experience is definitely intertwined with the 70s, both for gear and music. The golden part I think was more on the music side. Audio gear was good, but....vinyl.

 

[Mikado463]

another aspect of the seventies that was 'golden' for us old farts was our hearing, sadly, now in my late sixties it is somewhat tarnished !

 

[MR.MAGOO]

another aspect of the seventies that was 'golden' for us old farts was our hearing, sadly, now in my late sixties it is somewhat tarnished !

and the front panel display was bigger and easier to read in the '70s gear. Unless I mount my Yamaha RX-A2A at standing eye-level that small front panel "display" is almost useless!

 

[JengaHit]

Stereo Review Magazine was a popular publication then (actually going back to the 60s) that fed the audio hobbyist community. I remember seeing it sold at every news stand. My dad had neatly and chronologically shelved issues going back to the 60s in our garage. Buying the latest audio gear was like buying the latest sports car. That's what I remember about friends, neighbors, and relatives showing off their stereos. So granting technology has no doubt progressed today to give us better sounding speakers et al, the 70s was a golden age of mass-consumer audio marketing and audio consumer culture.

 

[davidscott]

Yep Stereo Review, Audio, and High Fidelity were the mass market mags of the day. And I had subscriptions to all of them at one time or another.

 

[Mikado463]

Yep Stereo Review, Audio, and High Fidelity were the mass market mags of the day. And I had subscriptions to all of them at one time or another.

and lets not forget JGH who started with High Fidelity before moving on to Stereophile and Harry Pearson start of TAS. All were part of the Golden era !

 

[John Sully]

Memories....

I started out with a cheap receiver and lousy speakers, but with big dreams. So I took the road less travelled in the 70's: I built a system from separates. Started with a Dynaco Stereo 120 and a PAS-3x with speakers I borrowed from my stepdad. Moved on to a PAT-4 and bought Dynaco A-35 speakers (which I had for a really long time, those were really good speakers). Then I got a Hafler DH-101 preamp and a Dynaco FM-5 tuner (author is correct, FM was important in those days). I had a Stanton turntable designed for the 681EEE cartridge it came with. I upgraded to an SAE 125 wpc power amp. It was a pretty bad ass system and sounded great in the dorms. I also saved a ton of money by building a ton of kits -- the Dynaco and Hafler stuff was all kit built or bought used.

The system I ended up with sounded pretty good, but in my day speaker wars was propping your speakers in the window of your dorm room and blasting your system out into the quad. Another thing about life in the dorms (or just hanging out with friends) was that the cassette deck was the equivalent of Napster for us. All of my friends would buy tons of blank cassettes and then borrow records and record them on a high quality cassette with Dolby B. I had the best cassette deck around (an Akai 3-head unit) so lots of my friends would sit around my room smoking dope while I recorded albums for them. A C-90 would record one album on each side. The amazing thing about a high-quality cassette was that when you recorded a record on it, they sounded pretty damn good. I had hundreds that I continued to listen to for a couple of decades.

But. The system I have today, in spite of being a sort of middle class system, sounds better than any of the iterations of my old system. Why might that be?

1) We know a lot more about how to make good sounding speakers. This means that most speakers you buy will sound "good" albeit with some limitations in deep bass and dynamic range.

2) Subwoofers. Having a sub gives you access to the deep bass that even great speakers from the 1970's can only dream of.

3) Room correction. Good room correction can make for huge gains in imaging and low frequency response in room.

4) The internet. Damn, the internet opens up a whole new world of access to music and movies and radio.

The main sucky thing about modern systems is the limited capability of modern receiver amps in the price range that most mortals can afford to buy. You can still spend more and get a great amp and if you have a mid-range receiver you can use that as a poor-man's pre-amp (still cheaper than buying a real pre-amp).

So the 70's were the first age when good sound reproduction in the home was affordable, but today? It is much easier to find good speakers. You can get great stereo receivers for reasonable prices today (~$300). You can get a great pair of speakers today (~$250). With an internet connection and Amazon Prime you are off and running.