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phillymatt53

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 10, 2025
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Location
Philadelphia Pa
This thread is based on my long-time experiences as a professional servicer of Home Entertainment Equipment, and my own personal equipment choices.
If any of it sounds "biased", it's only because I don't mince words. I like sharing the truth about such things to others in hopes that it'll save them money and any aggravation.
And, it's similar to the speaking out from others about Home Appliances and the current state of things.
So here goes......

We all want quality, and we all want to spend our money on something worthy.
But the industry mostly treats the public like silly puppets, catering to their conditioned lives with glorified advertizing and snazzy appearance.
I've been "in the guts" of literally thousands of products from TV's to high-end stereo stuff, along with "vintage" antiques/heirlooms that required special attention.

But as the decades progressed, I've noticed the so-called improvements and technology changes.
Some, were a good idea, others, not pretty.
The stuff sold these days in my opinion is garbage, in comparison to what I call "The Golden Years" of audio.
Those were from the early-late 1960's up to the late 1980's, centering on 1974 to 1980 as the peak years of "HiFi".

Look at what you're forced to buy these days, if you want something....
It may looks snazzy, and might even sound nice to your ears.
Digital processing can impress you.
Convenient bluetooth, streaming, etc., makes it more attractive, because you've been handed that stuff as a result of the slow conditioning process of society.

Then how come the substantial numbers of people wanting that vintage stuff again?
You know, the "Analog" stuff that used to be king.
I'll tell you.....
Because humans speak and hear in analog, not digital.
Once you add Digital to the mix, you're messing with the original sound.
Like I stated, processing analog is impressive to the ears, I know that.
But my trained ears can still, even at my age, tell the difference.
And no, it's not my mind doing tricks on me.
Listening to music in analog on analog equipment is and can be such a seductive and surprising experience that some have re-imagined again.
I hear people all the time telling me that.
Sure, I listen to CD's, and online to MP3's.
It's nice, and one can get used to that, even lazy.
But plop a record on a decent turntable..... voila...... something comes back to you that all those years of digital listening made you forget.

By the way, whenever you hear the mention of Tube equipment having a "warm sound", it's all in your head, something dreamed up by somebody on the internet because tubes have heated filaments which warm up and get hot.
My expensive testing equipment and analizing procedures don't have human ears or human biases stemming from internet talk to sway them.
And confirm what I'm saying.

I'm wondering if anyone here can understand what I'm trying to share, or feels the same way.
Thanks for reading.
M
 
I’m virtually deaf in my left ear and have been wearing an hearing aid in that ear for about 15 years and I can still tell the difference between analog and digital sound. And I prefer the richer sound of analog, it seems the “swell” and is “warm sounding” while digital is kinda “flat” and cold.

In 1956 my Dad bought my Mom a brand new beautiful Cherry wood cabinet RCA Victor Hi-Fi console and that radio/phonograph had the most beautiful sound of any that I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t stereo, just Hi-Fi sound, although there was a button that had the provision for stereophonic sound, that is provided you also purchased the matching stereo speaker cabinet for the opposite side of the room, which we didn’t have or miss.

Eddie
 
Digital can have a thin/harsh sound to it at times but it's usually in the analog to digital conversion process through the ears of a sound engineer. The quality of DAC's makes difference, too. If it's done correctly, it sounds spectacular.

I use various phono cartridge's to custom tailor the sound I want. My Audio Technica 440ML cart brightens up vinyl that sounds dull, but it can sound thin and shrilly (like badly converted CD's) on brighter material. I also use it on CD-4 quadraphonic material. Otherwise, I use a Shure V15-VxMR. Different turntables affect the sound. My grease bearing Garrard 301 adds bass punch while the Thorens 124 sounds a bit sweeter in the high end. Both make my Technics SL-1200 MK3 sound.....lacking (it's all in the tonearm though). The biggest influence of the sound of vinyl is a good record cleaner. I've used a VPI 16.5 for 20 years, back when it was very affordable new ($375 then vs $1,200 now.)

I use an MP3 player doing yard work or out in the shop for convenience and it's better than eating up batteries via a Walkman cassette player or cd player skipping around with every bump or jolt. I still have my Sony Walkman cassette player from 1992. Don't know why, but still have it. Maybe it'll be worth money in 17 years when it's 50 years old, lol.
 

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