Senior Audiophiles - Audiophile since the 60-70's?

Sorry, I forgot the last couple of questions (senior moment.)
My favorite time was the late 60's and early 70's. College was a blast. I loved the music and I loved the equipment that played it. It was nice looking and well built for the most part. North Carolina was the place to be! James Taylor, now that's my man!
These days, audio has become a race for who can spend the most. A lot of the equipment today is not worth anywhere near what they are asking for it. Businesses remind me of car dealerships! So many salesman have so much hot air and think they know everything(especially the young guys.) It takes a long time to figure this stuff out. You may be an "Audiophile" but it takes a lot of experience to learn what is important and what is hype.

I developed an interest in audio around 1959, my senior year of high school, but didn't buy my first true "hi-fi" equipment until the summer of 1964 when I bought and assembled several Fisher kits (tube preamp and tube power amp). I then added a Garrard turntable with Pickering cartridge, and a pair of Jensen or AR speakers (can't remember which ones I bought first). There has been a lot of equipment come and go since then, including Marantz electronics; Nakamichi and Tandberg tape recorders; Dual, Thorens, and VPI turntables; speakers by Bozak, Fisher, Klipsch, Bose 901's, Acoustat, and Vandersteen; etc. I think my current system is quite good, but nothing I have ever owned brought the excitement of those 1960's components.

I started thinking "audiophile" in the mid '70s with the emphasis on music. this was approaching the end of the LP era and the advent of CD's. Up until that time i was listening to mid fi and only heard the music (in retrospect that wasn't such a bad place to have been). I got some cash so I checked out some high (?) end stuff. PSA pre amp, Hitachi mos fet amp, Rogers ls35a's, etc and the trip began. I won't list all the stuff that has come and gone but the conclusion started in the mid 80's when I got my SP10, and an Oracle TT and finished in the Mid 90's when i settled on the above with Paragon Jubilee/Gems (think Dynaudio 3.3's w/better bass and imaging) Sonic Frontiers SFM 160's monoblocks, a BAT CDP, a glider cartridge, and a new room for my primary system. since thin i have focussed on collecting music. For me that past 10 years have been the best years - all of the music i missed in the 60's & 70's has come out on CD's. LP's of the old stuff are available (with some effort) and i have the time and disposable income to buy the music now that i no longer seek to "improve my system".
Much as i hate to believe it, i think this hobby as it has existed is dying - look no further than the state of the music industry and the contraction of retail audio outlets. they aren't closing their doors because there it a high demand for product. too many MBA's in charge of the businesses, not enuf musicians. and IMHO it ain't just the economy! Enjoy it while you can.

Q>What was your favorite decade and why?

Well they tell me the 60s were great and that I had a hell of a system but I can't remember anything about it.

Q>What are your thoughts of the current state of Audio?

I can only hear to 12khz so I can't tell but all the Audio mags have that glossy wannabe look like GQ or Cosmopolitan or something.(my eyes are still good)

Q>Would you trade your current system for a past system?

No, I've been working on "half range" drivers that get a few octaves above A (440hz) that really do the job for me. All those full range drivers and speakers...who needs em?

Shouldn't Audigon have a senior discount and a Card or something? The "Double AA" (Audiogon Assoc. of Aging Audiophiles). We can play shuffle board games with old cds and stuff like that.

Sncerely
I remain,

I object strenuously to the "senior" label, but I've been interested in the quality of playback systems since the late 60's. As a college freshman what I could afford was not high-end, but it was interesting, a KLH Model 11 in walnut. Record player with built in amp and little speakers. They made a version in a suitcase style that Sandy Koufax used to take on road trips to listen to Sinatra. (Because of his demeanor, people used to assume he was listening to classical.) I was so fond of that littel all-in-one "system" that I think of it all the time when I see the little shoebox sized LS3/5a's and Harbeth HL-P3's.

It wasnt until the early 70's that I became aware of the high-end and started listening to a guy named Skip Weshner on KFAC in LA. (Skip was married to Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers.) It was a classical station but he played whatever he liked that sounded good, on high end equipment lent to him as demos by his high-end retailer advertisers. From him, I learned about a store called Dimensions in Stereo, where I used to hang out, but couldnt afford to buy much. I even did some market research for a high end rep firm as a field study project for my MBA.

Maybe we simply show our age when we say the music of the late 60's and early 70's is our favorite, but it was the desire to get as close to the real in-person sound of Tracy Nelson (Mother Earth), and my endless quest for copies of the Barbara Keith lp that Warner Brothers pulled and deleted when she gave back her contract and abandoned the business (it was and is the best album ever made by a girl singer) that really got me hooked. I liked classical too and went to a lot of concerts, but the music of people our age at that time just resonated with all of us, I think. I wonder if 18 to 25 year olds feel the same way now?

I suppose the happiest time was when my kids were babies and toddlers and Alison Krauss was just a few years into her career and my wife and friends and I would go to performances at McCabe's guitar shop in Santa Monica Cal on a fairly frequent basis.

But, I really think that now is the best time. I know that some high end equipment is ridiculously overpriced, but there are a lot of good values out there. You can get really good sound for not much money, and my current systems give me the best sound I've ever had in my home.

Furthermore, all the music you liked in the 60's and 70's can be found on cd. I even bought a cd of the Barbara Keith lp that I can play over and over without worrying about wearing it out. Great performers from the early 70's continue to put out good work, Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Irma Thomas, Merle Haggard to name some of my favorites. Barbara Keith even returned to the business with her husband and stepson as a little family band called the Stone Coyotes.

And, 30 years ago, we didnt have the music of Alison Krauss (a gift from above), Gillian Welch, Eva Cassidy, Mary Black, Maura O'Connell, Lucinda Williams or Iris Dement (like Barbara Keith, an absolute genius). Or name your favorites who weren't around back then.

These are the best times.

Paul