Last 20 Years - Any Real Audio Advancements?

[User211]

Are we going backwards - or are we going forwards - or our we simply going sideways?

What do you think, if any, have been major audio advancements in the last 20 years?

Or was the audio replay problem essentially "solved" way before that?

 

[DrJRapp]

I think there have been nearly continuous but minute advancements in the state of the art.

If you could possibly do direct comparisons between new gear from the 80 and what is available now you would be astonished at the cumulative differences.

 

[TomDac]

Two words: digital explosion...

 

[sleepysurf]

Two words: digital explosion...

Streaming digital to be more specific. This is what (could) save the high-end. The iPod/MP3 generation is growing up, and lossless playback is what they will graduate to. Along with that comes the quest for better equipment, etc, etc.

 

[amey01]

Digital explosion has happened, but I wouldn't call it an advancement - there is very little today that wasn't around 20 years ago. Sure, there have been evolutionary advancements - today's $1 gets a lot more sound than $1 from 20 years ago, but in terms of revolutionary advancements - very little.

The only thing that comes to mind is DSD encoding?

 

[FISH_MAN]

I think for the HT their has been giant steps in the right direction.that being said I think the hardware as far as speakers and amps go have improved but as far as music in general it has taken a major turn for the worst. most of the music churned out today is over produced garbage lacking any meaning or involvement. so as the equipment to play it has gotten better what is being played has gotten much worse in my opinion. I do enjoy many modern artist but I speak in general.

2 channel has been solved long ago for the most part that's why I do not mind spending so much on it as it will not be obsolite in 10 years such as my tv or HT equipment.

 

[TomDac]

Streaming digital to be more specific. This is what (could) save the high-end. The iPod/MP3 generation is growing up, and lossless playback is what they will graduate to. Along with that comes the quest for better equipment, etc, etc.

Yeah.. what Sleepysurf said.

playing high quality digital music on your home audio system without a disc. HUGE.

 

[User211]

I guess what I was looking for wasn't "convenience" factors... hell, I MUCH prefer owning a physical medium rather than some GUI that tells me I have a dodgy digital copy somewhere on a hard drive. And I am a friggin' software engineer, so that's pretty ripe, I guess.

What I was digging at was real SQ advancements... though sure, I appreciate for some, finding the track they wanna play just by doing a digital serach is extremely good.

The times I am in front of my record/CD collection a bit the worse for wear trying to dig out that ellusive album kind off hits some perverse enjoyment for me. Where the hell is it? Damn it!!!! Damn it!!! Where is it? Oh - there it is

Anyway, back to the sound quality issue... I know it's narrow minded. But I'd like to keep that as the focus of the thread.

I'll be lucky - I know

 

[amey01]

The times I am in front of my record/CD collection a bit the worse for wear trying to dig out that ellusive album kind off hits some perverse enjoyment for me. Where the hell is it? Damn it!!!! Damn it!!! Where is it? Oh - there it is

By the same token, sometimes I find myself aimlessely scrolling through album after album, knowing that if I had the fr1gg1n' discs in front of me it would be much easier to find!!

Anyway, back to the sound quality issue... I know it's narrow minded. But I'd like to keep that as the focus of the thread.

I'll be lucky - I know

As I said - DSD encoding.........

 

[OldMonolith]

Interesting this thread came up today! I was thinking while driving home about advances, or lack of them, in audio.

This was prompted by reading a thread on DiyAudio.com that was a pretty good back and forth about a guy that originated some thought and design on amplifiers and low TIM, transient distortion. Popping on the thread was several amp designers including John Curl. While a lot of that thread goes a different direction than this topic, it still had my mind around the thought of how many amps have been designed and produced since that work was done and a paper presented at an AES conference in....1973!

So maybe you need to expand your time frame to more than 20 years! That's 35+ years! By the way, the principles advanced were embodied in the Electrocompaniet line.

So the question in my mind, was what were all the many, many amps designed and built in the mean time built to do and what did they accomplish? Certainly some are just to make a living. But can everybody in the design side be happy with that? How many are really studying different design topologies and trying to find better ways to do things?

I have a friend that is a walking encyclopedia of circuit designs. He can quote not only the name of the topology, but the variations on it, the designer of it and the prior, similar designs that the work came out of. In many conversations, he has identified to me the brighter ideas and what's good about them. Those qualifications thrown out there (oh, he builds both solid state and tube amps), he has laughed about a statement by another guy that very solemnly and seriously says nothing new and worthwhile has come since the 40's...or maybe even earlier! He does disagree with that but at the same time lends great credence to the early art.

To illustrate that point, he built a couple of years ago, a preamp circuit that was from Western Electric from the late 40's, designed for film sound reproduction. At that time, there wasn't the multitrack recording tricks, so they had to pass through the electronics many more times and colorations would add and so they needed very clean designs. We've compared that preamp to all kinds of stuff and it truly excels!! Good enough, that I'm building another version of it myself with some of the better parts I can come up with instead of the somewhat more period parts he used.

So this kind of topic has been talked about amongst us, here, before. And little conclusion has been agreed too, but when you take some of the sources like reel to reel, preamps like the Western Electric and amps going way back to the work done even pre-WWII, they can drop into a system and sound really good!

Another that I came across in the last couple of days were comments about the Cello Palette. 6000 parts in one unit and very recognized as supreme quality sound! And it was made when? 1992. That's closer to your 20 year time frame. And it obviously doesn't excel due to simplicity. Has it been exceeded since? By small amounts...or is it just each brands proponents with a vested interest saying better?

Interesting question and regardless of the outcome, do yourself a favor and don't ignore the old and write it off...just due to the age! You might be doing your ears a big favor!!

OldMonolith

 

[lpaudio2]

I would have to say the increased focus on room acoustics and room tuning....

 

[asindc]

I guess what I was looking for wasn't "convenience" factors... hell, I MUCH prefer owning a physical medium rather than some GUI that tells me I have a dodgy digital copy somewhere on a hard drive. And I am a friggin' software engineer, so that's pretty ripe, I guess.

What I was digging at was real SQ advancements... though sure, I appreciate for some, finding the track they wanna play just by doing a digital serach is extremely good.

The times I am in front of my record/CD collection a bit the worse for wear trying to dig out that ellusive album kind off hits some perverse enjoyment for me. Where the hell is it? Damn it!!!! Damn it!!! Where is it? Oh - there it is

Anyway, back to the sound quality issue... I know it's narrow minded. But I'd like to keep that as the focus of the thread.

I'll be lucky - I know

As Amey noted, DSD decoding is a huge improvement over what was available in 1980. As for equipment, what is being built now is significantly better in sound quality than the best available in 1980, even if we are talking about the same basic technology.

I will add that the CD format has been credited by many for the revival of interest in jazz among casual listeners, which I think deserves mention here. More than convenience, the CD made it easier to access classic recordings, which introduced the concept of good music on good sounding equipment to many who had not considered it important before then.

 

[amey01]

Whatever the argument and whatever way you see it, CD certainly brought the focus of sound quality in audio reproduction to the general masses.

Many have also credited the format for the resurgence in the album's popularity (as opposed to singles), although all that is now being reversed by the work of the iPod/iTunes, BitTorrent, et al.

 

[Brian Walsh]

Two words: digital explosion...

Or digital implosion, as the case may be.

I'm not yet convinced. As good as digital can sometimes be - and I'd put my digital reference up against any other, regardless of price - in the end my real reference is analog. It simply sounds more real. I played a record the other day for a couple. The solo acoustic guitar, the performer, and the venue were suddenly right there in front of them. They flipped out. I've yet to experience that from digital.

 

[C.A.P]

OH boy not again !

 

[FISH_MAN]

I played a record the other day for a couple. The solo acoustic guitar, the performer, and the venue were suddenly right there in front of them. They flipped out. I've yet to experience that from digital.

I think we should not go down the analog vs digital road once again
this debate has proven to be far to upsetting for certain members.

 

[Mantana]

I upgraded my 20 year old Onkyo Integra 7500DX CD player
a couple of years ago to a Musical Fidelity A5. I think i paid
approx $500 for the Integra back in '87 (retailed for $750).
When auditioning players before settling on the A5, i was surprised
at the minor improvement in the hardware. The Integra was a very
good player in it's day and it holds up pretty damn good to
current machines in my opinion.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Might I suggest pistols at 20 paces, at least it will be over quick.

 

[Brian Walsh]

Might I suggest pistols at 20 paces, at least it will be over quick.

Call 'em as you see 'em, but no flame war was intended.

 

[Beakman]

Back on topic . . .
I'm going to say Digital Sound Processing and analyzing equipment for the layman. Twenty years (or more) ago, you could get the best equipment, add tweaks, room treatments, etc. It all existed and was just a matter of refinement in relation to today's quality.
But the ability for the end user to analyze and process the signals has introduced another whole dimension to the equation.