12-03-2018, 07:05 PM
Economic reality is also a factor. I have noticed that places that even try to sell high-fidelity equipment are getting scarcer.
If it is musical performance - I am a classical music fan, and I am not convinced that the musical talent is thinning. The repertory certainly isn't thinning, although the discography is thinning. Is Simon Rattle less competent than Toscanini? I think not.
Economic reality has its role. First, our educational system is more interested in training people for existing jobs than in showing people how to live. Emphasis on STEM is desirable, but in view of the shrinking workweek we might need to teach people how to spend their leisure time. That means music, literature, and the visual arts. Second, smaller apartments allow less privacy for enjoying music on a sound system, so having a chance to listen to a loud, colorful work like a symphony by Anton Bruckner with the volume turned up on a stereo system gets dicey. Third, retailers have no idea of how to sell high-fidelity equipment. Inflating a price tag and then taking a gigantic markdown is good for selling many things -- but not sound equipment. What sounds good for the price (if one must consider price) is better than something with an impressive markdown.
In any event I have my idea of how to get really-nice sound, and I am surprised that it is not on the market. Do you remember how rich the sound could be on the giant, floor-standing radios of the 1930s?
![[Image: 220px-Vintage_Zenith_Console_Radio%2C_Mo...293%29.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Vintage_Zenith_Console_Radio%2C_Model_12S-568%2C_With_the_Zenith_Robot_%28or_Shutter%29_Dial%2C_Circa_1941_%288655513293%29.jpg/220px-Vintage_Zenith_Console_Radio%2C_Model_12S-568%2C_With_the_Zenith_Robot_%28or_Shutter%29_Dial%2C_Circa_1941_%288655513293%29.jpg)
The speaker was huge, reminding me of a subwoofer. One got very deep bass. It would be possible to create a floor-standing stereo with tweeters and mid-range speakers that opening doors (thus creating stereo separation) to expose a tuner, CD player, and perhaps an LCD screen or at least an input for a reader device to pick off internet videos. A cover may open to expose a phonograph. But my idea is practically retro.
If it is musical performance - I am a classical music fan, and I am not convinced that the musical talent is thinning. The repertory certainly isn't thinning, although the discography is thinning. Is Simon Rattle less competent than Toscanini? I think not.
Economic reality has its role. First, our educational system is more interested in training people for existing jobs than in showing people how to live. Emphasis on STEM is desirable, but in view of the shrinking workweek we might need to teach people how to spend their leisure time. That means music, literature, and the visual arts. Second, smaller apartments allow less privacy for enjoying music on a sound system, so having a chance to listen to a loud, colorful work like a symphony by Anton Bruckner with the volume turned up on a stereo system gets dicey. Third, retailers have no idea of how to sell high-fidelity equipment. Inflating a price tag and then taking a gigantic markdown is good for selling many things -- but not sound equipment. What sounds good for the price (if one must consider price) is better than something with an impressive markdown.
In any event I have my idea of how to get really-nice sound, and I am surprised that it is not on the market. Do you remember how rich the sound could be on the giant, floor-standing radios of the 1930s?
The speaker was huge, reminding me of a subwoofer. One got very deep bass. It would be possible to create a floor-standing stereo with tweeters and mid-range speakers that opening doors (thus creating stereo separation) to expose a tuner, CD player, and perhaps an LCD screen or at least an input for a reader device to pick off internet videos. A cover may open to expose a phonograph. But my idea is practically retro.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.