BY ROBERT ROSS
AUDIOPHILIA NERVOSA
S
[Same As It Ever Was] ince Edison’s first wax cylinder, music lovers have pushed the limits of realism in sound reproduction, while coveting the equipment that makes all that beautiful noise. Electrical engineers,
speaker designers, opera buffs and guys with too much money and time on their hands all agree that a great high-fidelity rig is one of the pleasures of our age. Unexpectedly, many long out-of-vogue designs, like horn loudspeakers and tube amplifiers, have come back for an encore. Today’s audiophile has more choices and better gear to choose from than ever before. But some of it — like a Stradivarius or classic Steinway — is as good today as it ever was.
Proof that the more things change, the more hi-fi crazies stay the same.
1950s
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1960 s
The Golden Age of Hi-Fi was ushered in by brilliant engineers like James Lansing, Avery Fisher and Saul Marantz. Products from high-end American manufacturers made as much a statement about their owners as a Cadillac or Lincoln in the driveway. Marantz’s eponymous line of amplifiers, preamps and tuners were the decade’s high-water mark of tube topology, and today command Cordon Bleu prices to match their (still) mouthwatering sound.
1970 s
By the middle of the decade, audiophiles had taken over the asylum, with the high-end electronics industry burgeoning worldwide. In America, Europe and Japan, critical listeners were spending five and even six figures on stereo rigs that took music playback to new levels of realism, using jargon often as overblown as the gear itself. High-power solidstate amplifiers were the rage, and wattage— like horsepower—was king. An audiophile was measured by the size of his system.
SHUTTERSTOCK ; co r d er o s t u d i o s
Peter Walker’s “little wonder” was a loudspeaker called the QUAD ESL-57, a radical departure from conventional cone-type speakers in technology and realism. The flat Quad electrostatic panels made otherworldly sound, more accurate than anything heard before. Today, they retain a cult following of audiophiles who contend that Quads—despite their limitations at the frequency extremes— still make the most beautiful music on the planet.