The Years Of Audio Plenty And The Great Digital Divide

摘要

If the 1970s represented a peak in hi-fi activity, a 'golden age' to match the 1950s' surfeit of classics, does 1980-84 represent its descent into hell? It certainly does if you despise CD and all things digital. And clearly, many audiophiles do, to this day. Of course, the 1980s didn't start out that way. In purely analogue, two-channel terms, they were years of (audio) plenty, and music lovers were spoiled with bargains at one end of the market and components with seemingly no price constraints at the other. In between, in the vast middle sector, the Great Turntable Wars continued to rage in the audio community, while Asian imports gobbled up everything else with the Brits so preoccupied with politics. Products associated with the Great Turntable Wars and Flat Earthism purported to be high-end in UK terms, while globally they were anything but. As an analogy, one could posit that they were to true high-end gear what MGs were to Ferraris.