thebes Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 A guy over at Ak posted a link to this article from 1953. I'm stealing from his research. You will have to scroll up to page 145 to get to the beginning of the article. http://books.google.com/books?id=A0gEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA156&dq=audiophile&pg=PA156#v=onepage&q=audiophile&f=false This may be the first official utterance of the word audiophile. The article is a hoot because it describes so much we experience today. ie, women hate large speakers, the aficionados in Alaska are having a hard time because they can't find corners in their Quonset huts etc. What' s also interesting is the "bugs" (audiophiles) favorite tunes, all of them are classical. No pop. Its tricky to read but well worth the scrolling back and forth. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germerikan Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Interesting read, I actually liked all of the old advertisements, they were great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Truly KEWL! Thanks, Marty. I also LOVE reading old magazines, ads and all. I spent a lot of pleasant time especially with the Popular Science archives available on line. Haven't checked to see how much more Life is available, but would love to have it all. Life was a fixture during it's lifespan and sort of a combination of 60 Minutes and a compendium of the nightly news in a weekly form. I used many dimes to grab one of these as a kid. Being a Time/Life photographer was one of the most envied jobs of the day. As to the content, as previously mentioned, little has changed. Wish one could cut and paste from it, but it's locked down. However, I loved one line saying how audiophiles loved to talk endlessly of the merits or issues with this or that component, and play music that irritated the neighbors, but "Otherwise, they are fairly well-balanced citizens." Gotta love that! I could also relate to the need for "hiss" to verify the precense of the high end. I clearly recall the first time I was exposed to Dolby cassette in the form of the original Advent cassette deck. I was convinced it was whacking the high end off and sounded MUCH better with the Dolby off. Off course, I was quite wrong but now understand why I reacted that way. Like Mary said, the comment about the problem finding a corner in a quonset gave me a giggle. We may not live in quonsets, but the search for the perfect corner goes on! Not quite sure about the comment made about mono recordings where one could locate some sort of image but nobody could figure out why. Read it several times, and can't help but wonder if it may not have been something a less than knowledgeable audiophile passed on to the writer about hearing what was actually a stereo demo but the audiophile didn't know it. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone ascribing any "image" to a mono recording. While it's concievable that some sort of time delays might appear as a sort of image, doesn't seem likely. In that regard, I recall reading many years ago that it would be possible eventually to create stereo recordings from acoustic recordings based on the relative distances and angles of the instruments from the recording horn. That was long enough ago for us to likely have that computing power, but I've never heard another thing about this. Anyway, a great read! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Posted back in June of 2011 [] That is a classic. Didn't know it was from Life. http://itishifi.blogspot.com/2011/06/hi-fi-bandwagon-1950s-article.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted January 25, 2013 Moderators Share Posted January 25, 2013 Nice and the ads are great, some stuff you couldn't say today. Did you see the pic on the right on page 162 of the giant horn someone made go out the wall and through his garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 That was great, I also liked scrolling through the old ads an stuff seeing how much some things have changed and how some things haven't. Also brought back a few early childhood memories, I was born in 1958. There is an ad for a Fedders window air conditioner, I have a Fedders window air conditioner that is only a couple years old. I had no idea the brand had been around that long, I think I paid the same price for mine as it sells for in the 1953 ad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted January 26, 2013 Author Share Posted January 26, 2013 Cool comments guys, especially Dave's. So many of the aspects of this hobby outlined in that article are still the fodder for discussion today. Considering how many people have gone back to tubes, its really not all that surprising. I do believe the writer of that particular article was influenced by the "horn" crowd. As well he should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 very cool Marty. Thanks for the link! the discussion of WAF is a riot and amazing to read how much is still part of the conversation today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Cool comments guys, especially Dave's. So many of the aspects of this hobby outlined in that article are still the fodder for discussion today. Considering how many people have gone back to tubes, its really not all that surprising. I do believe the writer of that particular article was influenced by the "horn" crowd. As well he should. Some things never change. I buy old popular electronics and many of the diy articles can still be applied today. Pretty cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Fun stuff to read. I notice, though, in the pictures - They're all guys, and no one looks happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted January 27, 2013 Moderators Share Posted January 27, 2013 Fun stuff to read. I notice, though, in the pictures - They're all guys, and no one looks happy. Well with everything almost just invented as far as real hi fi everything was really limited in choices, and when it came to music I don't think you had many choices either, very little compared to today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Fun stuff to read. I notice, though, in the pictures - They're all guys, and no one looks happy. Those were the very first guys who bought Bose. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Morbius Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 How right you are !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I wound up reading the whole mag front to back. As to the guy with the huge horn in the garage...my guess is that was payback to the wife for not letting him have Klipshorn! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Located the instructions and will review. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germerikan Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 That horn reminded me of the pic of the all horn set up in, I think Greece, where you had to look really close to see the LF horns. They were hard to see because it was the whole entire back wall I saw that first here, must have been over a year ago, but cant find the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Morbius Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 You know, that ad on page 141 for Dairy Queen may say it "tastes better!" but looks like something out of a slasher flick. Uggggh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 You know, that ad on page 141 for Dairy Queen may say it "tastes better!" but looks like something out of a slasher flick. Uggggh! Hmmm...remember looking at that ad but not the slasher connection. My own thought was a bit of surprise that DQ was really that old as a chain. I really didn't know there were any national chains of fast food at that time. I wondered if it was only ice cream or if they had burgers back then. I didn't see one until I was a teenager. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 The early Dairy Queen's were just ice cream. I guess they started out in 1940 with soft serve ice cream cones which was something they invented. Here is a link to their history. http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/Company/About-Us/'> http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/Company/About-Us/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khornbred Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Not quite sure about the comment made about mono recordings where one could locate some sort of image but nobody could figure out why. Read it several times, and can't help but wonder if it may not have been something a less than knowledgeable audiophile passed on to the writer about hearing what was actually a stereo demo but the audiophile didn't know it. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone ascribing any "image" to a mono recording. oh, there certainly is an "image" with mono. a couple of mildy interesting anecdotes of what i've recently experienced: first, while trying out my new old tube amps, i was playing thru a single klipschorn because only one amp was working when i recieved them, even though i had personally disconnected the speaker wire from the non working speaker, i had to walk right up to it and put my ear to the horn because as i was walking into the room, i was positive i could hear sound coming from that speaker. FWIW that speaker is adjacant to a large picture window opposite from the working speaker. second, a recent addition to my small fleet of vintage daily drivers is a 1963 Suburban for my SO to drive. i installed a cheap cd player with a single 4" plate speaker in the stock spot in the center of the dash. again, i was shocked to discover that the image projected from that mono speaker is actually centered almost directly in front of the drivers seat, and actually moves laterally, seemingly with frequency changes. mids and highs are rigth in front and bass is over to the right by the speaker. a very crude "stereo" image which i believe is caused by sound reflecting off the curve of the panoramic windshield common to 50's and 60's vehicles. i am quite sure of this as i also have a 1966 chevy pickup, basically the exact same windshield and dash*, except they changed the windshield to a non-panoramic style, and that truck does not have the same image! i arribute the percieved movement of the image due to different frequencies reflecting off different portions of the curved glass. someone may have a better explanation. the effect is far from stereo, but certainly something more than a single point source of sound. *for the one reader that may be sharp enough to catch my "error", i've actually welded a 63 dash into my 66 truck, they were originally different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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