Parrot Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 While watching home improvement and decorating shows on TV, like on the Home & Garden channel and Trading Spaces, I have yet to see a house with a good old stereo system like what used to be in regular people's homes in years past. I noticed this while looking for a new house last year, too. Typical was a small boombox tucked away somewhere, and no real stereo at all. And the last J&R Music ad I saw had about 2 or 3 audio items, the rest was computers, phones, video equipment, and so on. Are we people with music systems a real niche group nowadays, and a dying breed? I know quite a few people who never listen to music except in their cars, the worst possible environment for wide dynamic range material or the subtleties of music either. It's sad, but I think home stereo is rapidly disappearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted February 29, 2004 Author Share Posted February 29, 2004 Mark, You would agree, wouldn't you, that it wasn't like this in the old days? Or were my "old days" experiences of abundant stereos not the norm? Yes, in the last decorator show I watched, one of the designers proudest accomplishments was being able to put the home theatre equipment in the closet and hide the wires under the crown molding! Only thing that showed was the plasma TV over the fireplace. I don't know where the speakers were. They either forgot they needed them or they were wall-recessed. Or do some plasma TVs have built-in speakers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T_Shomaker Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 all the stereos are in the trash or in our houses and all the people that had them went to bestbuy and bought bose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 I can hardly wait to see an episode of Trading Spaces, where Frank paints chickens on a pair of mint Klipschorns, or Hildi converts somebody's Thorens into a "water feature." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch RF7 Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 I feel it has to do with the internet and computer age. With the advent of computers and the internet and portable MP3's and such, many people dont need big stereo systems for entertainment like they used to 20+ years ago, they just turn on the computer and play MP3's from thier computer speakers and that is there stereo system. Plus, stereo systems is voodoo to most people, they dont even know how to program thier VCR and the thought of buying all these speakers, wires, recievers, players, Dobly this and that just scares them away. So they leave it up to companies like Bose to do the thinking for them, they walk in and buy a wonderful set of Bose home theater speakers aka "Klipsch Killers" and go home happy as a plum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch RF7 Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 There has also been a song written by Paula Cole called "Where have all the stereo's gone" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 Back in the late 80's there used to be 4 stereo stores in my little home town. Now there are none. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted February 29, 2004 Author Share Posted February 29, 2004 That's right! I remember in the 1970s, there were full page ads in the newspaper every week, sometimes two-page spreads, from companies like Stereo Warehouse. That's when Peaches record stores were the rage, and you'd have the floor space of a grocery store devoted to LPs. Maybe the market got saturated. After all, a lot of amps and receivers can last decades. It wasn't like people had to buy a new one every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandi Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 My kids have learned to accept it but they know that when I turn on the stereo there will be NO TV. I think they enjoy it. I have purchased CD and Music DVDs for them and the youngest does alot of what she is doing now......dancing. We did not listen to alot of music in the house before the Klipsch arrival. We had a Bose 5.1 system but the setup now is MUCH BETTER!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted February 29, 2004 Author Share Posted February 29, 2004 ---------------- On 2/29/2004 11:47:47 AM mdeneen wrote: I think the Amish still drive buggies, no? ---------------- They sure do, and within several miles of me. Ohio and Pennsylvania are the big areas of Amish concentration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playntheblues Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 And they probably only listen to live music Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted February 29, 2004 Author Share Posted February 29, 2004 Many years ago there was an Amish guy that I used to notice at this one bar. He'd be listening to the live electric music and drinking and having a good time, all in his Amish garb. It was against his church's rules, and he'd have been kicked out if any elders from his church had known, but I guess he figured he wasn't going to get into trouble because nobody else from his church should have been there either. The place had two La Scalas suspended from the ceiling, by the way. The owner got them for $20 each at a fire sale of a different bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 Back in the 50s and 60s there used to be dance parties at people homes. Complete with Stereos. Moms stayed at home and made appetizers from scratch. There were less divorces. The government needed those moms to work for more tax revenue. People talked more and listened even better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 True enough! Santa brought my first stereo. Not just a record player, but two speakers. (and the "Brigadoon" album) I would lie on the floor with my head between them so I could hear the music without turning it up loud enough to get in trouble. Later when I saved a few pennies and got "realistic" headphones from Radio Shack, wow. It was Magical Mystery Tour time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 It's sad to see stereo disappear at the rate it has, except for those damn ugly futuristic boom boxes you see nowadays. The Cornwalls I enjoy today are the result of a stereo purchase my dad made in '79 (along with two Nakamichi 680ZX cassette decks). But the personal computer of the '80s and the internet in the mid '90s seemed to change all that for him, and he seemed to lose interest as he began working for a pipe organ servicing firm. In '99 when my folks moved to a small one bedroom townhouse up in CT, he had no room for his humongous stereo system, so he left it and his Klipsch here at their house that me and my brothers now live in, and the rest is history (well, for me anyway)! He listens to his CDs on his PC through a Cambridge SoundWorks multimedia system now (what a drastic change from his old stereo system), but even now he listens to it less and less since he's made his hobby restoring antique tube radios into a small business (and AM radio still sounds like crap...oh well). Even my mom has a stupid plastic boombox on her desk that she listens to ABBA and Karen Carpenter on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted February 29, 2004 Share Posted February 29, 2004 ---------------- On 2/29/2004 6:06:07 PM DaddyDee wrote: True enough! Santa brought my first stereo. Not just a record player, but two speakers. (and the "Brigadoon" album) I would lie on the floor with my head between them so I could hear the music without turning it up loud enough to get in trouble. Later when I saved a few pennies and got "realistic" headphones from Radio Shack, wow. It was Magical Mystery Tour time. ---------------- HAHA -- I can definitely relate! I remember doing the same "giant headphone" routine with the detachable speakers from an old stereo phonograph rig. I think it was a Motorola maybe, not sure though. But it was a big plastic thing that you sat on a low stand. The turntable folded out to the front, and the speakers folded out from the sides to face the front. I thought it was a killer when I was 10-12 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 That's kind of the point. Most of us on this forum - uh, wait a minute. I was going to say something like "most of us on this forum tend to be adult males..." and then go on to make the point that today's adolescent males have Gamecubes and XBoxes and stuff, and that almost any 10 or 12 year old boy would rather use a gun to shoot legions of advancing slime droids than sit and listen passively to music, and when they grow up they have no inclination to spend money on stereos, and the longer this trend continues the more of a fringe group audiophiles are going to become. However, I realized I have no idea what I'm talking about. For all I know, 80% of the people on the forum are adolescent males who *DO* prefer listening to music than playing video games. Anybody remember if there was ever any poll or survey that said "So, who are you, how old are you, and why are you here?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 Realistic headphones - oh yeah baby - do I remember those!!! I dont know about this stereo vanishing thing though - almost everyone I know either has a stereo or some enormous home cinema thing with dozens of speakers dotted around their living room. In fact I can only think of 2 couples who dont - my parents (radio in every room) and my daughter's god parents who also have a seemingly inexhaustable supply of cheap radios. One thing I have noticed however. There are an awful lot of stores selling the all in one little units that light up like some kind of insane fireworks display come disco. The funny thing is that despite the fact that these are all over the shelves of the stores I dont know anyone who has one, or if they do they have tucked it away from site. Does anyone still get turned on by: Looks horrendous to me - what kind of house would this go in? (Note - this is a philips - and they are usually more restrained than most!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartdude Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 I have friends with stereos, but they're not serious about them (except for a few). I think as more HDTV becomes available, home theater systems will follow as people will want to create a theatre like sound for the picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 Having lived through the transition from the 50s tube HiFi with horn-loaded speakers through the very interesting situation we have today, I hold on to the theory that distortion killed the interest in audio, and especially classical music reproduction. There was a base of intense audio interest, and $ to spend as of the end of the 50s. That interest was based on the sound that we are now re-discovering .. efficient speakers and amplifiers that delivered low distortion at low power. The transistor made it possible to sell electronics that cost almost nothing to build, to people who had been convinced that they were buying into an improvement over the tube sound that got their attention in the first place. After that, it was just one piece of equipment after another, trying to regain that original musical experience. It was a wonderful time for the sellers of cheap ss junk, and a frustrating time for designers who were trying to maintain standards, and confusing time for listeners. People who first heard audio playback during that time (which extends to now) had no idea what the fuss was about .. Since in all sounded so bad, Why not just get a boom-box. In an excellent example of capitalism at its most self-destructive, the audio industry poisoned its market. Now there are very few people who even know what they are missing. I see very few young people at the acoustic audio events I attend. When listening to audio reproduction they favor sound that imitates a PA system (over which they hear most "live" audio) over a more natural presentation. There is a lot of good audio that most people have never heard. It's time for them to hear it. That's an opportunity for everyone in the business and the arts. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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