Audio generalities..T/F ????

waayyy back in the olden days (69/70/71 ??) I sat with an audio enthusiast friend in some club (Olongapo ?? HK ? Taipei ?) discussing the perfect audio system and keys/generalities to building it.

many of the ideas we batted around are still in SRAM ..some that I recall......
( no offenses intended to countries mentioned)

Speakers - USA (JBL-AR) & UK are the choices...Japan does make quality speakers (construction is fine, just not a full sound )

acoustic suspension was 'da bomb

Electronics - Japan shines here ...German seem fussy & unreliable ( B&O also) , US has great & crap..uneven quality.

Vinyl - Japan pressings are best

tubes are fussy & low fi ...

best gear obtainable is Swiss


anybody agree/disagree ?? remember these are 40 year old musing between 2 sloshed sailors in a foreign bar..somewhere. :dont-know:

TBH i would say all of them are rubbish today.

TAD is japanese right? Doubt Widget would agree that his 4003's does not have a full sound.

Marantz is also japanese. Their premium products are truly great.

IMO most countries make both good and bad equipment.

I think it was more or less accurate in it's day. As for TAD, I have never heard a TAD (Pro audio) system so I can't comment, but as Seawolf said, excellent construction but the complete systems always seemed a bit lacking.

Swiss the best? Nagra is and was great, some of the Revox stuff came out of Switzerland, but it was generally overly complicated and unreliable. And let's not forget Norway... Tandberg and Electrocompaniet were both fabulous.

Back in the day I was certainly a USA/UK speaker fan and by the mid 70s certainly the budding high end American brands seemed pretty tough to beat for electronics. Today, I don't think any of these generalizations hold... not to mention what does "Made in USA" or "Made in Germany" even mean anymore?

Widget

Tandberg of the past is gone. The name remains for other industries.

Electrocompaniet is still going.

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Originally Posted by timc

Tandberg of the past is gone. The name remains for other industries.

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Same is true of Ampex.


Widget

Sadly it is true for many legendary companies. For me, i think the greatest loss is Infinity. It lives on as Genesis, but still.......

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Originally Posted by Mr. Widget

Swiss the best? Nagra is and was great, some of the Revox stuff came out of Switzerland, but it was generally overly complicated and unreliable. And let's not forget Norway... Tandberg and Electrocompaniet were both fabulous.
Widget

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best R2R deck I ever heard was a Tandberg ..not a really high end one either.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Widget

Today, I don't think any of these generalizations hold... not to mention what does "Made in USA" or "Made in Germany" even mean anymore?

Widget

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well China wasnt in the picture back then....My USA made Ford truck has engine from Germany and tranny from France....the 70's were much less globalized...it was easier to make country of origin comparisons.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Widget

what does "Made in USA" or "Made in Germany" even mean anymore?

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That the owners of the company aren't looking for slave labor somewhere else? That they have a vested interest in their communities and their progeny? :dont-know:

We could argue for months on the question of vented vs acoustic suspension. For a JBL fan I'm more of a sealed box fan than you would expect. I wish JBL had tried more sealed box designs.

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Originally Posted by Don C

We could argue for months on the question of vented vs acoustic suspension. For a JBL fan I'm more of a sealed box fan than you would expect. I wish JBL had tried more sealed box designs.

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PT800 and PC600; SAM1HF and SAM2LF; S4Ai. ;)