FFLink13 wrote:
I can't believe you, of all people, Freezer, are saying that old Technology (Keyword: Technology (The thing that gets improved every month in hundreds of ways)) is better than new technology regarding yours and Sup's bitch topic.
You're being naive.
What I'm saying is that the development reached a peak in the late 70's that still to this day hasn't been improved upon. 95% of all amplifiers made today use the exact same technology -literally-, and 80% of those are cheap Chinese abominations that use it to a much, much less refined extent.
If you look at the specifications of, for example, the top-of-the-line 1982
Luxman L-05 and the
Marantz TOTL in question, you'll notice that they're very similar, and that, in fact, the Luxman comes off marginally better. Costing around 3300 dollars in 1982, which translates to roughly 7000 modern dollars, the price wasn't all that far off either.
Then comes the thing that makes it so hard to compare prices between modern and vintage gear: The audio market inflation. Like I mentioned earlier in the thread (I don't expect you to have read that), the market for higher-end audio gear has almost disappeared since the small and cheap solutions started popping up in the 80's. Small radios, cassette players and such became a huge hit, as they could give you sound at a very low cost compared to the bookshelf systems of the time. Soon, the sales of those surpassed that of real gear, forcing manufacturers to cut costs and go with the flow. Did you know that Sony, a brand today associated with cheap plastic things, once was a quite highly regarded hi-fi manufacturer? Did you know that Pioneer, the company that makes all those cheap car stereos, once made
the most recognized receiver ever made? The few, like Marantz, that kept on producing top-end stuff had to ramp up the prices for those to compensate for the lost profit. Supply and demand in all its glory.
The one thing that remains to be compared, however, is specifications. Specifications have been measured in the same way for a long time, and they're usually comparable between old and new technology, at least when dealing higher-end modern stuff. Did you know that the standard for rating output power in the 70's was at 0.1% distortion? Today, the de-facto standard is 10%. That's a hundred times more, and it should give a nudge about what has happened in later years.
TL;DR: Today, the main focus of the market is low production cost. The only things that don't have that focus are top-of-the-line. That wasn't the case 35 years ago.
Last edited by Freezer7Pro (2009-06-15 16:03:41)
