Back in '73, my friend Sam had a shut-in uncle who was a hifi enthusiast. (By the way, the spell check alert squiggle under the word "hifi" is offensive to me.)  He knew I liked music so he invited me in to see his setup.  AR3a speakers, ARXA turntable, and a Marantz model 19 receiver.  What an epiphany.  It didn't get any better than that back then.  I have spent a lifetime trying to capture the impact this exquisite system had on my 16 y/o ears.  But I have come to realize that Sam's uncle, and perhaps myself included, are anomalies.  When most folks hear what I have spent to achieve audio nirvana--which by the way is peanuts compared to what some high end enthusiasts will spend--they look at me like I'm nuts: even though my system is the best sound reproducer they will likely ever hear.  I have to hand it to the record labels for offering recordings that are as good as they are given the complacency of the typical listener.  And I will guaranty you that if the kids in the '60s and '70s could have cranked the bass, they would have.  The iPads and skull candies are orders of magnitude better than anything imaginable when I was growing up as far as consumer electronics is concerned.  And let them have their EQ so they can crank the bass by themselves.  Maybe that will keep the pressure off the producers among us who have to balance consumer taste with so called good taste, and I can still purchase well balanced recordings for a while longer.

It just does my head in a bit, I'm afraid. I mainly do my own stuff but occasionally get requests to rearrange/remix stuff from local bands in my area. This mainly applies to younger-ish folk, 30 and under. And when they are sitting in on the session at some point they always get this look on their face and straight away I know what it is.

I ask, "You want to hear what this will sound like in your car or your home home stereo, don't you?"

They nod and all I do is whack Ozone or H-Eq on the master bus, with a quite ridiculous boost all freq setting, engage the sub and punch the crap out of the limiter. Within seconds they're grinning and bopping along, calling me a genius. *sigh*

I suppose if that's how they've heard music played their entire life? It's probably how they've come to expect it to sound...

konradh
So, Bob Bone, are you saying you were listening to Bennie Goodman on a crystal radio set made out of an oatmeal box?
 
I saw The Beatles live (I was a kid) and that is as much as I will date myself.

No - but I DID own an actual 78 RPM recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff playing piano on his Prelude in C# Minor.
 
And cars I first owned only had AM radios in them, with single speakers.
 
And, I remember the switch in Batman to color.
 
And, while not Benny Goodman, in the 60's, as a kid, our family went to Disneyland, and we watched Tex Beneke and his band play all of the Glenn Miller stuff.  FABULOUS.  (He was a member of the original Glenn Miller Band, and took over as leader of it when Glenn died in a WWII plane crash).
 
And, I saw the Jackson Five in Chicago when MJ had a nose.
 
Bob Bone
 

The recordings of the 70s had some of the warmest mixes.

...and all the coveted Beatles and Beach Boys vinyl were all cut in mono to fit the AM squelch boxes in dad's old ford falcon.  Mixed for AM car radio, huh!  ...talk about lipstick on a pig...

And I saw ZZ Top before they had beards!! (True..... in New Orleans). 

I think this explains it very well...
 

Now THAT is funny - and sad.
 
Bob Bone
 

When I was a boy...and we liked it!

Funny, transistor radios used to be all the rage in the early 60s.  mono and the smallest speaker possible.  Didn't stop anybody back then from investing in superior hardware despite the distribuition flaws.
 
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