I was 4 years old, listening to a record on headphones connected to this rig. Leaned too far back, and caught the 1/4 inch input jack on the headphones right in my fucking eyeball.
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
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Honestly, aging capacitors and cracked motor drive belts aside, a complete hi-fi is a thing of beauty. And it's supposed to be, hence the showy front and glass case to keep the dust off.
I'm no audiophile, but with refurbished power supplies, updated noise reduction* & EQ, and modern speaker technology, that setup would be an old media blasting beast.
* - for the uninitiated, or if you're old enough to smell OP's photo, the way tape-hiss intrudes on music is just hot garbage by today's standards. So, having a way to mitigate it would be strongly advised.
Yes, but how does Huey Lewis sound on it?
LOL.
On CD? Almost as good as a new drug.
I've got news for you
oldReliable.jpg : Aux cord connected to digital music
The market for a "nice stereo" kind of died, didn't it?
Audiophiles get ridiculously high end gear that is intentionally fiddly. Like fully manual turntables where to change the speed you have to move the actual belt to a different pulley. Or you get a sound bar for your TV.
Boom boxes aren't a thing anymore. Like, is that a symptom of a dying society?
To be fair, the whole act of playing music on LP's and 45's is just... fiddly. Sleeves, cleaning the vinyl, occasionally replacing the needle, and flipping the album over after 20-30 minutes. It's like reading a book - you dedicate time to fuss with all this stuff. So, futzing with the turntable itself is kind of like a "while I'm already here" sort of thing.
Maybe just a changing one. Boomboxes were the combination of conspicuous consumption (yet down-market-ish), ready to party on the go (aspirationally), and building space for yourself with music (loud, annoying). The form-factor was also a product of its time: all the parts couldn't be miniaturized any further than what you typically got. Portable bluetooth speakers do most of that work these days, while letting your phone do the heavy lifting of playing media, and the battery life is WAY better. If that was available back in 1984, everyone would have used that instead.
Honestly, has there been any progress of high end speakers? On the low end sure, high end not so sure.
Progress has been steady as far as I can tell. We have a much better understanding of the physics now and much better material engineering.
The problem is that anything "high end" in the audio space is either for professional use, or for audiophiles, aka, expensive as all heck.
You'll probably need another mortgage to get a setup like this working in modern days with all the up to date bells and whistles.
Don't get me wrong, if you spend the cash, it will sound amazing. There's some question as to what actually helps with sound quality and what is audiophile snake oil, but even with the snake oil, it sounds great; it just costs more than it would without the snake oil, and separating the snake oil from the stuff that actually improves the sound is a nightmare.
Compared with the 1980's? IMO, absolutely, yes. At the very least we have stronger stationary magnets (neodymium) that make for more compact designs. They also need to hold up for higher and lower-end frequencies, due to how music has changed. I think the media used to make speaker cones uses more composites these days, instead of just stiff paper.
I assume engineering and materials used on higher end speakers today are better, but most are still hand made like their older counterparts. The reason why low-end mass produced speakers are much better today is because the manufacturing process is more automated. Usually handmade for mass produced stuff isn’t going to be as high quality as mass produced stuff made by a machine. This is me just speculating because I don’t work in that industry.