[Sonnova]

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:52:15 -0700, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Harry Lavo" wrote in message


Keep in mind he did most of his reviewing back in the
sixties, when there was much greater differences among
gear than there is today,

Exactly. Audio in the 50s and 60s was pretty horrific - all we had was tubes
and vinyl.

Both of which could be excellent (Vinyl and possibly FM was all most
audiophiles had as signal sources), but there was a lot more variability in
electronics then than there is now. Today, there is little difference between
a good tube amp and a good solid-state amp.

If you listen to artists who worked steadily from the 60s to the 90s, there
is a magnificent improvement in general sound quality, which was pretty much
fully manifest in the late 70s and early 80s.

Absolutely.

and double-blind testing for
audio gear had not yet become the burning issue it has
been in the nineties and thereafter.

90's? DBTs were such a relevant issue in the mid-70s that they obliged us
to invent ABX.

But in the 50's and 60's DBT was all but unheard of in the audio community.
It existed, of course, having been used in such things as pharmaceutical
testing for decades.