Also, a clerk at Abt told me that Marantz was still around, the "luxury" division of some other once great hi fi manufacturer.... what's the point? It's been reduced to marketing, with the same crapola inside. It's like those Chevys and Pontiacs that were really manufactured by Daewoo... everybody knows thay were fake as three dollar bills. Or the "Cadillac" Cimmaron, which everyone knew was a flaming turd Cavalier with a Brougham package. Was anybody really fooled?
Marantz is still making some stuff, and since they sell it at Bay Bloor Radio, I have a feeling it's actually good. I'll stick to my tubes though 
https://baybloorradio.com/marantz-pm6007-integrated-amplifier
https://baybloorradio.com/marantz-pm6007-integrated-amplifier
call me anachronistic, but I always thought of a stereo system as something mass market and average quality, but Hi-Fi was a better grade
There are at least four shops in my hometown that sell audio equipment. The Bang & Olufsen centre appears to only have Bluetooth and WiFi stuff nowadays. Hi-Fi Klubben has some old-fashioned wired loudspeakers. Elres mainly has radios and record players with built-in loudspeakers and WiFi/Bluetooth speakers, but they still have some component equipment. Van den Eijnde Audio has old-fashioned high-end equipment with separate turntables, amplifiers and loudspeakers, usually with valves in the amplifiers.
This is probably true in some places.
A Google image search for "Hi-Fi" and this is the second result: https://www.philips.ca/c-p/FWM200D_37/mini-hi-fi-system
It actually didn't show be what I think of as a hi-fi... I had to search for hi-fi console...
I don't doubt it's good. I've reverse engineered a few dumpster AV receivers and at least one was pretty good. One (I remember it was a Sony) sounded terrible no matter how you set the digital tone controls.
One thing they all had in common was decent powerful amplifiers. They also all had extensive switching and signal processing that significantly degraded sound quality. I took one that was frozen (brain dead) and ripped out everything but the power amplifiers and power supply. I put an active crossover and control and safety board designed and built by me and I was stunned at how excellent it was! Super clean and super powerful. Also, my rendition had lower output offset voltage by a factor of ten (I think it went from 60mV to 5mV). Was the original grounding scheme that bad? Nobody has engineers that know how to get the maximum performance out of a given design?
For a while I worked with the Japanese. They constantly improve everything and leave nothing on the table. I personally think it's unethical to run a company any other way. What passes for brand names now in entirely bogus, 100% smoke and mirrors. The Chinese (Geely) are building Alfa Romeos now. Everything is decided by myopic bean counters.
One thing they all had in common was decent powerful amplifiers. They also all had extensive switching and signal processing that significantly degraded sound quality. I took one that was frozen (brain dead) and ripped out everything but the power amplifiers and power supply. I put an active crossover and control and safety board designed and built by me and I was stunned at how excellent it was! Super clean and super powerful. Also, my rendition had lower output offset voltage by a factor of ten (I think it went from 60mV to 5mV). Was the original grounding scheme that bad? Nobody has engineers that know how to get the maximum performance out of a given design?
For a while I worked with the Japanese. They constantly improve everything and leave nothing on the table. I personally think it's unethical to run a company any other way. What passes for brand names now in entirely bogus, 100% smoke and mirrors. The Chinese (Geely) are building Alfa Romeos now. Everything is decided by myopic bean counters.
I'm sure that boombox will play loud and... well I'm sure it'll play loud.
I remember those old consoles. Some of them were pretty good. But real geeks had to buy separates. By the 1970s there were much better speakers available in much smaller packages. But the real geek stuff was still big.
I remember those old consoles. Some of them were pretty good. But real geeks had to buy separates. By the 1970s there were much better speakers available in much smaller packages. But the real geek stuff was still big.
It saved it, maybe lifted it, is a more accurate term, when CD first hit the mass-market (1983 or 1984), I recall that it launched a huge re-interest in home audio reproduction. People were excited just to experience "perfect sound forever" at home. Soon, everyone wanted a CD-player, then more powerful amplifiers, and new speakers to supposedly 'handle' the new digital format. Plus, the recording companies got to re-sell their catalog in the new (much more expensive) digital format, to consumers who already owned the same music on vinyl. ,
It eventually killed it, because it seems much of the passion justifying significant consumer investment in home listening via vinyl playback seems to become significantly neutralized via digital playback, for whatever reasons, although certainly a few of the following reasons are responsible. Other digital technologies, computers, video games and TVs, began significantly competing for and eating in to the consumer's entertainment budget about that same time.
So, today, while it seems that kids enjoy music as much as ever, digital technology now allows them to carry around an entire music library in the palm of their hand. They simply buy, at best, a Beats headphone and a pocket digital playback unit. Then conveniently can have their entire music library with them at all times, and wherever they may be. Whether in planes, trains or automobiles - a fun film, by the way. There's no need to purchase a costly home component HiFi system. No expensive speakers, or power amplifiers, or etc.
Just my opinion.
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There used to be at least three good HiFi shops in my area, now all three are out of business.
CD compatible speakers? You mean "digital" speakers? No such thing. The word "digital" has been used by marketing aholes just like "organic." 100% crapola. Totally meaningless.
I remember arguing with people when those "digital" speakers came out. Speakers are analog devices. But it says "digital" so we automatically get to circumvent reality and violate the laws of physics.
I remember arguing with people when those "digital" speakers came out. Speakers are analog devices. But it says "digital" so we automatically get to circumvent reality and violate the laws of physics.
This exactly what should happen...when your society is controlled by malignant capitalism.
You mean “Digital Ready”. It always made me snicker about it too. Especially considering how bad CDs were at the time. Nobody knew how to master them, and all the little tricks they used in the studio to make LPs workable just plain backfired. Recording engineers had to learn how to walk all over again, then things improved.
A truly “digital ready” speaker would be one that can reproduce the 6 Hz cannon shots on that 1812 Overture recording. You know, the “digital cannons”. ROTFL, since any speaker that fits in the living room won’t cut the mustard.
Organic is pretty well-defined here, although it has little if anything to do with loudspeakers.
One no longer needs a permanent home, or even their own car, in order to listen to music. You just need to be constantly plugged into the internet (or your device will refuse to work, eventually). The latter of course, is by design.