I got to thinking about like, Amazon. To an American in 1970, the equivalent would have been Sears, the retailer that sells literally everything though an enormous catalog. They had department stores you could visit in person and they’d publish a phone book thick catalog for mail order. And there was a time that Sears could have bought Amazon outright for chump change. I remember a Tim Allen stand-up routine where he talks about mail ordering a tool from Sears, and it arrives 6 to 8 weeks later. Shipping is now usually a matter of 1-4 days.
But no, the real answer is probably wireless headphones. Like if you were showing around a tech enthusiast from 1975 around my house, the thing that would probably break his brain the most is a pair of wireless earbuds.
Not so sure about that claim. In the 70s everything was analogue. Bluetooth can barely do mp3 quality let alone CD which is still far from full analogue tape. Many headphone from back them line Sennheiser HD 414, Koss Pro/4AA, and Stax SR-X blow away anything some makes now
My issue was back then things got better every year. People chased sound quality. Now people use Bluetooth and listen to music mixed on a laptop with autotune.
I got to thinking about like, Amazon. To an American in 1970, the equivalent would have been Sears, the retailer that sells literally everything though an enormous catalog. They had department stores you could visit in person and they’d publish a phone book thick catalog for mail order. And there was a time that Sears could have bought Amazon outright for chump change. I remember a Tim Allen stand-up routine where he talks about mail ordering a tool from Sears, and it arrives 6 to 8 weeks later. Shipping is now usually a matter of 1-4 days.
But no, the real answer is probably wireless headphones. Like if you were showing around a tech enthusiast from 1975 around my house, the thing that would probably break his brain the most is a pair of wireless earbuds.
Indeed, Sears had every chance to become Amazon. I kind of miss my old Sony Walkman with the foam earpads.
Unfortunately they don’t sound near as good. Maybe in the future they will.
Compared to a lot of headphones available in the 1970’s they sound amazing.
Not so sure about that claim. In the 70s everything was analogue. Bluetooth can barely do mp3 quality let alone CD which is still far from full analogue tape. Many headphone from back them line Sennheiser HD 414, Koss Pro/4AA, and Stax SR-X blow away anything some makes now
Allow me to re-state, with emphasis:
Compared to
A LOT
of headphones available in the 1970’s, they sound amazing.
Yeah, there’s been good audio gear for decades, but there was also utter garboleum.
My issue was back then things got better every year. People chased sound quality. Now people use Bluetooth and listen to music mixed on a laptop with autotune.
Christians of Lemmy: You think your god would have bothered creating the universe if he knew it would inevitably lead to the existence of audiophiles?
Let me guess it’s okay to appreciate good food. It’s okay to appreciate sweet touching. But it’s not okay to appreciate good audio. Gotcha
It’s one thing to appreciate good audio, it’s another to be so snobbish about it to the point of academic dishonesty.