I've often told the story of how I got hooked on high-end audio. It was on a pair of JBL corner horns on a system powered through Audio Research electronics.
That step up from my measly Kenwood integrated amplifier driving a pair of Phased Array loudspeakers was so big as to set me on a course that would wind up consuming 50 years of my life.
That said, what's fascinating is how far we've come since those JBL corner horns. I can still recall their "sound"—hugely dynamic but cupped and hooty.
And that's thing I want to address this morning, their sound. Back in the early days of audio everything had a sound to it. Tube amps were fat and juicy, dripping with sweetener. Speakers were held back and struggling, or loud and shouty.
These deviations from accurate were so acute as to usher in the era of synergistic matching. Back then, you had to match up sweet electronics with harsh speakers (or vice versa) or you'd cringe from the listening experience.
Musical truth wasn't discussed much.
Thankfully, that era passed in the early 2000s and we entered another epoch, the age of getting the music right.
And here we are, no longer so focused on synergy to make music tolerable, but now we mix and match to get closer to the musical truth.
I am thankful for having been along for the ride, but even more appreciative of where we're at today.
The quest for musical truth.
