Ever since I was a kid growing up in the sixties, I loved music. I remember going over to my cousins house and seeing his father's listening area in his basement. He loved opera and had a real nice stereo system. I remember thinking I would like to have a room where I could listen to my records. There is something about listening to vinyl that is intoxicating. I loved the sound of the needle on the record.
Essential to any swank pad is the Hi-Fi listening room.
Early on the Hi-Fi was a main staple to the living room
Some background on Hi-Fi from Wikipedia:
Beginning in 1948, several innovations created the conditions for a major improvement of home-audio quality:
- Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, based on technology found in Germany after the war, helped musical artists such as Bing Crosby make and distribute recordings with better fidelity.
- The advent of the 33⅓ rpm Long Play (LP) microgroove vinyl record, with lower surface noise and quantitatively specified equalization curves as well as noise-reduction and dynamic range systems. Classical music fans, who were opinion leaders in the audio market, quickly adopted LPs because, unlike with older records, most classical works would fit on a single LP.
- FM radio, with wider audio bandwidth and less susceptibility to signal interference and fading than AM radio, though AM could be heard at longer distances at night.
- Better amplifier designs, with more attention to frequency response and much higher power output capability, reproducing audio without perceptible distortion.[2]
In the 1950s, audio manufacturers the term the phrase
high fidelityas a marketing term to describe records and equipment intended to provide faithful sound reproduction. While some consumers simply interpreted
high fidelityas fancy and expensive equipment, many found the difference in quality between "hi-fi" and the then standard AM radios and 78 rpm records readily apparent and bought 33⅓ LPs, such as RCA's New Orthophonics and London's ffrrs, and high-fidelity phonographs. Audiophiles paid attention to technical characteristics and bought individual components, such as separate turntables, radio tuners,
preamplifiers, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Some enthusiasts assembled their own loudspeaker systems. In the 1950s,
hi-fi became a generic term, to some extent displacing
phonograph and
record player.
Here is some of the labels on stereo produced records.
Since Stereo was fairly new, many record companies would put out Stereo Test records out so one could listen to the benefits of stereo. The records consisted of sound effects or classical music. The record would use stereo imaging and panning of sound from left to right to give the listening a spacial experience of the music. You might say stereo was the first surround sound that we have today.
As people became more interested in stereo equipment and audiophile high end equipment, the separate listening room became popular as a place to get away and immerse one's self in the music listening experience.
To be continued..........
