Putting Curtains in the Man-Cave

November 1975, the Date when Sony opened Pandora's Box! Why would I put a picture of the first Betamax player in an article about how Stereo is in the middle of it's golden age?  The conventional wisdom is that the VCR ushered in the doom ("Doom, I say!") of the home stereo, and we've watched a multiple decades death scene as people lose interest in stereo playback given the new options like home theater, mp3 players, and streaming services on headphones. The golden age of stereo system was from about 1950 until about 1980 where people chose to fill their evenings with glorious music and companies poured their efforts and money into 2 channel playback ... The conventional wisdom was right in its facts - but wrong in conclusion ... The Thing is, the Golden Age, wasn't ... Before the VCR, there were a few simple truths that is easy to forget if you are over 40, and unbelievable if you are under it:  The only commonly available source of prerecorded perfor

Except, they really are not competitors. Interesting article in the link below.  Says that digital downloads dropped 6% in 2013.  They compare it to the continued rise of vinyl sales. While we're all very happy to see vinyl continuing to grow in popularity, since it really does bring a lot of good sound to the table, we are a little skeptical that MP3 and Vinyl are actual competitors since most of the folks use MP3 and LP's differently. I think it isn't surprising that MP3 continue to fade in the face of streaming services which offer the ultimate in convenience and cost reduction. What would be interesting is to track the progress (or retreat) of LP and high resolution downloads over time.  Since those tend to be more "event" than "sonic wallpaper."  But, honestly, if you are dedicated to music, you will be invested in multiple formats both high and low quality and fill your day with music when you can, and enjoy the silence when you can't