This is a central question: what we call the "golden age" of high-fidelity is the upcoming of high performance audio gear. It started in recording studios with better microphones and tape recorders, before reaching the home audience. More dynamic, realistic and trustworthy listening experiences were now available in your living room, and not only in a live concert.
And then? In the first half of the eighties, the musical industry and the equipment faced a revolution. For musicians, electronic music instruments became popular and affordable, like the synthesizers. For high-fidelity manufacturers, a broader use of electronic chips. These chips offered an industrial advantage: one chip was able to replace dozens of transistors, diodes etc.
And that is also there that started the decline after the "golden age". The more those chips were used, the less the engineered sound signature of a brand was standing out.
Mainly coming from Japan, these new semiconductors allowed nippon brands, already strong competitors in the business, to reach mass-production and dominate the world market. The consequence was a slow decrease of the involvement of passionate highly skilled engineers in the product conception.
The new landmark was more technical, and suited well the Japanese vision of excellence. The objective was to produce a "pure sound", not tainted by distortion or by a specific tuning and balance based on "auditive taste". This goal was targeting well classical music, but something started to miss for the other musical styles.
So as the music was more "technical and modern", the gear also was also technical and modern at least in the look of the compoments, where almost all were now colored black.
And what was missing then? A concept we do cherish here at Vintage Note: the color of music.