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The Absolute Sound's Illustrated History of High-End Audio Volume One: Loudspeakers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ส.ค. 2024
- The Absolute Sound's Editor-In-Chief, Robert Harley, takes you on an exclusive tour of the birth of the high end's most iconic loudspeaker companies and their products. Packed with fascinating detail-including many never-before-revealed stories and photos.
This 320-page deluxe hardbound book is nearly the size of an LP cover and is richly illustrated with rare archival photos of the company founders, their workshops, and early products. In addition to in-depth profiles of major manufacturers, we've included shorter pieces on many other companies that helped shape the high-end industry, as well as new TAS commentary on the most influential loudspeakers of each era. And to make the book truly definitive, we've added a series of features on landmark technological developments, trends, and the overall history of high-end loudspeakers.
Order your copy of the book today at www.tasbook.com
Bring the book back and make it available again.
I used to have all the Absolute Sound books and a decent stereo back in the 80’s! I had a Perreaux (sp) amp and pre-amp, a Tandberg 1/2 track reel to reel and cassette deck, those massive Accoustat electrostatic 6 + speakers, among other things. Unfortunately I couldn’t go super high end but it wasn’t a bad starter. I What a great memory from the past. I even donated some money when one of the houses had fire damage. Thank you!
That listening room is hilariously epic. Wow
What even are those speakers? I would like to live inside them, I would like to be buried inside them
@@WeeWeeJumbo 😂🎉😂🎉😅😊😅😊😂🎉😂🎉😅😊😅😊😂🎉😂🎉😅😊😅😊😂🎉😂🎉
That pic of Wilson in his garage is pretty cool. All of em really .
Man, I used to read the Absolute Sound magazine back in the 80’s. Hilarious and one of the only HONEST audiophile magazines of the decade. If you are REALLY the absolute sound and not some name steal or rip off I would LOVE to get some of your old issues. I imagine the originals (which I have somewhere) are worth some $$ but a hardback collection should be affordable.
Gosh, I hope you are the originals. I got more laughs and real information from The Absolute Sound than any other publication, probably ever produced. No Fear.
The good old days. I had some Accoustat 7 foot 10 inch electrostatic speakers with perreau pre and post amps with a Tandberg cassette and separate real to real tape player. Man, I miss those days and the sound that came from these systems. It’s impossible to understand if you haven’t heard one of these real stereo set-ups.
I remember when Harry’s house burned down with his equipment. I even sent him some money to rebuild.
Are you those guys? If you are really them I am sure you could find me in your subscriber database. I am not in California, but if you could supply me with my original address, you have a guaranteed sale. The name was Jonathan Hemmila.
Gosh, you don’t even say hi or remember me! I guessI made a mistake valuing you. How sad that makes me.
@@grumpyoldwizard wtf
As many of the speakers in this book cost well over 100,000 dollars, you should charge at least $250 for this fine book!
I will be purchasing two copies to use as bases for my speaker stands. They have excellent damping characteristics.
This is a big advertisement for speaker companies...why should we be paying $250 for an advertisement?
Ryan II I bought the book anyway. Great historical reference guide.
Ryan II Because the books have excellent damping characteristics. They are 'tweeks'
LOL NO ... I don't PAY to be advertised to ... obviously many of the companies represented in the book paid big bucks to be placed in it .. much like they do in a magazine. To pay for such a thing you'd have to be worse than stupid quite honestly. That's something I hope wouldnt' be lost on TAS - i seem to remember reading a number of opinion pieces on the perils of advertising in audio journals in the 70s ... i guess they've really changed their tune!
Well said. The bizzare world of overpriced nothingness.
It's a premium quality coffee table book that's why it's expensive. Photography, paper quality, stitching all of the highest quality. If you want to see obscenely priced, heavily marked up books, have a look in a university text book store.
It's a lovely book, I saw it at a local showroom. I'm sure the amplifiers edition is also great. Too bad it costs so damn much.
I want this book!
Beautiful book I didn't have the money at the show in Newport but I will buy it for sure ....
Woow ....!!! Magico Q7 II That's absolute awesome... 400 pounds each & $675,000 the pair...this is definitive for people who know of good audio and exquisite taste for music. Bravo..!!!
Love those B&W Nautilus 801s and those MBLs....WOW!
I will love to buy one ...history what I like ...
You'll never find more trolls than at a High End audio site.
the TAS Book domain name is up for grabs.
Is there still a way to obtain this work
Speaking (no pun intended) as a former retailer of the Plasmatronics loudspeaker, and as a former owner of Harold Beveridge electrostatic loudspeakers, TAS gives short shrift to these two legendary designs. And I suspect it is because no one on TAS's writing or editing staff have any first person experience with these designs -- they predate their high-end audio enthusiast origins. [Faint praise found 5 minutes into video.] Plasmatronics: hillplasmatronics.com/ Harold Beveridge: bevaudio.com/history.html
Both of those designs were developed or updated when TAS was alive, so they do not predate their interest in hi end. Don't know if they were ever reviewed by TAS and if they are mentioned in this book, but they should.
At 5 minutes into this video, Plasmatronics and Beveridge are named . . . fleetingly.
, any time you have to have furniture movers under " Each Amp " and your speakers are bigger than you and require a forklift to move, you may have an issue and be obsessed with sound just a bit I would say, lol
Setting aside sonic presentation for a bit, any comments on the most beautiful speakers ever made? I think the Sonus Faber Serafino is the most attractive speaker I've ever seen.
Song: Modern Jazz Samba by Kevin MacLeod
And I thought I had a bass suck-out in my set up with an open kitchen door to the side and rear of my left speaker. Look what they have to contend with: a completely open left side with a walled off right, and a fire place cavity in the center front. I'm going to assume they've put damping material in the fireplace (at minimum). But shouldn't they be setting up another listening room? Seems so if they're going to properly evaluate components there.
NO FMI?! Robert fulton was the pioneer of cables
All I have is a Schiit Magni2/Modi2 setup for my headphones.
People who read your magazine don't listen to music; they listen to stereo equipment.
I guess it's an innocent enough passion, unless your kids don't have enough to eat, ha ha. I helped a couple friends put together high-end systems back in the days of LPs. And I found that for some weeks afterward, it was hard for me to just lose myself in the music coming from my own stereo, which of course is the only way to listen. It was difficult for me to turn off the critical, analytical mindset necessary for comparing gear.
We audiophiles need to develop a switch that enables us to flip from one mindset to the other. Once we've done the research and the comparative evaluations, have made our choices and purchases, and have hooked up our new gear, we have to forget about that gear and just get absorbed by the music's magic. Or we defeat our purpose, no?.
Audiophiles are far from music lovers. A music lover buys his stereo gear once. An audiophile keeps buying new stuff without putting even a thousand hours on the old stuff. Audiophiles love equipment, not music.
Audiophiles love music, and have lots of good music at home,but they love equipment too.i´ve been seeling highend audio for more than 25 years and visit hundreds of audiophiles and clients, and only a few prefer equipment than music, and even those they have lots of music.
ClassicPerformances2
I am always right.
People who listen to music, don't need such equipment. And why is it that every acoustic engineer that I would give time for, has a simple set up cost $100's rather than $100,000's. What is it they know that reviewers don't?
what about the Technics SB-M1 or SB-9500?
is FMI fulton, beveridge in the book?
My wife would kill me if I had your set in my living room.
Really 480p ??
Does the late Dr Bose feature in your wonderful looking book?
That's what I was thinking!!! I wonder what he would think about the "speakers" (toys) that his company makes nowadays???
He sounds so robotic. Is he real?
No mentioning of Cabasse !!!?
to people that do not k the book has hand stitched bindings and the paper is very high quality and that y it is expensive
I from Mexico City..
Where can I buy that book?
480p. Really?
Probably so we can't pause the video, see the images or read what it says in the book properly, lol.
Harley is an audiophile!ehehehehheehh...
HeadphoneAddictCOM
what speakers are those?
Magico Q7's
I always feel that truly great loudspeakers must also be beautiful pieces of sculpture. Most audiophiles live with some who does not wholly share their passion so there is a limit to the compromises that can be made. So much of the equipment in the book is so photogenic. Pity Robert Harley is standing next to some really ugly speakers in the intro !
Those really ugly speakers are also among the best in the world (well they were at the time anyways), the Magico Q7's.
@@CockatooDude the might sound great but i could never relax to the sound they produce as they look like to giant black coffins! They should only be used the way the late founder of SME listened which was to hide the speakers behind acoustically transparent curtains.
A $125 advertisement catalogue.
No crap! I looked up one on Amazon and I was like DAM!!! $100+ dollars? High end audio even makes paper 1000 times more expensive.
There's gotta be a way to make his listening room look nicer than that.
That an ugly style of architecture for sure!
I could never sit and relax to music in that place, oh so ugly equipment in a hideous beige stupidly sized room. It represents everything foreigners mock about rich Americans, tacky, tasteless and overdone!
Anybody know what those speakers are in his listening room?
Darianne Schramm Thanks! They're a tad bit out of my price range by about ohhh - "sticker price" but that's ok I guess.
Who am I kidding. I can't even afford to dream about these beauties. I'm soooo wetting the bed tonight...
FrakU2 I can't even afford the carpet shampoo that goes into the carpet cleaner that cleans the carpet those speaker are standing on.
That's for sure.
We at the absolute sound like to justify spending a ton of money on stuff that doesn't sound any better than much less expensive stuff.
+Ester Samuels Many high end speakers are not just for amazing sound, but many are considered art pieces as well as being a speaker.
+Dragon Steel That's where you lose me. You sound like one of the thousands of fools that bought beats by dre headphones because of the design and advertising, in spite of the the fact that the quality of the headphones is shit. When it comes to speakers, function has to come over form.
Leggo My Ego No, no beatz, not into those, not at all. If I am going to buy headphones in the range of $300, I'd get JBL Everest (elite) or Bose.
Leggo My Ego Some beats are better than others.
+Ester Samuels It's more than just spending money on something that sounds better. It is a passion, hobby, something to focus his energy and thought on. He belongs to a group of peers that share his interest. That is their thing. He has been lucky enough in life to be able to afford something that he can truly be proud of. If this was a video of someone who spent 5 years of evenings and weekends building a classic car. Spending countless thousands of dollars on parts and sublet work for his dream, most people wouldn't bat an eye. Many may not understand.
As for sounding better. I cannot comment as I have not heard his setup compared to what you have listened to. But I can deduce from my own experience that a increase in cost does increase "fidelity". However, I believe there are diminishing returns the more you spend. To a lot of people 6 figures for a stereo is an obscene amount of money. So is a Mastercraft wake boarding boat you only use 6 times a year. Or a Motor-home when one can simply tent.
there is no such thing as high end audio......and I agree that I don't need a book to tell me what my ears can hear!!! very nice room you have there!! just want to add that they just don't make stereo equipment like the old days..I will match my old Marantz with any receiver they make on the market today like Onkyo Pioneer Denon ect. gave up on any of them receivers and went back to my Marantz to my ears it sounds much better then the plastic receivers on the market there making today!!!! I'm sure your book has some useful informations but I just let my ears tell me!
Absolute Sound aka Kickback City
Magico Q-7's cost over 60 thousand for the set...
I hope all pure mind people buy.
wow - you've managed to get consumers to pay for companies advertising! But then - I guess that's what Absolute Sound and other audiophile magazines have been doing for years...
Your kidding me in 2014
Bring back Enid Lumley!
Too late: hifiauditions.wordpress.com/2020/04/04/who-was-enid-lumley/
Thích thú vô cùng
Not everyone can hear the same, some have more highly tuned ears than others, some couldn't tell the difference between a cheap Olson speaker and one of the trillion dollar outer space ones you have in the book.
Lol!!! $130. for a circular! See what you audiophools get for spending $10,000 on cables?
Why should I trust your expertise on sound when you are incapable of getting a decent quality recording of yourself? There is clearly a ground issue with your mic. Were you incapable of hearing this on your $100k speakers?
LOL, that book sales will get him his next pair of super high end speakers.
If you heard his system you will change your mind.He has helped many to build up good sounding systems including the one I have.
Nick Huggins Some ppl like to think that education videos like this does not need to have good recordings. I mean like what. This video isnt meant for entertainment.
This video sounds good to me. I understood everything he said. What's the problem really.
This guy is a complete and utter moron! He believes transferring your files form CD to a hard drive improves the sound... he hears the improvement so must be on drug or something. He should change his name to THE Absolute Idiot! Quote form his book is absolute bollucks. ""I've compared the sound of state-of-art CD transports to music servers playing the same music through the same digital-to-analogue converter and digital cable. I first ripped the CD to the server, put the CD in the transport, and compared the two. The sound from the server was smoother in the treble with a more delicate rendering of treble detail. The sound stage was improved when music was sourced from the server more spacious, greater image focus, increased depth, and an overall more convincing impression of instruments existing in space within the recorded acoustic. There was also a greater sense of ease and musical involvement. In short, transferring your CDs to server will improve the sound of your library."
It is this kind of elitism that killed audio people. In the 60's companies like AR used to take their gear to shopping malls for people to hear, and people used to own stereos. (that were reasonably good) This elitism killed that. Even though music is important in all our lives, stereo equipment is the one thing you NEVER see advertised, ever. I see commercials for every type of product on my TV every day.... except stereo gear. When was the last time you saw a commercial for speakers, or some ones latest tube pre-amp? Not in your lifetime.... It is a genuine crime, and TAS is one of the culprits.
Back in 70s when owning stereo equip was very popular it was advertised both on TV and the radio. I'm old enough to remember. Nowadays not enough people are interested to justify the expense of TV commercials. Quality audio today consists mostly of specialty products for a fringe market with audio manufacturers being too small to afford TV adverts.
How is it a crime? It's a niche market for those who are willing and able to spend that money. No different from expensive cars, boats, watches etc.
@@musamusashiall hobbyists take themselves, and their hobby, and the fate of their hobby, way too seriously
the book does not for sale anymore, must be low sale. reviews can be bias, i don't trust the book.
They seem to appreciate the high end design more than the sound these ridiculously overpriced speakers produce. It is like to all those audiophiles (friggin hate that word) the speakers are like furniture or something.
130 dollars for the book
how to ruin your living room !
What a F....
Why is it that high-end speakers are so bloody ugly?
These Loudspeakers must be GMO,it's look like you parked Catepillar digger in your living room,or maybe they are grown up over the years.just kidding
This is BS as you don't even mention Japanese brands
Stax electrostatics are probably there, but most Japanese brands aren't in the hi end speakers markets as much as in the amplifiers one.
@@musamusashi Hi-end is a pretty young notion when you speak about history and very subjective too, so the japanese were always there and should be mentioned. Eg. you can't make a supercar history without mentioning italian or french or whatever
@@alexander_mmm young as in 50 years old? Which speaker design came out of Japan in that niche segment of the market? Why most Japanese enthusiasts run American speakers with Japanese or American electronics?
Not defending their choices and i've not personally seen the book to know what is included and what not, but beside those Stax electrostatics i mentioned, i cannot think of a truly hi end Japanese speaker system. Although Fostex, Pioneer and Technics all produced some nice horn loaded systems at some point, they are not up there at the top in terms of speaker design innovations.
Anyway, no big deal or anything to argue about, have a great day.