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>We live in a time of high-quality low-cost devices that play music much better than anything your parents could have bought without spending a month's grocery money.

Is that really the case? I've got some late 70s / early 80s Fisher speakers that sound almost as good as the best bookshelf speakers you can buy today. I rather enjoy the sound more than the JBL 305P studio monitors. While the Fishers are less precise, they're more enjoyable to listen to. (The trick is to put them on a desk at an angle the same way you would for studio monitors, and turn them upside down so the treble stays at ear level.)

I can't imagine Fisher costing an arm and a leg back then, and back then Fisher speakers were sold at normal electronic stores, while today high end audio has to be bought at specialty stores like Guitar Center or online. Today if you go to a Best Buy, they'll have some thousand dollar home theater speaker setup that could sound better. The average consumer thinks that is what top of the line is and sounds like, when in fact they're being sold a lie.

High end speakers were once accessible and advertised to the masses, unlike today. Today you have to be a specialist, an "audiophile", or some other niche title.

In an ever increasing mobile world, mobile speakers have taken over. While some of the in ear headphones are amazing, and I hope this trend continues, it will be a while -- if ever -- when we get portable speakers that sound decent. One of the problems is the direction of the sound, and the other is the Bluetooth compression itself leaving manufacturers to make their speakers fuzzy to counter the compression.

Depending on which Fishers you're talking about -- I'm assuming larger bookshelf size -- they could easily have been $400 brand new in 1970. CPI says that's about $2650 now.

Maybe they were $100 speakers in 1980? That would be about the same as a pair of powered JBLs now, except that you still need to get an amp for the Fishers.

$100. I believe I got them for less. They also came with an equalizer and a stereo receiver. Their equalizer technology was one of their key selling points back then. I can only imagine Bose copied this idea when it made its speakers, except with Bose you don't get much control over the EQ and without it the speakers do not sound great. Fisher speakers sound great without the fancy EQ.

edit: And for anyone who doesn't know what old high end supermarket speakers sound like from the early 80s: I have $400 headphones that are less enjoyable to listen to.

> the Beats earmuffs > the Apple earbuds

They're fashion statement, most people don't care about sound quality.

Unless you have a proper sound card / dac and a really nice headset I doubt investing in FLAC will transcend your listening experience. On top of that most people listen from their phone, during commute, at the gym etc ... no need for flac in these conditions.

It's the same thing with photography, you can get a 300$ dslr that has more options than any slr. Yet the vast majority of people will be happy with their phone camera.

Is there somewhere reliable I can go to do this kind of research before I buy speakers and/or headphones in the future?

Try Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BudgetAudiophile/

The Z Reviews YT channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3XdYJjWliOdKuZMNaTiP8Q) is a great place to get a good look at affordable/midrange equipment. That guy is a fantastic nerd.

Questions are welcome on rec.audio.high-end -- the high-end refers to quality, not price.

You can save even more money if you buy used. I have a couple of Rega amps and pairs of speakers, for music in two rooms. Total spend less than £400. Original cost would have been ridiculous. But they're just as good as when bought new.

Sources are so good these days that unless you're very picky, you can just plug your TV / laptop / phone into an amp using a cable and you're done.

> Drop the Apple earbuds in the garbage and get TRN V80 in-ear-monitors for under $50.

Awesome recommendation. I ordered these ($40 on Amazon) based on your comment and they are great. I have been using 5 year old $50 Sony earbuds which are good, but these TRNs are amazing.

My only complaint is that they are pretty heavy so I'm not sure I could run in them. For my use that doesn't matter since I have BT earbuds for workouts.

Thanks again!

Apple earbuds are incredibly high sound quality. They are just really uncomfortable in my ears. And Spotify 320kbps is as good as CD.

> And Spotify 320kbps is as good as CD

No, it really is not. But it's close enough for most.

https://petermolnar.net/spotify-how-good-is-high-quality-str...

Yes, I didn’t mean to an oscilloscope, I meant to a Homo sapiens.

While these good options may be available, average people probably simply don't know about them. How would they?

It turns out that the internet is full of information. Some of it is good, some of it bad; after a while, many people develop skills at interpreting it all.