Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 13, 2022

Because his eyes and ears are both now bad.

That is true. Much less work and with good ear buds sounds great and I don’t have to listen to “It’s too loud, can you turn it down?”

Can’t get a good bass note out of that.

Yep. I still have my top-of-the-line stereo system that I assembled the 1970s, but I don’t listen to it any more, since the nuances of the high-fidelity are lost to my deteriorated hearing. A commodity computer sound card and tiny speakers sound just the same to me now as the whiz-bang component audio system. :(

My stereo then is my stereo now. Nothing can sound better than vinyl.

I remember back in 1980 I had a 10 1/2 inch reel to reel tape deck. It held 12 hours of music on a single 7200 foot reel. Now I can hold 5 MONTHS of music on a microSD card no bigger than my fingernail!

As life gets better and better. Better to sleep through.

I can’t believe I’m the first to complain about JJ peeking in the windows. This is just like my respective setups, right down to the Lava Lamp. One exception is the reel to reel; had already outgrown mine years earlier.

My stereo and TV then cost 4K. My TV now is 4K.

Can’t relate. I have far more audio equipment now than I had as a young man.

I have a sound bar I can run the tv through, or Bluetooth from my phone. Ah, technology.

I still have that tv on a shelf in the garage. You never know when Hollywood might need one for a 1970’s movie set.

I have an entertainment computer hooked to the set with stereo speakers hooked to an amplifier. I use Music Bee to listen to my music and get a visualizer on the set. Works for me. I don’t care about nuance, just the songs straight up. I have everything from country to Gregorian Chants too.

How the mighty has fallen. But I still have all my records. Took to long to get them <3

A worthy comic. I recall a Zits wherein Dad bragged to son that when he was his son’s age he “had the largest speakers on the block.” The son replied, “you must have been profoundly embarrassed.”

Didn’t Arlo have a moustache then?

sorry Arlo, that isn’t true stereo…

My st(ee)reo’s the same, if not more so but, thankfully, the TV’s bigger.

And the lava lamp is replaced by a screensaver on the television. Sometimes progress isn’t progress.

At my age with the state of my hearing (actually pretty good for said age), downloaded Youtube music on a USB is quite satisfactory. And it’s free.

My bassoon in high school cost about $1500. Nowadays something like it would top $20,000

My nephew got into vinyl a few years ago. All of his friends, also into vinyl, are jealous of his collection. Mostly donated by his many aunts and uncles. He has a ton of late 60’s to late 70’s albums. Including an original Aerosmith, some Alice Cooper, and even the complete Partridge Family.

Wow, a reel to reel tape player? I’m 57, and that was already obsolete by the time I was six or seven years old.

Oh yeah! Those were the days!

My TV now is somewhat larger, but is HD; my stereo is now 5.1 Surround. BTW, “Surround” is now kind of a revelation to me. We are at the mercy of whoever “mixed” it, and IMNSHO, very few of them do a good job of it. The Center Speaker gets way too much of the sound, and the “back” speakers get far too little. This problem can be somewhat alleviated by tweaking the volume levels of the individual speakers, but only some of the content I have listened to really sounds great to me…

Jimmy Johnson, you did a great job (art work) on portraying the audio and visual systems through time! [Applause]

No, Arlo, that is not a “stereo”; that is a monaural source with truly fecal sound “quality”, playing MP3s – which (completely overlooking the downgrade from analog to digital) lose about 20% of the musical information during conversion.

You can improve your listening experience somewhat by using headphones (which are not to be confused with earbuds), but you’re still dealing with MP3s.

wow…..soooo true… my huge speakers now serve as a plant stand and my phase linear amp sits quietly inside an armoire….meanwhile sitting on the mantle illuminating the entire room…..

somewhat associated thought: It always surprises me that Americans will spend tons on something and skimp terribly on an important support item: ex. 1 from back in the day… $600 TV, $2.50 antenna; $40,000 car (that used to be a lot), discount (even retread) tires.

Two words “Sonos” and “Soundbar” Does it all amazingly. Never mind surround sound, multiple speakers, sub this and phase that. Put it in your phone/Ipad/laptop and you own the music world.

I have a small stereo (true stereo, not Alexa) in my living room. It’s a Bose Wave.My hearing is still pretty good for age 75, so I really want good, room-filling sound where I can distinguish left from right.

i still say the first frame was better.

I don’t see Arlo’s eight tack tape player.

This is so true. The progress of electronics

Better audio and video technology, but what a decline in the quality of programs presented.

This one is pretty good. Plus, we haven’t seen his dopey son’s family in a while, so that’s a bonus.

Just put on Floyd or King Crimson