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Through out the Fifties, with the coming of 45 rpm records, more and more households purchased phonographs. Though there were a few stately cabinet systems around and large home jukeboxes, most consumers made due with the small portable models, and were quite content.
The early Sixties heralded the space age and the coming of age of the Transistor Radio. Poor sound quality was offset by convenience low cost, size, and the masses just didn't seem to mind that the sound kept getting smaller. Stereo had arrived in full force by 1963. Once again, our Servicemen were returning home from Europe and the far East only now they were bringing home with them large, powerful, stereo systems that would cost thousands of dollars if they could of even been purchased in the USA, but our taste had been wetted . College students spent every dime their parents would send them on the biggest stereo they could squeeze into their Dorms. When they brought them home for the summer, the neighbors almost died of shock! Then 8-track cartridge players hit the market in 1965 and the Automobile would never be the same.
In 1970, both home and car audio got a big push by the coming of the Cassette player. In 1972, the first Stereo price wars erupted between Stereo manufacturers here in the States, and Pioneer, Sony, and Hitachi. Prices started to fall while features and power shot up. Hi-fi audio was becoming affordable enough for impulse buyers, those people who would buy anything that their friends already had or were talking about.
1974 saw 4-channel Stereo arrive on "Reel to Reel" and 8-Track. After a brief flurry of interest however, consumers turned their backs on the expense of the equipment, lack of music selection in that format, and most telling of all, the problem of having 4 speakers in the way all the time. Men could tolerate them on principle; Women hated them with a passion!
Today, we’ve come full circle at last. Now, with most everybody aware of Home Theater and it's jargon, people are looking for choices and the rush is on to give them plenty to choose from. Only one little catch though; now you need 5 or 6 speakers to do it right, and though there are some values to be had, and the age bracket of "move up" homeowners has decreased from 58 yrs. old in 1965 to 31 yrs. old today, some things never change. All that hardware costs money, takes up space, and Housewives don't want to "junk up" their living rooms with speakers!
So.....now that there's plenty of amplifier power to spare, and people want both quality, a fair price, and something different from the norm, Audio Transducers appeal to a wider cross section of consumer than any other speaker system!
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