30 Years ago

[jarra]

What HIFI mags would we have been reading 30 years ago. Are they still in print today or have they all been swallowed up and taken over.

I was influenced by one mag and ended up with a Rega Planer 2 T/T , Heybrook speakers and the Arcam A60 Int amp.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Well we celebrate our 35th anniversary this year.

But there are older publications still

 

[Andrew Everard]

Such as this one

 

[chebby]

25 - 30 years ago or so I would have been reading HiFi News & Record Review. (As an impressionable late teen - early 'twenty-something' I enjoyed a long read and lots of tests/graphs/company histories etc.)

The others (even though I bought plenty of them in the early-mid 1980s) sort of 'blend' into one big amorphous Linn/Naim 'fanzine'. (One mag even had the same 'system upgrade diagram' in every issue, for years, which was, basically, a Linn/Naim upgrade path.)

That is a very unreliable memory, and highly unfair on the many talented writers I have just lumped in together (!) but that's how I remember it. Sorry.
I stopped reading hifi mags regularly around 1987 (they got very silly) and stopped reading hifi mags altogther from about 1990 until 2008.
I have bought about 10 copies of WHF and a couple of 'Ultimate Guides' in the last 2 - 3 years.

 

[jarra]

Clare..will the mag be going a little retro and showing us what what was available 35 years ago. Would be very interesting,to compare and read about what was hot 35 years ago.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep, hopefully (archive trawling permitting!) we'll be getting all nostalgic later this year

 

[Andrew Everard]

Music centres ahoy!

 

[scene]

Clare Newsome:Yep, hopefully (archive trawling permitting!) we'll be getting all nostalgic later this year

With some suitable 35th year competition give away hopefully...

 

[chebby]

Andrew Everard:Music centres ahoy!

http://www.teac.co.uk/copystation.phphttp://www.teac.co.uk/copystation-info.php

 

[The_Lhc]

Andrew Everard:Music centres ahoy!

We had a Philips one when I was a teenager (about 20 years ago), gleaming silver, tape deck, radio and turntable, wide and flat, that's what I used to listen to my PWEI vinyl on originally, happy days, wonder what the old man did with it?

 

[chebby]

Yes there were some very 'snazzy' ones around...

Looked better in the dark with all the lights. Decent Dual TT as well.

Speakers were spherical...

Very 'Jason King'.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Early/mid 80's, I used to read New HiFiSound and HiFi Answers if I recall the names correctly. There was also High Fidelity, but I think that might've been a little later. I've still got some knocking around somewhere....

 

[jarra]

Good....keep us all informed as to when this copy of the mag is on sale. I have a feeling it will sell quickly

 

[jarra]

Chebby...is that the Audyessy thingy for music centre setups.

 

[chebby]

They are the old Grundig Audiorama speakers.

And you can now buy them again...

http://www.grundig.de/index.php?id=1090&L=1 (Warning bad audio commentary alert.)

Although they are elliptical now.

 

[Andrew Everard]

FrankHarveyHiFi:Early/mid 80's, I used to read New HiFiSound and HiFi Answers if I recall the names correctly. There was also High Fidelity, but I think that might've been a little later. I've still got some knocking around somewhere....

New Hi-Fi Sound became High Fidelity, and Hi-Fi Answers begat Audiophile, both of blessed memory. I was involved in both relaunches, but in time we realised, as the current magazine market has proved, that there's not a lot of money to be made in publishing high-end hi-fi titles in the print arena. Pity really...

 

[Andrew Everard]

scene:With some suitable 35th year competition give away hopefully...

Not sure if we can find a Trio or Ferguson music centre, but we'll have a good ol' look...

 

[chebby]

Something easier to find - like a Revox A77 - will be fine.

 

[chris hollands]

My first hi fi system was an all in one music centre, i had it for a few years and then gave it to my Grandfather, whilst my dad took me to Tottenham Court Road to buy me my first separates system,

28 years later i have had thousands of pounds of different HI FI , yearly upgrades for the pursuit of hi fi nirvana, and a million hi fi mags in choosing them, yet my grandfathers music system is still working , and as new , and it makes me very nostalgic whenever i see it still.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, those days before CD players.

Where as the mags were talking about how to get the best out of tweaking there Linn or Thornes deck, and the best Arm/moving coil to go with it.
Then the Maridian 206 CD player that was so so good that it was worth buying into the the CD market.

Ahh, memories ;-)