What do Linn, Naim and Rega all have in common? Well, they are all British hi-fi brands. And they have all manufactured a turntable and an amplifier, not to mention the many overlapping products the companies have produced over the years. But more than that, all three of these venerable manufacturers were founded in 1973. Fifty years ago this very year.
Allow a little latitude and expand that a few years on either side, and you can include Arcam (1976, when it was called A&R Cambridge), NAD (1972) and Monitor Audio (1972) in that group. QED is another with a 1973 birthdate. And those are just the British brands. I'm sure that list would grow exponentially were we to start looking beyond the UK's shores.
This got me thinking, was there something special about that time which encouraged people to start hi-fi companies, or was it all just a happy coincidence? For What Hi-Fi?'s British Hi-Fi Week back in April, I asked some of the wiser and more mature members of the industry, and received a surprisingly wide range of answers that considered all aspects of life at that time...
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1345126686/1687251926/articles/oZ3dpYMwz1687342071790/7636108230.jpg]
Quite fittingly, it starts with music. Do a quick Google search of the best albums of the 1970s and you'll probably be as shocked as I was at the number of them that are considered musical landmarks. The list includes Stevie Wonder's Innervisions and Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd from 1973, and David Bowie's The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust just the year before. And that's to name just three. The availability of such brilliant music must have been a strong driving force for the success of the audio industry, with music fans wanting to hear every last detail of their favourite recordings.
New stereo technology
Let's not forget that stereo was only recently established then, and artists were still learning to make the most of this new format. Music production was becoming more sophisticated and many were experimenting with the new musical experiences two channels of sound could bring. The three-dimensional nature of a proper stereo system must have seemed light-years ahead of the mono radiograms people were used to when listening to such recordings. It's no wonder the demand for hi-fi boomed in this period.
The move from old-fashioned radiograms to stereo systems also gave new manufacturers an easier route into the market. They could now specialise in just one part of the audio chain, which over time gave rise to the separates market we all know and love. No longer did a O start-up company need expertise in multiple disciplines, something which made it easier to enter the market with a dedicated product. It allowed the likes of Naim and Arcam to come to the market with just a single amplifier initially. In Arcam's case that was the A60 integrated and for Naim, the NAP160 power. Both these standalone products were successful enough to establish the companies as serious contenders.
Splitting the system into its component parts opened the door to easy upgrading. You could now improve the system's sound by changing just one part at a time, making it more affordable and practical to do. Naturally, this was ideal for audio manufacturers who could now make a range of components at different price levels designed to offer logical steps up the performance ladder. We know, of course, that the more expensive products didn't always end up sounding better - but the idea was sensible enough.
A little less specifically, it seems there was a general drive for higher sound quality at the time that was inspired by the BBC. The corporation had a revered engineering department and there was a great deal of emphasis put on improving the audio quality of broadcasts and productions. That engineering department did a great deal of research into speaker design through the '70s and some of the engineers involved went on to form their own speaker companies. The most well-known examples are probably Spencer Hughes, who with his wife Dorothy started Spendor, and Dudley Harwood, the founder of Harbeth. On a side note, Harwood's wife was called Elizabeth. He, just like Spencer Hughes had done earlier, combined part of his own name with his wife's to come up with the name of the company.
The likes of Spendor, Harbeth and Rogers still make products that are heavily inspired by the BBC's thinking. We've reviewed a number of the Spendor Classic products, such as the Classic 2/3 and Classic 1/2, and can still hear plenty of merit in the engineering philosophy.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1345126686/1687251926/articles/oZ3dpYMwz1687342071790/8706113310.jpg]
Rapidly changing technology also played a huge part in the gro...
Allow a little latitude and expand that a few years on either side, and you can include Arcam (1976, when it was called A&R Cambridge), NAD (1972) and Monitor Audio (1972) in that group. QED is another with a 1973 birthdate. And those are just the British brands. I'm sure that list would grow exponentially were we to start looking beyond the UK's shores.
This got me thinking, was there something special about that time which encouraged people to start hi-fi companies, or was it all just a happy coincidence? For What Hi-Fi?'s British Hi-Fi Week back in April, I asked some of the wiser and more mature members of the industry, and received a surprisingly wide range of answers that considered all aspects of life at that time...
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1345126686/1687251926/articles/oZ3dpYMwz1687342071790/7636108230.jpg]
Quite fittingly, it starts with music. Do a quick Google search of the best albums of the 1970s and you'll probably be as shocked as I was at the number of them that are considered musical landmarks. The list includes Stevie Wonder's Innervisions and Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd from 1973, and David Bowie's The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust just the year before. And that's to name just three. The availability of such brilliant music must have been a strong driving force for the success of the audio industry, with music fans wanting to hear every last detail of their favourite recordings.
New stereo technology
Let's not forget that stereo was only recently established then, and artists were still learning to make the most of this new format. Music production was becoming more sophisticated and many were experimenting with the new musical experiences two channels of sound could bring. The three-dimensional nature of a proper stereo system must have seemed light-years ahead of the mono radiograms people were used to when listening to such recordings. It's no wonder the demand for hi-fi boomed in this period.
The move from old-fashioned radiograms to stereo systems also gave new manufacturers an easier route into the market. They could now specialise in just one part of the audio chain, which over time gave rise to the separates market we all know and love. No longer did a O start-up company need expertise in multiple disciplines, something which made it easier to enter the market with a dedicated product. It allowed the likes of Naim and Arcam to come to the market with just a single amplifier initially. In Arcam's case that was the A60 integrated and for Naim, the NAP160 power. Both these standalone products were successful enough to establish the companies as serious contenders.
Splitting the system into its component parts opened the door to easy upgrading. You could now improve the system's sound by changing just one part at a time, making it more affordable and practical to do. Naturally, this was ideal for audio manufacturers who could now make a range of components at different price levels designed to offer logical steps up the performance ladder. We know, of course, that the more expensive products didn't always end up sounding better - but the idea was sensible enough.
A little less specifically, it seems there was a general drive for higher sound quality at the time that was inspired by the BBC. The corporation had a revered engineering department and there was a great deal of emphasis put on improving the audio quality of broadcasts and productions. That engineering department did a great deal of research into speaker design through the '70s and some of the engineers involved went on to form their own speaker companies. The most well-known examples are probably Spencer Hughes, who with his wife Dorothy started Spendor, and Dudley Harwood, the founder of Harbeth. On a side note, Harwood's wife was called Elizabeth. He, just like Spencer Hughes had done earlier, combined part of his own name with his wife's to come up with the name of the company.
The likes of Spendor, Harbeth and Rogers still make products that are heavily inspired by the BBC's thinking. We've reviewed a number of the Spendor Classic products, such as the Classic 2/3 and Classic 1/2, and can still hear plenty of merit in the engineering philosophy.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1345126686/1687251926/articles/oZ3dpYMwz1687342071790/8706113310.jpg]
Rapidly changing technology also played a huge part in the gro...
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What Hi-fi Uk (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2023