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what really happened during the late 70s early 80s in the hifi press

It's not only piss poor value in the US these days. The pricing of the current range is just bonkers in the UK and I wouldn't even consider looking at it.

I stopped at ultimate olive though seem to have forgotten to buy a 52 (oh sorry I did but didn't like it so stuck to the 82). Now in six pack with NBL's.

I also have a stack of 3rd party power supplies these days.

If I'm ever up for a new system I'll be looking towards ATC or Genelec I suspect.
 
I grew up in Sweden. In the 1960's the head guru was Stig Carlsson, what he said was law (as the company that made and sold his speakers, Sonab, was owned by the government, there probably where a law or two involved).
Then, in around 1975, the Swedish Radio, horror, horror, chose Yamaha NS 1000M (mentioned in the thread start) as their main monitor. There are people here, 45 years on, that still is upset!

The morale is, irrespective of where you are or when, there are people who get upset when someone hails something they themselves don't like. Same thing, just different brands.
 
Have you seen the review of that ugly blue LP12 in HFN?
They say it’s good value. Really?
We must live in a different world.
 
I have been using the same Systemdek iii I bought new in Glasgow in the 80's. In order to hear it I had to go to a small hifi outlet in a basement run by a hifi enthusiast as Linn would not allow it to be sold in the same outlet as the LP12. Which was better? The III by a clear mile, and unlike the numerous problems with early LP12s and reliability/upgrades over the years, my iii has required little to no attention, just like the Syrinx PU3 I bought at the same time, and the AT31 Moving Coil I later added. And now I have 2 x Systemdek iiis, both working as they should be. Linn? - I wouldn't give them the time of day...
 
chartz said:
The only way is to compare to live acoustic music. Nothing more.
Pop music will never really be hi-fi, that’s impossible. There’s no way to tell what it sounds like because it’s fabricated.
The best you could do is get the sound the engineer heard at the studio.
But is that hi-fi? I don’t think it is.
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Yes it is hifi. There are always measurements which can tell a great deal about how the kit mangles the original signal (or not).
 
davidsrsb said:
It's odd that Rega became the acceptable poor mans alternative to Linn when they are so very different design philosophies
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Rega heralded the era during which particle board plinths and rubber bands suddenly were considered hifi. They could not compete with Japanese mass market direct drives.
 
While there was a definite Linn/Naim fashion at the time it wasn’t all propaganda and brain wash. I remember as a youngish teenager going into Lasky’s in Manchester in the early 80’s with my older brother seeing all this shiny gear mainly from the Far East and being impressed. Sound wise though, the real epiphany came in a small, relatively dingy shop in Manchester - Eluphon Audio ?? - when we listened to an LP12, Naim Amps and Heybrook speakers. Hugely better than anything at Laskys !
 
Charlie_1 said:
I think the Naim turntable has sold out to dealers, not end customers, although no doubt some will buy blind
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I'd be surprised! I don't think Naim actually have 500 dealers worldwide and many of them certainly won't be doing enough business to justify buying a demo product at that sort of pricepoint, particularly if they can't then get another one to sell.
 
This is my HiFi childhood. My first hiFi was bought in 1970 ish and by the mid 80's, when the digi revolution was kicking in, I was spending lot's more than i should have orta done.
A young man in 1970 I read no magazines, and just went to my local dealer (in Swansea) who happened to have a Thorens TD150/Rogers amp that I could afford. I bought them and made some speakers to hear things with.
By the time the 80's arrived i was more aware of HiFi as a concept, and read stuff/haunted local dealers to hear stuff. Moving from london to Ryde on the isle of Wight introduced me to a couple of blokes running a dealership who happened to be very anti 'flat earth' products. I guess that they had had some interesting experiences when neglecting to stock Linn/Naim etc. Man were they angry lol. :) Instead, they were selling Audio innovations valve amps, Townshend and Pink Triangle decks, Snell and SD acoustics speakers, Micromega CD players and anything else that wasn't from the 'other side'.
The split was stark and very obvious then. You were either flat earth, or you were NOT. (I guess a few lonely souls plowed their own path), and I was NOT.
I was however, pretty unbiased. Much as I liked my pals at island HiFi, I had my own ears and taste, so never declined a chance to compare and upgrade.

In the end it all should be personal. I've stayed away from the Linn Naim etc stable since simply because, on audition, Pink T and Townshend slayed the LP12, but that was just me.

Although I did, by the 90's, get a bit fed up with the sales tricks and cons at demo from some makers reps. Ah well.
 
Not just you.

My second TT is the original Townshend Rock II with a Linn Lingo PS and Currently a J7 fettled RB250 with Kontra b.

It saw off a 2002 vintage top spec Linn LP12 with a Troika (very easily and convincingly) so I'm sure it would have seen off its contemporary LP12 even more easily. Trouble is there just wasn't anywhere I could have gone to audition one back in the day.

My No 1 TT is an Orbe with Graham 2.2 and AT33PTGII and although it's a lot more spendy, it isn't very much better.

Both of them cost me a lot less used than the Linn they saw off but the round earth stuff is now rapidly rising in price.
 
Octavian,

Octavian said:
Rega heralded the era during which particle board plinths and rubber bands suddenly were considered hifi. They could not compete with Japanese mass market direct drives.
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I call bullshit. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, clam for clam, Rega competed with and beat Japanese mass-market tables.

Joe
 
davidismynaim said:
Tony, well put, I agree with your synopsis. Were there any journalists at the time brave enough to say the 'new wave' wasn't so much better than the existing gear from such brands as Garrard et al? My father only bought HiFi News and Record review, which always seemed a little more balanced in their views.
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Geoff Jeans, writing for Practical Hi-Fi in the early 80s broke cover and said the then new Logic DM101 was far better than the LP12.
Sadly he took his life in the mid 80s, but I always remember him for that brave review.
 
Joe P said:
Octavian,



I call bullshit. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, clam for clam, Rega competed with and beat Japanese mass-market tables.

Joe
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While I think the post could perhaps have been a little more politely phrased, I mostly agree with the sentiment. However on the "clam for clam" side of things, I didn't think anyone else was making amps anything like the Brio...
 
chartz said:
But old Rega planars were just cheap and cheerful decks. No real engineering was involved in their manufacture, until the RB300 was born.
The glass platter was a cheap and clever move, and it looked nice!

Things are different now of course.
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I can see it may look that way, but there is more to it.
The particle board plinth carried a thick rigid skin laminate, the forerunner of today's Rega designs.The board was hollowed out in certain places internally to reduce mass.
The platter was chosen for stiffness (and cost of course) and they have always carried excellent arms - R200 was (is) a really nice arm as were all those that followed.
Bearings were always high quality and reliability superb. Moat still work today some 35+ years later.
Very much a less is more philosophy.

The basic early Planar motor units are more capable than most give credit.
 
Robert said:
I can see it may look that way, but there is more to it.
The particle board plinth carried a thick rigid skin laminate, the forerunner of today's Rega designs.The board was hollowed out in certain places internally to reduce mass.
The platter was chosen for stiffness (and cost of course) and they have always carried excellent arms - R200 was (is) a really nice arm as were all those that followed.
Bearings were always high quality and reliability superb. Moat still work today some 35+ years later.
Very much a less is more philosophy.

The basic early Planar motor units are more capable than most give credit.
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I bought a Planar 3 (80s vintage) in mint condition recently. It’s absolutely excellent and shows many decks a clean pair of heels. No good on a suspended floor but on a decent wall shelf it’s brilliant and if I couldn’t have my WT I’d happily live with it. The vast majority of the Technics and Sony decks I used to have to sell as part of my job were nowhere near as good. Not all were poor, but most weren’t very good at all.
 
tenpercenter said:
While there was a definite Linn/Naim fashion at the time it wasn’t all propaganda and brain wash. I remember as a youngish teenager going into Lasky’s in Manchester in the early 80’s with my older brother seeing all this shiny gear mainly from the Far East and being impressed. Sound wise though, the real epiphany came in a small, relatively dingy shop in Manchester - Eluphon Audio ?? - when we listened to an LP12, Naim Amps and Heybrook speakers. Hugely better than anything at Laskys !
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Eulipion Audio
In Rusholme.
Certainly wasn’t dingy!
It was quite large as hi fi shops went in the day.
I spent many Saturdays hanging out there.
Bought my first LP12 and Naim pre amp there.
 
GruntPuppy said:
where journalists and publications are concerned there's always some scrub willing to accept incentives for a favourable review
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I have to put in a word in defence of the hifi scribes, having (very unsuccessfully) dipped a toe in the world of retail and manufacture. IME (&FWLIW) they are scrupulously honest individuals operating in a closed system who cannot risk biting the very few hands that feed them. This extends beyond those who advertise with the mags and blogs, as they also cannot risk alienating their readership by publishing indifferent reviews of currently-fashionable kit, even if it's sometimes garbage. The good ones usually try to play fair with manufacturers, so if equipment they receive for review is substandard - sometimes a faulty sample, sometimes bad design that could benefit from their feedback - they won't perform publishing's equivalent of going-in dry, and instead refer back to the maker. That just seems sensible, rather than disingenuous.

What there are, are certain aging, lazy hacks, who have a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome, or are infatuated with their own egos, or have simply overindulged in recreational chemistry back in the Palaeolithic, and their opinions are never to be trusted, even if I don't doubt their fundamental integrity... Luckily, they are easy to spot, because it will always say "6moons" at the top of the page.... ;-)
 
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