advertisement


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

davidismynaim

davidismynaim

pfm Member
Growing in the 70s and early 80s, I loved HiFi from a young age, my dad had a passion, so I guess I got it from him.

Reading the press in the Uk, Garrard 401 (idle driven) was bad, Linn LP12 was the best turntable, Japanese Direct Drive was ok, but belt driven and 3 point suspension was really the only way to go.

The Japanese couldn't make speakers (apart from the Yamaha NS1000m's) and Naim amplifiers were the only amplifiers to aspire to (Meridian and Exposure were thought of as ok).

Was it a complete conspiracy? Were Linn and Naim just better at the time? or better at marketing?

I remember buying an SME series 2 imp for next to nothing second hand, as that tonearm was seen as past it.

Now Garrards 401 (and the older 301) and SME arms change hands for eye-watering money, and while Linn and Naim have a strong following, I think most accept there was other good stuff around then.

Not so sure about the speaker question, though I have owned and enjoyed a pair of NS1000m's.

Thoughts?
 
Woodface said:
Oh dear, make it stop.
Click to expand...
I know the Linn/Naim thing has been discussed many times, so sorry to bring that into the post. I am really more interested in how the 'earlier' generation of quality HiFi such as Garrard, SME and Quad to a degree so fell from grace, I haven't seen that discussed so much, but it has, I am happy to shut this down and go looking.
 
I suspect most of the people dissing Garrard and the like in the early 80s had never actually heard it properly. And there were plenty of hifi "journalists" who were just shills for Ivor and Julian. Luckily all that is ancient history now, and it's possible to see the wood for the trees.
 
davidismynaim said:
Was it a complete conspiracy? Were Linn and Naim just better at the time? or better at marketing?
Click to expand...

A bit of everything IMO. I view it more as a fashion than a conspiracy. Think of it as a cross between punk/new-wave DIY culture and the new Thatcherite politics encouraging all manner of small business start-ups. All of a sudden everyone with a soldering iron and a kitchen table, or a bandsaw and some MDF was a hi-fi company. The hi-fi press was on-side, there was some easily burped-up ideology (‘source first’, “rigidity”, ‘spikes’, ‘tune dem’ etc), a new minimalist black box aesthetic, and it turned into a very, very buoyant market for a good while. In hindsight I certainly don’t view it as a conspiracy, more of a bubble/trend. As with any movement/culture some great stuff came out of it, as did some utter shite.
 
Tony L said:
A bit of everything IMO. I view it more as a fashion than a conspiracy. Think of it as a cross between punk/new-wave DIY culture and the new Thatcherite politics encouraging all manner of small business start-ups. All of a sudden everyone with a soldering iron and a kitchen table, or a bandsaw and some MDF was a hi-fi company. The hi-fi press was on-side, there was some easily burped-up ideology, and it turned into a very, very buoyant market for a good while. In hindsight I certainly don’t view it as a conspiracy, more a bubble/trend. As with any movement/culture some great stuff came out of it, as did some utter shite.
Click to expand...

Nice description. I agree that bubble/trend sounds more likely than conspiracy. It reminds me of a sort of Cambrian Explosion, with very particular selective pressures driving the rapid diversification and evolution.
 
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.
 
Some kit was good, some wasn't. Journalists had copy to file. Some kit became unfairly unfashionable, some kit got over-hyped. Exactly the same as now and every year.

One thing that was definitely welcome however, in my view, was that people were encouraged to listen and buy what they thought sounded best, rather than go simply on specifications. The arms race of the mid 80s of amplifier THD figures being a great example of meaningless specs. Many amps of the time had incredibly low levels of this and as dealers this was pointed out to us forcibly by reps etc. Many of them sounded terrible, however.
 
To be fair though, Chris Frankland did once say in a review that the Thorens TD124 was the best turntable that he had ever heard.
 
That was a British only phenomenon.

Nothing of the sort took place in France, where Japanese, American, Danish and German hi-fi was always highly recommended in magazines.
There were a few Linn/Naim cult dealers but they were often ridiculed by other dealers for being so exclusive.
I remember the Linn/Naim crave and the detestation of Japanese hi-fi in Britain when I was there at the end of the 80’s.
Here the Rega deck was a joke when you compared it to a Thorens or a good direct drive.

I found all that amusing.
 
The specialist press feeds off whatever industry it is attached to - same with motorcycles, cycles, skateboards, surfboards etc etc.

There was a bit of an explosion in magazine titles in lots of those areas in the 70s and 80s - all dependent on the manufacturers in each of the industry for advertising sales for the latest/greatest new bit of kit. Clever manufacturers (or perhaps the more desperate ones) seized on the specialist press as a useful marketing tool to grow particular niche markets, and also promote and sell their own gear.
 
I imagine the hi-fi press were invited to Linn HQ for some comparisons and came away impressed.
 
sideshowbob said:
I suspect most of the people dissing Garrard and the like in the early 80s had never actually heard it properly. And there were plenty of hifi "journalists" who were just shills for Ivor and Julian. Luckily all that is ancient history now, and it's possible to see the wood for the trees.
Click to expand...

It is possible to see the wood for the trees, unfortunately where journalists and publications are concerned there's always some scrub willing to accept incentives for a favourable review....
 
Hi,

Linn and Naim grew from three HiFi outlets around the UK in the early days, they helped show that there was more to HiFi than the brands that were currently on the market at the time, those outlets gave very good and lengthy demos to potential buyers, you made your own mind up, if you could not hear a difference there was never any pressure to buy.

Later there was however a lot of pressure from companies on reviewers and magazine owners not to keep pushing Linn and Naim or the new trends of the day or large scale advertising would be dropped from not just the HiFi magazines but anywhere they advertised.

There was also other incentives given to reviewers to give great reviews.

Linn and Naim did not market big in magazines at the start, even later maybe one page, not many pages like the large HiFi companies.

Ivor once told me he spent more time in airports and on planes around the world than he ever did at home, he was the guy that promoted the LP12 around the world.

Reviewers like Paul Messenger gave good solid reviews that explained why he liked certain brands and they were not all Linn and Naim.

Most of my friends all had decent HiFi's of the day, they would come along to my house have a listen and go back thinking what a load of crap they had and within weeks had an LP12 or Rega deck along with Naim or an Nad amp.

People of all ages listened with their ears, often getting equipment to take home and try, so it was never a trend, it was something that was better, people bought into that and that was what made Linn, Naim and Rega what they are today.

Cheers

John
 
A bit before my time, I was a school boy during the seventies and up until the late eighties, hifis were something to be drooled over in Kays club book.
My older brother bought a Rega Planar 2 and Denon separates system in 89 and advised me to buy a 'separates' system as the all in one stacking or tower systems didn't last.
After reading a few issues of What hifi I bought a budget system which I used happily for a few years, then in 95 I went for my first dealer demonstrations.
I went to a couple of the 'Local' Belfast hifi dealers.
After hearing the Linn or Naim systems I could afford ( both sounded woeful IMHO) the Linn being boring and the Naim would of stripped enamel off your teeth and being told the LP12 was the ONLY turntable worth buying I knew something was amiss. I'd never heard of 'flat earth' systems and knew nothing of the hifi press, manufacturer and dealer relations.
I then went to a couple of other dealers that had more components to choose from and was able to assemble a system for the same outlay that ticked all my boxes.
It really put me off Naim and Linn, though I did buy a preowned Nait which I really liked and indeed the LP12 is a nice turntable but I much prefer other designs at any price point.
 
Having been a huge fan of Leak, Quad and others, when I was able to afford a "proper" stereo I first listened to Quad. I loved the electrostatics but not the current (oh dear) amps compared to others into the same speakers. I was impressed by Meridian (apart from it failing mid-dem) and found a great dealer in Rugby (can't remember who) that played Myst and others into Spendor (good) and Celestion (not good), they had Quad 2s in the shop and were real enthusiasts. I then visited a shop that sold Linn, Naim, PT, DNM etc and compared my Thorens 160s to a PT and Linn. Both the wife and I were bowled over by the LP12.
Perhaps they wanted the Linn to perform best but I loved the kit they played and it was in budget. A lot of shops just were perhaps a bit careless about set up and not bothered if you bought the gear.
 
The main problem back then was that those doing 'subjective' reviews ran into a groupthink problem. In effect, once many established reviewers decided "bloggs was best" any who didn't might feel that *they* would be regarded as being "cloth eared". In effect a specific sort of 'sound presentation' was established as being "best". So reviewers tended to adopt the same presumptions about what "sound" to say was best.

I suspect this also meant they became prey to feeling that they had to take their lead from what their mates in shops and preferred makers indicated. In effect, forming views 'guided' by people making or selling specific kit.

Add in a generation of reveiwers who actually *understood* the design and behaviour of kit on an engineering level being replaced with a later one who were relatively clueless and prone to any old bollocks. (technical term, there)

One result was that some reviews had astonishing (but hidden) bloopers in them. You had to know the kit, though, to spot them. I've documented some examples, but usually you'd need some techical grasp to twig them as well as know the kit involved. And the mags gradually drifted away from a DIY-savvy readership towards being 'consumer' mags that *avoid* technical detail for fear it will deter readers.
 
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.
 
chartz said:
That was a British only phenomenon.

Nothing of the sort took place in France, where Japanese, American, Danish and German hi-fi was always highly recommended in magazines.
There were a few Linn/Naim cult dealers but they were often ridiculed by other dealers for being so exclusive.
I remember the Linn/Naim crave and the detestation of Japanese hi-fi in Britain when I was there at the end of the 80’s.
Here the Rega deck was a joke when you compared it to a Thorens or a good direct drive.

I found all that amusing.
Click to expand...


The Linn/Naim religion never took hold in the USA either, and though the LP12 sold well here it was frequently inserted into decidedly Round Earth systems, and seldom used with Linn arms or cartridges.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top