Vintage Hi-Fi Magazine Articles

[soundhound]

I thought I'd start a thread to post articles from some vintage High Fidelity magazines which I have. These will all be from magazines which are long out of print to avoid the wrath of the copyright Nazis. I will post more articles in the future, depending on interest.

To start out, below is the cover from the very first issue of High Fidelity magazine from 1951, followed by an article from that issue called "How To Get The Best Results From A Klipschorn". Enjoy.

 

[soundhound]

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[Botch]

Cool! A lot of effort on your part to do this, thank you!

 

[Zing]

Cool! A lot of effort on your part to do this, thank you!

:text-yeahthat:


Excellent idea, Soundhound.

 

[soundhound]

Cool! A lot of effort on your part to do this, thank you!

:text-yeahthat:


Excellent idea, Soundhound.

I might suggest pinning this thread.

 

[PaulyT]

Sure, done. This will be a fun thread!

 

[soundhound]

Here's a long article about budgeting and putting together your high fidelity system, 1951 style. This is from the second issue of High Fidelity Magazine, 1951.

 

[soundhound]

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[soundhound]

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[soundhound]

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[MatthewB]

Mr. Peabody set the wayback machine to 1951........

Very cool articles, thanks SH. :handgestures-thumbup:

 

[jamhead]

I've only read the K-horn article but I liked it very much. Thanks SH.

Interesting...the article had a lot of info. without marketing. Totally different than the trash out there today.

 

[soundhound]

I've only read the K-horn article but I liked it very much. Thanks SH.

Interesting...the article had a lot of info. without marketing. Totally different than the trash out there today.

Interesting fact; J Gordon Holt was one of the writers for High Fidelity in this time period, and I'll probably post an article or two from him in the future. Apparently he became disgusted with what he felt was pandering to manufacturers in the pages of High Fidelity even then, and left to start his "Stereophile" magazine. My guess is that the sliminess between magazines and manufacturers existed then too, only it wasn't nearly on the scale we have today where its difficult to tell the difference between genuine articles and ones that could have been written by the marketing department of some manufacturer.

 

[soundhound]

Mr. Peabody set the wayback machine to 1951........

Very cool articles, thanks SH. :handgestures-thumbup:

Print them out to read on The Throne. :music-rockout:

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Is this the amplifer mentioned as PWK's favorite? http://vacuumntubes.com/brook-12a-tube- ... lipsch-fav

Regarding it's aesthetics, which I know is not the point. But just saying, I would describe the look as spartan or old school industrial, makes the McIntosh amps of the day look pretty sexy.
Oops, SH posted more pics right before I posted this.

 

[soundhound]

Is this the amplifer mentioned as PWK's favorite? http://vacuumntubes.com/brook-12a-tube- ... lipsch-fav

Regarding it's aesthetics, which I know is not the point. But just saying, I would describe the look as spartan or old school industrial, makes the McIntosh amps of the day look pretty sexy.
Oops, SH posted more pics right before I posted this.

What is not obvious by the picture of the Brook amplifier is that in those days it was very common for amplifiers (including this Brook) to come with wired remote consoles that controlled input selection, volume etc, which were supposed to be located by the listening position, while the actual power amplifier was supposed to be mounted out of sight in a closet or somewhere similar.

In the article about "Budgeting Your High Fidelity", the power amplifiers shown are meant to be mounted inside consoles with only the knobs (and possibly a new faceplate) showing. The pictures in the article of typical installations show the amplifiers tucked away out of sight.

In some ways, it is ironic that today the trend with "audiophiles" is to overtly display the power amplifiers and other "guts" in plain view, in contrast with the 1950s where the gear was generally mounted out of sight, as the pictures show.

 

[soundhound]

Here is another article from the first issue of High Fidelity magazine from 1951, this time concentrating on preamplifiers. In this article you will see on the article's page 22 the typical arrangement of preamp/power amplifier, with the preamplifier connected by a long cable to the power amplifier, which was meant to be tucked away in a closet out of sight with the preamplifier next to the listener's easy chair where presumably he - it was always a HE - smoked his pipe while listening to glorious monophonic high fidelity.

 

[soundhound]

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[GreatDane]

Cool thread. :text-bravo:

...mmm, vintage :eusa-whistle:

 

[Dentman]

Wow, thank you!
I was raised on this stuff. My father was a HiFi nut his whole life. He built most of his old stuff....well you had to back then.
Love this stuff!!!!!