60 years of Hi Fi News and Record Review

stonedeaf

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
This JUne 2016 issue of HFN&RR is their 60th. year anniversary issue. Been reading this mag for just short of 50 years -currently drive about 20 miles each way to pick up a copy-always worth it. The six or seven page overview of various editors ,writers and trends within our hobby/untreated obsession is great reading.
 
Wonderful magazine, though in the 80s and 90s it took a turn toward the subjective, and to very expensive high end stuff, which made it less useful for most of us. But exciting and aspirational, I suppose. It took me a long time to figure out that not everything written there was true, meaningful, or relevant. I don't say this as a condemnation -- I loved the idea that there actually was something like the absolute sound that was somehow virtuous to pursue (I use the term absolute sound recognizing that it suggests the magazine The Absolute Sound, which when it started seemed to really be focused on something that mattered, but very soon became so petty and personal that I couldn't stand it. HFN&RR may have become as divorced from the reality that people who work for a paycheck recognize, but they were a lot suaver about it).
 
Yes. High Fidelity was an american magazine. I've wondered if that similarity is the reason for the full name, HiFi News and Record Review.
 
I used to buy about every second issue, and then took a year's subscription in 2014. Their focus on reviewing obscenely overpriced new gear got me down and I now only pick it up when there is an interesting vintage feature. I agree that the editors/writers/trends section is first class though.
 
HiFi News was my favorite magazine in the '90s, I didn't even realize it was still around, as I haven't seen it in a bookstore in years. I used to subscribe to TAS and Stereophile, but it was annoying how they would snipe at each other. Last I checked, they seemed to have switched staff with each other lmao.
 
Right now I'm actually getting all three : TAS ,HFN&RR and Stereophile. Almost all the gear reviews in any of these are not interesting to me ( I look at listed retail price /deduct 50% for what it will be selling used for in a couple of years and if that's still more than the price of any vehicle I've owned - go onto something else in the mags.) I'm a hiFi not hi-end guy. But TAS's music reviews are great and particularly like the bottom of the reviews where they suggest other artists/titles that are similar to the reviewed recording. Stereophile does some testing of equipment which I find interesting. But HFN&RR is easily worth reading for the editorial columns - the last few years I have consistently learned something new or interesting from each issue - somewhat surprising considering my just short of 50 year obsession with the subject matter !
 
Started buying Hi-Fi News& Record Reviews, lots of reading for the price.Indigo carries it here on PEI.
 
I got a big stack of HFN&RR for $2 at a flea market in the 1980s. About 4-5 years worth, from early to late-80s. It was my main audio education, slanted heavily British. The covers were usually super-fi items, but there was lots of budget stuff covered too, and given serious reviews. In those days the writing was very astute with penetrating but understandable technical analyses. They even did a multi-issue survey of 40 different electrolytic caps, actually removing a single cap from an amp and replacing it with another brand (same spec, identical) and reviewing that cap alone in depth, then ranking all 40. That's serious. And very useful. The writing quality was quite good and entertaining. And I don't recall ever reading a review that seemed influenced by the manufacturer or advertising money — the opposite of TAS and Stereophile today, where the bought-and-paid-for leaps off the page. They deny it but can't conceal it, it's right in your face.
 
It took me a couple of years to find an issue that had my amps in them, then I bought the whole year to get it, sent from England to NY. Jan 1959
 
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