Product Description
Book Description
Sound Bites 50 years of Hi-Fi News will cover the history of hi-fi for the last 50 years. It will also carry a 16 page picture section. The historical development of hi-fi will be interspersed with anecdotes from and about the main players of the times, e.g. Quad, Naim, B&W, Wilson Bensch etc. We will be tracing all of the major developments in the hi-fi industry.
Sound Bites - an oral history of an aural medium. A marketing man would hype Sound Bites as Fifty years in the making!
Since 1956, when Hi-Fi News was launched on the new tide of excitement about high fidelity, the audio industry has boomed, retrenched and boomed again but it's always been packed with larger-than life characters. People of enormous talent, technical expertise, business acumen, humour and often some less desirable qualities too. This book is their story, in their own words.
From the Publisher
Hi-fi fans and music lovers have waited long enough: at last, the history of one of the most important forms of home entertainment of the last half-century has been written by the men and women who made it happen. They tell the tale from the first vinyl record to the iPod, from pre-WWII beginnings to the era of the download. Because the saga of hi-fi runs concurrently with the span of Hi-Fi News, the UK's oldest and most respected audio magazine, Sound Bites is also a celebration of the famed journal's 50th anniversary. Since 1956, when Hi-Fi News was launched on the wave of excitement about high fidelity reproduction of music in the home, the audio industry has boomed,retrenched, boomed, retrenched and boomed again. All along, it's been packed with larger-than life characters, people of enormous talent, technical expertise, bad haircuts, business acumen, warped humour and Rabelaisian appetites. And some less desirable qualities, too. This book is their story, in their own words, with contributions from the editors, top contributors and a parade of characters that range from electronics wizards to eccentric salesmen to crazed audiophiles. The story takes in Pearl Harbor and Las Vegas, London and Glasgow, Chicago and Manhattan, Boston and, yes, even Croydon. Sound Bites is both a matchless work of reference and a riveting read. Penned and edited by a writing team 'made in hi-fi heaven' - Hi-Fi News Consultant Editor Steve Harris and Senior Contributing Editor, Ken Kessler - it is essential reading for anyone whose interest in recorded music goes beyond simply flicking a switch.