Janine Elliot continues her fascinating RetroBites series, this time focusing on reel to reel and cassette tapes and in particular the British brands NEAL and Ferrograph. More »
Janine Elliot charts the rise and fall and rise again of the Thermionic Tube/valve in this fascinating and informative article. 
More »
Continuing her excellent series focusing on vintage and classic hifi, Janine Elliot takes a look at the Meridian M2 active loudspeakers. More »
If you don’t know your NABs from your RIAAs or your Microgroove from your Orthacoustic, don’t panic as Janine Elliot is here to explain the history and the science behind vinyl equalisation. More »
Talk of powered speakers and the chances are you will think instantly of Bang and Olufsen or Meridian, or perhaps PMC and ATC. I was pleased to get hold of the Meridian’s M2 in the 1990’s, though had seen them in KJ LeisureCentre in Watford in the late 70’s and craved for them then. But the idea of powered speakers in the hifi industry goes further back than that. Up until the mid-70’s record players with built in amplifiers and speakers were all the craze, though I never really got into Bush, Murphy, HMV, ITT, Ferguson and all the other mono record players that were up for sale in Tesco, Timothy Whites, Co-op, etc. The sad thing is that they seem to be making a comeback with HMV and others selling Crosley retro record players.
When talking about iconic tuners two or three words often come to mind; ‘Leak’ and ‘Trough-Line’. Only a few other tuners, the Quad FM3 and Marantz Model 2110 with built in oscilloscope get me excited. More »
Things are afoot in the world of reel 2 reels. Not only are there now at least 4 major companies producing reel to reel copies of famous master tapes, but very importantly after a long gap the Swiss tape recorder manufacturer Revox are bringing back the medium with a player based on the A700. More »
Hifi is an odd bod. We get great ideas, and then go backwards in sound quality before going forwards again. I mean, look at the resurgence of the LP, or the backwards philosophy of MP3. Most will say the CD was a bit of a white elephant. Of course we all remember the cassette tape, and some will be pleased that one hasn’t come back, although a new “ReVox” reel2reel based on the Studer B-676 is on its way back soon as ¼ inch tape begins a mini revival. Hurray. More »
Last month I looked at a turntable design from Garrard that if it had taken off might have meant no need for CDs at all, allowing as it did the possibility of up to 5 hours playing from an LP. Alas its lifetime was little more than my interest in MiniDiscs. This time round I conclude my look at turntables and arms with other ideas that could have changed the fortunes of vinyl before its revival (or should that be revinyl) in the 21st Century. More »
In the first of her series of articles looking at turntable designs that could have taken off, Janine Elliot looks at a clever doodad from the days of 78s from Garrard called The World Record, created by Noel Pemberton-Billing, the chap that set up Supermarine Aircraft Company which made the iconic Spitfire of World War II. More »
In this month’s instalment of Retro Bites where we focus on classic and vintage audio, Janine Elliot takes a look at the Nakamichi TX 1000 Turntable. More »
Janine Elliot continues her series of articles for Hifi Pig highlighting classic hifi from yesteryear. This month, given that Sennheiser have recently announced a new $55 000 Orpheus, she turns her attention to the original Sennheiser Orpheus, first released in 1991. More »
Janine Elliot takes another look at retro audio kit, this time focusing on the rare Tefifon. More »
Janine Elliot takes a step down memory lane with the much loved Leak Stereo 20 power amplifier. More »
Janine Elliot takes us on a brief tour of the history of Japanes company Stax, who many readers will know for their “ear speakers”. More »
“One possession that I really hold dear is my Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference, a turntable so modern and iconic that it had its own place in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange”. More »
Philips DCC900
The Hillman Imp was an amazing invention for 1963. This was the answer to the Mini, doing everything that Alec Issigonis’s baby could do, but adding some extra features that were revolutionary for the time; preceding hatchbacks this car had an opening back window to put in your shopping on the rear seat (or your kids heads) just in case you hadn’t any more room under the front bonnet, and it had more space inside. The light aluminium engine was novel, too, and helped make the car quite nippy (when it worked). What let it down was being a quickly thought out idea and badly made in Scotland. Shame, as I loved it. It could have been an amazing car. More »
The QUAD 405 Current Dumping Amplifier
Janine Elliot continues her RetroBites series of articles, where she looks at classic audio and Hifi, with the classic QUAD 405 current dumping amplifiers. More »