It probably still exists today in some form; the hi-fi obsessives and the Luddites who would no more pay thousands of pounds for a turntable, pre-amp (whatever that is) amplifier and speakers that make your kidneys vibrate.
I’m very much in that second group but the hi-fi buffs were everywhere in the 70s. Remember they had a sound proofed gall box in some of the bigger stores where you could listen to Dark Side Of The Moon in quadraphonic on an expensive set up, better to appreciate the quality of the sound. It was either that or Tubular Bells. Later it was Oxygene by Jean Michael Jarre.
I mean, I wouldn’t have had the chutzpah to do that to start with. I’d have felt daft sitting there. I did know people whose parents owned such a system with huge speakers that were far too big to turn up in the house and I’m here to tell you, I could barely tell the difference to our Panasonic music centre. I am fully aware this marks me out as a philistine in some eyes but it’s how I’ve always felt.
In fact, that music centre is still the most expensive set-up I’ve had to this day. For years we made do with a plastic thing which was marketed as portable that Dawn had grown up with, then a second hand deck and speakers which buzzed. Then in the mid-80s we bought a white deck, radio and tape thing from Boots the Chemist. It was the first thing we ever got credit for and that survived until we got a CD player in the mid-90s which I never got along with. It seemed to reduce playing music to a soulless function.
I was still collecting records and playing them on the white music system and playing the CD’s less and less, even though at one point I had over 2,000. Then I saw a deck, amp and speakers at a car boot in a big field. It was £2.00 and it looked in good condition. That was 12 years ago and it's still what I play everything on much to the amazement of some people who think having a big collection means you’d be an audiophile. Still sounds good to me and it plays almost everything, no matter how scratched, which wouldn’t be the case on more advanced systems and playing old secondhand records is important to me. So what if it isn't a pristine sound and is crackling and clicking. It’s never bothered me and I see it as all part of an experience which is much more than just listening to music.
Maybe my ears have been ruined with cheap gear but I’ve always thought this. Maybe the world divides between audiophiles and audiophilistines, if so I’m definitely in the second group and when this current system is no more, I’ll get another from a car boot.
