Tuning In To Yesteryear

Whether integrated into new sound systems or experienced in its original form, vintage hi-fi technology is proving timeless.

- Words: Robert Ross

THE VINTAGE HI-FI market has never been more active, with some historic components—namely vacuum-tube amplifiers and horn-loaded loudspeakers—now commanding exponential multiples of their original prices. Meanwhile, listening bars, long popular in Japan, are cropping up from New York City to Los Angeles, spinning cool-jazz LPs on classic systems as the bartenders pour Scotch whisky far younger than the audio gear itself. Evidently, there is something almost magical about music’s reproduction through the finest decades-old components that contemporary audiophiles find intoxicating. And it’s not just nostalgia.

“Vintage systems can be more engaging,” says renowned loudspeaker designer Andrew Jones, whose innovative work for such audio houses as KEF, Infinity, TAD, Pioneer, Elac, and MoFi has advanced the industry. According to Jones, such equipment requires “patience, dedication, and involvement”.