Following on from last week's podcast on alternative approaches to manufacturing for British HiFi companies, this week's takes the form of a generated debate about the merits of the two principal approaches as exemplified by IAG and Rega

This podcast examines whether British HiFi manufacturers need to outsource manufacturing to survive. It has been inspired by the challenges to free trade and global supply changes, which have been caused by the UK leaving the EU, closely followed by a global pandemic, and most recently geopolitical upheavals and the imposition of import tarffs by key countries

This bonus podcast is a generated discussion that took a rather unexpected turn, which I found interesting so we have published it as a bonus episode. Charged with generating a debate about last week's podcast, the debate quickly moved to a rather more philosophical discussion about the nature of high-fidelity audio itself. Do we value the purest signal in terms of freedom from noise, or do we instead seek to create a 3-D sound picture, majoring on placement and position? The move from mono to stereo represented the first major development into spatial audio, but modern object-based immersive audio take this to a whole new level. Listen and enjoy!

This week's podcast is a generated discussion, following on from last week's podcast. It discusses the historical progression of audiovisual technology convergence in the United Kingdom, tracing its evolution from early broadcast limitations to modern immersive experiences. It begins with the initial analogue mono television era established by the BBC and ITV, followed by the temporary simulcasting solutions that paired TV with FM radio. A significant portion of the discussion examines the impact of the BBC's internal digital audio research, which was necessitated by the failings of analogue infrastructure and led directly to the consumer-facing NICAM digital stereo standard. The discussion then shifts to the era of physical digital media (DVD and Blu-ray), which democratised multi-channel and lossless audio formats, before concluding with an analysis of the contemporary landscape dominated by streaming services and the widespread adoption of object-based spatial audio like Dolby Atmos.

The podcast tracks the history of audiovisual technology in the UK from the earliest TV services nearly 100 years ago to modern digital technology, with a view to answering the question: does high fidelity audio benefit from accompanying video?

This week's generated discussion looks at last week's podcast and the HiFi Hobbyist Top 10 Bruce Springsteen studio albums

Although the title of this podcast is the hi-fi hobbyist, hi-fi is only ever a means to an end.  The purpose of improving my Hi-Fi setup is to improve the quality of the sound reproduction and therefore the enjoyment obtained from music. Music has always played an important part on the hifi hobbyist site with syndicated record reviews featured prominently from the beginning. One of the artists prominently featured on that site is Bruce Springsteen. This week’s podcast explores my top 10 favourite Springsteen albums, explores what makes them special and considers other people's views of the material.

Welcome to this week’s generated discussion about last week’s podcast about the not-so-humble Hi-Fi rack.   This week’s music is once again a mix of big band swing tracks created by Nicholas Parnek, and used under a Pixabay licence.    I hope that you enjoy the discussion! 

Welcome to this week’s podcast about the not-so-humble hifi rack.  The podcast discusses the history of specialist hifi funiture, and the technical aspects of providing a solid foundation and controlling unwanted vibrations. The research for this podcast informed my own hobby project to replace my own hifi rack. You can read more about this at the main HiFi Hobbyist website  This week’s music is big band swing, created by Nicholas Parnek, and used under a Pixabay licence.  I hope that you enjoy the podcast, and the music, too! 

This week’s podcast is a discussion about the NAD thirty twenty amplifier, probably the best-selling hi-fi amplifier in history, and arguably, the most influential budget Hi-Fi component in history. It follows on from the story of my relationship with the amplifier on the main HiFi Hobbyist site and last week’s podcast covering the amplifier in more detail This week’s music is Liszt’s piano transcription of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, and a recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto No5, both supplied by musopen.org. This recording has been placed in the public domain.

The NAD 3020 is almost certainly the best-selling hi-fi amplifier in history. Including its various iterations, it reportedly sold 1.1 million units. I bought one of those 1.1 million units in 1980. On the main hifihobbyist.net website, I have told the story of my forty-five-year-old relationship with this iconic amplifier. In this podcast, we will tell the story of its origins, technical innovations and its legacy. This week’s music is Liszt’s piano transcription of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, and a recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto No.5, both supplied by musopen.org. This recording has been placed in the public domain.

In this weeks podcast, we feature a discussion of last week's podcast about why HiFi Hobbyists are prone to impulse buying. This discussion is generated using technology and then checked by the HiFi Hobbyist before publication.

This podcast deals with the past, present and future of the CD. It was inspired by a recent videocast at hifihobbyist.net that asked if a CD revival was underway. The podcast goes into much more detail and is accompanied by Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.

In this weeks podcast, we feature a discussion of last week’s podcast about why HiFi Hobbyists are prone to impulse buying. This discussion is generated using technology and then checked by the HiFi Hobbyist before publication.

This podcast from the HiFi Hobbyist describes a recent experience of impulse buying and then explores the science behind impulse buying to try to understand more about the reasons why it happens

This is the first of our one-off special edition podcasts. Professor Peter Smith was a remarkable academic and teacher, a wonderful human being, and the most remarkable live music fan, a passion he recorded faithfully on his blog at myvintagerock.com. Peter died after a short illness on 27th May 2025. I am proud to have been his friend for thirty-five years. He lived his entire life in Sunderland but was loved all over the world by his former students and colleagues. His daughter posted a wonderful tribute on myvintagerock.com. Back in the early days of the hifihobbyist.net, I published a conversation with Peter about his life of attending gigs and his meticulous record of each one. We reproduce that interview here and encourage you to read more about the man and his music at  mmyvintagerock.com. This podcast, aimed at music lovers and audio enthusiasts, has developed from the hifihobbyist.net website where you can view videocasts, read blogs and, prior to the launch of this podcast, listen to generated discussions about the material. Because they are aimed at music lovers, the podcasts feature an eclectic range of music to accompany the words. The choice of music is like the Scottish weather: if you don't like it currently, there'll a be different choice along shortly (in the next episode). All our music choices are licensed appropriately and specific choices are designed to complement that weeks topic. This week we have chosen loud punk style music for our friend Peter Smith!

In this weeks podcast, we feature a discussion of last week's podcast about the role of turntable mats. This discussion is generated using technology and then checked by the HiFi Hobbyist before publication. This podcast, aimed at music lovers and audio enthusiasts, has developed from the hifihobbyist.net website where you can view videocasts, read blogs and, prior to the launch of this podcast, listen to generated discussions about the material. Because they are aimed at music lovers, the podcasts feature an eclectic range of music to accompany the words. The choice of music is like the Scottish weather: if you don't like it currently, there'll a be different choice along shortly (in the next episode) All our music choices are licensed appropriately and specific choices are designed to complement that weeks topic.

This podcast looks in depth at the role that turntable mats play in the replay of vinyl records. This podcast, aimed at music lovers and audio enthusiasts, has developed from the hifihobbyist.net website where you can view videocasts, read blogs and, prior to the launch of this podcast, listen to generated discussions about the material. Because they are aimed at music lovers, the podcasts feature an eclectic range of music to accompany the words. The choice of music is like the Scottish weather: if you don't like it currently, there'll a be different choice along shortly (in the next episode) All our music choices are licensed appropriately and specific choices are designed to complement that weeks topic. Mussorgsky and Ravel are still the music choice of the week.

This is our introduction to our new podcast series from the HiFi Hobbyist. This podcast, aimed at music lovers and audio enthusiasts, has developed from the hifihobbyist.net website where you can view videocasts, read blogs and prior to the launch of this podcast listen to generated discussions about the material. Because they are aimed at music lovers, the podcasts feature an eclectic range of music to accompany the words. The choice of music is like the Scottish weather: if you don't like it currently, there'll a be different choice along shortly (in the next episode) All our music choices are licensed appropriately and specific choices are designed to complement that weeks topic. We start with some Mussorgsky and Ravel.