Hi-fi has a long and illustrious history that spans well over a century. A miasma of cutting edge technology fueled by a pure passion for art is nothing to be sniffed at – be that the delicate intricacies of speakers, the complex science of cables or the long and varied history of sources – it’s all a part of the great history of hi-fi, and the very reason we audiophiles are connected like we are. This blog is dedicated to the history of the source, and how it has developed over the years.
The source is – quite simply – the first piece of the puzzle. It’s what plays the format, and what initially replicates the soundwave, preparing the signal for amplification.
The Phonautograph/Gramophone (Cylinders)
This story begins in the 1800s, with the phonograph. Thomas Edison took over from a French printer named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, In 1857 he used a vibrating diaphragm and a stylus on paper to record the pattern of soundwaves, but didn’t intend to use the findings to playback. Edison did, and in 1877 he created the phonograph – a device designed for both the recording and the playback of these soundwaves. This paves the way for the earliest music format: the cylinder! These began as tinfoil wrapped around a grooved metal cylinder, and gradually this upgraded to wax which offered a much greater quality of sound. It was through these wax cylinders that the record industry was formally born, and commercial distribution became possible.
The Gramophone (Shellac)
Discs (which would eventually become vinyl as we know it today) went through a few phases at this point, starting from laser cut discs and moving on to rubber (shellac) which would have been played through an all-in-one device called the Gramophone, an advanced version of the Phonograph. By the 1920s mass production meant that electric recording was preferred over acoustic, which leant itself well to the shellac format. While the shellac discs had several advantages over its predecessors, it was strictly limited to 78RPM. As technology improved vinyl was developed, and by the 1930s vinyl – being as robust, lightweight and flexible as it was – was the format that reigned supreme.
The gramophone was the sole source until the late 1940s, when the term ‘high fidelity’ gained prominence. Sound quality became paramount, and soon ‘separates’ were being produced, moving away from the all-in-one that the gramophone had provided up until this point. By 1958, separates were the norm: separate amplifiers, loudspeakers and…
Record Player (Vinyl)
Ah – the record player. Yes, it’s gone through several evolutionary phases since the first of them appeared in the late 50s/early 60s, but they are still the same beasts. The dominance of the disc record and the rise of the separates system paved the way for the turntables we know and love today. They work much in the same way as the gramophones before them did – but this time the replication of the signal is the key function. A stylus held by a cartridge) reads the grooves in the record as its spun by the platter (driven by the belt and motor – which rotates at the perfect speed). That signal travels into the cartridge (which interprets the grooves into a readable soundwave) which moves through the tone arm. The signal is then passed to the phonostage (a pre-amplifier specific to a record player) and then its job is done. Vinyl was the dominant format for many decades, but soon faded into near obscurity with the emergence of the #
Reel-to-Reel (Tape)
This predecessor to the cassette tape saw the first use of magnetic tape, and the first inkling of life beyond the vinyl format. In use, it works something like this: the feed reel containing the tape is mounted on a spindle; the end of the tape is manually pulled out of the reel, threaded through mechanical guides and a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of a second, initially empty ‘takeup reel’. This strange and complex device has technically been around since the late 50s, and enjoyed a heyday in the 60s. Because of the less-than-ideal need to re-thread the tape each time, reel-to-reel never achieved commercial success, despite its sound quality being vastly superior (well, in terms of sound quality!) to cassette tapes.
Tape Deck (Cassette)
Magnetic tape has technically been around since the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the early 70s that is enjoyed success as a commercial musical format. Between the 70s and the early 90s cassette tapes and their corresponding tape decks (which read the magnetic tape and converted the signal for amplification) reigned supreme as a cheap and easily accessed music format. Cassettes maintained an air of popularity – particularly in the pop genres – until the superiority of the Compact Disc took over in the mid-early 90s. By this point, vinyl became less and less of a dominant format, and would eventually surcome (almost) entirely to the might of the CD, and its player.
CD Player (Compact Discs)
A format that barrelled on in and took the world by storm. Cheaper and more practical than the vinyl record, it surpassed it in popularity within a short time of its emergence in the early 80s. Due to the CD containing data as opposed to a physical representation of an analogue soundwave – more could be fitted onto the CD. A lot more. The release of the Sony CD101 and its competitors marked the beginning of the end for the vinyl format, which went on to fade into obscurity into the 21st Century. By the early 90s the CD had surpassed the popularity of the cassette too, and still enjoy huge popularity in the hi-fi (and commercial) world, despite the slight edge of the latest format.
Streamers (Digital)
The use of data in terms for musical replication didn’t end with CDs – quite the opposite, in fact! The term ‘streaming’ refers to the playing of music from a digital device stored elsewhere – be it a NAS drive (which can store the data ripped from CDs, and other digital music music files), on your computer (iTunes or Windows Media Player) or from online services such as Spotify. Streaming has opened up the possibilities of almost infinite musical possibilities, and has over time improved to the extent that it offers high-resolution, akin to the hi-fidelity quality offered by CDs. Bluetooth streaming is another option, and since the development of Bluetooth AptX (lossless playback) streaming from one device to another (say, from a compatible smart phone to a wireless speaker) has resulted in streamless being infinite in yet another mode – by allowing for wireless hi-fi.
Streaming is the future – but each source has its plus points. Okay, we’re not about to recommend that you invest in a tape deck (although even they have their fans!), but the CD, vinyl and streaming as sources are still going strong, particularly amongst audiophiles, who have helped keep the more obscure and archaic formats survive long beyond their commercial relevance – and in the case of vinyl, supported a historical revival that continues to pick up speed.
The question remains… what’s next for the ‘source’? Which will be the most popular format in the next decade? Is there anything new coming? Will cassette tapes go through their own revival?
Anything is possible. Increasingly so.
If you have any questions about any of the above (yes, even cassettes!) then give us a shout. We quite like talking about them!