For What Hi-Fi?’s Vinyl Week 2024 event, I took another look back at the very first edition of the magazine, published getting on for 50 years back in 1976. My first look – the very first Back Issues column – highlighted cassette decks, stereo amplifiers and the like, but I wondered what our inaugural issue would bring up as far as record players go. Vinyl, after all, was in its heyday in the mid-70s, with cassette its only real rival; the compact disc was still six years or so in the future.
Sure enough, there are quite a few solid turntable reviews, references and features. That is to be expected of course. What struck me most, though, was that the brands of many of the models tested and mentioned in 1976 are names that have almost been lost in the mists of time. In amongst the still familiar Linns, Technics, Rotels and Duals are names such as Garrard, Fons, Eagle, Connoisseur and Trio – brands that would have pretty much no recognition in this day and age.
