What do Linn, Naim and Rega all have in common? Well, they are all British hi-fi brands. And they have all manufactured a turntable and amplifier. Indeed, there are plenty of answers to this question given the huge swathes of overlapping products the companies produced over the years. But no, I’m getting at something more specific, and that’s the year all three of these venerable manufacturers were founded – 1973. 50 years ago this very year.
Allow a little latitude and expand that a few years on either side and you can include Arcam (1976, when it was called A&R Cambridge), NAD (1972) and Monitor Audio (1972) in that group. QED is another with a 1973 birthdate. And those are just the British brands! I’m sure that list would grow exponentially were we to start looking beyond the UK’s shores.
