Monthly Archives: June 2012

An Experience of Pro-Ject

 Founded by Heinz Lichtenegger in 1991, Pro-Ject’s home is located in Vienna, Austria, and houses the firm’s manufacturing and management facilities. With around 300 workers in the company, Pro-Ject may be a small company, but they certainly are big on the results of their products!

Pro-Ject originally came about due to Lichtenegger finding the market of turntables to be un-inspiring and to be certainly lacking in the true Hi-Fi and audiophile sector. We must remember that in the late 80s the CD was beginning to exceed sales of vinyl records for the first time. Although the CD was, and still is, a convenient format that can produce phenomenal accuracy and superb tonal results, Lichtenegger still firmly placed his trust in the format that was beginning to fade away from mainstream production. But, after many ideas and self-built examples, Lichtenegger soon found that his turntables were breathing new life into the format that was seemingly dying a fast death. On the timeline of Hi-Fi history, CDs were becoming as cheap as CDs, offering more clarity on budget systems and stood up to the reliability tests that vinyl records were failing to: record releases toward the end of the 80s saw cheaper materials and thinner albums being produced, resulting in hastened wear and tear. Eventually, the mass production of vinyl records ceased on mainstream releases ceased.

A Brief History of

TEAC started out in Tokyo, Japan, in 1953. The founder of the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company was called Katsuma Tani. He was a young man when he started out in the world of electronics, but was very competent and determined to bring quality audio to the masses.

As the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company became more and more popular through the 1950s, the name was simply known as TEAC. TEAC’s reputation was solid in the world of open reel-to-reel recorders, giving a new dimension to sound due to the engineering involved. Plus, TEAC revolutionised the industry with their stereo tape recorder in the year when stereo was developed heavily by RCA. TEAC has also produced more reel-to-reels since that are able to achieve superb quality levels, even in today’s world of digital recorders.

Here in My Car…

A Guide to Maximising the Audio Quality in your Car

At Hifi Gear, we specialise in consumer-based Hi-Fi and Home Cinema products. Often, most of these products are designed to be used in homes and small public venues. However, we don’t supply car audio related products. But, however, we do supply advice (as found in this blog entry) about the best ways of getting quality from the audio formats you use in your car.

Car audio became a popular asset to many American cars in the 1960s as they began to feature AM radios and, on more expensive models, VHF receivers. As the seventies grew closer, 8-track cartridge players became a favourite retro-fit item on cars of the time. Interestingly enough, brands we take for granted in the Hi-Fi community often had links and sectors of their brands that dealt in audio systems for vehicles: Pioneer is one of them that stands out the most because they brought Hi-Fi onto the car scene with their refined cassette and receiver models. Yet, as formats came thick and fast, car audio grew into much more than a radio and a set of stereo speakers in the parcel shelf. There were phases of graphic equalizers and Minidisc car systems, but it all largely relies on CD and the iPod or MP3 generation of today.

The car has become a much more prominent necessity in many people’s lives. Some people often find themselves running up and down the UK’s motorways every day to commute, so a car can be regarded as a second home to some. So, people find that music can help the journey wind away. What this guide looks into is how to keep as much as your music as possible, and in high quality, in your car with you for your entertainment on laborious journeys.

A Brief History of

Yamaha is regarded as one of the largest manufacturers of audio and visual products in today’s Hi-Fi community. With a history brimming to the top of the historical timeline, we thought we would take a closer look at this manufacturer whose reputation has only grown stronger over their years of activity.

Yamaha’s creator, Mr. Torakusu Yamaha, originally started out as a manufacturer of reed organs in 1887. Back in that era Yamaha’s name was originally the Nippon Gakki Company, Ltd – translating into full English as ‘Japan Musical Instrument Manufacturing Corporation’. In fact, Yamaha’s intriguing and renowned logo features three tuning forks at alternating angles and still remains their corporation logo today. After the Second World War, Yamaha’s factories were re-commissioned to also manufacture motorcycles for easier travelling in the cities, and at prices people could afford – something that Yamaha is still good at doing now in all of their ventures.