This evening I have been lamenting the demise of the great audio print magazines – at least the ones I loved - as the survivors are really not for me.
My favorites; Listener, Sound Practices, Vacuum Tube Valley and a few selected copies of even more obscure stuff like Fi, Hi-Fi Sound Canada, Speaker Builder & Audio Express. Never bought any of the beautifully presented MJ Audio Technology Magazines out of Japan but I bet they would be high on my list too if I could read Japanese.
Earlier, I wanted to relax and unwind with some music, but felt like flipping through the pages of something interesting at the same time – actually feeling and resting my eyes on real paper, not clicking & scratching on an LCD screen. I grabbed one from the old Vacuum Tube Valley stack and was reminded how much I enjoy – and miss – a great print magazine like this; one that remains as relevant in my audio life today as it did back when I bought it (would have been a 'back issue' even then).
This was Vacuum Tube Valley Issue 3 Volume 1 from winter 1995-96, with a cover price of $8 – a lot back then but SO worth it! In this issue alone we had the history of the Altec 604, the Western Electric 300B extensive history and tests, a look at several currently (in 1995) available 300Bs and how they compared to the original – both measured and in listening. Their 'Golden Era of HiFi' section covered the whole Eico line and they did an article on the bizarre McIntosh MI-200 (200w of transmitter tube triode power). They covered the design of single-ended output transformers and tested several offerings including listening tests (Electra-Print did pretty well
).
I 'get' why something this niche couldn't survive in the Internet age and also see why something that to me seemed way more mainstream like Listener was eventually doomed too, but I sure do miss them. The Internet...death to print unless you morph into distasteful shills for your advertisers (that would be only MY opinion!
), but at least you get to do what I'm doing below to appreciate what came before.
Here's the cover of Vacuum Tube Valley Issue 3 and it appears most of their issues are still available as free downloads online – you just have to read them on some kind of electric pad. I highly recommend starting with Issue 3.
My favorites; Listener, Sound Practices, Vacuum Tube Valley and a few selected copies of even more obscure stuff like Fi, Hi-Fi Sound Canada, Speaker Builder & Audio Express. Never bought any of the beautifully presented MJ Audio Technology Magazines out of Japan but I bet they would be high on my list too if I could read Japanese.
Earlier, I wanted to relax and unwind with some music, but felt like flipping through the pages of something interesting at the same time – actually feeling and resting my eyes on real paper, not clicking & scratching on an LCD screen. I grabbed one from the old Vacuum Tube Valley stack and was reminded how much I enjoy – and miss – a great print magazine like this; one that remains as relevant in my audio life today as it did back when I bought it (would have been a 'back issue' even then).
This was Vacuum Tube Valley Issue 3 Volume 1 from winter 1995-96, with a cover price of $8 – a lot back then but SO worth it! In this issue alone we had the history of the Altec 604, the Western Electric 300B extensive history and tests, a look at several currently (in 1995) available 300Bs and how they compared to the original – both measured and in listening. Their 'Golden Era of HiFi' section covered the whole Eico line and they did an article on the bizarre McIntosh MI-200 (200w of transmitter tube triode power). They covered the design of single-ended output transformers and tested several offerings including listening tests (Electra-Print did pretty well
).I 'get' why something this niche couldn't survive in the Internet age and also see why something that to me seemed way more mainstream like Listener was eventually doomed too, but I sure do miss them. The Internet...death to print unless you morph into distasteful shills for your advertisers (that would be only MY opinion!
), but at least you get to do what I'm doing below to appreciate what came before.Here's the cover of Vacuum Tube Valley Issue 3 and it appears most of their issues are still available as free downloads online – you just have to read them on some kind of electric pad. I highly recommend starting with Issue 3.
