Jethro Tull have been producing music since 1968, and therefore selecting 5 favourite Jethro Tull albums for this podcast is a difficult task. This week's podcast is the Hifi Hobbyist's attempt to select a Top Five Jethro Tull albums. Only five in the list in order to try to explore the merits of each title in some detai,l particularly with reference to the sound quality of each album. The Jethro Tull catalogue has been well served by a series of remixes by Steve Wilson, often on the 40th anniversary of the original release. Many of Jethro Tull’s early albums, in particula,r push the boundaries of what was then technically possible, and this perhaps explains why the quality of some of the original releases was less than ideal. In selecting my favourite 5 albums, I have taken into account that some of the Jethro Tull albums can be seen as companion pieces. Thus, a Passion Play and a Thick as a Brick both represent concept albums and share a common tongue-in-cheek approach. Heavy Horses and Songs from the Wood represent a more rural and folksy approach to music. Stormwatch whilst musically similar to Heavy Horses and Songs from the Wood looks forward lyrically to the more apocalyptic themes of A. Crest of a Knave and Rock Island represent a harder rock sound, whilst Minstrel in the Gallery and Too old to Rock'n'Roll, Too Young to Die can be seen as concept albums based around relatively short individual tracks. In order to reduce my options, I elected to set the criteria that no two albums that represent companion pieces could appear in my top five. The selection is based on musical and lyrical quality, rather than the sound quality of the original releases, but as this is a hifi hobbyist podcast, we will certainly discuss sound quality, especially in relation to the Steve Wilson remixes where available. As usual, we cannot use Tull’s music for copyright reasons, so the music featured is a version of Bourrée in E minor from J.S. Bach's Lute Suite in E minor, BWV 996. This is the piece that inspired Jethro Tull’s famous Bourrée track when Ian Anderson heard Martin Barre play it on his guitar. Our version is by Jakob Lindberg, and the recording is in the public domain.

Welcome to this week’s podcast, which is a generated debate about the different approaches to performing and recording Handel’s Messiah, as discussed in last week's Christmas podcast.  The AI protagonists debate the merits of the newer authentic or "historically informed" performances compared to the more traditional larger scale performances popular in the early years of vinyl LP records.  The selections of Messiah that accompany the podcast are again supplied from Wikimedia Commons. They are used under a Creative Commons 2.0 licence. Given the topic and the availability of the recordings, some of the musical clips are longer than usual. I do hope that you enjoy the podcast! 

Happy Christmas from the HiFi Hobbyist! This week’s podcast considers Handel's Messiah, which has become a staple at Christmas. We shall consider its origins, its impact, and the HiFi Hobbyists favourite recordings The selections of Messiah that accompany the podcast are supplied from Wikimedia Commons. They are used under a Creative Commons 2.0 licence I hope that you enjoy the podcast!

This week’s generated discussion iis about last week’s podcast about the relative merits of valve and solid-state (transistor) circuitry in high-fidelity audio amplification. It takes the form of a debate about the merits of each technology with each participant championing one of the technologies This week’s music is entitled Digital Sunset by Nver Avetyan and used under a Pixabay licence.  I hope that you enjoy the discussion.

This week’s podcast which considers the relative merits of valve and solid-state circuitry in high-fidelity audio amplification. We use the term “solid state’ because the discrete transistors of early designs have now largely been superseded by integrated circuits incorporating many transistors Transistors largely replaced valves in the 1960s, but have retained a niche market in high-end, and also some budget enthusiast products, and we will try to understand why. As valve amplification is often associated with fans of acoustic music, this week’s music is a piece of acoustic jazz entitled Fast Jazz by WaveMaster and used under a Pixabay licence.  I hope that you enjoy the podcast!

This week’s generated discussion uses the evidence gathered for last week’s podcast about Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd to debate the merits of each album with each AI participant championing one of the titles. Will they agree with the (human) HiFi Hobbyist?

This week’s podcast compares arguably the two best albums from Pink Floyd at the height of their powers, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, as we reach the 50th anniversary of the release of Wish You Were Here. As this is the Hi-Fi Hobbyist podcast, we will pay particular attention to the various reissues and remasters that have emerged over the intervening period.

This week’s generated discussion follows on from last week’s podcast about the role of active loudspeaker technology in domestic Hi-Fi systems. It takes the form of a debate about the merits of active and passive speakers for Hi-Fi hobbyists. This week’s accompanying music is Shattered, created by Electronic-Senses, and used under a Pixabay licence

This podcast explores the role and history of active speakers in domestic hi-fi systems. Although their use is on the increase in the smart speaker market and in some popular hi-fi speaker ranges such as the KEF LS series, many hi-fi hobbyists remain unconvinced, so we seek to answer the question "Why doesn’t active loudspeaker technology play a bigger role in domestic Hi-Fi systems?" This week’s music is from a bluegrass instrumental created by Nicholas Panek and used under a Pixabay licence.

Following on from last week's podcast on alternative approaches to manufacturing for British HiFi companies, this week's takes the form of a generated debate about the merits of the two principal approaches as exemplified by IAG and Rega

This podcast examines whether British HiFi manufacturers need to outsource manufacturing to survive. It has been inspired by the challenges to free trade and global supply changes, which have been caused by the UK leaving the EU, closely followed by a global pandemic, and most recently geopolitical upheavals and the imposition of import tarffs by key countries

This bonus podcast is a generated discussion that took a rather unexpected turn, which I found interesting so we have published it as a bonus episode. Charged with generating a debate about last week's podcast, the debate quickly moved to a rather more philosophical discussion about the nature of high-fidelity audio itself. Do we value the purest signal in terms of freedom from noise, or do we instead seek to create a 3-D sound picture, majoring on placement and position? The move from mono to stereo represented the first major development into spatial audio, but modern object-based immersive audio take this to a whole new level. Listen and enjoy!

This week's podcast is a generated discussion, following on from last week's podcast. It discusses the historical progression of audiovisual technology convergence in the United Kingdom, tracing its evolution from early broadcast limitations to modern immersive experiences. It begins with the initial analogue mono television era established by the BBC and ITV, followed by the temporary simulcasting solutions that paired TV with FM radio. A significant portion of the discussion examines the impact of the BBC's internal digital audio research, which was necessitated by the failings of analogue infrastructure and led directly to the consumer-facing NICAM digital stereo standard. The discussion then shifts to the era of physical digital media (DVD and Blu-ray), which democratised multi-channel and lossless audio formats, before concluding with an analysis of the contemporary landscape dominated by streaming services and the widespread adoption of object-based spatial audio like Dolby Atmos.

The podcast tracks the history of audiovisual technology in the UK from the earliest TV services nearly 100 years ago to modern digital technology, with a view to answering the question: does high fidelity audio benefit from accompanying video?

This week's generated discussion looks at last week's podcast and the HiFi Hobbyist Top 10 Bruce Springsteen studio albums

Although the title of this podcast is the hi-fi hobbyist, hi-fi is only ever a means to an end.  The purpose of improving my Hi-Fi setup is to improve the quality of the sound reproduction and therefore the enjoyment obtained from music. Music has always played an important part on the hifi hobbyist site with syndicated record reviews featured prominently from the beginning. One of the artists prominently featured on that site is Bruce Springsteen. This week’s podcast explores my top 10 favourite Springsteen albums, explores what makes them special and considers other people's views of the material.

Welcome to this week’s generated discussion about last week’s podcast about the not-so-humble Hi-Fi rack.   This week’s music is once again a mix of big band swing tracks created by Nicholas Parnek, and used under a Pixabay licence.    I hope that you enjoy the discussion! 

Welcome to this week’s podcast about the not-so-humble hifi rack.  The podcast discusses the history of specialist hifi funiture, and the technical aspects of providing a solid foundation and controlling unwanted vibrations. The research for this podcast informed my own hobby project to replace my own hifi rack. You can read more about this at the main HiFi Hobbyist website  This week’s music is big band swing, created by Nicholas Parnek, and used under a Pixabay licence.  I hope that you enjoy the podcast, and the music, too! 

This week’s podcast is a discussion about the NAD thirty twenty amplifier, probably the best-selling hi-fi amplifier in history, and arguably, the most influential budget Hi-Fi component in history. It follows on from the story of my relationship with the amplifier on the main HiFi Hobbyist site and last week’s podcast covering the amplifier in more detail This week’s music is Liszt’s piano transcription of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, and a recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto No5, both supplied by musopen.org. This recording has been placed in the public domain.

The NAD 3020 is almost certainly the best-selling hi-fi amplifier in history. Including its various iterations, it reportedly sold 1.1 million units. I bought one of those 1.1 million units in 1980. On the main hifihobbyist.net website, I have told the story of my forty-five-year-old relationship with this iconic amplifier. In this podcast, we will tell the story of its origins, technical innovations and its legacy. This week’s music is Liszt’s piano transcription of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, and a recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto No.5, both supplied by musopen.org. This recording has been placed in the public domain.