You always know when something significant is happening in audio – it makes the national press. Big takeovers and significant developments sometimes get a mention in the business pages, but it’s very rare to see more general ‘state of the market’ articles. Maybe it’s because hi-fi has become so niche it struggles to get feature writers interested, or maybe there are more pressing subjects, such as the latest tiny change made by Apple to its phones
or software.

So, I was surprised to see a BBC news story at the end of last year suggesting there’s a boom in vintage hi-fi, with people both buying older equipment rather than the latest designs, and finding ways to keep treasured audio devices running after many years’ use. In itself, that’s nothing new: we’ve all seen the coverage of the revival of interest in LPs and turntables, and there are even persistent rumblings that the compact cassette is making a comeback. Indeed, the BBC article quoted the owner of a shop in Manchester selling only music on tape, who told the reporter that while he has some buyers with a nostalgic interest, the majority of his customers are the under-thirties. He even sells his own brand of cassette machines to play the tapes: the Mars Tapes Cassette Player sells for £45, includes a built-in speaker and FM/AM tuner, and comes with a pair of earphones. The company also sells cassette must-haves, such as blank cassettes – new or used – and a head cleaner cassette.

Another sign of tape interest is the recent launch of a new cassette player from FiiO, until now best known for digital music players and DAC/headphone amps: its CP-13 model is a sleek and modern as the Mars Tape machine is retro, and sells for under £100. It has a pocketable transparent design, and is powered by an internal rechargeable battery, giving 13 hours of use from one USB-C charge.

Cassette, then, seems to have a sufficient following to justify the launch of new hardware – and look on Amazon, for example, and you’ll find dozens more machines, from pocket players to radio-cassette units, all of them carrying brand-names you’ve probably never heard of. And if you want to dig even deeper into the formats of the past, there’s even a dedicated bunch of enthusiasts restoring and using open-reel tape machines, from heavyweight studio hardware to the kind of units once used by serious hi-fi enthusiasts at home.

Is all this down to a nostalgia for that warm, analogue sound of the past, in the face of the rise of streaming and the like? Possibly, but I gained some insight into that on a recent visit to mixing and mastering experts Wired Masters, whose hi-tech set-up is in an anonymous building in south west London. Asked whether the artists with whom they work still want that rich analogue sound, the answer was that, yes, they do have the analogue equipment to hand, but mostly the work is done ‘in the box’, using a computerised workstation. Many clients, hearing the results, agree that yes, that’s just the all-analogue sound they wanted!

But this hankering for the past does seem to run deep, as you’ll see in this month’s main audio review (see next page). At a very quick glance, the new QUAD 33 preamp and 303 power amplifier could pass for the 1967 designs which inspires them, yet the styling and finish have been upgraded, as have the electronics within – but all while staying true to the intent and engineering of the original. That seems a sensible take on this whole retro thinking: yes, there will be those for whom nothing but the ‘real thing’ will do, and there’s a lively market in original examples of both preamplifier and power amplifier, not to mention companies able to restore and repair them.

Where the makers of older equipment are still in business, it’s often possible to get used buys or long-serving favourites brought back to original specification. QUAD, under its current ownership, still has a UK-based service facility, and one of my most prized possessions is a Naim NAC52/52PS/NAP250 amplifier combination, built in the early 1990s and comprehensively serviced in Salisbury a handful of years ago, shortly after I acquired it. It still sounds superb – but maybe that’s just nostalgia …