In his column, Jan Müller remembers the sound evolution of past decades.
I was born in 1971. That’s why they’re still alive, the hi-fi enthusiasts. At school, they greeted each other with the words, “What’s the stereo doing?” That was only logical, after all, they were always fiddling with their devices. Each component was subject to ongoing monitoring and, if necessary, revision. They were constantly testing new speaker and audio cables. They were always looking for the lowest inductance. Which is better: copper or silver? Jörn even bought Au cables, i.e. made of gold. He had to save for a long time for this.
They passionately debated which would be better: playing the records wet or dry. The question has not yet been conclusively resolved to this day. Of course their tape decks didn’t have auto-reverse, because this ruins the head adjustment. Marcus finally bought the “Nakamichi RX 202 E” auto reverse deck. More specifically, his father had given it to him for his birthday. It’s not the tape head that rotates here, but the cassette itself in a Plexiglas housing. Sensational. Ralf, Thomas and Jörn were amazed, not without envy. Although their components from Onkyo, Kenwood, Revox, Arcam, Canton and Dual are not bad either. Dolby B, Dolby C and HX Pro – the four were armed to the teeth in their sound battles.
And what kind of music was playing on their systems? They only bought recordings that sounded good and expensive. Her collection consisted of albums by Peter Gabriel, Alan Parsons, Pink Floyd, U2, Dire Straits, Yes and Fleetwood Mac. If possible, the records were produced using the direct metal mastering process. Thomas even already had a CD player. In a few years the CD will have been the ultimate sound for this group of friends. A few years later they will turn away from this technology again. You will have realized that the frequency spectrum of the CD cannot keep up with that of vinyl recordings.
Only records offer the dynamics that do justice to your systems. They cracked their albums using Garrard’s “Music Recovery Module 101.” Ralf bought the maxi “The Dancer” by Ulla Meinecke. The others were impressed by the sound but remained skeptical. Apparently this was too much emancipation on the turntable for the four of them. After all, girls weren’t interested in stereo systems. Many of them played their music via Schneider compact systems and similarly inferior hardware. Nevertheless, the process of listening to music seemed to be more lively for them than for Ralf, Jörn, Marcus and Thomas.
The friends made do by penetrating deeper and deeper into the technical area. To reassure them, Thomas read the others from the new issue of “Stereoplay”: “A good phono cable is more than just a connection; it is the key to a clear, noise-free music signal between the record player and amplifier.” That’s how it was.
As a child, I first listened to my music on a portable Grundig CR-485 cassette recorder. It could also be used to record television programs. The hit parade and music store, for example. To do this, you placed the cassette recorder close to the television, pressed the red button and kept it as quiet as possible. But at some point I really wanted to have a stereo system. I wanted a “hi-fi tower”. So a device with individual components. Under no circumstances should it be a compact system. At some point my parents gave in.
And since my father was much more of a design enthusiast than a hi-fi enthusiast, one year at Christmas there was a Braun Atelier system under the Christmas tree. Of course that was completely exaggerated. But the sound was outstanding. As a thank you, I treated my parents to the music of Extrabreit, Hubert Kah, AC/DC, Kiss and Iron Maiden at their original volume. I still have the system today, although I no longer use it every day.
I now mostly listen to music with headphones, as almost everyone seems to do these days. It comes directly from the smartphone; in mp3 compressed form. And I wonder when our society actually lost the need for good sound. A last gasp by the hi-fi industry with surround and 5.1 could not prevent its downfall. MP3, loudness, streaming and boomboxes won the war. Today it is blaring and roaring at us from everywhere. And almost no one sits at home at the shelf and asks their friends: “What is the stereo doing?”
This column first appeared in Musikexpress issue 1/2026.