Finding something to write about in the Back Issues column is never terribly taxing. It’s pretty much a case of going into the hi-fi reviewing room in which the bound issues and old copies are kept (having first cleared it of any hi-fi and audio editors who may be cluttering up the place) and grabbing any random magazine that crosses my path. Sure enough, there is always something of interest to compare an issue of yesteryear with today’s model – whether it’s contrasting technology, prices, designs or whatever.
Of course, as I have referred to plenty of times previously in Back Issues past, what is truly bewildering is the speed with which time is passing. If you say “20 years ago” to someone, that sounds like a long time; but if you change that to “2005” it seems (to this 30-year-plus magazine veteran, at any rate) like the mere blink of an eye.
Recording – but not as we now know it
The February 2005 issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, as it was known for a decade or so around the turn of the century, enjoyed a good variety of products, including the home cinema DVD recording systems that star on the front cover.
This type of system has pretty much been superseded by the advent of the soundbar now, but that ‘system’ principle is very much now back in vogue. The standalone, basic soundbar is expanding into the more and more common “soundbar package” that we cover in the February 2025 issue of What Hi-Fi? (in all good newsagents now…)
With the advances in surround-sound technology, including the likes of Dolby Atmos sound, having physical speakers in place brings definite sonic benefits over the still talented standalone soundbar’s abilities to create the height channels digitally.
Remember plasma TVs? Tell us about it…
To complement the recording AV system cover stars in the February 2005 issue, there is also a Group Test of 42-43in plasma TVs. A technology that was coming to the end of its lifecycle, due to the emergence of cheaper LCD flat-panel televisions, plasma was still the pinnacle of “flat” TV tech – and the king of the heap was Pioneer. To this day we get plasma fans insisting that their Pioneer set is still the bee's knees. They were hugely impressive TVs, it’s true; but I can’t help feeling that the following 20 years of innovation and engineering improvements have meant that a TV from 2025 will outdo even the fabled “Kuro”.
So much choice – such a small spread
Despite that occasionally controversial sub-line on the What Hi-Fi? masthead, it was by no means all home cinema equipment in the magazines of the early 2000s. Also of interest in February 2005 is the Supertest of seven pairs of stereo speakers, costing between £300 and £350. To have seven options in such a narrow price window seems amazing in 2025, but in What Hi-Fi?’s earlier days it was really nothing to write home about. Go back a further decade from there, and it is quite easy to find Supertests with 10 or 12 products to compare, all within extremely tight price margins.
We always had a system
Immediately following the £300-£350 speaker Supertest is a spread where our review team suggests the perfect partners for the winning Epos M5 speakers in a hi-fi system. Which brings us neatly back to the present day, where the February 2025 edition of What Hi-Fi? presents five stereo set-ups using our recent Award winners as a starting point for some stunning stereo systems.
Perfect partners indeed
While it is fascinating to look back to any issue of What Hi-Fi? over the past almost half century (it’s our 50th birthday next year!), the era I like to look at most are the magazines from the mid ’90s onwards. And that is purely for selfish reasons: I know most of the people who worked on those issues; some I still work with, others have moved on to pastures new within the industry (see two of the three in the image two above), often going over to the dark side to work in PR, consulting and even the manufacturing side of things. One (see above) has gone from being an editorial assistant back in 2005 to being our content director nowadays.
They were (still are in a couple of cases) fine colleagues, excellent writers and distinctly average five-a-side footballers; but most of all, lovely people. And, as is the way with such things, we keep in touch all too infrequently – which is why a visit to the archives is often such a nostalgic heart-tug. Till next time.
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