The HiFi Hobbyist Podcast

alan gillies
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  • Updated Weekly

This podcast is part of the HiFi Hobbyist Multichannel project for people whose hobby is High Fidelity audio reproduction. It started life as a blog in 2020 and has expanded to include videocasts and AI-generated audio discussions. The HiFi Hobbyist podcast is a new channel that aims to discuss the issues raised in more detail through a dedicated audio podcast channel where in-depth talks will be alternated by AI discussions of the same issue. We will also produce occasional special editions. Our goal is to publish once a week. You can visit the main HiFi Hobbyist site at hifihobbyist.net

  1. 2d ago

    The Debate: Roy Gandy versus Ivor Tiefenbrun

    This week's podcast concludes our current series of podcasts about my Hi-Fi Heroes. We have prompted our AI protagonists to debate the relative contributions of our two most recent Hi-Fi Heroes,Roy Gandy of Rega and Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn.  These two highly influential figures have both led their respective businesses for over fifty years since the early 1970s, and although they have both stepped back from day-to-day management, they are both still heavily involved in their businesses.  Both made their names with iconic turntables, but have diversified in different ways.  The music this week has been created by the Hi-Fi Hobbyist, using Mureka AI software in a jazz and swing style.  I hope that you enjoy the debate!

    34 min

  2. Jun 5

    HiFi Heroes: Roy Gandy of Rega

    This week's podcast is devoted to out final Hi-Fi hero for now, Roy Gandy.   Roy Gandy founded Rega Research in 1973. It is a prominent British audio manufacturer celebrated for its minimalist engineering philosophy and high-fidelity equipment, which has always combined excellence with good value.  The company has evolved from building the original Planet turntable in 1973 to developing its modern flagship, the Naia, which uses advanced materials like graphene and titanium to achieve extreme rigidity and low mass.  Beyond record players, the company is recognized for influential electronics like the Brio integrated amplifier, a compact unit praised for its authentic analogue performance.  Gandy’s design approach views the turntable as a vibration measuring machine, prioritising mechanical integrity and musicality over superfluous digital features. He has always claimed not to be very interested in the concept of high fidelity that “seems a bit strange” to him, but acknowledges that he is passionate about music, and fixing things that seem wrong to him.  To preserve Rega’s corporate culture and ensure long-term stability, Gandy recently transitioned the business into an Employee Ownership Trust. He has provided a legacy of technical innovation rooted in a lifelong passion for accuracy in music reproduction, and created a remarkable British company with a loyal and caring workforce.  This podcast starts by considering his early years.  In recognition of his mother’s talent as a concert pianist, the music accompanying the podcast is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14, the Moonlight, played by Arthur Rubinstein, and provided in the public domain by the Internet Archive.

    41 min

  3. May 29

    HiFi Heroes: Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn

    This is the third of our series of podcasts about my HiFi Heroes. If Peter Walker and Gilbert Briggs were the founding fathers of the British Hi-Fi Industry, Ivor Tiefenbrun is regarded by some as their heir apparent and by others as their problem child. He has always been a controversial figure inspiring both loyalty and anger through his public pronouncements.  He built his reputation on the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable, which has been in continuous production for over 50 years, through a process of continuous evolution and improvement, but his commitment to engineering excellence has influenced speaker design and digital electronics as well.  The music accompanying this week’s podcast recognises his role as a champion of Scottish culture and music. It was generated by the Hi-Fi Hobbyist with the help of Mureka AI software, and concludes with a tribute to Mr Tiefenbrun in the style of Robert Burns. Come back next week for the last in our current series of podcasts about my HiFi Heroes, Roy Gandy.

    40 min

  4. May 22

    AI discussion of Gilbert Briggs ongoing contribution to British Hi-Fi

    This week’s podcast features a discussion about the impact of Gilbert Briggs on the development of the British Hi-Fi scene between two AI protagonists. They have been prompted to  compare Briggs’s contribution with another of my Hi-Fi heroes, Peter Walker, founder of QUAD, and to consider Briggs's legacy for modern-day Hi-Fi loudspeakers in general and Wharfedale in particular. As Gilbert Briggs was a keen musician who loved his pianos, as well as an engineer, we have chosen a piano accompaniment for this week's discussion. We feature extracts from Mussorgsky’s original version of Pictures at an Exhibition for solo piano recorded by Sviatoslav Richter somewhere in the U.S.S.R. sometime in the 1950s, during Gilbert Briggs's heyday, and downloaded from the Internet Archive, and used under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence.  We hope you enjoy the discussion!

    42 min

  5. May 15

    HiFi Heroes: Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale

    This is the second in an occasional series of podcasts devoted to some of my Hi-Fi heroes. This podcast is dedicated to Gilbert Briggs, founder of Wharfedale. These days, Wharfedale is owned by the International Audio Group and like QUAD, many of its products form part of the current fashion for retro products. Gilbert Briggs as well as being a great audio engineer was a big influence in popularising Hi-Fi as a hobby in the early days of the industry Gilbert Briggs was a proud Yorkshireman, so we have created a range of brass band music to accompany this podcast, using the Mureka AI software to create music in the style of the many colliery bands that were created in the county. Unfortunately, once I had done my research, it turns out that he was a huge fan of the piano, so perhaps that would have been more appropriate.

    38 min

  6. May 8

    The AI debate about the extent of Chinese audio innovation

    Welcome to this week's podcast. The Hi-Fi Hobbyist is on holiday this week, but he will be back next week with another Hi-Fi hero. In the meantime, we have prompted two AI protagonists to revisit the podcast from a few weeks ago where we looked at how far the Chinese hi-fi industry has progressed and asked if it is now innovating and outpacing its Western competition. That podcast has generated significant interest, so it seemed like a good idea to revisit the topic and see what other perspectives an AI-generated discussion could produce. The previous podcast has identified areas where Chinese technological innovation has led to products which offer superior performance at lower price points, when compared to their Western competition. The AI protagonists debate whether these trends are reaching a tipping point where  Chinese producers will be seen as offering superior products to Western competitors, not just in the budget sector, but across all price points.  The music accompanying the discussion is from Playsound hosted at pixabay.com. It's entitled 80s retro Synthwave and it's provided free for use in the public domain.  We hope that you enjoy the debate.

    32 min

  7. May 1

    AI debate about Peter Walkers greatest contribution to audio

    This week’s podcast features a debate between AI protagonists about one of my Hi-Fi heroes, Peter Walker, founder of QUAD. Peter Walker is responsible for a range of major innovations in audio equipment design. In this week’s debate, the protagonists consider the relative merits of Walker’s contributions, specifically whether his contributions to electrostatic loudspeakers outweigh the contribution of his various radical amplifier circuit designs. As Peter Walker was a keen musician as well as engineer, who favoured classical music, we have chosen more from Handel’s Water Music to accompany this podcast, performed by  The Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra, in a recording from 1961, available from the Internet Archive under a Usage Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Creative Commons Licence.

    30 min

  8. Apr 24

    HiFi Heroes: Peter Walker of QUAD

    This is the first in an occasional series of podcasts devoted to some of my Hi-Fi heroes. This podcast is dedicated to Peter Walker, founder of QUAD. These days, QUAD is owned by the International Audio Group and many of its products form part of the current fashion for retro products. However, during the first fifty years of its life, under the ownership of Peter Walker it was arguably the most innovative of British HiFi companies. Peter Walker was a keen musician as well as engineer, and he favoured classical music, so we have chosen Handel’s Water Music to accompany this podcast, performed by  The Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra, in a recording from 1961, available from the Internet Archive under a Usage Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Creative Commons Licence.

    47 min
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About

This podcast is part of the HiFi Hobbyist Multichannel project for people whose hobby is High Fidelity audio reproduction. It started life as a blog in 2020 and has expanded to include videocasts and AI-generated audio discussions. The HiFi Hobbyist podcast is a new channel that aims to discuss the issues raised in more detail through a dedicated audio podcast channel where in-depth talks will be alternated by AI discussions of the same issue. We will also produce occasional special editions. Our goal is to publish once a week. You can visit the main HiFi Hobbyist site at hifihobbyist.net

Information

  • Creator
    alan gillies
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The HiFi Hobbyist Podcast

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