1857
Scott de Martinville invents the Phonautograph, the first device to "draw" sound waves on paper, though it couldn’t play them back.
Lookup
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Contact
We'd love to hear from you.
We're obsessed with hifi too. We read every email and fix every bug in our free time—and we'd love your help! We're committed to the site being free forever, and not running advertising.
Julian fell in love with hifi after walking into a local dealer and realizing that—when a system is set up right—you can be convinced you're at a concert while relaxing in your living room.
Cameron became obsessed with hifi after buying his first measurement equipment and becoming fascinated by how engineering advancements can improve music playback.
Along with our team, our goal is to be the database of hifi and headfi that we always wanted to exist, and to help more people fall in love with hifi like we did. The best way we can do that is to make it easy to find your next system and to convince you to step foot into your local hifi dealer. That's what this is about.
P.S. Scroll down for an easter egg.
We've received your message.
Contact
1877
Edison unveils the Phonograph, capable of recording and reproducing sound on tin foil-wrapped cylinders.
1906
de Forest invents the Audion tube, enabling amplification of audio signals and laying the groundwork for modern sound systems.
1925
Western Electric pioneers electrical recording with microphones and amplifiers, drastically improving sound fidelity.
1931
Alan Blumlein patents stereophonic sound, creating the foundation for two-channel audio recording and playback.
1948
Columbia introduces the 33⅓ RPM long-play (LP) record, offering extended playtime and quieter playback with vinyl.
1957
Stereo LPs debut, transforming how music is heard, with instruments and voices separated across channels.
1963
Philips launches the compact cassette, a portable and recordable tape format that reshapes personal audio.
1970s
Silver-faced stereo receivers from brands like Pioneer and Marantz dominate, signaling the golden age of home hi-fi systems.
1982
Sony and Philips release the Compact Disc (CD), offering digital “perfect sound” and durability over analog formats.
1991
Fraunhofer releases the MP3 format, making digital compression feasible and laying the groundwork for the music-sharing boom.
1999
Napster introduces peer-to-peer file sharing, disrupting the music industry and democratizing access to digital audio.
2001
Apple releases the iPod, enabling people to carry thousands of songs in their pocket with a sleek design.
2008
Spotify launches, popularizing music streaming and offering access to vast libraries with instant playback.
2010s
High-end personal audio grows, with planar magnetic headphones, advanced in-ear monitors, and boutique DACs gaining popularity.
Modern Era
Wireless audio achieves high fidelity with advanced Bluetooth codecs like aptX and LDAC, bridging quality and convenience.
Feel free to contact us. We'd love to hear from you. Note that much of the data, recommendations, and summaries on ExtremeHiFi are researched after thousands of hours of loving labor. We archive our site's data and its pages on Archive.org and monitor for those repurposing the data. We also fingerprint data to know when text and numbers came from us.
What's ExtremeHiFi? We're the encyclopedia of hifi. We read every review, talk to every brand, and help you figure out what to buy. We also have the largest database of used products to browse.