History of Hi-Fi Corner

Hi-Fi Corner's head office at 1 Haddington Place, Edinburgh, used to be known as Nicolson's Gramophone Saloon.

Colin MacKenzie, Hi-Fi Corner's Managing Director, owns a very high quality gramophone bought from Nicolson’s in 1926. Colin stresses that he was not the original buyer.

The Hi-Fi Corner Group incorporates Glasgow’s oldest established hi-fi specialist, James Kerr & Co.

Hi-Fi Corner have been running the Scottish Hifi Exhibition for 21 years and, through that period have, been involved in making radio history.

In 1983 we gave the first successful radio demonstration of compact disc on BBC Radio. A senior sound engineer at the time said, "it’s a great idea, shame it will never catch on".

Hi-Fi Corner were instrumental in organising the first broadcasts of DCC, ("a great idea that didn’t catch on"), CD-R (recordable compact disc), and we bought the first RDS commercial.

We will continue to be committed to demonstrating new and exciting products to the public.

Some of the equipment donated by Hi-Fi Corner's MD, Colin MacKenzie, to the National Museums of Scotland is now on display at the main museum in Chamber St, Edinburgh.

Visit the NMS web site for details.

Some Notable Firsts:

• First Scottish public display of satellite dish – television from Moscow
• First Compact Disc radio broadcast - Hifi Corner/Marantz/Radio Scotland -1982
• First demonstration of modern home cinema in Scotland- Yamaha & Hifi Corner
• First Scottish demonstration of live music versus loudspeakers- Castle/G.Hooley
• First demonstration in Scotland of DAT -1987
• First broadcast of Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) on BBC & UK Commercial radio-Hi-Fi Corner & Philips1992
• First public recording and playback of CD-R - Mission/Fish -November 1st 1991
• First radio demonstration of Video 8 (honest!) - Sony & Hifi Corner
• First UK public demonstration of NXT flat panel loudspeaker technology -Hifi Corner & Mission -1996
• First Scottish demonstration of AC3 (Dolby Digital)- 1996
• First public demonstration in Scotland of Digital Radio -Hifi Corner & Arcam 1998
• First Scottish demonstrations of CD-V and CD-I - Hifi Corner & Philips
• First Scottish demonstration of Super Audio CD – Sony Roxburgh Hotel - March 2000
• First Broadcast on UK commercial and BBC radio of SACD by Hifi Corner 9 & 10th March 2000
• First Scottish retailers of sub-£100 portable Digital DAB radios -Dec 11th 2001
• First Scottish retailers of biodegradable, environmentally friendly speakers-2002
• First Scottish demonstration of HDMI- the new 'digital scart lead'. Pioneer- Ideal Homes, Oct 2003
• First Scottish demonstration of variable recording timer dab clock radio. PURE Digital (Tempus), Ideal Homes Show, 2003
• First Scottish press launch of HDTV (High Definition Television) July 2004
• Frist Scottish display of Blu-ray (Samsung BDP1000) Ideal Homes, Oct 2006

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