Once Britannia ruled the waves when it came to audio innovation, they were looked up to and lead the way, with leading brands from Tannoy, Spendor, Rogers, Kef, B&W, Pro-Ac, Naim, Linn, Quad, Mission, Garrad, SME, Rega, Meridian, you could easily rattle a list as long as your arm of brands the rest of the world looked up to and admired, it was a symbol of how great this small cottage industry was in the eyes of the rest of the world, Britian was a leader when it came for audio innovation.

But roll forward few decades and the wheels have clearly come off the cart when it comes to UK innovation and new up coming manufactures. The UK has been eclipsed and surpassed by all, other countries have new manufactures with clever and innovative ideas, maybe nothing new sonically speaking, but t least they re making things, but what of sad Britain, we appear to be stuck in some muddy bog unable to move forward, can you think of any new makes and brands to come out of the UK in recent times, please spare me the usual excuses in that we can't compete, rubbish, we can compete, it's just we seem to have stopped trying, we've thrown in towel, or is it was just don't or we can't be bothered to make new things any more in this country?

How many new speakers designers are their compared to other countries?

How many new amplifier makers are there?

We have lost our way in designing, just what has happened to us here in the UK, once we lead the way, but now we hardly have any thing left. I'm sure there will be list of excuses but all countries can put forty excuses, but strangely the don't let the excuses get in the way, have we turned in to a nation of giver uppers?

Its nice to see a new face, so sorry to start our conversation with what b....ks, what inovation has any one come up with in the last few years. OK we have had the advance of digital, but to be fair given how poor it was at the start the only way it could go was up. So we have needed new deigns for digital transports, and dacs, but as most of that has been built on the back of computer audio who did the building is a moot point.

Rega, Meridian, Linn, Naim, B&W, Pro Acc, SME, Tannoy and spendor are still around thanks, and all have product that can hold up its head in any market sector. Add to that Cyrus, Harbeth, Neat, Kudos, Roksan, Michell, and a list of others I don't think we have very much wrong with our home produced audio product.

On top of that. you name me one well designed, good sounding piece of kit that is a real step forward in audio design that has come out in the last 10 years. I mean something really new, not a new take on a old theme, or a computer dressed up in a hi fi box from any country.

A warm welcome indeed.

But you have misinterpreted the point, how many new manufactures are there? I am aware we still have the familiar names that roll of the tongue when it comes to the British audio manufacturing scene, but my point is we re not seeing any new names compared to other countries and we are seriously lacking in this area, just look at the US, China, Germany, where new companies and innovative products re being investigated but in Britain we see the same names always. Nothing wrong at all with the products, it's just I'd like to see some new blood.

You have to remember that the UK is very small compared to the USA or China, plus the trend today is to buy second hand so who in their right mind would want to go out and start a hifi company when so few are buying new? The market is small for new HiFi at the moment. But in the UK there are still some new names for example Leema, AstinTrew, Kudos, EB acoustics, Inspire, Beresford, and some cable makers, not a huge list but still well regarded products.

A great new manufacturer or newish which I respect a great deal and make really good sounding kit is Anatek, I had a great pre and monos from them and Martyn whi runs the company can be contacted at home or on hus mobile, ive even had chats with him when hes been out of work hours and down the pub!

Sorry, but I have not seen anything that inivotive in hi-fi from any hi-fi brand from within these shores, or outside them for a number of years. Any changes have either been on the back of computer hardware or a spin on something existing. as For ICEPower amps etc, when I hear one that offers a better sound than a traditional amp, maybe I'll get interested. A number of brands may have become offshore based and financed, but that could quite simply down to a fore ever shrinking market. And what have any of the ChiBrit companies brought to the market beyond cheap labour and components, nothing really new thats for sure. In the 50's to the 80's after the purchase of a car and house the next must have for most people was a decent sound system. How many homes do you know with that aspiration now. I may be getting to be a sad old sod, but I have seen very little come to market over the last few years that would make me reach for my cheque book, and what has, has either been a refinement of a theme, or a ease of use thing.

Fnuckle has summoned up my thoughts, we've stopped innovating and leading the way, but we've become masters of repackaging, we make pretty but the same themed HiFi over and over again, we've stood sail and watched the world sale by, does any one want to offer an explanation like colin above as to why? I see where he is coming from, but I still think we are stuck in a sticky audio bog in this country.

A lot of this comes down to the severe lack of interest from UK buyers.

What's the point in a start-up trying to develop something innovative in the UK market when it's met by people who dismiss innovation for being innovative? Start-ups need to build in the home market before they can grow an export market. They can't do that if the home audience fears the new, especially when the only chance of entrepreneurial funding from government sources happens if you are an IT start-up.

Compare this with the French market. The government backs the projects because it wants France to be a technology leader. People there see cool new things as cool and new. You can see the same connection in places like Germany, Japan, China and Denmark.

The lack of interest in the market makes this not a rich environment to launch innovative products. The lack of potential funding means you have to be in an established company to develop products, and an established company is usually keen to produce more of the same rather than striking innovation.

In fairness, companies like Linn and Naim are doing some serious development in streaming and computer audio products. And, true to form, a lot of this is being thoroughly dismissed by many UK hi-fi enthusiasts, who want the world frozen in 1988 time.

I can not speak for others, but for myself I have not seen anything stunning come out of computer audio for a while. I use, and have used computer audio in my home office for 12 or more years. I currently use a windows XP machine running headless as a file store, external back up system, and audio player. Its nothing stunning, but it puts music out into my office through a Sansui amp and some half way decent speakers. The machine uses slimserver, or whatever it is currently called, and the squeezeplayer. Ths allows me to control the music through a web browser from any machine on the network. The main difference in this system over the 12 or so years is actually the size/cost per GTB of hard dries. It means that the music can be stored lossless. Hardly a stunning Hi-Fi advance. It also means that should I choose to, I could run a squeezebox from it into my main system. I choose not to stiking with CD instead. Why- is very simple, if I moved over to streamed music and the server, or player went dowm while I was away on business, I very much doubt if any one else in the house has the knowledge or interest to get it up and running again.

These advances, if that is what they are, are computer advances, played through a hi-fi system, not hi-fi advances.

I keep being told that i is more convient to use ripped music streamed, and you can box your CD's up and put them away. As my CD's, and some vinyl. has already been ripped it would not be a major project, just add a squeeze box and a DAC to the system, say £8-£900 and it would equal the sound of my £8-900 pound CD player/ Well bloody wonderful- wheres the advantage? Well your CD's can go away- when I run out of wall space for them I may see that as an advantage, but till them I'll stay as I am. And the wall full of vinyl will not be going anywhere thanks.

So come on and tell this old fossil what MAJOR advances have we missed out on because of the state of UK manufacturing of Hi-Fi.

Bank bailout-biggest transfer of wealth since the Norman invasion-can you imagine what difference that amount would make to the crumbling infrastructure of this country?Hard to tackle this question without becoming political-or as the old saying goes-the fish rots from the head downwards
The UK has always made a stark difference between manual and non manual skills-this goes back to the need to train an elite cicvil service to run the empire.We were conditioned to worship the axioms of finance capital and now we are experiencing the fruits of this ....other countries carry no such historical baggage
Other european states such as Germany protect their industries from speculative predators but we basically sold off the UK to enrich a minority
So the concentration has been on repackaging and marketing techniques-hence the fame of charlatans like Sugar and his ilk
We have only ourselves to blame-people get the governments they deserve sometimes it seems while the city elites despise us as a mass....
Whatever the economics of companies like Naim they are ridiculously expensive to anyone wishing to dip a toe into hi-fi as Adam said so its no surprise that people choose what to them seems a better deal.The biggest investments and returns on innovation now seem all to be military-where the investor class know theyll get a good return in an age of imperial war.

Governments are finally waking up to the realization you need to make things, people need jobs, they need to be taught for future generations.

I thought the Sonneteer morpheus was innovative and British but it seems that any thing new from Britain these days is brushed to one side and doesn't get some of the recognition it deserves, I think it's down to same old story of money talks.