# Forgotten audio formats: The Highway Hi-Fi



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

From Ars Technica:

*Forgotten audio formats: The Highway Hi-Fi*


> What's the connection between the Beatles' George Harrison, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, and Chrysler cars? The Highway Hi-Fi: a vinyl record player that just happened to be the world's first in-car music system. It appeared 60 years ago this spring, in 1956, and should have been a smash hit. It was innovatory, a major talking point, arrived as the car market was booming as never before, and it came with much press hype. It also had the backing of a leading motor manufacturer. What could possibly go wrong?
> 
> Unlike car radios-which had already been around for more than a decade-the Highway Hi-Fi actually gave you a choice. The records you wanted to play were picked by you rather than by a DJ in a radio station miles away, and those discs could hold some 90 minutes of music. This playing time was twice what you could get from a normal vinyl record of the mid-1950s-a trick accomplished by dragging the Highway Hi-Fi's playing speed down to a mere 16.66 RPM, half that of a normal vinyl album. In technological terms, this was seen as a minor miracle.


FULL ARTICLE HERE


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

I remember some 45 rpm turntables in cars, but the arm was so weighted that the records didn't last long. Vibration, heat and dust of a car wasn't an ideal environment.

As for the 16.66, we had a turntable that did that but the only records were verbal, like todays audio books, not very Hi-Fi.


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## Dude111 (Aug 6, 2010)

I do love analog guys!!!!


Alot of my records aay HIFI butr alot dont either and they sound just as good really.... (Like 78s dont say it and for what they are,they sound good)


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