Full of wonder though the modern world is, I can’t shake the idea that the only true all-in-one audio systems were built half a century ago. Remembered by a teenage me as staple student sleep-over entertainment, the music centre was the real deal, the one-stop-shop to which nothing at all need be added. A triumph of size over sophistication, the hulking behemoths incorporated turntable, cassette deck, AM/FM tuner, amplifier and, tethered by the thinnest, cheapest cable known to science, intriguingly lightweight loudspeakers. Marvellous. Except, of course, the coalition was usually so severely compromised, sound quality frequently plumbed the depths of mediocrity. This, in turn, gave aspiring audiophiles the opportunity to rubbish music centres by championing the sonic delights of separates. And the rest is… well, you know what they say.…
