hifilookup dates vintage hi-fi: valve amplifiers, preamplifiers, receivers, tuners, turntables and tape machines. It answers one question — when was this unit built? — from the marks a maker actually left behind: serial numbers, capacitor and EIA component codes, ink stamps under a platter, rotor stamps and catalogue numbers.
The rule behind every answer is the newest-part rule: a unit is never older than its newest original component. Where the marks disagree, the archive says so and reports the youngest reading rather than a convenient average. Where a maker published no table at all, the page says that too — refusing to date a unit is a result, not a failure.
Every figure is tied to a published source, listed in the evidence library, and every table is marked with its confidence: an official maker table, a documented restoration record, or an unofficial rule of thumb. Nothing is entered from memory.
No manufacturer pays for a place in this archive, and no maker can buy a favourable reading. Values are published only with their basis attached — a sold observation, a dealer asking price or an estimate — and an asking price is never presented here as a sold one.
hifilookup is part of a family of equipment reference sites built on the same principle: PianoLookup, KeyboardLookup, AmpLookup, BrassLookup, OrganLookup, AccordionLookup, KnifeLookup and SewingLookup.