With early beginnings revolving around bands, audio engineering and studios, the late nineties saw founder and enthusiast Marc Rushton combine his passion for all things audio with his business mind. Discovering a lack of local information and content relating to HiFi, Home Theatre and general Consumer Electronics in Australia, Rushton founded the website in 2000.
Originally launched under the name of 'Planet Audio Australia', the website enjoyed early success and grew quickly. In 2003, Planet Audio Australia was the subject of a legal challenge from a US based brand sharing the same name. While successful in the legal defence and resisting the 'corporate bullying', to avoid future confusion the name was changed to StereoNET.
StereoNET has continued to grow rapidly each year thanks to the dedication and direction of Marc, along with the invaluable support of the contributors, editorial team and of course the volunteer moderators.
This success and dedication was recognised in 2012 by being awarded an Honorary Member of the Australian HiFi Assocation. StereoNET is extremely proud of this recognition.
Today, StereoNET is the largest and ranked #1 publication in Australia specifically catering for the HiFi and Home Theatre markets in Australia, but also the 4th most popular website of its kind in the world, based on sheer traffic. StereoNET is an independently published, 100% privately owned business,
StereoNET currently attracts in excess of 190,000 readers per month predominantly from Australia, but also attracting readers from Netherlands, Great Britain, United States, Philippines and Malaysia.
2016 saw further expansion of the StereoNET brand, through the launch of the highly successful International HiFi Show - presented by StereoNET.
In May of 2017 StereoNET acquired the DTV website which was one of the most popular websites for consumers interested in Digital TV and Home Theatre for nearly fifteen years. It was the go-to website for consumers seeking information during the transition to digital TV broadcasting in Australia. During its peak, it attracted tens of thousands of users per day. Merging DTV with StereoNET added an additional 100,000 registered members and over 80,000 monthly unique visitors.
Just two months later, StereoNET acquired AudioEnz, a leading New Zealand based print magazine with a rich history dating back over 30 years. This publication was rebranded and relaunched as StereoNET New Zealand and remains and independent, but sister publication to StereoNET Australia.
Thank you to you as a reader, supporter and fan of StereoNET Australia.