January / February / March 2018
Underline The Line
Editorial By Andrija Curkovic

  At the end of the year, we all draw the line by summing up the positive and negative things that happened to us so we could, at least visually, evaluate our success in the year that has come to an end.

Most of us are inclined to suppress the bad, forget the negative situations that have occurred, with the primary goal of regaining optimism before we enter the new cycle of the year ahead. Someone with more or less of a success carries out this thought process every year and it has already become a routine that gives satisfactory positive results for many.

In the consumer electronics world, which all of us are ultimately interested in, such an approach would only keep the "status quo" of the state within the company that provides it with existence but not development and progress. This imperative of innovation is not always easy to achieve or monetize. There is a period when the marketplace doesn’t understand your "innovation" quite the same as expected by development engineers and PR experts.

One of those periods includes the year that comes to its end, which leaves behind no significant technological innovations and trends that could mark it with its appearance. An exception to this statement could possibly be devices that can be connected over the Internet with other home electronic devices (IoTs), wireless speaker systems with artificial intelligence (AI) and voicemail management capabilities.

The consumer's enthusiasm about the capabilities of small devices that have become cost-effective for everyone, with their capabilities advanced enough to provide users with a simpler, more precise and smarter use of everyday devices in their everyday routine throughout the day, whether at home or at work, is understandable. It is to be expected that at this upcoming CES 2018 fair this product segment will literally explode and that every company that holds for itself will have at least one IoT solution to present.

This also applies to smart, wireless voice assistant speakers that are slowly becoming the central product of entertainment and communication in everyday life. Simplicity and flexibility in use is their main selling trigger and a light future is ahead of them.

The only thing that can not be felt in this whole passage of enthusiasm refers to the statements of PR agents of all manufacturers that the aforementioned speakers are able to play music in the way it was recorded in the studio. Let's be serious for a moment! Built-in speaker drivers of 2 to 3 Inches? This is similar to saying in an interview with a nutritionist that fast food is great as an everyday nutritional option. I agree it's tasty and seductive, but it's not an adequate substitute.

With that in mind, we are returning to the field of our Hi-Fi devices in the number you are reading, and we confirm with pleasure that music recorded in the studio can only be performed with good quality if you have at least something of an approximate quality as the Magnat MR780, Pathos InPol Heritage, Davis Acoustics Balthus 50, Audiovector QR3, Naim Uniti Atom, Electron Audio Red Head or Onkyo CP-1050 or...

--- Andrija Curkovic
Editor-in-Chief

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