Issue 105    November 2013

The Gift Of hi-fi+
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  Though it might seem hard to believe, Christmas is just around the corner. And that means 2014 is just around the corner. It would be great to think that everyone out there in hi-fi+ land would be expecting Santa to drop off a pair of Raidho D-1s this season, but the elves might not have enough industrial diamond to go around. Besides, those stands play havoc with your stocking.

So, instead, why not give the gift of hi-fi+ this Christmas time. There's never been a better time to subscribe to a print, download or tablet edition of the magazine. Go to www.hifiplus.com for more information. And if you subscribe on iPad or Android, you'll save Santa's back for the important job of delivering Lego Star Wars R2-D2 kits, NERF guns and LeapPads to the kids.

While Furby is back in fashion, there's no sign of Gremlins this Christmas. At least not in Toys 'R' Us. However, sometimes gremlins get in the way of making a magazine, and that's galling. Especially when those gremlins are of your own making. That's what happened last month with the Devialet 170 – I made a rookie error of fairly substantial proportions. I did almost all the right things to check the AIR wireless streaming. Set it to the right Wi-Fi device... tick! Ensure the software was up to date... no problems. Remember to check the AIR software was the very latest version... oh bugger!

It's remarkable how big a difference moving from AIR 2.0 to AIR 2.1 makes to the whole thing. Just moving from one software version to the next spells the difference between drop-outs and an extremely stable wireless streaming system. There are a couple of tricks you can perform to Apple's Airport Extreme for those using a computer at the limits of its range, but real mortals in rooms that aren't the size of a small principality will find the Devialet AIR extremely stable. Drop-outs are a thing of the past on the 170, and I'm now awaiting my re-modelled D-Premier/240 and am expecting great things from its AIR network, too.

Our unreserved apologies to Devialet, to Devialet owners and prospective owners who might be worried about waiting for the shoe to drop (out), only for it to never happen.

In addition, in the room acoustics feature of issue 103, we ended up placing the wrong images in the text, making it seem as if Acustica Applicata's DaaD's were Soften panels and vice versa. We apologies for any confusion caused and, as a result, will revisit the DaaD room treatment system in a forthcoming issue.  

Alan Sircom, Editor hi-fi+