Issue 108    February 2014

Las Vegas Show And The Upcoming Bristol Sound & Vision 2014
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  We went to press almost immediately after the annual CES show in Las Vegas wound down. The event – bigger, shinier and just plain nerdier each year – helps shape consumer electronics of all angles for the next year or more. Some products and concepts will disappear without trace, while others will set the trend. It's impossible to predict what will succeed and what won't, even if the world's news cameras are trained on the wearable tech, the curvy phones and the biggest TV screens around.

Few of the world's news cameras are trained on our little backwater anymore, but that doesn't mean our waters are stagnant. This was the year of High Resolution Audio, driven by consumer electronics giants like Sony suddenly taking renewed interest in audio and delivering products that can handle 24/192 and even DSD 128 streamed over USB with ease. There will be a greater base of high-resolution audio files available in the UK with the announcement of the impending arrival of HDTracks and its thousands of titles. In 2013, the music supplier not only had successes in the ‘really not for audiophile' market (unless I've misread things and that most of our readers are big Justin Timberlake fans) and had its first chart success… albeit with the high-res version of Kind Of Blue. The HDtracks edition was the first version of that evergreen album to log US chart success in several years, so there's definitely interest there.

We have been behind the curve with downloaded music in the UK, in part because the continued survival of HMV gives the impression of nothing being that wrong with CD sales. But, even though they still have a long, long way to fall, 2014 should be the year everyone makes plans for their digital future, especially as the infrastructure required to download high quality files will be greatly expanded this year.

But there's more than just a big Las Vegas show this month. We have rounded up some of the best new products from around the world; whether it's a DAC designed in Japan and built in Korea, an amp made by Americans for a company in Italy or a pair of speakers designed and built in Sheffield, we have a veritable cornucopia of audio.

We also have a fantastic offer coming up for Bristol Sound & Vision 2014. We have teamed up with Wilson Benesch and one lucky winner will receive a Limited Edition Square One loudspeaker, finished in the company's excellent white gloss livery. Find out more at www.25th-wilson-benesch.com.

See Enjoy the Music.TV's interview with Alan Sircom concerning the equipment showcased during the recent International CES and T.H.E. Show Las Vegas 2014 at this link.

Alan Sircom, Editor hi-fi+