Issue 179    January 2020

Welcome Back To The Future
As change is taking place within high-end audio.
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  It's the start of a new decade, and while I am troubled that neither hoverboards nor psychotic replicants made it into the public domain during the 2010s, there's always the scent of change in the air when you move from one decade to the next. As Hi-Fi+ races toward its 21st birthday, change is definitely taking place as we welcome aboard our new President of the newly-formed NextScreen Publishing Group, Lee Scoggins. The group includes The Absolute Sound and Hi-Fi+.

Of course, there are those who fear change and will immediately jump to woeful conclusions. This doesn't mean a change of direction or make Hi-Fi+ a subsidiary of The Absolute Sound (or vice versa); the two magazines play to different audiences, as reflects the continent that stretches between us. To quote Al Murray's comic character 'The Pub Landlord'; "We're two countries separated by a common language... and a bloody great ocean!" While both magazines have the common goal of finding the best in audio, the nature of that quest and the respective journeys we take are necessarily very different. That is not going to change. In fact, the only obvious change is to the masthead of the magazine to your left.

However, conspiracy theorists gotta theorise, so how about this one: the move to NextScreen Publishing Group has meant that each and every one of us has been replaced by an identical-looking doppelganger, who is – beneath that not-so-thin veneer of blobby adipose tissue – in fact a shape-shifting lizard controlled by the Mind Daemons of Ka'flufgh! I can only tell you this now because the chip inside my brain has malfunc... nothing to see here, we're all good!

Change is also taking place in audio, both in terms of the nature of the products themselves and the way those products are sold to customers, and we welcome your feedback on these changes, whether or not you think they are changes for the best. Do you still go to a 'bricks and mortar' dealer in a store? Do you rely on demonstrations, reviews, or word-of-mouth to choose your equipment? Is personal audio your 'thing' or is it something you avoid like the plague? Do you listen to LP, CD, streaming, or even open-reel? Are valves your thing, or do you think tube amps should be consigned to the 1950s where they belong?

Our congratulations to Paul Joseph from Kent in the UK, who wins the remarkable Melco N100 Music Library, worth more than £1,799! Well done!

Alan Sircom, Editor Hi-Fi+