Home  High-End Audio Reviews  Audiophile Show Reports Partner Mags  Hi-Fi / Music News

  High-End High-Performance Audiophile Review Magazine & Hi-Fi Audio Equipment Reviews

  High-Performance Audio Reviews
  Music News, Show Reports, And More!

  Celebrating 29 Years Of Service To Music Lovers

 

Enjoy the Music.com

Issue 78    March / April 2011
Audiophile Shows
Editorial By Alan Sircom

 

hi-fi+ Editorial Issue March / April 2011  This decade is freshly minted, but already it is proving to be... strange. As our CES round-up shows, there's plenty of new equipment at a wide rage of prices, but especially for those seeking out up-market solutions. But there's a sense of unknowing that permeates the audio industry. Some of this comes from uncertainty over the future - are turntable sales going to remain buoyant? Should we replace our aging CD player, or wait until they become fashionable again? Is it to be a networked solution or 'PC-and-DAC' that's the way forward? Is Class D audiophile-ready yet?

Some are already coming out of the fugue. They are the ones that sussed out answers to some or all of these questions, and have released products that fit the bill. Their only concern is 'when are the customers coming back?', because both English and American audiophiles in general are taking a buying break at this time. Still, many see double-digit growth in their brands as the break new and emerging markets, and can experience genuine surges in sales, when they discover one good shop in Brazil can sell more equipment than two dozen stores in the UK. Curiously, this buying break doesn't seem to affect the highest of high-end too dramatically, especially if you have the right product at the right -- if high -- price.

Not everyone is faring so well. Other companies -- it must be said -- have just woken up to discover it's the twenty-first century. Some still have their watches set to 1980s time. You have to wonder occasionally how such companies keep going, but they turn up at the same shows, year in, year out. 

This is show season. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (and the accompanying The Home Entertainment show) in Las Vegas is much more than just 3D TV and iPad clones; there's a whole hotel dedicated to high-end audio. Hi-Fi+ and The Absolute Sound went mob-handed round the audio rooms (and not the porn show next door, honest) to bring you a comprehensive round up of what's hot in high-end.

By the time you read this, Bristol Sound and Vision will have just happened, with its more feet-on-the-ground approach to audio, and then there's the Pie Show. This event ? run by members of the Hi-Fi Wigwam forum ? is at the Scalford Hall Hotel, just outside Melton Mowbray, on Sunday 6th March 2011. Think of it as one big bake-off! Finally, there's the exciting new Audio World '11 show, which runs the weekend of the 26th and 27th of March 2011, at the Park Inn hotel in Heathrow, London. Perhaps we'll see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

Premium Audio Review Magazine
High-End Audiophile Equipment Reviews

 

Equipment Review Archives
Turntables, Cartridges, Etc
Digital Source
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Preamplifiers
Amplifiers
Cables, Wires, Etc
Loudspeakers/ Monitors
Headphones, IEMs, Tweaks, Etc
Superior Audio Gear Reviews


Show Reports
Capital Audiofest 2024
Toronto Audiofest 2024
UK Audio Show 2024
Pacific Audio Fest 2024
HIGH END Munich 2024
AXPONA 2024 Show Report
Montreal Audiofest 2024 Report

Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Florida Intl. Audio Expo 2024
...More Show Reports

 

Videos
Our Featured Videos


Industry & Music News

High-End Audio & Music News

 

Partner Print Magazines
audioXpress
hi-fi+ Magazine
Sound Practices
VALVE Magazine

 

For The Press & Industry
About Us
Press Releases
Official Site Graphics

 

   

 

Home  |  High-End Audio Reviews  |  Audiophile Show Reports  Hi-Fi / Music News  About Us  |  Contact Us

 

 

All contents copyright©  1995 - 2024  Enjoy the Music.com®
May not be copied or reproduced without permission.  All rights reserved.