October 2019
The Downsides To Measuring Products
Technical discussions about high-end audio gear.
Editorial By Noel Keywood

  There are upsides and downsides to the measurement of products we carry out. It takes time, using a lot of expensive test equipment – the downside. But it also unearths problems and strange behavior – the upside. Yet measurement rarely draws criticism – even interest. But not so this month as you will read on p75 where we re-test Audiolab's 6000N streamer.

There's a lot going on here – behind the scenes. Audiolab have industry standard, high quality test equipment, able to match the results of our test equipment. Sad to say, a lot of manufacturers do not – hence lack of interest and stony silence. Audiolab expect our measurements to be similar to theirs as a result – and this is how it should be. But as you'll read it all went pear shaped with their 6000N!

In the end we did get similar results: mystery apparently solved. I hope you find our re-test interesting.

There's another 'technical discussion' in our forever fascinating Letters section, p26. This time it is Wharfedale's Peter Comeau who complains about our testing. Savvy Hi-Fi World readers will know that Wharfedale is part of the IAG group, like Audiolab. Wharfedale use classic loudspeaker measurement techniques and expect our results to tally with theirs – which they usually do. If they do not then there is a problem somewhere. One that needs to be sorted.

This is good, diligent engineering and I'm happy to let it run in Hi-Fi World. It is what we are about. And it illustrates what lies behind today's products, as well as being genuinely informative to readers – providing we explain it in understandable terms of course. I do hope you find the discussion about Wharfedale's Denton 85th Anniversary issue, within Letters, a good read.

There are other actors in town. Cruising slickly along come Naim with their NDX 2 streamer – a tad pricier than Audiolab's 6000N – and reviewed on p34. Vinyl is getting ever more complex also, Audio Technica making it so with their latest and greatest OC9X series moving coil cartridges that you can read about on p84.

I hope you enjoy this fun filled issue of Hi-Fi World! The quest for high fidelity remains challenging – but fascinating.

--- Noel Keywood, editor.

Subscribe!
Click here to subscribe to Hi-Fi World.