January 2019

Celebrating Issue 235 Of Our Monthly Review Magazine
Time may change me, but I can't trace time.
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin

  Welcome to a bright and shiny new 2019! Usually an editorial is about informing you of reviews and think pieces within that issue. We could go all click-batey with some proprietary and unnecessary lossy compressed scheme that claims to be Hi-Res. Ok, it is Hi-Res kinda sorta, ummmm... and mp3PRO was just like CD only compressed for more efficient 56kbs internet streaming. But let's not get mired down with such click-batey things as Enjoy the Music.com rises above that sort of rubbish during 2019. There shall be no discussion about lossy compressed music here! With Qobuz's true lossless music streaming service, Sony launching a lossless streaming music service in Japan just a weeks ago, and an abundance of places to buy lossless music online... For me this issue is about change.

Was recently chatting with a friend about consumer electronics retail; we have both been within this industry for many decades. It's interesting as the hot ticket items back then were a new CD player. Perhaps you wanted a compact Hi8 camcorder? Dare we admit to having a huge big box 40" Mitsubishi or Hitachi rear screen projection TV? Of course there was eventually laserdiscs to bring video into the digital disc age (not counting that ancient video LP playback system by RCA (or was it Magnavox?). It's akin to car engines, where high-performance 200HP/TQ output from a 1980's Ferrari or Porsche is what today's grocery-getter Honda engine produces in 2019. No one is surprised. What the consumer electronics industry advertised and touted as 'high resolution'  and 'Digital Ready' during the 1980's is today's format / marketing phrase road kill. So what else shall we discuss? Hmmm...

Personal Audio Gear
Let's see, should we talk about the continued increase in popularity of personal audio gear? Naaa, too obvious. How about we realize that in 2019 the coming change to 5G cell service and Wi-Fi 6? Who here would love to have 802.11ax with up to 10Gbps (~10 times faster than 802.11ac you use now, if you're using the very best Wi-Fi of today). As everyone scrambles to ensure wireless 4k video streaming, we music lovers into high-end audio quickly realize that 24-bit/96kHz only need a 'slow' internet connection. I stole the below from Qobuz:

24 bits at 44.1 kHz, bitrate = 2,116 kbps

24 bits at 48 kHz, bitrate = 2,304 kbps

24 bits at 88.2 kHz, bitrate = 4,233 kbps

24 bits at 96 kHz, bitrate = 4,608 kbps

24 bits at 176.4 kHz, bitrate = 8,467 kbps

24 bits at 192 kHz, bitrate = 9,216 kbps

And thus there is zero need what-so-ever for any compression for 24-bit/96kHz, which should at least be 'sufficient' for most music streamers. So yes, 2019 is the year of bandwidth, and of true lossless music streaming. Internet speeds will only get faster from here my friends. Video geeks know HDMI 2.1 offers upwards of 48Gbps speeds to transmit uncompressed 8K audio/video. Again, obviously there's absolutely, positively, most assuredly no need for lossy compressed audio in 2019 and beyond. There, that proverbial 'lossy compressed music horse' has been beaten.

Site Layout
Am literally holding my brain up in bewilderment how this site has changed over the decades. At the end of this little bit will give you a secret to see each and every past issue's Table Of Contents, which have links to reviews and think pieces within that issue. Yes, all 235 issues are right now online, yet hidden. Must warn you, the layout is far out of date, and at times 'disjointed' due to the layout of January 2001 being quite different than January 2019. This is why Enjoy the Music.com has started a more organized grouping of past issues Table Of Contents (TOC), which now appears at the bottom-ish of each new issue of our Review Magazine's TOC. As an example:

Previous Issues

2018

January/February     March/April    May/June

July/August     September/October     November/December

2017

January/February     March/April    May/June

July/August     September/October     November/December

So, the new layout looks the same, kinda sorta. We've all learned from app developers who change their layout so drastically that it frustrates users. Worse still, a new unloved layout slows things down during web surfing. We shall have none of that kind sir! Basically(!), the top navigation has been better unified across the site, pages are laid out slightly differently in hopes the shorter width text 'frame' is easier to follow, plus the new font is a bit larger and better spaced... basically. Sure call it slow progress, yet a lot of small changes do add up to your experience and we hope you enjoy the new layout.

A Secret
Ok, here's a little secret to see each of the 235 Review Magazine's TOC with links to that issue's reviews. Coders will LOL at the simplicity, yet as A.E. says, "Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler." Enter the below URL into your browser and simply change the MoYr to numbers. As an example, if you want to see January 2009's Review Magazine, then use 0109: 

www.EnjoyTheMusic.com/magazine/equipment/MoYr/

www.EnjoyTheMusic.com/magazine/equipment/0109/

Sure the vintage layout is wonky on these old pages, go ahead and LOL and if you go all 'old school' to January 2000 (0100), you'll see links to our review of the old Avantgarde Acoustics Uno hornspeakers, Dick Olsher's follow-up of the AH! Tjoeb '99 CD player (remember those?), Klipsch Reference RP-5 speakers, Lydian Beta phono cartridge... and one about getting naked(!) and yes another strange article about me living within a padded cell(!). On the plus side, I also got to play around with   " " "lasers" " "  . So now you know the secret to see each and every issue of our Review Magazine. Starting this month we'll be offering hyperlinks to previous monthly issues at the bottom of the current Review Magazine homepage.

Bonus Secret!
The same as above applies to our Industry News page. After you see /news/ within your browser bar, you may then add the MoYr. And so to see our very first industry news October 1999 you would type in 1099. If you want the news from a decade ago, then it would be 0109. Shhh, this is just our little secret.

 www.EnjoyTheMusic.com/news/MoYr

www.EnjoyTheMusic.com/news/0109/

The Industry Is Growing!
Nothing really to add here to the paragraph header, as some things are indeed self-evident. Anyone who has been within high-end audio for decades can easily grasp the immense growth for everything headphones, PMP, DACs, amps, speakers, turntables, cabling, tweaks... reel-to-reel(!), and cassette decks(!!!). As for the variety of shows worldwide, during a two month period in late 2018 there were about six shows. That's just in a month or so! During 2018 Enjoy the Music.com reported on 11 shows plus the LA & OC Audio Society 25th Anniversary Gala. Great audiophile society in SoCal, excellent event and well worth attending! Our most heartfelt congratulations to Michael Fremer for earning a very special Founders Award! When I say earned, that is perhaps an understatement as Michael continues to do so very much for so many music lovers all around the globe.

We look forward to attending the many shows during 2019 as once again Enjoy the Music.com is sponsoring the Thursday night industry/press party for AXPONA and RMAF plus both event's seminars. We're doing our part to spread the good word of music via high-end audio for 235 Review Magazine issues during the past 23 years.

Everyone at Enjoy the Music.com hopes you love what we have to offer within our January 2019 issue. 

We very much appreciate you reading Enjoy the Music.com, joining our social media pages, and of course recommending us to your music loving friends. As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin