December 2011

In This Issue....
Subtle Changes And Great Products Highlight 2011
Article By Steven R. Rochlin

  As this is our last issue for 2011, i sit here and look back at all the events that have taken place in the past 12 months. Now that 24-bit/192kHz DACs are mainstream, we are starting to see 32-bit/384kHz peeking into the market. Of course there is a grand total of zero 'normal' music at that rate so it is at best, for now, a numbers game. Vinyl, you remember those flat black plastic things that a needle scrapes across, is indeed once again coming back as a niche player. Of course vinyl never left the audiophile realm, yet for DJs and some of those hipsters this is, like what, the third 'resurgence' of vinyl in the past two decades. Tubes... still here. Solid-state gets better and better whilst speaker technology pretty much stays the same.

The great news is that those of us who have dived deeply into NAS drives and computer audio are now enjoying a wonderful verity of devices. Prices of such software and hardware are downright reasonable while sound quality is easily worth of the high-end badge.

Astute readers of Enjoy the Music.com have noticed subtle changes to the graphical layout of the main homepage and our Review Magazine. Have received quite a few e-mails complimenting this change as it makes navigating this site a joy. Another benefit is that with many millions of smartphones and tablets out there worldwide, all 5500+ pages of Enjoy the Music.com are 100% compatible with these devices. Those sites that use Adobe Flash or other technologies simply do not work, and as best i can tell never will for millions of mobile devices. Getting back to Enjoy the Music.com's site layout, mobile users also realize it is easy to read the pages of this site if they are home or mobile. All our information is 100% free and all pages load very fast. While many of you reading this may not realize what it takes to accomplish such things, let it be said it was a challenge. Odds are you may have never realized some of these subtle changes... and that is the point! Many new technologies can be frustrating to use, incur a learning curve etc. when all we want is the damn thing to work all the time, every time. So if the changes to this site in 2011 have gone largely unnoticed, then i consider my job of overseeing these changes to be a resounding success! For those of you surfing this website on a tablet... i bet you simply love what you see as compared to other Web sites.

Live audio/video streaming while walking through an audiophile show? Did it first before anyone else this year so been there, done that, will do it again... and better than before :)

Applications. Few audiophile sites have them and yes am still waiting for Apple. They got it, took their sweet time, and then booted it back to me over a small issue. As of this writing it is being sent back to them and one day, out of the blue, who knows when but eventually yet not quite yet, they'll tell me it is approved. Those of you using Android or a Windows Phone 7 device have been enjoying our app for over 6 month.

So to sum things up, changes have been happening on both the industry and on this Web site. Whilst these have been small changes, the end result allows you to more easily enjoy music and to easily find the information on Enjoy the Music.com without trouble. Of course in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music (And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...),

Steven R. Rochlin