Archives: Columns

UK News January 1995

AudioReview 1/1995 and posted in News Items - Archives, Hi-Fi, Columns

It’s taken long enough, but some of the older British manufacturers have finally realised that there’s no better quality to exploit than one’s own heritage. (The younger ones, quite naturally, have no heritage yet worth exploiting.) The revival a few … Continue reading →

Inside Hi-Fi Column: Hi-Fi Shows vs Watch Shows

Inside Hi-Fi and posted in Hi-Fi, Columns

There I was, sitting in a fat, comfy business class seat, wondering if the audio industry could do what the watch’n’jewellery crowd could do. One phrase stuck in my mind, from one of that industry’s annual trade fair’s opening speeches: … Continue reading →

Mondo Audio: Speakers and Style

Audio 3/1996 and posted in Hi-Fi, Columns

Bill Clinton’s actions in the Country Formerly Known As Prince, er, Yugoslavia might have restored Americans’ faith in the USA’s global image, but he really didn’t have to prove anything. (I’d like to think that his intervention was motivated by … Continue reading →

Mondo Audio: Las Vegas CES 1995 Follow-Up

Audio and posted in Hi-Fi, Show Reports, Columns

Just what the audio community needed: a smash hit. Given that even the industry’s most Pollyanna-like naif would have had a hard time smiling through the catastrophe that was the 1994 Summer CES, the January event in Las Vegas seemed … Continue reading →

Mondo Audio: CES Chicago 1995

Audio and posted in Hi-Fi, Show Reports, Columns

Public relations types develop incredible methods for being economical with the truth: they employ unbridled chutzpah. They demonstrate a nervelessness, an arrogance and a method of full-frontal attack that leaves the observer breathless. In some cases, they leave us impressed … Continue reading →

Mondo Audio: European Show Reports

Audio 12/1994 and posted in Show Reports, Columns

Europe likes to think of itself as one giant, happy trade zone. And so it is in many ways, what with the disappearance of trade boundaries, internal duty charges and the like. But it still consists of a number of … Continue reading →

Mondo Audio: China Report

Audio and posted in Show Reports, Columns

Witnessing a revolution: heavy-duty stuff for one whose mis-spent youth involved being part of one. A mere ten days in the People’s Republic of China was enough to convince me that something’s happening there, and what it is ain’t exactly … Continue reading →

Natural Born Kessler 1

Hi-Fi Choice 1/2007 and posted in Columns

Cliché or not, every journalist will tell you that he or she is bombarded with requests to answer one question: ‘What is the best?’ Doesn’t matter what the subject, from notebook computers to fishing rods to sat-nav systems to model … Continue reading →

Quality No Longer Matters

Inside Hi-Fi 4/2000 and posted in Columns

It’s official: quality no longer matters and quantity does. And I don’t just mean the continued repetition of the observation that consumers will always prefer a big TV screen over a small one, even when the latter is offers a … Continue reading →

At The High End Of The Street

Inside Hi-Fi 11/1999 and posted in Columns

Like Mark Twain’s death, reports of the demise of high-end audio are premature. If you think I’m stating this as a career-saving move, my occupation being that of a reviewer, your cynicism does you proud – but it’s misplaced. I … Continue reading →