Archives: Columns

UK News January 1995

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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