HiFi Thoughts

We live in a funny world, which isn’t funny at all most of the time, and one of the funniest notions in hifi is that the value of listening to music is best determined by a measured approach devoid of emotion.

I don’t know much about economics, but I know what I like.

Imagine you’re trying different frostings on your home made carrot cake.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

As I type, there’s over 2100 pounds of gear in Barn for review. And that’s not shipping weight which pushes the total well over 3000. Pounds.

I imagine we’ve all read a review or comment where the writer claims a given piece of hifi kit offers an improvement over some other piece of hifi kit and that improvement is offered as a %.

I attended my first hifi show as a member of the press in 2008.

Mega? Ultra? Supreme? Spectacle?

Our brains and bodies physically resonate along with music, according to an international study co-authored by McGill psychologist Caroline Palmer.

Did you know that most violins are made of wood? No matter how much they cost?

Way back in 2011, I covered THE first T.H.E. Newport Beach Show for Stereophile. And I remember thinking—beach!

The notion that hifi’s ideal is to recreate a live event is among the silliest thoughts ever thunk.

What follows is an edited version of a post for Patrons.

Imagine two people standing in Skeleton Bay, Namibia where the Namib desert meets the Atlantic Ocean. The first is a tourist and surfer, the other a local Herero pastoralist taking a break from tending livestock.