What is this site about?


Hi Fi is my hobby. Some might say a lifetime obsession.

My companions on my lifelong journey with hi-fi are the monthly magazines which have accompanied me. Increasingly, these magazines have started to appear online and my monthly fix has become a more frequent experience.

Most of the mainstream magazines are focused on describing and reviewing new products, which only feeds my anxiety that there is something new and better out there, and leads to almost a compulsion to continually upgrade my system.

This modus operandi is appealing to me and many other hi-fi enthusiasts, and I am a willing mo they subscriber. It also provides a workable business model feeding a symbiotic relationship between magazine publishers and their advertisers drawn from the manufacturers of hi-fi equipment.

It requires a separation of editorial and advertising, and although from time to time, sceptical voices are raised, the credibility of magazine titles depends upon their readers trusting in this separation. (Which to be clear, I do)

The purpose of this blog is not presume to challenge the Hifi establishment but rather to provide an alternative for the hi-fi junkie. As a Methodist, an appropriate analogy would be a temperance bar where alcoholics can go to enjoy themselves safely without temptation.

The aim is to provide interesting and maybe provocative articles that debate some of the more existential questions that exist around our hobby. You will not find recommendations that say that product X is better than product Y on this site and although from time-to-time you may see adverts appearing on the site, these will be directed by independent algorithms over which I as the site owner have no control.

I make no apology for the fact the content is not intended to be objective but rather subjective and personal opinion. In the name of providing engaging content, I reserve the right to resort to metaphor and hyperbole. My goal is to entertain, to challenge and encourage readers to form their own opinion. It’s hard to stop being a professor, when you’ve been doing it as long as I have.

If you would like to be notified when a new blog is posted then if you subscribe to the site, you will be notified. My goal is to publish two blogs a week after the first two articles on the site.

For those like me, who are concerned with the use of personal information I will use your subscription as an expression of interest and the legal basis to process your personal email address for the sole purpose of notifying you of future blogs. I will not use it for any other purpose.

Alan Gillies