I have always loved challenges and it is going to happen again. Thankfully, I gain full support from my patient wife, who understands and is behind me all the way in such a lucid foolishness… inside foolishness. To be an audiophile means to be a bit fool indeed. However, if you think to bring into life a website made by enthusiasts and dedicated to all the enthusiasts in the world, uh… well, this sounds like being crazy for real!
I have always asked to myself how I wanted a hi-fi magazine looks like. It must not look like a magazine! It must be an opulent buffet whit delicious starters, palatial main courses and juicy side orders, noble wine, delicate and fragrant bread, perfumed fruit and cakes to lick your fingers. Italians are very exigent at the table, yet!
Therefore, this is not a magazine but a website, namely a meeting place, a buffet where the enthusiast can find plenty of photos and info (unfortunately never exhaustive) about the objects of our and his desire: audio equipment.
Here I am facing this challenge, seeking to bring into life a fairy tale, trying to satisfy the thirst for experiences and skills of the freaks who love the music and the best way to reproduce it.
I will be assisted in this adventure by a group of friends and lovers, some at their first experience, while others have already collaborate in the past or are cooperating with various publishers (also on line).
If you are going to ask: where do we begin? The answer is: from the end.
I think that there are no gears performing badly. Still, there are apparatus that need to be put in condition of performing at their best, which need to be studied and understood, to be treated and supported in their requirements, often extreme.
All that belongs to a “journey”. We will talk about this “journey” and how we succeed in elicit the best from the equipment we test. We will do it using clear and frank words, even if sometimes merely descriptive, trying to offer a concentrate of info and explanations. In short, a philosophy against the tide. A new journalistic slant that is different from the current ones that envisage a flow of words to say….no word!
We will definitely stay away from the commonplaces. Because we are deeply convinced, that mediocrity does not help anyone, neither the makers nor the dealers. It is not good for the enthusiasts either: they are the ones who have to spend money for their (our) passion. Hence, we will be unforgiving if necessary. This will be distressing in the short term, but it pays in the long, for everybody. We will offer a free service to our visitors, because the web is free and because this represents the best way to set us free. We will make an effort to have an English and Chinese version, to reach a huge international audience. Our great hope is to offer a translation into Russian and Arabic too.
Our pleasure will be yours. Our thirst of knowledge will be a feeling of relief for our supporters. Our fund of experience will enrich yours and our getting pleasure in music will be your delight. I know, I know: this is a crazy challenge indeed, but it is also the only way I see to keep me alive.
Few words about the sound
Two great artists like the late Miles Davis and the extreme Dizzy Gillespie were looking for their own “sound”. They employed the same instrument but eventually they had chosen a well-defined trumpet and mouthpiece. Miles quite always with his mute and Dizzy with his bent trumpet. In the rock music is easily recognizable the “sound” of Dire Straits, Sting or Led Zeppelin. They can be identifiable also by a superficial and quick listening, because their “sound” is distinctive and unmistakable. How about the classical music? How about the use of the orchestra and the composition of the instruments made by the composers?
I think therefore that every artist has in mind a specific “sound”. He is prone to recreate it by using what he has at his disposal: music and instruments. Therefore, I would like to think that the same reasoning counts for the audiophiles: each of us has a “sound” in mind and wants to get it by assembling an audio system capable of reproducing it in the same way. I strongly hope that every audiophile has in mind his “sound”: at least we start from a question of fact, even if it is only a mere idea. Too many times I find myself arguing with friends and lovers who do not know what they want, who seek an “improvement” in their system without any idea of the outcome, of what they want to reach out.
The final object is self-evident: to inform at best the enthusiasts all around the world, to suggest the best music and how they can listen to it at best.
One last thing
Without the work of technicians and designers there will be no audio system. Remember it! However very often the same technicians tend to underestimate the listening. I do believe that the psychoacoustic - i.e. the science that studies how our brain elaborates the signals reaching our ears - intervenes in a strongly subjective way on the listening sensations. At the end, is just the listening pleasure that determines the choice of our equipment and the qualitative level of an audio system, notwithstanding the cost or degree of the technology that has been used.
For this reason, we will try to put in evidence the listening test and, when possible, we will add technical data or evaluations on the technical choices taken by the manufacturers.
Thanks for your patience and enjoy!
