Editorial February 2025

February 2025

Januworry is done – and we’re all into Feb. My other life is busier than it should be but that’s OK. It means I get more downtime with my music what with all the traveling. But nothing compares to the hi-fi at home which is a comfortable and familiar place to be.

Or does it?

We’re going to be finding out soon. Advanced talks around an interesting concept that resonates with some of the initial thinking I had when kicking this reboot into touch. Music and chats around music and what makes live music such a dominant reference for our enjoyment of our hi-fi kit. Maybe not quite in the way I thought but it is exciting nonetheless and if we get this off the ground it should prove to be entertaining. I hope.

Car audio. The impossible made even more impossible by the sheer enormity of the challenge. But the development of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) has transformed the space (stop the puns please…) but done so with a measure of complexity commensurate with the challenges. The transformation from what car audio USED to be to what it is today cannot really be overstated and because it is now all in the digital space with almost infinite customisations you’d think it’d be easy?

It’s not. It’s really, really not!

And so in conversations with Joel the idea to evaluate car sound against a known set of criteria is taking shape. It means elevating assessments to the point of what might be expected from your hi-fi at home. Frankly I’m skeptical with a capital K but having listened to one or two systems setup I have to admit that there is significantly more to it than meets the ear.

I’m super excited and genuinely hope to be able to report meaningful progress on this front soon.

William Kelly

Publisher