Editorial February 2026

February 2026

December was so relaxing I needed January off as well!

But things are progressing albeit slowly in the wacky wild world of Audio. The home system has been challenged and the never ending raging torrent of reference music has seen my research playlist expand to over 200 tracks now. At 3 minutes each (I wish) that’s over 10 hours solid listening. Intense listening. Just wow.

Still… real music in the real world continues to deliver reference grade material. But what it can’t do is bring some music to light in the same way a good hi-fi can. Notice the word good here – how can we tell a hi-fi is good or if it’s in fact a lo-fi? Of course the reference is as to how well it replicates real music played in the real world. The closer it can get to that then the logic is the closer to all music it becomes.

We can debate this all day long but that’s our chosen standard for reference. You may have a different one and that’s OK. Send us your reviews and your thoughts.

I restored a pair of my older speaker stands that had a few minor scratches on the clear coat that I took off, and then I decided I might as well paint the bases and replace the original threaded hex nuts with shiny new ones and… well anyway… 6 weeks later they’re done. The reason I did that was to bring out my old friends – my Xavian Mia’s. Teeny tot studio monitors and I wanted to reference my memories of them with a cones vs panel shoot off.

The initial results? With the Musical Fidelity M1 PWR amps being run as mono blocks under review at the moment at 100W a side in Class D I shall have to settle on ‘more than satisfactory’. The M1PWR are in fact new old stock dating back from Feb 2012 and as I had never had the chance to review them back then I forced the suppliers to hand a pair over. Review coming up soon…

MAX is gaining traction and multi-channel car sound that is able to position bass outside of the car has to be heard to be believed. DSP is a hydra and it is often poorly understood owing to its complexities. But when it is set up right the results can be deeply impressive. If you think about the accuracy of a needle in a vinyl groove (watch it under a high speed camera sometime), the delicacy of the signals so generated and the music it is able to reproduce sufficient to fool ears in stereo then the ability to time delay drivers behind you, and in front of you non equi-distant from each other is now dark art and science fused into a subjective whole.

It is fascinating how we hear. It is fascinating what we hear and when we hear it. And that each of us is different adds to the draaaammaaaaaah that often stalks our enjoyment of music.

I don’t care how you get your jollies musically. Enjoy them, experiment with them, add to them, subtract from them and sometimes, just sometimes, unplug and get lost in the moment. It’s worth it.

William Kelly

Publisher