Dave Robson runs the Facebook group “Audiophiles UK. Hi-Fi and Music” and here talks Hifi Pig through his musical and Hifi journey. More »
Hifi Pig invited Mike Twomey who owns Big Kids Toys AV in Greensboro NC to give us his thoughts on internet shoppers and high-end audio. More »
Linette gets that Christmas morning feeling and a girl crush…or does she?
“I have a confession to make. I have a bit of a girl crush on Alex Polizzi…..no, not like that, put away your filthy minds….I mean I’d like to be her friend, hang out with her a bit, I think she’s really cool”.
Ian Ringstead gets all biblical about his love affair with the black stuff.
“I then had an epiphany moment and saw the light. Turntables were being written about again in the hifi mag’s and manufacturers were making real efforts to produce better decks, arms and cartridges. ”
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Another rant from Stu, this time about recent legislation in the UK regarding making back ups. “So what, given this new ruling am I supposed to do if and when my hard-drive goes belly up and refuses to let me at my precious music files?”
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“One possession that I really hold dear is my Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference, a turntable so modern and iconic that it had its own place in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange”. More »
The Pros and cons of buying off the internet. “I left the receipt for it lying around and she found it by chance, which was bad news!! Very bad news!!! The fact I had for years just bought and changed kit regularly without often mentioning the actual price I had paid for it couldn’t go unnoticed”.
Boxing Clever (and how to dodge the punches) More »
The CD was a revelation in its day and I even recall one very animated presenter from Tomorrow’s Worldsmearing jam, or was it marmalade, over one of the discs, wiping it off and then playing the disc…But are they worth bothering with now?
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While we are on the subject, if you guys really want us women to join in more on audiophile/hifi forums and groups, please, just put it away will you? I remember being at school in the 70s and the boys would be frequently shrieked at, by irate teachers, for having competitions to see who could wee the highest up a wall. This obviously proved that they were highly masculine so when they grew up they continued to apply this ‘rampant masculinity’ and ‘willy waving’ technique to their hifi…
So then, the basic minimum criteria for a mains cable’s performance is that it must get the old juice from the wall socket to the input of my hi-fi component without spilling any of it on the carpet.
Hifi Pig does not advocate anyone making ANY unauthorized or unsafe changes to their mains supply or equipment in ANY way! Always consult a professional and qualified electrician.
Hifi Pig readers, Father and Son duo David (Dad) and Rob (Son) Stevenson share a love of music and a passion for vinyl reproduction. Here they tell their story of what they believe to be the key factor in music reproduction and replay.
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Philips DCC900
The Hillman Imp was an amazing invention for 1963. This was the answer to the Mini, doing everything that Alec Issigonis’s baby could do, but adding some extra features that were revolutionary for the time; preceding hatchbacks this car had an opening back window to put in your shopping on the rear seat (or your kids heads) just in case you hadn’t any more room under the front bonnet, and it had more space inside. The light aluminium engine was novel, too, and helped make the car quite nippy (when it worked). What let it down was being a quickly thought out idea and badly made in Scotland. Shame, as I loved it. It could have been an amazing car. More »
When you see a box full of cassette tapes and a tape player at a boot sale going cheap, then if you are wise you will shake your head and walk on by, safe in the knowledge that you have managed to avoid having a scar on your left buttock like I have from handbrake lever while fighting one of these infernal beasts… More »
I first became aware of Tidal in October last year. At that time it was being quietly marketed as a high quality streaming service with the emphasis on its lossless, CD-quality sound. Sound quality has virtually become an irrelevance in the mass market; the received wisdom that it it impossible to hear the difference between a 320 Mbps MP3 file and a 24 bit 192 high resolution file has been happily accepted as truth, mostly by people who have never heard a high resolution file. The result of this was that Tidal found itself targeting a niche market of audiophiles for whom sound quality was still a vital consideration and who had either already discovered the benefits of streaming music from their own computer-based audio set ups or were increasingly curious about doing so.
When Naim announced at the recent CES exhibition that they would be launching a preamp and power amp combo that would leave purchasers with a $200 000 hole in their bank account it was inevitable that there a certain degree of backlash from some quarters would come…and come it did. More »
2014 has kicked of with what has been a very successful CES by all accounts. HiFi Pig was not there but we are hoping to make it over the pond very soon.
Well, Linette in her Bird’s Eye View seems to be rallying against the onslaught of digital files and streaming whereas I’m once again embracing the new format. I had a great time with the little QED uPlay streamer I reviewed and this has prompted me to get hold of a Squeezebox Touch again (this will be my fifth) to see if I can finally get to grips with digital streaming.
The last little rant I had on HiFi Pig concerned vinyl and my….ahem, ‘feelings’ towards it.
It did provoke a lot of comments and I was surprised by just how many people agreed with me, on the grounds of it needing so much tinkering and fettling to get everything sounding perfect. More »
After spending nearly the last 20 years with Mr Hifi Pig we get along pretty well and only have minor altercations and disagreements every now and again.
There is one subject that really divides us though, vinyl.
To Mr Pig it is the ultimate listening experience. More »
I’ve just finished reading Neil Young’s “Waging Heavy Peace” book which, despite being a rambling stream of consciousness affair, is an enthralling read and a must for anyone interested in the artist or rock music in general. As well as the expected anecdotes and stories of the “rock and roll lifestyle” it comes across very clearly that Mr Young is a man on a mission to bring hi resolution music to the masses. More »
If you are paying large sums of money for a piece of high-end hifi then it is perfectly reasonable to assume that some thought has gone into the way that the kit performs on an aesthetic level as well as, of course, into its audio performance. More »
In the world of audiophile audio, to my mind it doesn’t matter whether you are an advocate of tube amplifier technology, vintage audio or even an all in one home audio system. What matters is the fact that you can appreciate high end audio as the means to enjoy the music you love. Or is it? More »
Well today is Fete de la Musique in France and this is the one day of the year where towns and villages across the country put on a great deal of free music in their streets and bars. The whole country comes out in a big celebration of all things musical and a great time is had by all…needless to say it’s banging it down with rain here at the moment. More »
There are those in hifi that like to collect boxes and I’m not ashamed to say that I count myself in this category. I like the fact that my hifi takes up a whole wall in one room of the house and I don’t think I would get the same satisfaction from a one box hi-fi system. I can see the benefits of having all the component parts of a hifi in one convenient unit, but I’m afraid it just doesn’t appeal to me. That said I do quite like my hifi to be functional…ok I quite like ugly hifi…or hi-fi that most would consider to be ugly…I prefer the word “different”. More »
Stax
Janine Elliot takes us on a brief tour of the history of Japanes company Stax, who many readers will know for their “ear speakers”. More »