Beyond the Flat Earth. Hello, In an effort to make it easier for music lovers to find the manufacturers and shops who still base their business on the idea of judging hi-fi systems on musical merit, I have decided to establish hi-fi 2. In the early 1980’s elements of the British hi-fi industry reached a high point in the pursuit of musical hi-fi systems. Linn and Naim discovered that the best way to judge a hi-fi was to properly demonstrate “keeping the tune” and “rhythmic coherence”, but as they and industry grew, it became harder to take the time and make the effort to properly illuminate the customer. The industry has subsequently devolved into the loose thinking that picking a good system is a matter of personal taste. Fortunately when I started compiling a list of companies that really do still follow the “flat earth” ideology there were more than I thought there would be. I want to give credit to people and companies who really do care about bringing good music reproduction into the home. It’s obvious that the companies listed compete with each other, but from a larger perspective it’s really them against the world. No doubt many music lovers wanting a system ask their audiophile friends for advice. When they hear about $7000.00 dollar power cords and other strange tales the poor blokes decide high-end audio must be some kind of bizarre game for maniacs. To take a fresher perspective the website is to be called hi-fi 2, since the fact that the original principles that Linn and Naim discovered still apply, certainly doesn’t mean that the motivation is nostalgic yearnings for the past. Over the following weeks hifi 2 will be accepting submissions from those who would like to share their experiences as memebers of the flat earth audio scene. Thank you for checking out the site and remember, keep the tunes a play’n :) Joseph Lopez |
