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Podcast #61 – It’s the end of hi-fi show coverage as we know it…

  • This episode of the Darko.Audio podcast with 6moons’ Srajan Ebaen is audio only, no YouTube. Why? Because the subject matter is what we might call ‘inside baseball’: Srajan and I pull apart the hi-fi show model to ask what – if anything – can we learn from a hi-fi show demo that can’t be put into (and read from) a press release? And how do those hi-fi demo limitations prevent the press from relaying meaningful insight about sound quality to their audiences?

    Consider the following thought experiment. I will bake you a basic sponge cake. I will use only four ingredients: flour, eggs, sugar and butter. I will mix those ingredients in the correct ratios in a bowl and then pour the mixture into a cake tin before baking it for 30 minutes. Once the cake is out of the oven, we let it cool. Cutting you a slice, I ask: Can you tell me which brand of flour was used in the cake mix? Follow-up question: How much do the eggs and/or sugar contribute to the cake’s overall taste and texture?

    The answer might leave you eating what Srajan calls empty calories.

    In setting up a hi-fi system at a hi-fi show, exhibitors are effectively inviting us to ponder their hi-fi cake, only theirs is baked from audio gear. In many cases, that’s a pair of loudspeakers, an amplifier, a DAC and a streamer. The room then ices the hi-fi cake whether they (or we) want it to or not. And that icing might not be to our liking. Can we still discern the eggs’ (DAC’s) or sugar’s (streamer’s) contribution to the overall taste (sound)? And where does this leave press members wanting to report on the sound of the amplifier or DAC? They find themselves up Schiit creek, their cake fork turned paddle.

    And it’s not only Srajan and me sensing the limitations of hi-fi show demos. Here are the results of a recent Darko.Audio YouTube poll to which almost 4000 people responded.

    Listen to Srajan and me dig into this complex topic on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn or use the embedded player below:

    Written by John Darko

    John currently lives in Berlin where he creates videos and podcasts for Darko.Audio. He has previously contributed to 6moons, TONEAudio, AudioStream and Stereophile.

    Follow John on YouTube or Instagram

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