The new look hifi+

Hi,

The new look Hifi+ magazine has recently gone on sale. There are a number of changes to it. What do people think?

SCIDB

 

The free CD is very good.

Otherwise, the equipment-related content isn't dissimilar to the old-style Plush; slightly shorter reviews with less arty pictures, but with many of the usual suspects reviewing them. Expensive cables still feature quite heavily.

Entirely different set of music reviewers; no bad thing IMO as some of the previous lot were always reviewing the same old gubbins every issue ('sensitive' singer-songwriters, blues revivalists and audiophile jazz LPs). I'm pressuring Alan Sircom to include a Half Man Half Biscuit retrospective as part of the new regime.

The text is easier on the eye.

 

HI
I subscribe to HIFIPlus and ABS i now notice they are full of Computer related music .i myself am only interested in vinyl
horses for coarses but i wont be renewing my subscriptions
some how not the same without Roy. Noel W.

 

If you miss Roy, just glance at any page of Nordost advertising......
I quite like HF+

 

If by 'full' of computer-related music you mean there is not even a mention of a computer in this issue and the only source review is of a Well-Tempered turntable, then yes... the magazine is 'full' of computer-related music.

I suspect there's a great deal of over-sensitivity in this matter. We are at the same place with computer audio today as we were with CD in the late 1980s. The majority of existing readers were opposed to CD and any mention of the format was met with open hostility and implications of sidelining record players. I started writing about audio at the tail end of this animosity, but distinctly remember receiving a strong letter about how the magazines were overstating CD at the expense of LP... in response to an issue of HFC that featured 23 different turntable-related products and one CD player.

Fact remains we have three distinct markets to address these days; a readership who wants to read about LP, another interested in CD/SACD formats and a third wanting to know what's coming next. There are a few who want to know about all three. That does not mean one suffers at the expense of the others, but to pretend computer audio does not exist at this time is a luxury no magazine can afford any more.

And if you think this would be any different if Roy were at the helm today, guess again. It's a commercial reality all magazines are facing these days.

 

vive la difference Alan.


It's amazing how many people I tell about software applications like 'Spotify' who have never even heard of them.

Itunes seems to have caught the public eye (mainly as a by-product of the Ipod and Iphone IME), but computer audio as you state is at the starting gates of something huge.

Reading a recent interview with a Microsoft Director, he spoke of the changes in audio and video we are likely to see when the humble television becomes more of a computer, and less of a monitor.

Interesting times.


*edit*
As a matter of opinion - I believe someone wanting to attach an apple airport express and their television directly to some active monitors has every right to be as 'part of the audio scene' as any quad, valve, Linn or Naim devotee.

We either include or become secluded, and I want to see a bright future for the quality of music production in people's homes, no matter what avenue they pick.

 

New size means old binders are too small. Alan Sircom said he was sorry in an email, which was nice...

 

Hi Alan,

I agree that you have to cater for many points of view such as computer audio. This is very promising. A lot of people will be totally new to it. If doesn't mean that vinyl takes a back seat. There are many products (old & new) in the vinyl world that can still be covered.

I do miss the feel and the size of the old mag but I do understand that cost have come into the equation. One big downside is the lack of quality photos. This is something that Hifi+ have over other mags.

As a subscriber, I do hope it goes well.

SCIDB

 

yes, some great music on the disc. i always look forward to my issue and the new size is easier to read

 

I did not like it, to be honest. Looks cheaper now but still reviewing some pretty expensive stuff.

 

Well realy i suppose it all gets down to what kind of music we like to listen to. With vinyl i have a large collection off older music that i could not listen to on the digital play back because it is not there. I respect MR.Sircoms position and it was great to get him on the show. I wonder if Roy will go in and bat for me.
Noel W.

 

Everyone has their price

 

I really like the new size, I can now stick it in my rucksack and read it on the train.... I've had a few interesting conversations with fellow passengers about hi-fi much to the annoyance of the 'silence is golden/communication forbidden' types...

 

Somehow, I doubt you'd get the bat you might expect. Roy recently went Stateside and came back seriously impressed by the Ayre QB-9 Async USB digital converter.

 

will give it a few minutes of time ... by the magazine shelf

 

I quite liked the look and some of the content, but I'm afraid I will not read cable related 'reviews' or articles so skipped a fair number of pages.

More focus on real equipment would be better.
Articles from industry stalwarts, like Stan's Safari in Hi-Fi Critic would be good.

 

There's still a huge obsession with cables out there in the big wide world. Especially in that land beyond passport control. And that never seems to go away - when I was answering Q&A for HFC in the mid 1990s, you could spot a Pacific Rim letter at 10 paces because it was almost always the same question.

"I have a Marantz CD-63 II Ki Sig, a Pioneer A-400 and a pair of B&W DM601s. I currently use Siltech interconnect cables and XLO speaker cables. Should I use the new MIT cables throughout?"

And this was from a magazine that at the time only reviewed cables in supplements that were not sold outside the UK. The only difference now is the additional power cable question. In fact, to many the concept that cable reviews aren't reviews of 'real equipment' is absurd.

I am not convinced that the Meet Your Maker or any other similar feature will fly for much longer. They are met with abject hatred from the readership, because they get in the way of the cable reviews

 

Chicken and egg.
Magazines print pages about mega expensive cables and the readers think they must own them.

Perhaps one of the magazines out there should dare to be different by, for example, telling the Marantz/Pioneer/B&W owner referred to above to wake up and smell the coffee.

 

That's exactly what we did. For a while. HFC was extremely pragmatic about cables in the mid 1990s and ran blind tests of them. Then we discovered that we weren't selling across most of Asia because we didn't give cables 'the importance they deserve'.

 

I just listened to the Disc that i received with the latest issue of HIFI Plus .I must admit that i am not a great classical listener
but i do think that a better programe of music could have been
selected after all there is some beautiful music in the classical
collection. I dont think that programe would satisfy many Hi End
listeners into changing their speakers What do you think
Noel W.