Job Hazard! HiFi Reviews.

Watch out Santa! Oooop.....s #$@&*^? Where's Rudolph?

Look, working everyday, irregardless of job nature is dangerous, in the above case, even Santa has his unlucky days!

While reviewing hifi is not our main income job, we do nevertheless suffer from the job hazards. There are a few types of job hazards that we've experienced or that I can think of thus far.

1) Lost or stolen review items during it's time with us! Though we cannot be held liable or responsible for that happening, it's still very troublesome, to go through the process of police report and worst of all, informing the dealer who loaned us the equipment!(I pray everyday for god to deliver us from evil!)

2) Review items damaged during our review period. We do take a number of pre-cautions when reviewing the equipment, but there remains some perimeters beyond our control. There could be a variety of reasons for this, like:

a) Damaged during transportation back home and to the dealer's place.

b) Lightning strikes and TNB power surges/spikes when in use.

3) And lastly, this is absolutely THE worst thing that could happen to an audio reviewer! We play with an item for a period of time, in which we then report on our subjective aural experience and practical use of the subject matter, then which, we dutifully return the item to the dealer. However, every once in a while, a product we lived with so..... captures our ears and hearts, that we just gotta have it, couldn't let it go and quite possibly, don't wanna live another hifi day without it! What do we do???

a) In this scenario, if the product is affordable and the particular dealer's terms is accommodating enough, we'd most likely end up buying the review sample!(I believe this has happened more than a few occasions by now.) Then we'd not have a problem and go on our merry little ways.

b) The worst part is that after living with an insanely expensive equipment(and they rarely do disappoint, performance wise!) for a couple of weeks, we have developed feelings so deep for the particular equipment, can't eat, can't sleep, but can only dream about it, then the problem begins, if only because, it's priced way outta reach! We simply just couldn't afford it, irregardless how friendly the dealer's terms are. Now that would be heart wrenching, wouldn't it? Off course, we then lapse in to the full course of withdrawal symptoms, like stop listening to our audio system and music for a protracted period of time, suffer from insomnia and possibly weight loss. But time and hifi buddies are great healers. Eventually, after the symptoms run it's course, all will be well again, as we move on to play with other new toys coming our way.

Reflecting back on this year 2009, we've been thru quite a few of scenario 3a) and b), but thank fully so far zero 1) and 2). I am sure by now, most our loyal readers following our hifi exploits will know which items are in scenario 3a). But just in case you've forgotten, we'll remind you about it as we reflect upon the great hifi products that so...... have us smitten, and just for a bit of suspense, we'll also reveal out 3b) list! Stay tuned.