Bye! Bye! 2012.

2012, NOT the end of the world as the Mayan's know it!

Time flies and but our hifi still ties, us to the music that is, our food for the soul. As the years goes by, we find our selves having less and lesser time for music appreciation. Music now days, it seems serves as a back ground sound to keep us from feeling alone.

I find that I get more music from the car stereo(radio stations), my computer(Internet radio), home radio, and iPhone(CD rips) rather than the hi-fidelity conduit of my hifi system. Perhaps I've been distract by my new toy, the AV system(very guilty), or perhaps spending more time at work(Nope!), family demands(a little), or may be I just need a little time off from hifi?

Regardless, 2012 has been another bountiful year for us all, with lot's a hifi/AV gear to play with, Jack was never a dull boy. I can't help when looking back, that this has been a bumper year for cable reviews! You know what they say about the hifi retail industry, when all you get are cable reviews, it just proves one thing, times are though! Logic is that when the going gets rough, audiophiles and consumers in general, tend to hold on to what they've got, what ever up grade plans get shelved. So retailers tend to focus on the next item most obsessed by audiophiles, which are cables and tweak accessories. Just like the auto industry, in though times, new cars are hard to move, as consumers hold off they purchase decisions for a year of two, at least until the economy looks more certain. In the mean time, the average motorist spends his/her extra cash on smaller items like a fancy Sat/Nav system, inch up the sports wheel and tyre, or have a fancy alarm system installed, just in case(some thief takes a fancy of the four wheels)! You get my drift.

Talking about cables, we end the year with a high note, thanks to my buddy Jo Ki of LS3/5A fame, who loaned me an experienced of his newest conquest, the all mighty Skogrand Mackarian 421 cables which are so... far ahead of the exotic cable pack, I counted my self one of the luckiest audiophile to have heard it before the end of days, if the Mayans were right! The cable market has a new world order!

Talking about a new world order and ending the year on a high, Odiosleuth got himself all wet over a CD/SACD player, which we all weren't too keen until now that is. The dCS Puccini is so mighty poisonous, that a warning should be printed on it's outer packaging "Audition at your own risk! May cause financial meltdown and domestic issue if one does not have enough antibody enzyme" Already one fella got bitten when smitten. Will the venomous dCS declare strike two???

So leave all the gloom and doom of 2012 behind, as we welcome 2013. There will be new excitement and fanfare to get us all wet too! Just watch this space and keep coming back.