The new issue of What Hi-Fi?, our November 2024 issue (yes, I know, we’re only half way into September; it’s one of the vagaries of the magazine publishing world I’m afraid – especially when you print 13 issues each year), is out now in the shops. And it is one of our popular “Systems specials” where our expert reviewing team curates a number of set-ups from individual units that will blend together with other like-minded sorts to create a system that makes the very most of the sum of its parts.
It bears repeating that this really isn’t as simple a process as picking a load of five-star products and bunging them together without a further care in the world. Life, and certainly the world of hi-fi equipment, just isn’t like that. Which is where we come in.
Sixteen systems of carefully judged brilliance is the result: ten stereo; six home cinema. You should take a look; it’s in all good newsagents (and, no doubt, a few less reputable ones as well) now.
And it got me reminiscing about a time when a magazine was all What Hi-Fi? was. Now, of course, it’s very much a global brand that stands proud as the most trusted hi-fi and home cinema reviewing site on the planet. Just over a quarter of a century ago, however, the magazine was the sole medium for getting our hard work out into the universe. Times have changed.
Manufacturers’ suggestions
Our core ethos hasn’t, though. So I was glad to find, when trawling through the What Hi-Fi? archives the other day, a systems special edition from January 1997. The more things change, the more they stay the same, and so on… More than 27 years ago, however, we got hi-fi manufacturers to do some of the hard work for us.
Back in ’97, we asked the big brands to suggest which of their products would work wonders together and come up with a system to do them proud. If there were any blank spots in their product manufacturing (if they didn’t make speakers, say) they were to come up with suggestions they felt would work best.
Some familiar, and reassuring, names
And then we put those suggestions to the test. There are interesting systems from the likes of Linn, Naim, Sony, Arcam, Kenwood and plenty more, and – as I hope you would expect – the What Hi-Fi? team pulled no punches in evaluating the suggestions put forward, with three and four-star verdicts aplenty, alongside a couple of excellent five-star efforts.
These days, though, it’s down to us to put together systems that we feel work together brilliantly – and that’s what you will find in our magazine this month.
The readers got involved as well
Also of interest to me in the magazine from 27 and a half years ago was the regular reader-led piece On The Couch. This time, we were investigating the relatively new phenomenon of rear-channel (surround) speakers, and asking if it was worth investing in expensive options. The answer appeared to be a qualified yes. These days, with the great technical improvements in surround sound, and the excellence of Dolby Atmos, I would suggest that those qualifications are less pronounced; the rear (and height) speakers in a system need to match their front three siblings as much as possible to enjoy the best possible home cinema performance.
A great buy is still a great buy
Also in the January 1997 issue was a test of micro systems that turned my mind to an excellent multiple Award-winner from Denon that we are still recommending, and that can hold its head high in today’s world of Bluetooth speakers and streaming. As we say in this recently published feature, it could be the perfect product for the student returning to university this autumn.
So, on your return to education, don’t discount the old-school just yet in this brave new world of wireless wizardry.
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