With the recent Olympic and Paralympic games still fresh in my mind I got to thinking how incredible as a nation the United Kingdom is. The fact we came second in the medal tables for both games, coming just behind the USA in the Olympics and China in the Paralympics was amazing. The Chinese in particular couldn’t believe how a nation of our size could do so well given their population is about 1.4 billion and ours is roughly 60 million.  More »

Now before all you cat lovers and anti-vivisectionists try to lynch me, let me explain. Loudspeaker design has fascinated me for almost as long as I have been on this planet (60 years if you really want to know!!) and from my earliest days in retail I spent a lot of time not only listening to many designs but repairing them too. More »

The vast majority of electronic devices require a power supply, whether it is a linear power supply or the now popular switch mode power supply (SMPS). Whatever the type, we take them for granted and we rely heavily on them to power or charge all our electronics doodads. More »

Ian Ringstead looks at the resurgence of the big black disc. More »

The little boy in me has always been curious as to how things work, which inevitably meant I would take things apart and then try to put them back together again, not always successfully I might add. Mechanical and electronic objects still fascinate me, and whenever I go into a DIY store the tools section immediately attracts me, much to my wife’s annoyance, (she likes shoes and handbags!). Anyway what has this got to do with hifi? A lot actually.  More »

Valves or solid-state? Solid-state or valves? The question that is always getting brought up in audio circles. Ian Ringstead looks at a bit of the history and some of his preferences. More »

In the last of his Fidelity Matters articles for 2015, Ian Ringstead celebrates innovation wherever it comes from and applauds all the people in the hifi industry who make this wonderful kit possible.  More »

Ian Ringstead takes a look at the state of the hifi industry and asks what we can all do to boost the popularity of two channel audio in the home.   More »

Ian Ringtead loves a Hifi Show and has been going to them for many a long year… More »

Ian Ringstead gets all biblical about his love affair with the black stuff.

“I then had an epiphany moment and saw the light. Turntables were being written about again in the hifi mag’s and manufacturers were making real efforts to produce better decks, arms and cartridges. ”
More »

The Pros and cons of buying off the internet. “I left the receipt for it lying around and she found it by chance, which was bad news!! Very bad news!!! The fact I had for years just bought and changed kit regularly without often mentioning the actual price I had paid for it couldn’t go unnoticed”.

Boxing Clever (and how to dodge the punches) More »