Lo-fi

March 2010 » "Now call me a cynic," says Gramophone's Audio Editor Andrew Everard in the April 2010 issue, "but this [3D TV] does look like a way to snare people into buying a whole load of new equipment". He adds - cynically? (his vox pop is called 'Infidelities', after all) - that "you can be sure these are likely to be premium-price sets", and suspects that the New Wave of 3D Everything may be just another way for business to separate people from their income.

Coincidentally, right alongside his column you can read reviews on the latest must-have audio kit. There's Naim's "all-in-one wi-fi streamer" - an internet radio, basically - a snip at £1350; a Denon CD player - can play SACD too! - costing a mere £1700; and - sweet bargain! - a pair of Bowers & Wilkins speakers at £3950.

Actually, why not keep those speakers in the spare room (to impress overnighting guests), and go for the top of the Bowers & Wilkins new "flagship" range, the '800 Diamond'? True, a pair will set you back £18,500, equivalent to, say, one thousand recital/concert/opera tickets or, put another way, one and a half year's wages for the millions on the UK's statutory minimum wage...

...But come on, who doesn't own a pair of hi-fi speakers that are well over a year old and actually getting quite threadbare, or at least dusty?

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