16th Anniversary of the „HIGH FIDELITY”

⌈ On May the 1st 2004 the first ever issue of the „HIGH FIDELITY” magazine was published online – hence this month we celebrate the 16th Anniversary. It so happens that May issue, the „birthday” one features, as it has for years, Japanese products. The reason for this choice is simple - Japanese audio products have been our baseline, our inspiration. At the same time we hope we are at least some sort of inspiration for our Readers. We would like to thank YOU all for all the support throughout the years! We will do our best to get even better for you. ⌋

he times we live in will go down in history as times of a pandemic - the largest one that we faced in our lifetime. Interestingly - not the most deadly one, but causing the biggest social, economic and even political effects. Never before in the history of humanity has no illness caused such paralysis and such changes in people's behavior. That is why it will be a turning point in many areas of life, as well as a landmark for future generations - as we (Poles) talk today about something that took place "before the war" and we mean the World War II, so in the future the term "before the pandemic" will be most likely used. Unless it's just the first of many, which can't really be ruled out.

How should we live in such times? To tell you the truth, nobody really knows, because most of us haven't experienced anything like it ever before. It’s neither war time, nor peace time, nor normality, nor abnormality. And that's why, since it's a new generational experience that equally affects the whole world, we have to keep living a normal life, as much as it is possible. I am not a psychologist, so I am not a specialist, but I'm it seems that it might be a good idea for life. This new normal will be different than what we were used to, but we will adapt quite quickly. Man is an extremely adaptable to the ever changing conditions of life.

And in this new reality we can’t forget about music. When I thought about it for the first time, the pandemic was starting, but it soon turned out to be worse than we’d expected. So it was a kind of thought out of place at the time. Yet, it didn’t want to go away. The worse the news came, the stronger and clearer it was. Perhaps because I followed it myself.

However, it is not the same to give advice to ourselves as it is giving it to others - in the latter case we bear much greater responsibility for what we say. However, I could not stop myself from giving people the same piece of advice I was following myself, because music really brings relief, offers freedom, releases from fears, alleviates the "pain of existence", if I may say that. It turned out that although this is not a necessity, that it does not directly save lives and health, it still is important.

Hence, I can be proud of working in a beautiful industry, which - as we already know - helped many people locked in their homes to survive and stay in, more or less, good mental health.

Yours truly with a daughter – she’s also 16, just as the „High Fidelity”

When the first issue of "High Fidelity" went online, and it was May the 1st 2004, the world was completely different. On the very same day ten countries joined the European Union: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Poland. A week earlier my daughter was born, and some time later my son celebrated his 10th birthday, so I had also personal reasons to be particularly happy. We were before a series of global economic crashes caused by the 2008 crisis, the Arab Spring of 2010 and the migration crisis were still ahead of us, and Syria was a stable country (civil war broke out there in 2012).

The series of global economic crashes caused by the 2008 crisis, the Arab Spring of 2010 and the migration crisis were still ahead of us, and Syria was a stable country at the time (civil war broke out there in 2012). Sixteen years later we live in a different world - politically and economically. To be honest - we don't have much say in all that. We vote, express our opinions, we participate in operations of non-governmental organizations, we contribute socially - and it’s all good, all well, we should do it as it is our contribution to "here and now". But, it seems to me that, we have only an illusory impact on macroeconomic issues. Which makes what we we can do for ourselves and our loved ones even more important. And if we do something for ourselves, let's consider that maybe it’s the music that should be in the center of our attention.

It is obvious that this is an egoistic approach on my part, ultimately that’s how I earn a living. But, as I said, I earn my living by dealing with the most beautiful part of human artistic activity and I am aware of the beneficial influence that music has on us.

A small example - an e-mail just came from Mattia, a long-time reader of the High Fidelity from Turin. Mattia writes that it is still difficult for them, and his wife - an oncologist by profession - works after hours as a volunteer in the "infectious" ward in the hospital, turned into a hospital for patients with COVID-19. They have already undergone a strict quarantine and although they are still not sure that they have antibodies, they must live as if they were healthy and immune. And in the middle of all this they have just been selling their old JBL speakers and looking for something else that would even better fit their audio system. Because music really helps.

So I would like to wish you and ourselves in this next year of the "High Fidelity’s" activity a lot of peace and beauty. Let's listen to music and do it so that the emotions contained in the recordings have the best access to us - and this is provided by well-composed setups. The higher quality, the more direct this transfer will be. Let's listen to music and listen to it in the best possible way. Because, to paraphrase a classic: LET'S LEARN MUSIC AND IT SHALL SET US FREE. I'm sure about that. WP