The year 2004 so far has been a year of losing freedom. The times of happily living a pleasant and uncontrolled life are over. Alleged terror threats everywhere cause surveillance, fingerprinting, mug shooting, uniforms on all corners and what not. This all has had severe repercussions on the economy as well. Joe Q Customer is holding on to his money and hopes to keep his job. Sales are down and the streets are filled with drably dressed browsers instead of brightly dressed buyers. Our industry -- in many an eye an industry of luxury -- is being hit hard. Hardware firms struggle to survive, software firms slow down on releases and point to illegal copying as the reason. The ostrich tactic. The increasing schism between religious beliefs can even result in very awkward looks when you buy a stack of Arabian music CDs.
On the positive side, 2004 brought many good things that are mainly results of thinking outside the box. We hope that the new repressive society -- that's how we feel things are developing -- pushes more and more towards this. After all, when you squeeze a closed tube of mayonnaise hard enough, something gives and you get soiled.

The first memorable audio related highlights of 2004 were the shows we could visit. It started with the CES. Here we got the first sample of Crystal Cable, bought too many CDs from Todd Garfinkle's MA Recordings and noticed the amount of active women in the audio industry. The next show was the Dutch Rotterdam Doelen Spring Show. Lots of live music and a great atmosphere right next to our home's doorstep. From here it was onward to another Dutch show, the HVT magazine's show. Here the history of multi-channel and its failure to catch on was center. Next was the HE 2004 Stereophile Show in New York, a well-attended show with true musical setups and good music. The get-together at moonie Jules' place was the icing on the cake.
The last trimester of the year was reserved for the London Heathrow Show where we encountered various makes and/or possibilities so far unknown to us. The OverKill room in particular is still on our minds. Then the Dutch VAD show took place in the last months of the year, another busy exhibition with lots of novelties. The very last show of the year, the much anticipated San Francisco HE 2004 show, unfortunately got cancelled. Summing up, all the shows we've attended this year revealed an increase in vinyl appreciation. This could very well
be in reaction to the outrageous pricing of CDs. With a (de)limited budget, the hunt for vinyl in all manner of second-hand shops and markets can be serious fun.


This brings us to another 2004 discovery - the qualitative enhancements that can be achieved by making a CD copy. The 2004 version of Exact Audio Copy -- EAC -- in combination with a top-quality CD/DVD burner like the Plextor PX-712UF can do wonders. As a result of our writings on this topic, we were contacted by the people behind DVD2ONE. Their PC software takes EAC-ripped wav files and upsamples them with a proprietary algorithm to 24 bits/ 96KHz. Yes, this means you have to write the result to a DVD disc as DVD-video. The first trials are very satisfactory but we shall wait for the arrival of a really good multi format player to publish our final conclusions.
If you like travelling, Prague is a nice destination, especially when you can visit with a tube manufacturer. Old-day technology combined with 21st century ideas, craftsmanship and a musical ear is what we found at the KR Audio factory. Their latest offspring, the integrated transistor/tube hybrid KR VA340, is definitely the finest amplifier we have had in our listening room this year. Just as when you play a record of a group you just have witnessed live on stage, the visual memories add something to the in-house performance of this amp. Switching it on brings back visions of wandering the curved hallways of the old Prague factory.



On the software side, 2004 brought a few pleasant surprises in the piles of CDs we bought. Renaud Garcia-Fons' latest album Entremundo is an extension of his Folklore Imaginaire, combining musical traditions from all over the world. This music is so involving, you simply are dragged into the setting. In the Dutch Flamenco department, the discovery of Labryenco's Calle Ventana CD was a hit. Another Dutch production that stood out this year is Junkie XL's Radio JXL - a Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin. This is house/dance/trance whatever you call it and great fun.


Female voices that filled our listening room come from Greek singer Angelique Ionatos accompanied by Renaud Garcia-Fons, the Italian a cappella quartet Faraualla from their eponymous CD and Portuguese singer Liana with her Fado.pt CD. On a more spiritual level, we encountered the healing workings of Primasounds. This is special music written in a pentatonic scale and capable –- at the right level -- of giving the listener, or more precisely the receiver, a vibrational bath. When you let yourself immerse in the music (sequences of pleasant sounds), you feel renewed and relaxed after the last tone. However it works, it feels very good.

Regarding cables, 2004 was a great year as well. It started with Crystal Cable. Not falling for the thicker-is-better doctrine, Gabi van der Kley and her company delivers the thinnest ultra-shielded cable on the market. The resultant sound quality elevates these cables into the top-10 list of available options. Mains, interconnects and speaker cables all bring clarity and quietude to a system, leaving more room for the music. Many tweaks like wood and copper feet underneath equipment turn obsolete with these cables.
Another non-conventional path of thought is followed by Serguei Timachev of Stealth. His Indra
interconnect uses an amorphous metal for its core wire. The limited availability of the source material adds another mysterious aspect to the workings of this cable. More personal hands-on experience so far has been had with the latest Harmonic Technology CyberLight Wave interconnects. Completely contrary to any audiophile belief (welcome to the Church of Appliantology as Frank Zappa would say), Harmonic Technology uses light to transport the analog signal. A microscopically printed circuit is built into the standard RCA plug.


This circuit transforms the analog electric signal by means of some sort of frequency modulation into an input for a tiny laser. At the other end of the cable, the process is reversed to restore the analogue electric signal. An external battery supplies the requisite 12 volt for the lasers and receivers. The complete galvanic decoupling, the immunity to RFI and MRI distortions along the transmission line and the operative impedance must -- at least in part -- be responsible for the audible end results. Put plainly, we have never heard such openness, such articulation of sounds with any other analog interconnect before. Maybe the Cyber Wave cables should be placed in a drawer other than the cable one. It is more of an active component and we look forward to further in-house experiments during January of 2005.

To wrap things up, 2004 so far was a year of mixed emotions for us. Not as drastic as Goethe's "himmelhoch jauchzend ... zum Tode betrübt" (sky-high ecstasy, deadly sorrow) but still. Alas, we didn't even mention all the books and films read and seen yet...