Hi Fi World Review ·

By editor David Price, Published: September 2009

In these days of rampaging unemployment and swine flu, I find myself curiously immune to the news. Maybe it's just the human instinct for self-preservation, but I now find I can take a full half hour of BBC 5 Live with-out so much as batting an eyelid...

But one thing stopped me in my tracks the other day, stone dead. I might as well have been shot with a tranquiliser gun normally used to render wild African jungle beasts unconscious.

News came that the Florence and the Machine's new single, 'Rabbit Heart(Raise It Up)' had made number twelve in the charts, despite just selling 64 physical copies(i.e. CD singles)!

How times change. In 1999, I remember that my suggestion MP3s (as we quaintly used to call them) was the future, produced mirth and malice in equal measures. Now in 2009, no less than 97% of UK singles are sold as downloads...

So where does this all leave hi fi? In a transitional phase I'd say. Amazingly, on one hand we have ever more vinyl release and new turntables to play them on, as the new Clarity 09 shows. On the other, we have a great many people still buying 'silver Frisbee' that is CD. That's why this month's group test features some superb affordable DACs which get the best from an ageing digital disc spinner, and interestingly provide a bridge to the brave new world of downloads too; most have USB inputs so you can play out the music on your computer hard drive direct into your hi fi.

So music's on the move, hi fi is changing and a new generation is growing up who regard the LP with the same air of mystery as I would a wax cylinder. We live in interesting times! As for me, true to myself, I did not download 'Rabbit Heart' from iTunes, but trogged down to my local specialist record shop instead, and walked out with Florence and the Machine's new 'Lungs' album on vinyl »

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Copyright Hi Fi World 2009

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