Opinion

Health and safety concerns? Soldering irons a switch-off? Jim Lesurf wonders why the BBC’s massively successful Repair Shop series appears uninterested in restoring electronics

While vintage hi-fi hardware remains cherished by enthusiasts, repair and refurbishment relies on access to technical information that can be increasingly hard to find, says Jim Lesurf

Early this past summer, I enjoyed dinner with an audiophile friend. While he puttered in the kitchen, I perused his hi-fi publications. Among them was a 2024 equipment guide, an incomplete but aspirational compendium of products currently on the market, and in a couple of cases, no longer produced but still in plentiful supply. The listings included hundreds of items - phono cartridges from US$99 to $20,000 each, and amplifiers and loudspeakers from a few hundred up to the purchase price of an exotic high-performance automobile.

Before you begin fine-tuning your system’s sound with room treatments and seating changes, you should pay attention to ‘interactions’ further back in the chain, says Jim Lesurf

Changes in AC mains quality can play havoc with your listening enjoyment, says Steve Harris, which is why audiophile power conditioners and regenerators have become big business