[Editorial] New frontiers in HiFi?

June 2018 editorial

New adventures in HiFi?

Author: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT Italy
Published: June, 2018

It is well known that one of the main problems in our niche market is spreading the word to new generations of audiophiles. It seems youngsters are no longer interested in good quality audio, all they do is listen to their favourite music via mobile phones. When we ourselves were teenagers owning a good HiFi system was the only thing to do! The reason was simple: there wasn't any other way to listen to good music. We had to purchase vinyl records and visit as many HiFi stores as possible, in order to understand which was the best gear, plan our next system upgrade and so on. Nowadays, it seems teenagers are no longer interested in all of this stuff. It's obsolete, to say the least. Outdated, outrageously expensive, troublesome and ridiculously complicated: you need to stay at home, seated in a certain position, to enjoy your favourite music. Good for retired people, not for teenagers!

Now, what if your HiFi system can follow you everywhere you go? This seems the idea that has inspired some teenagers in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Being too young to own a car, they decided to install monster HiFi systems on their bicycles!!! High-end automotive drivers, amplifiers and sources, all powered by massive car batteries. Yes, the bikes become extremely heavy, certainly you can't win the Giro d'Italia or Le Tour de France on these gravity magnets, but you can play your favourite tunes at high SPL wherever you go! :-)
These creative teenagers certainly do love music, and want it loud! Exactly like we did many, many years ago...remember, folks?
These kids even perform SPL contests with their stereo bikes in the streets of Palermo, more or less like their older brothers do with cars. This crazy trend is starting to spread nationwide, similar bikes can be seen in other cities as well.

The most interesting aspect is the DIY part. These kids do everything on their own, build drivers enclosures, install batteries and all the stuff. They spend a lot of money, too (1000/1500€) hence they might become perfect home audiophiles/DIYers quite soon, as they grow up.

We should learn to talk to these new generation of music & audio lovers because they won't ride their bikes forever, sooner or later they'll need to transform this crazy hobby into something else. And we audiophiles need to be there when this happens.

Audio can be fun, and these kids are the proof!

There's plenty of videos of these crazy installations on bikes, just type “bike tuning Palermo” on YouTube. Here's a brilliant example.