[Editorial] Save the Stereo campaign

May 2014 editorial

Save the Stereo Project

Author: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT Italy
Published: April, 2014

While general media go on claiming Stereo is doomed, see for example Todd Leopold's "The death of the home stereo system" article on CNN.com (Sept, 2013) there are brilliant minds out there who try to defend and carry on the culture of good audio reproduction.

The first HiFi support campaign, our own We Support Real Stereo, launched ten years ago, has been extremely successful, with hundreds of websites joining in and displaying our Real Stereo logo on their webpages. For a steadily growing list of supporters have a look here. Our campaign aims also to support stereophonic reproduction against multichannel audio fashion. So far so good, multichannel audio (and, I'd say, HT) is now a niche and plain stereo audio is alive and kicking.

Exactly ten years after the launch of our online campaign a fellow audiophile, Gordon White, has decided to do something to support the culture of good audio reproduction, launching his own project Save the Stereo.

Here are some excerpts from the list of motivations that motivated Gordon White to start his own project:

The reason it matters if the next generation of music lovers listens to music on high-performance audio systems is recorded music itself. Recorded music has profound and unique benefits for human life; our mental health, physical heath, and overall well being are nourished and enriched with music.
If high-performance audio fades into history, the next generation of music lovers will lose the deepest possible connection to this magical force, a force that cannot be replicated with any other technology, experience, or activity – outside of live music.
My mission is clear; to make this hobby better, pass it on to the next generation of music lovers, and promote the extraordinary benefits, incredible power, and life-affirming beauty and awe of recorded music on a high-performance audio system.

As Gordon says, the Save The Stereo Project is not a trade or industry association, it is an independently funded project. We love independently funded projects :-)
In order to support you need to visit the website and fill in the Save The Stereo Survey and, of course, spread the word on social networks and among friends and colleagues.

We welcome actions like these, because we believe they could help defending and supporting our common cause. We audiophiles need to go outside and loudly shout that HiFi is fun and, more importantly, it is for everyone, not just for retired people who spend thousand of dollars in fancy cables and ridiculous unobtanium accessories. Good quality audio reproduction should be something that excites new generations and, in order to succeed, HiFi should be user-friendly, affordable and...fun. For these reasons we try to focus our reviews on affordable gear. Maybe we should sing all together Stereo Sanctity, by...Sonic Youth (from the album "Sister", 1987), here live Live at Roskilde Festival...

Seven
Seven
I'm keeping my commission to faith's transmission
Two speakers dream the same and skies turn red
Satellites flashing down Orchard and Delancey
I can't get laid 'cause everyone is dead
Hey - gold connections
Analog soul waving in yr hair
Hey - hylozoic directions
She's talking blue streaks everywhere
Your spirit is time-reversed to your body
Stereographic mix-up field on field
It started growing up the day your body dies
Only apparently, real to irreal
Hey - stereo stations
Perfect image, kneel down
Hey - hypostatic information
Come on let's hear you turn it around