Week Six In Which We Have HUGE News

The new year has brought some epic changes. It is because last year was a complex one for the upper echelons of the car audio and electronics industry. I was afeared of that change, like Daddy Crood in that hilarious cartoon. (Never fancied a cartoon character quite as much as Eep, yet DO NOT ‘˜get’ hentai, for the life of me..) As it was, I felt like a cork, bobbing around atop the mayhem and maelstrom that is the water below the lock gates when they open the sluices to let the narrowboats and barges descend. But the lovely thing was, that no matter which player in the industry was dealing with what issues with the realities of life, economics, the Universe and Everything, stuff way above this fuzzy reviewer’s remit, they ALL wanted me to be here, facing you guys.
For writing always has an audience. For some idiot bloggers back at the dawn of the netty-cool thing, it meant forty people reading your stuff and you got to hang out at the CES in the bloggers’ lounge. The CEA now demand a real publication and do not care about blogs nor YouTube channels per se, so much as real publication credibility. They call us, ‘press’.
And so much is about the big boys talking to the smaller ones. Like a distributor wanting to impress the specialist shops. And as for stuff about car electronics, written for the consumers, well, there is some. But I have carved out my own niche by naked honesty in reviews. From pure fear, as well as righteously following in my mama’s footsteps of journalism with morals! (I know, odd concept just how I was bred.) Anyway, I count as consumer-facing and so bobbed like a damn cork while the waters seethed and would not begin to sink.
OK, we have a new site associate in the shape of Matrix Audio. They have been here before and have had DLS and Hybrid Audio in their stable in the past but DLS have stopped their high end speaker stuff, I was told and Matrix are concentrating on the specialist, what I daftly call ‘Weapons Grade’ market. To whit, welcome DC Audio and the literally berserk-mighty Sundown to the Talk Audio massive. Dave’s been here for ever and been told off for pimping in the past as the forums are not for ads pretending to be advice. But now, you will be able to ping a DC/Sundown banner advert and fly off to bass head shopping land as well as ask him pointy questions in threads under the Magazine Discussions banner. I admit I have been fascinated by both these crazed makers since I first saw their stuff.
On a different tack, I have only the Big Wave A Comin’ thing. The outfit you know as Midbass, who produce the Vibe, Edge and Fli and Space and Black Death lines of car audio, from no-brainer affordable and cool looking to designed to fit in an R8, have had an EPIC development. As part of the new era I was blithering on about above, the guys at Midbass are going to be distributing products from other companies, too. This means sound deadening products as well as sound quality component speakers fit to compete with the mad end stuff from Pioneer and even Morel. I am talking car audio speakers with four figure price tags and astonishing fully laboratory analysed purity and sound quality. I am so going to have to try some.
Also, Vibe are exploding all over consumer stuff and I want to swag as much as possible of it to give away to you lot, as it is ALL stuff you can use. Headphones are the big thrustall they way up to £5,000 a set for ones with Diamonds on but just WAIT until you really understand what that designer man has done with silicone rubber! Article to follow as soon as possible. The video will be embedded in it and put on TATV but is already up on ‘˜Presenterbloke’, called ‘VIBE CES 2014’. It has been bonkers busy here in the lair, meanwhile and I admit the new Fast Car Magazine gig was a bit hectic to cog-in to. But YES, yours truly is in issue 340 of Fast Car magazine on the street tomorrow and slightly embarrassingly, they call me Audio Guru.
Me Likey!
AND BE NICE TO ANY FAST CAR NOOBIES WE GET COME AND SEE US ON THE FORUM BOARDS!
Adam Rayner On Line Editor