For someone like myself, who spent most of his career behind print publications, designing the so called sitemap proved to be perhaps the most challenging of tasks. The navigation choices, clicking between pages, searching for specific articles and finding your way back home to the Start page, is indeed somewhat of a challenge. Compared to our previous version of Hifistatement (which admittedly was in need of optimizations to put it mildly), it is my hope that you will find it that much easier to navigate through the expanded offering of our net magazine. Critical comments or even better suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

Add to all logistical issues an overtly healthy appetite of creativity by our webmaster, Simon Barthelt, and you quickly realize how much more you could optimize the entire layout – so much so that just two days prior to our previous launch date we ended up pulling the plug in an effort to consolidate our thoughts and minds for yet another round of optimizations. Considering we are yet again up against a publishing deadline, you may think of this publicly shared information as a getting out of jail free card…

One of the biggest improvements our newly redesigned site features is the fact that you now have the ability to supersize the artful images our staff photographer Helmut Baumgartner takes. Once in full screen mode, a click left or right on the image advances it through the images of the actual page. Additionally, we now also have the ability to publish extensive content below the images which makes for an even more compelling story. Naturally, it may take us and our scribes some time to complete this process for all existing and newly published images. Similar to many other layout concepts, I must borrow the old English phrase, work in progress. As with any number of other websites, I don't feel it out of line to be continuously looking for ways to update our pages.

Perhaps the computer Hifi section needs most improvement of all sections since it lacked the necessary attention in our previous layout. In view of computer Hifi getting more and more important and fascinating this section will be cared about in the future with a dramatically new level of focus and depth not only because of my admittedly high curiosity coming from recording 192 kHz high-res files. We will start with better caring by featuring the first part of an introduction into computer Hifi just now.  

Adding already existing articles to our new layout directly leads us into a new scenario of issues: categorizing reviews into the headings. Take for example Ayre's QB-9 USB DAC. Since it reads data off a computer, it clearly belongs under the heading Computer HiFi. At a price point of EUR 2800 however, this DAC belongs to those products needing more intensive dedication – and this not only in terms of money. Hence, there is no conflict in listing this USB DAC under the headings Hifi and Hifi Intensive. On the other side such an “as well as” is not an option for the headings Hifi and Hifi Intensive. Why do we bother with such discrimination at all? Are there not enough other ways to turn manufacturers, distributors and readers against oneself? Of course, but in our view those headings not only allow for a much easier access for different reader groups to music and reproducing music.

Consider the possibility of somebody interested in music reproduction via computer discovering a coming up interesting article under our Hifistatement Computer Hifi heading. Best case this reader would become hooked to our content slowly gaining ever increasing levels of access to our hobby Hifi. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he reads an article discussing various tiny room optimizers and Audio-Animators. Reading such a review might have dramatically reduced if not removed whatever credibility he just may have gained towards Hifi and high performance audio through our magazine. Thus, our mission is clear: we want to open doors to newly found friends, whilst also making sure that seasoned audiophiles will immediately know their way around our magazine. To each his own!

Another issue we hope to eliminate – at least in case different scribes are in charge with reviews of gear categorized under different headings – is the often found argumentative contortions of high end scribes who are quite able to appreciate the quality of affordable gear but in the same breath inevitably point to the relation of their verdict to the gear’s price niveau. Traditionally, most of our scribes come from Hifi Intensive pages, but in the person of Matthias Jung we could acquire a first new member able to write knowledgeable and cool for our Hifi pages. A warm welcome to Matthias Jung and congratulations to joining our team. You can find more detailed backgrounds and perspectives on our scribes under the heading Etcetera, which will also host stories on news, trade shows and other such industry related elements. On our Start page a newsticker will keep you updated on the the latest news.

I do wish to stress here that all our featured articles centered around their respective headings should only be considered suggestive – lest someone think we are turning to some kind of newfound ideology. In the end, its truly all about the music, regardless weather the source is a computer, proper integrated amplifier or in audiophile circles, a well rounded, genuine high-end playback system.  

Finally, we are still in negotiations regarding our second download. The first one will of course be made available once more, as there may be some of you who may have missed to update their Hifistatement cache during the time of Christmas and New Years. If you are of the persuasion who will enjoy this little bit of hint of things to come, we are already in fact working on launching our very first Hifistatement vinyl record.  As is clearly evident… we will continue to be busy once the new layout launches!