June 2026

Do We Audiophiles Have Too Many Choices?
The difference between 'discovery' and 'curated discovery'. 
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  Are we spoiled for choice? Maybe a little too many options leads to the tyanny of choice; not just in audio equipment, but in our choice of music we play and enjoy. In the same way a fully free-thinking Internet leads almost inexorably to conspiracy theories and puts us in touch with our darkest sides, so having access to what is, in essence, the entire musical canon at our fingertips works against us. I think we need some curation and guidance.

Think about the average smartphone today. A smartphone user expects, demands and, under most circumstances, gets immediate and unfettered access to pretty much everything that's been recorded. Sure, they may need to pay a monthly subscription fee, either for wider access, fewer adverts, or to unlock higher resolutions, but the concept taken for granted by all of us today, is something that was unimaginable a couple of generations ago.

Sci-fi is a great indicator. Not necessarily of the future, but at how people view the future at that time. And if you look to the sci-fi of the 1970s and before, almost no-one predicted that complete, always on, access to everything. In fairness, William Gibson in the 1980s, Arthur C Clarke and Stanisław Lem in the 1950s and 1960s, Murray Leinster in the 1940s and EM Forster in 1909 all got some parts right.

The access we have at the tap of an app today is beyond the wildest fever dream of a music library archivist 40 years ago. Go back a few hundred years and our access to musical media would make a Medici power-broker or a Hapsburg prince blush. But it's taken entirely for granted, and music is devalued as a result.

I'm all for music discovery, and the wider the scope of that discovery the better. But, there's a difference between 'discovery' and 'curated discovery'. I come from a time where everyone who was passionate about music would tune into the radio and hear new music, often from bands we had never heard of and would have had no exposure to were it not for some DJ plugging something beyond the charts.

The late John Peel's reputation has been tarnished by allegations of impropriety, but he discovered everyone from Pink Floyd to the White Stripes, including bands like Led Zeppelin, Joy Division, The Smiths, Pulp and PJ Harvey. People like that are rare (fellow BBC DJ Bob Harris supported David Bowie, Elton John and Bob Marley in the earlier parts of their respective careers), but that curation has given way to "that was... this is” DJs who are entirely playlist-bound. And online systems frequently rely on algorithms to generate your next discovery.

Ultimately, music needs that human touch. It needs people to listen and spread the word; like channel KEXP, who helped make Angine de Poitrine more of a thing!

Alan Sircom, Editor hi-fi+

Subscribe To Hi-Fi+
Click here to subscribe to hi-fi+ magazine.