Wall Of Sound Is 10 Years Old

Unverified photo of candles because we still have no freaking AI laws

Sometime in February 2014, I decided to start this website, for fun and perhaps a bit of income. Predictably the income part didn’t work out, but it has been fun – I’ve met some great people, some have become close friends, and I’ve had a chance to lead and be part of a very capable team, that’s reviewed a pretty nice spread of interesting and desirable gear, and music. I think we’ve succeeded in focusing, to a large extent, on our local {Canadian} audio scene.

Ten Years After

We’ve reviewed speakers. We’ve reviewed some turntables. We’ve reviewed phono stages – lots of them. We’ve written some opinion pieces. We’ve built kits, and written about them in detail. We’ve published well over 300 articles. We gave out some gold stars. A number of our more popular reviews have been read more than 50,000 times. We survived a pandemic.

But enough bragging.

During the course of this past decade, we’ve seen some of the landscape change profoundly. YouTube is now a major hub of audio reviewing. Algorithms and monetization took over. Reviews became thinly disguised product promos. Quantity over quality.

At WoS we still believe in the written word. An adjective can endure longer than a facial expression. The truth is, we believe that a good audio dweeb ought to be literate, and ought never to have enough personal charisma to become a video personality. We sure don’t.

But enough BS.

I will make one serious promise: whatever else may happen in the future, this site will never, ever use or promote ANY AI-created content, of any sort. Ever. Facts and photos will be checked. Google results will be checked twice. We will deliver the honest truth.

Human creators to the end!

Thank You India

So about this milestone (tissue, please). I’d like to thank our readers, especially those who subscribe to be notified. Thanks for being here. We do our best to bring you interesting reads. We value your attention and your feedback very much.

I would very much like to thank our fine group of writers for all of their contributions. And most especially – Tim Smith, Steve Graham, and David Neice. Each of them have slogged it out at times when I was slammed, and kept things going. Thereby saving my bacon.

Last and not least, I also want to thank our product suppliers. Without your loaners we’d have a whole lot less to talk about. In nearly every case, you’ve been professional and a pleasure to deal with. Thank you. Onward and upward.

And for any new readers: welcome. Feel free to look around. If you’re anxious to know “what we stand for”, you could start here.

Best regards,

Noam