A plastic violin is a laughable instrument. No-one would take such a thing seriously. The reason is that all the musical instruments that involve strings and an acoustic chamber need to be made of a material that resonates well with sound. In other words, the actual material is an essential element in the sound produced. Guitars, violins, cellos and double basses are all the same in this respect. So too with STEENSSEN products like the ACTION audio system. ACTION is built in

That old evergreen lyric from Lennon and McCartney seems to describe well the long and winding road that the STEENSSEN NEO XX has been on. Just about every hindrance has been in our way in bring our unique style hifi to your door. We bow humbly before your patience, and gain strength from the fact that our fans and supporters are still there rooting for the success of the mission we are on together. The NEO XX is gaining with every extra day. We haven't been sitting around mo

It is one of those wonderful paradoxes that the newest technology is often tested in relation to the past. This is certainly true of the world of sound and hifi. One of the reasons for this is that CD's from the 80's are still the medium that delivers the best digital sound. In smart phones and tablets, the digital information that is streamed cordlessly is usually very diluted. In addition, the quality of the speakers in smart phones and tablets is hardly better than the old

Even from the very start of film-making, pioneers realized that sound was a completely essential part of the experience of watching a film. As early as 1940 Walt Disney was making cartoon films where classical music played by a full orchestra was an integral element in the film. Also before the technology of including sound in the film roll, music was used in all the so-called "silent movies". In every cinema, there was a live piano added the all-important soundtrack. Most pe

There is a basic truth, isn't there, that if you have to say that something is cool and trendy, then it isn't that anymore. Cool has to be cool without it being said. When something is cool there has to be an understated obviousness about it. You see it once - and that it’s it. That is the way it is. Fashionable is different from cool. Fashion is something that is applied and in fact has very little to do with style. Style in design is the effortless understanding of shape an

When a new product sees the light of day, it isn't enough that innovation is centred solely on the product itself. Innovation has to be applied all through the supply chain and indeed in the sales chain all the way to the customer and the user. At STEENSSEN we see our global brand as one that embraces everyone that plays at part in the development, the construction, the making of the component parts, the assembly, packaging. It doesn't stop there. STEENSSEN has to reach out t

"Hot AIR" is a most appropriate description of the AIR audio system from STEENSSEN. The word "hot" carries many meanings with it and most of them are exactly right for AIR. For instance, it is a great selling product, so it is hot on the market. Although we have to admit that the people who buy AIR are not the ones we expected at first when AIR was still on the drawboard. The fact that hot air rises is also a great metaphor. We like the slowness and steadiness of hot air ball

The quotation marks in the title are because I have to admit that I stole the line from an article by Jonathan Margolis in the Guardian. See it here Actually is it his wife who said that because she meant that both serious hifi and anti-wrinkle cream were based on very "dubious claims, expensive prices - and results which are only apparent to the buyer." Actually the beauty of that idea is not that both are expensive indulges but they both represent the fact that people to wa

It’s fascinating to think about the sounds created by the weather. There are the obvious stormy conditions when the wind can howl and the rain can thunder down. But in calmer times, the way the weather works with temperature and humidity, the sounds created really add a richness to our lives. I especially like the calming sound of a heavy snow fall. The air filled with slowly falling snow flakes acts like a blanketing sound insulation. The traffic noise becomes a quieter back