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The Chicago High Fidelity Show and Music Festival is always looked forward to as the beginning of the fall buying season - the place where all the new equipment will be shown to the public for the first time.

Audio readers already know what most of the new gadgets are, since they have read the "Product Preview" in the August issue and, unless they read this page first every month, they will have seen the continuation in this issue.

But it is always more fun to see and feel the new amplifiers, changers, turntables, phono pickups, tape recorders, speakers, and so on, than it is to read about them - although the reading tells us the basic facts and sparks our interest in the particular items we will look for. "And" listen to.

That brings up another question - how does one judge an amplifier's quality unless he is familiar with the speaker ? How do you judge a tuner unless you know the quality of the station to which you are listening and the quality of the particular record that may be playing ? To do a reliable job of judging anything, one must have some standard of reference. For example, we like to carry a few records with us when we are asked to evaluate a loudspeaker or a pickup or even an amplifier - records with which we are thoroughly familiar.

Even though it is generally recognized that most people do not have reliable "aural" memories, the usual serious audiofan is actually an experienced listener and if he uses the same records all the time his comparisons are likely to be reasonably reliable.

Fortunately, one or two records each year will become the "theme songs" of the hi-fi shows, and after a few days we get to hear them so often that we can arrive at an average of how they sound. Then we can make valid comparisons. And we have also added a new title or so to our own list of "familiar" records.

With the adoption by the "Institute of High Fidelity Manufacturers" (IHFM) of standards for measurement of tuners and amplifiers, it should become much easier for one to compare performance of these products by a perusal of the specifications. The standards for measurements of tuners were published in these pages in the May and June (1959) issues, and those for amplifiers will be published in the October (1959) issue.

Since these standards have been adopted by the Institute, we assume that the published information about members' products will be in accordance with them, and we hope that each one will so indicate in his printed brochures and advertisements. And there is no reason why the products of those manufacturers who are not members should not also be measured and described in the same terms.

Heretofore the information about products has not always been expressed in the same terms and it is something like comparing automobile speeds measured over a course whose length was established by surveyors using rubber tapes.

We believe standards are essential whenever any comparative description is presented. No Audio reader is ever actually fooled by an advertisement which offers a "magnificent 30-watt amplifier" when the tube list includes as power tubes a pair of 6V6's. Unfortunately, the general public doesn't have sufficient built-in protection to know the difference.

On the other hand, the philosophy behind the component manufacturers is such that they wouldn't attempt such a fancy claim, and since their companies are generally comparatively small, it is probable that the chief engineer sat in while the advertising was being written.

In many of the really big companies it appears that the specifications originated on Madison Avenue. (Es ist alles nur eine große Show aus der Madison Avenue - Ein damaliger Vergleich für die Amerikaner, der sich uns hier in Deutschland nicht sofort erschließt.)
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The New York area, already well supplied with good FM programming, engenders a feeling of complacence anlong those of us who like good music, and it is only when we wander far afield - like across the Hudson River - that we run across a dearth of the kind of music we prefer.

New York state is fairly well covered with music - largely from the QXR Network - and there are a few such stations in New Jersey and Philadelphia. With occasional exceptions, however, when one goes south and west from Philadelphia the aural fare begins to have a strong tinge of "country music," and very few AM stations offer anything that runs over two minutes, so they can accommodate more commercials.

The QXR Network carries the good music programs of WQXR, New York - long the staple of many of the metropolitan area's listeners. WHNC-FM in New Haven joined the network in May of this year, and more recently WTAG-FM of Worcester, Massachusetts, has entered the fold. The people of those areas are fortunate.