The stereo and hi-fi world has always seemed to be the home of some special people whose enthusiasm knows no limits.
As a sort of digression I can give you evidence of this. I was on holiday at a campsite in the woods in Corsica when up pulled a German-registered camper van and they unloaded: first a record player, speakers and amp, and then boxes and boxes of records. German folk music played loudly by a specialist music fan. In the woods. In Corsica. I think you can picture it.
Anyway, the hi-fi enthusiast/obsessive/purist has driven technology development in the audio market quite nicely. Now a start-up in Torquay has reproduced stereo signals as direct and spatial sound instead of discrete left and right channel signals.
The result of the technology developed by AirSound is the ability to fill a room with sound from a single point source, says the firm. It eliminates the constraints of separate left and right speakers.
But they have also demonstrated one product, the Orbitsound, a neck-hung personal stereo speaker using the principle. It does not mean other people can’t hear it, rather my point is this particular iteration of their technology might just be one for the enthusiast.