Moore's Law was defined in the 1960s as the rate at which technological progress would double the number of transistors on a piece of silicon - and this was set at 18 months. In other words, every 18 months you should get double what you had paid for at the same price 18 months previously.
For computer buyers this has meant that they are now paying less for bigger, better, faster machines than ever before. And for hi-fi buyers it means that top quality systems are now more affordable than ever.
The term hi-fi is short for high fidelity, and was once used only to describe specialist components, designed and manufactured with great skill and expertise to reproduce recorded music faithfully. Today the term is used to describe almost anything that plays music, including ghettoblasters, personal stereos and almost any item of audio equipment.
For people on tight budgets there are quite good portable systems available in outlets such as DID Electrical and Power City for as little as £79. And if you pop into the retail revolutionary Aldi you will find such systems at £59. These systems incorporate CD players, radio tuners and cassette decks. They may not give the room-filling sound required by some music buffs, but if all you want is a little background music these systems are perfectly good.
Going up the range, there are some very good mini systems available for around £250. Mini systems are those units which include a twin-cassette deck, a radio tuner, CD player, speakers - and these days a remote control as well.
Systems which also include a turntable for those old fashioned vinyl records are called midis. Indeed, you can get some mini systems manufactured by leading names such as Aiwa for as little as £180 this year.
It is getting harder to find midi systems but they are still available from manufacturers such as Bush and Aiwa with prices ranging from about £200 upwards. However, if you want to transform a mini system into a midi you could always purchase a separate turntable from as little as £50 which plugs into the phono or aux input on a mini system. This may not give brilliant sound reproduction but will allow you to play those old records without having to replace them with CD versions.
Moving up the scale to the more discerning hi-fi lover it is now possible to build a very good system of hi-fi separates for about £600.
According to Noel Cloney of Cloney Audio in Blackrock, County Dublin, prices for building a good set of separates range from this level to many times that.
"We had a hi-fi exhibition recently where we demonstrated a number of systems", he says. "We had one system which comprised a Yamaha CD player, an Arcam amplifier, Acoustic Engineering speakers, and top quality interconnect and loudspeaker cables. This is a very high quality system and came in at just £599."
Noel Cloney believes that a lot of the midi and mini systems on the market at present are flawed in terms of the sound quality they deliver. But he says that some of them are quite acceptable.
"There is one in particular which we recommend and it is the Sony Jewel System - it is just seven inches tall and has the same length and width as a CD case. It includes a radio, CD player and cassette deck and has speakers which can be attached to the sides or placed remotely. "It costs around £299 and we sell it as a second system", he says. "It has a very pleasant sound and doesn't try to do anything that it's not capable of. Our only difficulty is getting in a sufficient supply to meet the demand."
"Furthermore, hi-fi separates have a very high resale value. If you start with an entry level system and decide to upgrade the amplifier for another you can trade in the old one for quite a good price. This means that there is no dead money in your system - and you can upgrade in stages for relatively small amounts of money."
The message for music lovers this year is to check out hi-fi separates - a good quality system may not cost much more than a mini or midi system and will probably last a lot longer.
