Happy Holidays and Thank You To All of Our SECRETS Supporters

Friends,

As 2021 draws to a close, I want to thank our readers, sponsors, our Editorial Team, and our technical teams at Advontemedia and Systems Solutions for their support this past year and for many previous years. I particularly want to thank the many contributors to the SECRETS Editorial Team Support fund.

It has been a successful year at SECRETS, despite all of the challenges everyone has faced over the past two years.

The global pandemic continues to change the world and our lives in so many ways. The highs and lows of life experiences are humbling, and the A/V industry has been particularly challenged with A/V show cancellations, market challenges and manufacturing supply chain problems.

And with that, an extra “shout out” to the SECRETS Editorial Team. We are so fortunate to have an Editorial Team that delivers thoughtful and insightful reviews day after day and year after year. Our team is truly a partnership that has been built over multiple decades. Not only do they deliver the highest quality of reviews, but I trust them to let me know when I am going off-course and need to be reeled in! I want you to know that I am grateful to all of you.

This past year we were able to maintain the flow of product reviews, with much support from our manufacturer and PR friends. And we just announced our SECRETS Best of 2021 Awards, recognizing about 40 products. Check it out! And, the product review pipeline is full with over 30 products in the hands of our team. 2022 is starting off strong!

2022 Initiatives
SECRETS Recommended Gear

During this past year, our Editors have been examining and debating which products that SECRETS has reviewed over the past many years that we would designate clearly as Recommended Gear. Each year we will be updating this list of component recommendations encompassing every product category that we cover. Our goal is to provide long term recommendations of products we’ve reviewed and found compelling enough to be included as SECRETS Recommended Gear. Once a product is chosen, it will remain on the Recommended Gear list until it is discontinued by the manufacturer.

I think that you will be very interested in this subset of the thousands of products we have reviewed. SECRETS Recommended Gear will be launched in January 2022, so stay tuned!

SECRETS A/V Showcase

I am very excited to announce the SECRETS A/V Showcase. We are launching a digital A/V Showcase magazine in early 2022 that will provide the platform for manufacturers to present their new products with video and audio presentation and animation. The showcase is really a virtual A/V show. More to follow, but do take a look at the initial SECRETS A/V showcase magazine.

We hope that you like the SECRETS A/V Showcase, and we would really like your feedback to this working preliminary issue.

Please send feedback to:
Carlo LoRaso
Cynthia Johnson St Denis

SECRETS Editorial Team Support

Finally, another thank you. I just want to expand a bit. I really appreciate the SECRETS readers, who have continued to support our Editorial Team with their contributions and words of support. As I said last year, after these difficult last couple of years, we would not be here today without you, and every little bit helps. Unlike many other A/V review websites, Secrets does not participate in any affiliate marketing schemes where we would be paid a percentage of a product sale, based on our recommendation. That is just simply not our way. So thank you again this year for your continued contributions to the SECRETS Editorial Team.

SECRETS Editorial Team Support

As always…

We would really like to hear from you, the SECRETS readers. Please consider submitting technical articles or OpEds for publication on the SECRETS website. Submit your ideas to editorial@hometheaterhifi.com. As always, I deeply appreciate the support from everyone as we begin our 28th year of publication! We are the oldest A/V publication on the Internet!

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Holiday and All the Best in the New Year!

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.