the dark knight of hifi

admittedly, i haven't watched a hollywood movie as brilliant as dark knight for the longest time. i must say the late heath ledger, who played the joker role to the tilt, stole the entire show from christian bale, the batman. heath was even better than jack nicholson who played the same role in 1989 tim burton's batman. there were tons of witty one-liners and wise-cracks throughout the movie, the best being the one from the joker - "what doesn't kill you, makes you stranger".

what has the dark knight gotta do with hifi? i could think of a few things. this is the best batman, or possibly the best comic-book-adapted superhero movie ever made. it makes all the previous batman movies irrelevant. just like in hifi, especially in the digital playback and audiophile cable arena, we see one best product 5 years ago being "bested" by another so often. this is good for the industry as well as the end-users. just as we have to thank director christopher nolan for churning a winning blockbuster like dark knight, we have to thank many hifi designers who work tirelessly to up the ante for the state-of-the-art in high-end hifi and music reproduction.

and the tone of the movie is dark, just like some systems but its pace is so furious and relentless that the audience/listener is kept on the edge of the seat throughout the entire performance. at the end of the performance, the audience's/listener's energy is totally sapped... what's left behind is a visual/aural performance that will be cherished for a long time.

we need many more breakthru movies like dark knight from hollywood, just as we need many more breakthru hifi products from the designers all over the world.

this is the hifi week in malaysia and we take this opportunity to salute those designers who have contributed immensely to the pursuit of excellence in the high-end industry.