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For years we've been syndicating regular reviews from the German fairaudio.de and Polish highfidelity.pl websites. By syndication I don't mean links to elsewhere. I mean formally published reports in our pages where layout and photos were simply reformatted to fit our website. Later we added Australia's DigitalAudioReview.net. Even more recently we began collaborating with Audiophile-Magazine and AudioMagazine from France and Russia respectively. My rationale for such arrangements has always been tri-fold: 1/ to expand our own mix of voices and products; 2/ to give manufacturers added exposure in a different language; and 3/ to collaborate with other publications in the same sector.


Our collaborations take different forms. Joël Chevassus on staff for example is fluently bilingual. He easily pens English reviews for us, French versions for his domestic magazine. It matters not who organized his equipment loans since the makers are assured double exposure either way. Artjom Avatinjan publishes Russia's online hifi mag. He approached us with a proposal to publish select reviews. The express intent behind his moonlighting for us is to expose our English-speaking audience to Russian hifi gear which he deems particularly worthy. Despite its huge size, Russia to this day remains a mostly white spot on the hifi map after all. In our small way this is an effort to build a bridge or two.

Edgar Kramer and John Darko both moonlight for us too. Their day jobs are with an Oz publisher and as a school teacher respectively. John runs his own publication on the side but has dreams of the 'full time'. Edgar sits in the editor's seat of Australia's hifi magazine. He secured his current position after writing for us. John had already gone solo before joining 6moons. Having John contribute original reviews isn't crossing any language barriers. It's about cross pollination and growing traffic for his site. To return his efforts—and that of all our contributors who've helped grow 6moons over the last 12 years—I've now begun to contribute the occasional review and editorial to DAR. It's all about spreading it around. Our original German connection began when fairaudio's Jörg Dames and his girlfriend holidayed in Cyprus and visited us in Coral Bay. Having observed our success, he and Ralph Werner saw an opportunity to create something similar for their German-speaking market. I liked their vision and offered support. This is how our first and longest syndication partnership came about.

After 30 years of thinking, dreaming and speaking English I'm rusty speaking it but reading and translating German aren't an issue. Hence our fairaudio reviews cross language barriers which I view as the chief attraction for syndications. They also generate English coverage of certain German gear which would otherwise be harder to procure.

HighFidelity.pl's Wojciech Pacula approached us after the collaboration with our German colleagues was in full swing. Since I don't speak Polish to handle translations personally, the obvious enabler were his existing English pages. Without additional work on his end but editing for grammar and syntax plus reformatting on mine, this has introduced 155 of their reviews to our readers. And that's where we'll now cap this particular arrangement. To further broaden his global exposure, Wojciech has since formed very similar deals with Positive Feedback Online, EnjoyTheMusic and HifiStatement.net. With new Polish competition for him from SoundRebels.pl and HifiPhilosophy.com, that's probably sensible. It simply means that we'll step back to make room for new things that'll be just a bit more exclusive. With Marja & Henk having covered the 2012 and 2013 shows in Warsaw in great depth to really tap into Poland's domestic hifi scene, we're now connected directly. This allows us to continue covering gear from this very industrious and resourceful country.


We've already had Chinese offers to syndicate our reviews. My inability to read Chinese and my lack of Chinese friends who could confirm the quality of such translations simply prevented those from going forward. But I remain interested in converting our English reviews into different languages given the right circumstances. If you have ideas or requests, do let us know. Enterprising win/win proposals will always find an open ear. Which is my cue for exiting this topic stage right...