First anniversary · 1 October 2026
One year of HifiCafé! And we have presents!
Over this year the platform has changed a lot, always looking for a better ecosystem, better design and better features. But this summer we have been working, with real excitement, on new features that let us do things we could not do before and go deeper into what we know, into music and into our hi-fi friendships.
Everything you see below is built, tested and working as of this morning. If something fails, say so and it will be fixed.
Search
For everyoneHifiCafé now has a search!
In this haystack, we find the needles! All the content, quick and within reach. Now there is a magnifying glass at the top: as you type, results appear under Sections, Official content, Community content and Wild search. Each result has a label saying whether it is a video, a post or a listing. Wild search also looks inside comments, spec sheets and press reviews.
Open Search →
La Cabina
Open, with extras for patronsRecord and publish a radio session with songs you choose
You feel like sharing a selection with spoken links and a cover: in La Cabina you choose the songs, you can record your voice between tracks and you publish it. Listeners do not see the track list beforehand, they discover each song with you. All you need here is something to say.
The studio and the archive are open to everyone. Patrons get the premiere: a date and time, the session playing for everybody at once, a promo video and a shot at DJ of the month.
Open La Cabina →
The HifiCafé Club
Open, with extras for patronsIndustry news gathered on a single page
To follow the sector without jumping from site to site, the HifiCafé Club gathers international press, brands and the calendar on a single page. It stays up to date so you know what is happening without spending half the morning looking for it.
The page is free to read, no account needed. The chat inside is for patrons.
Open The HifiCafé Club →
The Critical Listening Course
Open, with extras for patronsA fifteen-chapter course to listen in more detail, with exercises that play on the page
Sometimes you have been playing a record for years and something new can still appear. The course trains you with exercises that play on the page itself: you listen to two extracts, decide which is which and learn where to look. Afterwards you start hearing details in records you have played for years, and decisions about your system no longer depend on one afternoon’s impression.
The first chapter is open: come in, do it, decide afterwards. The other fourteen are for patrons.
Open The Critical Listening Course →
Album of the Week
For everyoneSomeone suggests a record each week, we all say what we think
Each week someone chooses the record we all listen to, and then we talk about it with the people who have played it over those same days. The turn is assigned by participation over the last ninety days: it goes to whoever is there, not whoever has been around longest or pays most.
Open Album of the Week →
The Patrons’ Room
For patronsA private group for patrons to test new things and decide next steps
As a patron, you have a private room you can enter without asking anyone. Things are tested there before anywhere else, and part of what comes next is decided there.
Open The Patrons’ Room →
The Recommender
For everyoneHifiCafé will recommend an artist you might like
To discover a new artist, the recommender suggests one each day and explains why it appeared. It uses real listening data from tens of thousands of people, learns from your yeses and nos, and leaves out the very famous names.
Open The Recommender →
Everyone’s own playlist
For everyoneListen to the playlist of what each person shares
Your profile also has its own playlist, made from what you have shared. The same goes for everyone else’s: you open a profile, press the button and it plays by itself in shuffle mode. The collection is summarised by style, and you can applaud it, which is the quick way to tell someone it is worth hearing.
Open Everyone’s own playlist →
And today the Enigma prize is awarded
The daily game has been building streaks and points since July. Today, on the first anniversary, the leaderboard prize is awarded. If you haven’t tried it, it takes a minute and you don’t need an account.
Play the Enigma →Why I’m opening everything at once
It could have been published gradually, one new thing every fortnight until Christmas. But it was already built, and a finished section that nobody can use is not much use. Better to open it today and see it working with the community inside.
What I’m asking
Come in, try it and use it without too much ceremony. Record a session if you feel like it, do the first chapter of the course, suggest the record you would put on this week and point out anything that is unclear or does not work.
Tell the community →
