English language AV magazines

Audio Video (South Africa)
Monthly print magazine published in English, coverage is mid and high end audio and home theatre products alongside desktop audio and occasionally personal audio products. Also reviews music and film releases and has a news section, most of the news is also published on their website BTW and the site also carries a fairly exhaustive list of SA CE distributors.
Homepage: http://www.avsa.co.za
Audio Video Magazine, PO Box 3846, 2118, South Africa.
Tel: +27 (0)11 326 1653/4. Fax: +27 (0)11 326 1650. E-mail: subscriptions >at< avsa.co.za.

Canada HiFi (Canada)
Bimonthly Canadian print magazine that is distributed for free in Canadian AV and computer dealer showrooms in addition to being downloadable form the magazines homepage in PDF format. Primarily has consumer oriented articles containing relatively simple information and advice and a limited amount of reviews which is perhaps understandable in an advertiser supported publication like this, the reviews that are there are good however and you cannot argue with free, can you.

The magazine’s website also has an excellent news section and some of the articles printed in the paper have appeared on there as well, there is also a forum, but beware it’s full of Kanuks..
Homepage: http://www.canadahifi.com
CANADA HiFi Magazine, C/O Westside Publishing Ltd. Tel: +1 416 767 2495..

MOD Audio Video Magazine (Singapore)
Advertisement subsidised English language Singaporean magazine that is published in print locally but also available in PDF format and as such distributed for free on the internet, edited by Terence Wong who used to be the primus motor behind I Audio Magazine. More of a lifestyle magazine than a AV zine in the classical sense but there are sometimes very interesting articles and interviews in there, and even sometimes pictures and info on hardware that you will not find anywhere else.
Homepage: http://www.mod-avi.com

Italian AV magazines

AF Digitale (Italy)
A monthly (11 issues a year) that is mostly focused on home theatre and video products but still carries some hi-fi content as well, long running, you may remember it from the 80's as Alta Fedeltà, then an out and out hi-fi publication.
Homepage: http://www.afdigitale.it

Japanese

HiVi
Videophile mag, but some audio content

Danish/Swedish/Norwegian

Lyd & Bilde (Norway)
Norwegian hi-fi and home theatre magazine

Roman/Latin language AV magazines

Audio Video Magazine (Pt-Brazil)
Long running Brazilian monthly publication that started out as a hi-fi only magazine called Audio Club that focused on high end audiophile products, after the name change to Audio Video Magazine more home theatre products get reviewed but the main thrust for hardware reviews is still high end audio with the odd mid-end thrown in. The rest of the magazine is the usual hi-fi fare with a news section, letters page, first looks, the odd feature article and interview and so on. For the last few issues the magazine has been delivered with a free Naxos CD, but we are not sure if that is to become a permanent feature.

The magazine does have a Facebook page which does get updated from time to time and the zines homepage has some material on line such as basic tutorials and an archive of some older reviews and articles.
Homepage: http://www.clubedoaudioevideo.com.br -- Facebook page
Tel: +55 11 5041 1415 and +55 11 5044 1745.

Slavic and Baltic language AV magazines

Sztereó Sound & Vision/Digitális HáziMozi (Hu)
Two Hungarian print publications issued by Soltész Reklám that both cover mid and high end audio and home theatre products, HáziMozi is focused squarely on home theatre while SSV still has some hi-fi coverage. Each magazine is published bimonthly, on alternating months.
Homepage: http://www.sztereomagazin.hu -- Digitális HáziMozi homepage
Soltész Reklám KFT., Bécsi út 141-143, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary.
Tel: +36 145 310 40. Fax: +36 145 310 48..

Asian AV magazines

Audiophile/Videophile Magazines (Thailand)
Two monthly Thai print magazines, on one hand Audiophile Magazine that started out as an out and out audiophile publication but is now mostly concerned with home theatre products although some audiophile coverage is there as well, and a more recent sister publication called Videophile Magazine that has more or less the exact same coverage. The company behind the publications also holds out Thailands main AV & Hi-Fi shows.
Homepage: http://www.audiophile-videophile.com
Audiophile/Videophile, 79 Soi Onnuch 10, Sukhumvit Rd., Suan Luang, Bangkok 10250, Thailand.
Tel: ++0 2720 4750. E-Mail: avm |at| audiophile-videophile.com.

Home AV & electronic integration, installation and automation magazines

Casa Digital (Es-Spain)
Spanish magazine targeted towards professional or semi-pro home installers of AV and other electronic and computer products.
Homepage: http://www.ideaseditoriales.com
Ideas Editoriales, C/Tarragona 84-90, 1º 8ª, 08015 Barcelona, Spain.
Tel: +34 93 423 84 04. Fax: +34 93 426 69 79. E-Mail: info -at- ideaseditoriales.com.

Smart Home Ideas (En-Australia)
Quarterly print magazine, full title is actually “Australian Smart Home Ideas” but the Australian part is commonly dropped these days or de-emphasised by using a much smaller typeface. The magazine covers house integration of consumer electronics, primarily home entertainment systems and networks but also lower tech items, despite the name the magazine also has some coverage of personal technologies like handheld devices..
Homepage: http://www.avhub.com.au/index.php/Magazine/Smart-Home-Ideas/
Australian Smart Home Ideas, C/O Nextmedia Audio Visual Group, Locked Bag 5555, St. Leonards, NSW 1590, Australia.

Car and mobile audio magazines

12 Voltios Car Audio & Technology
Spanish magazine that is primarily focused on car audio products but does also cover other mobile audio electronics such as video/DVD products GPS's, alarms and so on, published on a monthly basis.
Homepage: http://www.ideaseditoriales.com
Ideas Editoriales, C/Tarragona 84-90, 1º 8ª, 08015 Barcelona, Spain.
Tel: +34 93 423 84 04. Fax: +34 93 426 69 79. E-Mail: info -at- ideaseditoriales.com.

Lifestyle and gadget magazines

Audio Video Foto Bild (De-Germany)
German print magazine that reviews all kinds of AV, CE and photographic electronics equipment, very consumer oriented so that home cinema all-in-one packages are more likely to be reviewed than an AV amplifier and a compact digital camera more likely to show up for testing than a top of the line Leica. Still an interesting read since it covers devices that you almost never see independent reviews on, like budget headphones and portable audio products. Their website also has a number of reviews available online.
Homepage: http://www.computerbild.de/avf/
Computerbild Online Dienstleistungs-GmbH, Axel-Springer-Platz 1, 20350 Hamburg, Germany
E-Mail: onlinered |at| computerbild.de.

T3 Magazine (Cz/De/En/Hr/Ru)
One of the new breed of men’s lifestyle magazines that sprang up in the latter half of the 1990’s and basically emulated the original idea behind Playboy from the 1950’s of mixing reviews of electronics with articles about sports cars, lightweight opinions and information pieces with piccies of lightly clad young females and so on.

T3 being different to most of its ilk that it is much more gadget and technology oriented and features a considerably higher ratio of game and phone related articles in particular, the best thing about the magazine is the layout and quality of the photography can be stunning at times, what puts it down is the low amount of information contained in the articles, sometimes so low that it borders on being noise, almost like listening to an audio book designed for the hard of hearing, the international versions of the mag sometimes being better than the original English publication in this respect. The writing is not all bad though and in a rather wonderful way manages to write for a readership that thinks it is in the 17 to 30 age group, but actually is on the average between 30 to 50, without being too condescending. Reviews are usually short and sweet but with little or no technical info present, there used to be an archive of older reviews from the magazine available from the publishers website but it has been taken down.
Homepage: http://www.t3.com -- T3 India -- T3 Australia -- T3 Czech Republic -- T3 Austria -- T3 Croatia -- T3 Russia

Music magazines

Mondo Sonoro (Es-Spain)
Primarily a Spanish rock and pop music print magazine but they also have a lively website, lots of music articles and reviews and a healthy forum, one of the more popular such in Spanish in fact. While the magazine and site both ostensibly cover all kinds of rock and pop music the emphasis is pretty much on indie, modern European and alternative rock rather than heavy rock and outright pop music..
Homepage: http://www.mondosonoro.com

Listen (En-USA)
Classical music magazine issued 4 times a year, officially called "Listen: Life with Classical Music", the magazine is one of the new breed of classical music magazines that ape the pop magazines in having more editorial content than reviews and is all the better for it, one interesting thing is that the mag occasionally interviews instrument makers as well as performers which is quite an interesting feature. The magazine is published by internet classical music retailer ArkivMusic.com which in turn it owned by Steinway Musical Instruments.
Homepage: http://www.listenmusicmag.com

Scholarly music publications

The Musical Quarterly (USA)
Long running publication that covers primarily classical music and jazz, but that coverage can be history, theory, philosophical wanderings or even the study of minute details, published on a quarterly basis (obviously) and bloody expensive to subscribe to as well. First published in in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, but amongst a long list of contributors to the magazine through the years there have been notables such as Nathan Broder who contributed classical music and book reviews to a whole host of American music and hi-fi publications including High Fidelity, but he was a long time associate editor of the journal around the middle of the 20th century. ISSN 0027-4631.
Homepage: http://mq.oxfordjournals.org

Music technology & pro-audio magazines

Audio Solutions (En-USA)
An in-house magazine published quarterly by the pro-audio division of USA based retail chain Guitar Center and distributed for free at their outlets. Unlike the mags that the same company has produced for its flagship stores which have tended to be written for people with the reading capabilities of five year olds, this is actually quite a decent effort for such a freebie rag. The material contained within Audio Solutions is mostly interviews with engineers, business people and musicians alongside reports from on-location visits to recording studios, post rooms and other places where pro-audio work is performed with the odd educational article thrown in.

There are a couple of surprises, one is the near complete absence of editorial material that can be considered GC propaganda or sales talk, in fact only the adverts and the main editorial really have a direct connection with the GC organisation and that is quite a refreshing change from the usual in-house magazines which often conspire to bore you with inane and useless details of the inner workings of the company that publishes the magazine. The other notable is the editorial emphasis on recording studios and the radio/video post industry, in addition to the fact that both of these fields are shrinking it is also odd given that GC is not a big player in either field but is primarily active in the semi-pro and smaller PA/live audio sector although it has been gradually moving into the higher end recently.

Even though it this approach mostly works In addition to the simple fact that the personnel behind the bigger studios and post rooms and the people dealing with better know artists and entities do in general make for a more interesting reading and usually have a wider range of experiences to share than the Joe Blog weekend warrior type that actually shops at GC Pro which inherintly makes the and gives the publication a somewhat aspirational feel the negative side is of that is that the educational material contained within is only going to be of use to a very limites subset of the magazines readership obviously that and the that talks about exotic reverbs that the average joe will never see much less toy around with

All in all Audio Solutions is one of the best in-house pro-audio publications we have seen and by far the best one origination from a USA based company, grab a copy the next time you are in GC Pro oogling stuff you will never be able to afford or go to the link below and read on-line or download a PDF copy, note that the company has an archive of older issues on line dating back at the least a couple of years but no links to the archive issues from their homepage, but older issues can be accessed by simply changing the reference in the browsers location bar to the name of the older issue (i.e. change /fall_2011/fall_2011.pdf to /spring_2012/spring_2012.pdf and so on).
Homepage: http://stores.guitarcenter.com/GCPro

Backstage (Pt-Brazil)
Slightly unusual monthly Brazilian publication, started out in the early 90's as a fairly typical PA & lighting publication but has evolved by adding more DJ and music technology content. While you will find just about anything in the mag from tutorials on how to use sibelius, reviews of headphones and tutorials on how to use software xxx for the creation of dubstep, even music reviews and so on, there is a much greater emphasis on the technology behind live shows than we would find in North European or American music tech publications and the mag contains lots of interviews with tech personnel behind large local shows and actual reports of the shows from a technical standpoint, and not just from music shows, there is a report on the audio and lighting from London Fashion Weekend in there somewhere.

There are even some English language translations available of some of their articles from the magazines homepage and older versions of the magazine can be read for free from the site as well.
Homepage: http://www.backstage.com.br
Backstage C/O Editora H. Sheldon, Street Iriquitiá, RJ-392-Taquara, Brazil.
Tel/Fax: +55 21 3627 7945. E-Mail: assinaturas #at# backstage.com.br.

Trade magazines

Essential Install
UK based trade monthly targeted towards the home hi-fi, AV and TV install market. Founded by Daniel Sait former editor of Inside Hi-fi and Custom Installer. Free in paper form to qualified UK tradespeople and in electronic form to European installers, homepage also has an archive of older issues.
Homepage: http://www.essentialinstall.com
Essential Install, Tel: +44 (0)1634 673163. Mobile: +44 (0)7814 859101. E-Mail: dan (at) essentialinstall.com.

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