SoundStage! Hi-Fi has been part of the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) since May 2018. EISA’s origins date back to 1982, when the editors of five photography magazines banded together to select the best camera of the year. Forty years later, EISA has expanded its remit to become a diverse group of almost 60 print and online member publications from 30 countries. Today, these publications fall into one of six subgroups: Hi-Fi, Home Theatre Audio, Home Theatre Display & Video, In-Car Electronics, Mobile Devices, and, of course, Photography.
As part of the Hi-Fi subgroup, SoundStage! Hi-Fi, like other publications within any subgroup, can nominate and vote for products that are worthy of EISA’s Best Product awards for that year. But there’s a catch—the publication must have experience with each product that it is nominating or voting for. But since there are now dozens of EISA member publications, and there’s no restriction on the number of products each publication can nominate, it’s possible to have well over 100 nominations in each subgroup. Naturally, only a fraction of the nominees emerge as winners.
It’s also important to know that from time to time, some products get nominated in more than one subgroup—which happened again this year. If the product becomes a winner in multiple subgroups, it doesn’t get more than one award—it gets a single “joint” EISA award.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, EISA used to hold an annual in-person event in Antwerp, Belgium, where manufacturers could showcase products that they’d like to be considered for awards. During the pandemic, EISA adopted an online approach for product presentations, whereby manufacturers could showcase their products via online Zoom calls with an entire EISA subgroup at one time. Either before or after the online presentation, the manufacturers would often arrange for their products to be shipped to some or all of the member publications for review. This approach proved to be more efficient and cost-effective than the in-person gathering, so even though EISA could’ve met up in Antwerp again in 2022, the online approach was maintained this year—and may continue to be used in subsequent years since it works so well for everyone involved.
But that’s not to say that every winning product was shown to the EISA members as part of a Zoom call—some of the winning products were ones that publications had received from other channels and felt were worthy enough to nominate and vote for.
So here’s to the EISA Best Products of 2022–2023 winners across all the subgroups, and here’s to another successful year for EISA, which has lasted 40 years and is still going strong. Below, you’ll find links for all the subgroup winners. The Hi-Fi and Home Theatre Audio winners are featured on this site, since we know they’ll be of the most interest to our readers, while the links for the other subgroups will take you to EISA’s website. We hope you find the information about the winning products informative and valuable.
EISA’s Best Products of 2022–2023
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstagenetwork.com