Product Reviews

Musical releases were originally sold on a physical formats, mainly that of CD, vinyl and the cassette, and were intended to give the best quality that was technically possible on the players of the time.

The warmth of analogue still remains an iconic sound characteristic today...

Vinyl records were pressed (when a mainstream format) to be accurate and designed to last, cassettes mainly used chrome biased tapes and Dolby noise reduction to maximise quality, whilst the CD was renowned for being accurate and able

Welcome Back, Sansui! 

During the 1970s, Sansui dominated the Hi-Fi market with their innovative designs and superb sound quality. They also demonstrated that Hi-Fi components didn’t need to be expensive to give true performance.

Classic Sansui AU-317 fron the late 1970's

Bowers & Wilkins have conquered the Hi-Fi speaker market with their range of floor-standers, bookshelf and home cinema speakers. With many fans from both professional and consumer backgrounds, it is easy to see why they’re a firm favourite. Also, being the world’s largest speaker manufacturer, the manufacturer of choice at Abbey Road Studios and the manufacturer exclusively used by Jaguar cars could be something to do with their thriving success.

B&W's P3 Headphones in Black and Silver Finishes

An Experience of Pro-Ject

 Founded by Heinz Lichtenegger in 1991, Pro-Ject’s home is located in Vienna, Austria, and houses the firm’s manufacturing and management facilities. With around 300 workers in the company, Pro-Ject may be a small company, but they certainly are big on the results of their products!

Pro-Ject originally came about due to Lichtenegger finding the market of turntables to be un-inspiring and to be certainly lacking in the true Hi-Fi and audiophile sector. We must remember that in the late 80s the CD was beginning to exceed sales of vinyl records for the first time. Although the CD was, and still is, a convenient format that can produce phenomenal accuracy and superb tonal results, Lichtenegger still firmly placed his trust in the format that was beginning to fade away from mainstream production. But, after many ideas and self-built examples, Lichtenegger soon found that his turntables were breathing new life into the format that was seemingly dying a fast death. On the timeline of Hi-Fi history, CDs were becoming as cheap as CDs, offering more clarity on budget systems and stood up to the reliability tests that vinyl records were failing to: record releases toward the end of the 80s saw cheaper materials and thinner albums being produced, resulting in hastened wear and tear. Eventually, the mass production of vinyl records ceased on mainstream releases ceased.

Pro-Ject's 6 Record Deck

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Which Cartridge is Right for Me?

A Guide That Looks at The best Cartridge for Your

Record Deck on a Budget

The traditional vinyl record is making a huge come back! Although, some may argue that it never really went away. However, if you are keen on building a collection and want to take advantage of that warm tone, an essential tune-up of your turntable is certainly worth considering!

Many audiophiles will change their tone arms, cartridges and they will alter their decks to perform better than they did coming out of the factory. In one way, it’s like tuning a classic car – throwing on some twin carbs, changing the cam shaft and exchanging the exhaust system will certainly make a considerable boost in performance. Just like car tuners, audiophiles strive to get more performance out of their ‘stock’ turntable by a series of modifications.

As we are looking at turntable cartridges for beginners and those with a tighter budget in mind, we will be looking at the great ranges available to you – all costing below £100.

The most important place to start is the join between the vinyl record and the player’s needle – the cartridge system:

Some turntables do come with a cartridge fitted. However, these often prove to be weak in terms of performance and can often lead to damaging the records if they weren’t fitted correctly prior to operation. What is suggested is that the existing cartridge, which is usually un-branded, should be replaced by a cartridge that has greater stamina and accuracy than that of the original.

A new cartridge will lead to the following benefits:

1. More sonic accuracy. This means that the sound will be more robust and will sound more as it was intended to do by the artist.
2. Kinder performance to the record. Playing a record over repeatedly will eventually lead to it wearing out. However, an up-rated cartridge will be kinder and will easily prolong the record’s playing life if it has been fitted and tracked correctly.
3. A new cartridge will also help by attaining a certain and desirable sound characteristic. In essence, you can buy cartridges that feature a warm and traditional sound, or, alternatively, a cartridge can provide a more accurate and greater sense of depth or clarity. The choice of sound characteristics can help by boosting or reducing in a certain frequency range.

So, by upgrading, you can get a much better stereo-image, boost or reduce a certain sound characteristic and prolong the record’s life for longer lasting playing pleasure. Listed below are the cartridges that can help dramatically in boosting playback performance:

£17 - £50:

The Budget AT-91 offers exceptional value...

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Hello all,

here's a look at the KEF 'R' range. These speakers are beautifully made and sound just as they intend to: Crisp and Responsive.

Click here for a direct link to the video.

Hello all,

just a quick video to show some images and video clips of the Elements range from Leema Acoustics of Wales, Great Britain.

Their Elements DAC, with 24-bit 192KHz capability, is a great way of retrieving more data from your digital sources, like the Elements CD, leading to greater sonic accuracy and superb sound as a result through any amplifier, including the remarkable Elements Integrated Amplifier.

Click here for a Video of the Leema Acoustics Elements CD, DAC & Stereo Integrated Amplifier,

At Hifi Gear we love to keep you up to date with what's new to you, and what's new to us.

2012 has so far been a great year in new Hi-Fi and Home Cinema. However, we are going to show what they are by continuing to upload video overviews on to our exclusive channel on Youtube. The 'Hifi Gear Video Channel' has been active since December, 2011, and we have been uploading videos of new and exciting products that we feel are sure to become favourites with almost everyone who wishes to know a bit more about them.

So, with new products being released from masses of manufacturers, we are going to be releasing some more videos on the new items over the next few weeks. As you can see below there are some photographs of the new bits 'n' pieces that we shall be looking at in detail. Further

Great News everyone!

KEF Loudspeakers are now available from Hifi Gear!

This means that you can now expect a combination of performance, quality workmanship and an outstanding reputation in all of their speaker manufacturing endeavours. KEF have always driven to produce speakers that both make a visual impression at first, before making an ever-lasting impression upon the listener in terms of the rich, tantalising and meaningful sound.

KEF’s reputation has always been something to trust since their beginning in Maidstone, England, back in 1961. It was after Raymond Cooke’s leave from Wharfedale in the early 60s then started the KEF brand going. He had both the knowledge and drive to develop speakers that truly did all music justice; rivalling his former employers in the process. KEF’s reputation since has g

A quick look at the Onkyo TX-NR414 Streaming AV Receiver