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Monitor Audio Silver 7G - A breath of fresh air

Monitor Audio has just announced the new generation of their very successful Silver Series, we already loved the previous Gen 6 Silver series, with 2 speakers in this range, in particular, the Silver 50 Bookshelf Speaker and the Silver 200 Floorstanding Speaker, I will get into detail why shortly.

With a new generation of speakers comes new technology and looks. On paper, these are shaping to be a real eye-opener with their new RST II tech and we're so very keen to get our hands on them and give a full, honest review of what we expected. As always, the Silver range comes with an array of different finishes, in this instance, we have Gloss Black, Black Oak, Ash, Walnut and Satin White, making them fit seamlessly into any sort of living environment. Here is a list and overview of all the products introduced into the Silver 7G Range.

Silver 50 - Bookshelf Speaker

The Monitor Audio Silver 50 - One of our personal favourite bookshelf speakers, the 6th Generation did such an amazing job at providing the listener with a very detailed experience, as before, the finishes that you could choose had the option to be fitted in any listening environment which to us, means a lot as we have a rather diverse customer audience. The G7 Silver 50's, already, with the new tweaks that have been implemented across the board for the Silver range is already shaping up to be a show stopper. 

The Silver 50's are just a perfect all-round speaker, they're small and compact but pack that punch you'd desire, a simple yet effective design making it look the part in all environments, these pair with any system that you may already have and if this is your first time, I have composed a list of packages which I personally think suit well with the Silver 50's - as always, we have these on display so do please

2 Channel Hifi System Installation - Gloucester

This Hifi System, consisting of a Rega Planar 2 Turntable, Rotel CD11 Tribute CD Player, Rotel A11 Tribute Amplifier and DALI Oberon 1 Speakers was demonstrated to a customer in our Hereford showroom before being set up and installed in their home.

Naim Uniti Atom HE (Headphone Edition) - First Impressions

Naim Audio, British manufacturers of some of the world's finest Hifi equipment, has recently released a new 'Headphone Edition' of their popular Uniti Atom All-In-One Streaming Amplifier. For this version of the Uniti Atom, Naim has removed the powered speaker connections and power amplifier section of the unit, in favor of a high-powered headphone amplifier section. The Atom Headphone Edition carries plenty of headphone sockets to suit whichever set of headphones you own, be it from Sennheiser, Focal, Audeze, Grado, or any other brand. On the front panel, you'll find the conventional stereo 1/4" Jack connection, below a 4.4mm Pentaconn Jack Connection. On the rear panel, you'll find a 4-Pin DIN connection, found on a number of high-end headphones such as the Sennheiser HD820's.

Hifi Gear's Guide To Sonos?

It's been a good 6 years since we've last did a blog about Sonos, not too much has changed over the course of those years, only with mobile app tweaks, newly announced products and revamped designs for cetain products. You will see the usage of the Play:3 used in this blog post, please note that yes, it has now been discontinued, but there still is a wide audience that still uses this product so it has been used in some examples.

Maybe you've seen it on the TV, in a magazine or just caught a glimpse of it in a store or at a friend’s house, and now you're looking to find out a little more as to what Sonos exactly is and what it offers.

This installation was carried out in a beautiful, modern barn conversion with exposed oak beams, clean white walls and a polished concrete floor. The main requirement for this installation was not only for the system to sound fantastic but also for it to look at home in this stunning, minimalistic cinema room.

The project started with a visit to the property, to meet the owner and discuss possible options to meet their requirements and budget. The decision was made to purchase a Projector, which would show an image on an adjacent white wall so that the room would still look pristine even when an image isn't being shown.

The award-winning Epson EH-TW7400 4K Projector was chosen due to its beautiful, vivid 4K image, quiet operation and its useful electronic lens-shift function, allowing the screen to be made perfectly central in the room, while the Projector was tucked away neatly at the back of the room.

Our first day of installation was spent measuring, to ensure the projector and speakers were perfectly placed. After careful measurements, we mounted the projector to the ceiling. Using Epson's low-profile ceiling mount and white facia, allowing the projector to be mounted discreetly at the back of the room with minimal disruption.

We then installed the four, wall mounted Bowers & Wilkins M1 Satellite Speakers. These compact speakers were perfect for the clean aesthetic seen throughout the property. Not only do they look great and fit in perfectly with the room, but they also benefit from sounding fantastic, especially considering their size. Delivering clear and concise vocals, while having enough power to make you jump out of your seat in action-filled movie scenes.

The customer decided to purchase an elegant solution to hide their unsightly cables and equipment, in the form of a beautiful, high gloss white AV stand from Spectral. This stand was custom-built to the customer's specification, to be the perfect size, shape and colour for the room while offering storage and cable management for the electronics, centre speaker and media.

This Spectral 'Next' AV Cabinet was built on the second installation day. After a couple of hours, the build was complete, with a gloss white top panel and cabinet doors, acoustically transparent black cloth cover and aluminium feet.

AudioQuest introduced their first portable headphone DAC and amplifier seven years ago in 2012. The Dragonfly Black allowed music lovers to bring their music anywhere, with a high-resolution DAC and powerful headphone amp. Shortly after, the Black was joined by the Dragonfly Red. Boasting a higher output for more demanding headphones, as well as a more sophisticated and capable DAC chip.

As of July 2019, the Dragonfly line-up has expanded. Introducing the Dragonfly Cobalt, AudioQuest's newest and arguably best portable DAC and headphone amp to date.

The Cobalt promises superior performance thanks to a wide range of improvements. Such as a new ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip, delivering a more expressive, detailed sound. As well as a PIC32MX274 microcontroller, which draws less current than the Dragonfly Red, while increasing the processing speed by a third. The new Dragonfly also features improved power supply filtering, reminiscent of AudioQuest's dedicated JitterBug USB Noise Filter, which reduces unwanted

Connecting to the Creek Evolution 100CD via a PC requires additional (ASIO) driver software to be installed and potentially a USB2 driver if the PC you are using hasn't already got one. A Mac computer running OSX won't need any additional drivers.

Drivers for Windows-based computers can be downloaded via the links below:]

Evolution 100CD USB Driver

Evolution 100CD SaviAudio Driver

If you require help installing this software, an installation guide can be found via the following link:

Creek USB Driver Installation Guide

Who is Creek Audio?

Creek Audio is a British based and family-run hifi component manufacturer, boasting over three decades worth of history and professional experience. Creek Audio began in the back bedroom of the family's home, and now reaches all corners of the globe thanks to their well-built distribution network. Creek Audio retain a common design philosophy with every product, and claim that the company was founded entirely on the same three principles; Sound Quality, Build Quality and Honest Pricing. These elements are found within every model of their current catalogue, as well as past models, giving Creek Audio a revered and well-respected

Chord Electronics is widely renowned for making the best DAC's on the market and their pocket-sized Mojo is no exception.

Using technology from Chords Hugo Series and their flagship Dave reference converter, the Mojo features a custom made FPGA DAC, DSD capability and support for sample rates up to a whopping 768kHz. All squeezed into an aluminium chassis no bigger than your wallet.

The Mojo also features a headphone amp, powerful enough to drive any pair of headphones. I listened to a range of headphones from the Bowers & Wilkins P9 Signature's, Quad ERA 1's and the

With the release of their new A11 and CD11, Rotel has created high-performance hifi on a budget.

The A11 and CD11 add to Rotels well established 14 series, offering high-performance sound and build at a more affordable price.

Having 30 years experience in making CD players, Rotel has crammed the CD11 with technology found in their higher end machines. Featuring a Texas Instruments 24-bit 96kHz DAC for the CD11's Analogue RCA Outputs, Rotels balanced design and a high-end power supply to reduce any unwanted noise. All paired with Rotels high-end CD transport mechanism to provide musical, detailed playback of your favourite CD's.

With specs and performance rivalled by products twice the price, the A11 and CD11 are leaving us impressed. The A11 features a 50-Watt class AB stereo power amplifier, a moving magnet phono stage and a Texas Instruments DAC for its Bluetooth aptX input.

I set the

Bowers & Wilkins have changed the game when it comes to Wireless Audio, this is their newest range called "Formation" and trust me when I say, it's truly something else. I shall give you a brief overview before we dig into the setting up of the Duo.  The Formation Range consists of five different products; Formation Duo, Wedge, Bar, Bass and Audio.

Formation Duo - The first Wireless Speaker System that will provide the listener wired fidelity experience. The Duo features the incredible Continuum Cone Technology found on their 800 Series.

Formation Wedge - Fill any room in your home with the spectacular high-resolution 96/24 bit stereo sound. Bowers has given the Wedge a unique 120-degree casing, a full range of stereo components and obviously adding their new Formation Wireless Technology

Formation Bar - Experience an outstanding yet truly immersive audio and video experience with this remarkable soundbar featuring 9 optimised drive units and a dedicated centre channel to make you constantly feel like you're smack-bang in the middle of all the action

Formation Audio - Stream music in 96/24 bit high-resolution sound to your passive system or to your passive system or turn most passive components into part of a Formation multi-room audio system.

Formation Bass - Add a new dimension of a breath-taking sounding bass to your music and movies with Bowers' opposed dual driver technology and Dynamic EQ. Like all other Formation Products, you can pair them all up to achieve the ultimate audio immersion.

Combine all these together to experience the highest-quality, wireless home setup. Not only do these sound incredible, but they also look the part too, effortlessly blending in with any sort of environment in your house. Right, let us get started on how to set up your Formation products.

Let's get started:

Firstly you will need to head on over to your app store and download 'Bowers Home' (Download them here - Apple / Android) Once downloaded you will be greeted with this screen. It's technically searching for devices that are currently set up, but as you will have none, nothing will appear.

After a few seconds, you will have this screen, as it couldn't find any Formation products, the option to 'Add Formation product' will appear at the bottom, select that option to get this set up started.

Once pressed, you will have to make sure that your Formation products are plugged into the mains before entering the next step. This will automatically pick up the box you have plugged in.

For our instance, we had the Duo's and the Bass set up, so it picked up both but for this tutorial, I will be selecting the Duo, note it will say 'Two speakers found' your left and right speaker. Select 'Formation Duo' to advanced to the next step.

Once advanced, you will be asked to 'Name your Space' You can either choose from the default selections Bowers & Wilkins provide or you can create your own custom space; for our case, I went with the custom space to make it easier for the stores benefit.

When selecting custom space, you have the freedom to name it to what you desire. For example, you can name it 'Speaker' or 'Room 1'

For our set up, I named it 'Formation Duo' as we have multiple Formation products set up around the shop and it is a bit more convenient when it comes to demonstrating.