Blog

*Updated on Monday 23rd March 2020*

During this difficult time we are all facing with Coronavirus, we at Hifi Gear would like to ensure the safety of our staff, customers, friends & family by taking extra precautions.

The Hifi Gear store in Hereford will be Open for Pre-Booked Demo's Only for the time being, with limited access to the public to ensure a safe and clean working environment. We will be open for;

• Pre-Booked Demo's (Please call us on 01432 354921)
• Click & Collect Orders
• Order Shipping

Our opening hours will be between 10am & 4:30pm

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.

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FULL-TIME POSITION – SALES ASSISTANT

Sales assistant required for busy retail, CI and e-commerce based hi-fi & home cinema business with retail store in the heart of Hereford. Joining a team of four, you will be keen to learn about and assist with sales of luxury, high-value audio products. High motivation and a proactive attitude are a must, with a desire to fully support our customers at all stages of the sales process. Computer skills will be required and a full, clean driving license would be of benefit. A passion for music will be a distinct advantage. Previous sales experience is not necessarily required, but a keen attitude to learn is essential.

Key activities i

Ryan and I were recently invited to Henley Audio in Oxford for a tour around the facility as well as some informative training on some of the brands we deal with in the store. Towards the end of the day, we also had the opportunity to rebuild an Essential III from Project from putting the platter and belt on to re-fitting the cartridge and aligning it. I will be going into more detail on this build later on in this post.