Monthly Archives: December 2015

Phew! Well, we made it! Another year done and dusted, and another year of blogs to look back on. This has been a record breaking year for us here at Audio Affair in many ways, but especially in terms of our blog. Since Dec 31 2014 we have published over 140 of them, from news to reviews, how-tos to brand overviews... and everything in between! We thought we'd celebrate with a little round up of the year in blog form. But with 140... where do you begin?!

We decided to make it easy, and go for the

Don't you just love it when an audio gadget drops into your lap which is so clever, yet so obvious, that you can't believe it didn't exist before? Well, that's how we felt when we first learned of the Arcam MusicBoost iPhone Headphone Amplifier + DAC. A truly stunning and innovative piece of kit which serves as both a portable DAC and a head amp... that actually fits onto your phone.

Isn't that smart?

You see, portable hi-fi has so far only been able to go so far, as to be truly portable you

It's a wonderful thing when the world takes something you love, and makes it even better! We are pretty massive fans of the KEF LS50s here at Audio Affair (... we blog about them quite a lot!) so you can only imagine our excitement when we found out that KEF had further honoured their already beautiful flagship speakers... and made them into something glorious!

Feast your eyes on...

... those. The latest limited edition KEF LS50s. The same incredible award winning speaker, with everything that

It was with great excitement in mid-2015 that we heard Sennheiser were going to bring out an upgraded version of the hugely popular Sennheiser HD800 headphones. The announcement came at a similar time as Sennheiser announced their new flagship Orpheus system - their first since the £10,000 system released in the early 1990s. However, with early reports suggesting that new Orpheus system will sell for around 50,000 Euros, one thing became pretty clear - the new version of the HD800 would be Sennheiser's

Is there anything better than the gift of music? Well, actually, yes there is! It's the gift of high-fidelity sound! But traditionally high-fidelity comes with too tradtionally high prices:  the cost, and the space! Well, while such certainly can be the case, it's not a hard and fast rule, and there are far more exceptions than you might think! Take for example...

The Acoustic Energy Aego Ms! Another hard and fast favourite of ours. A teenie-tiny 2:1 system that can easily fit on even the most

If you've been following us for any length of time, you've probably heard us mention the rather excellent Wharfedale Diamond 10.1s. No prize for guessing what today's blog will be about! Hey, a favourite is a favourite, and we loved these beautiful, compact and delightfully budget babies from the get-go, and when we found out that Whafedale were discontinuing them (despite winning countless awards) we simply had to ensure we had the last of the stocks.

These beauties scooped several awards and

When it comes to gift buying, there are always a few people in mind who get the VIP treatment: no expense spared. It's the people in your life who deserve the most luxury, and if there's one thing that the hi-fi realm has in abundance, it's luxury. By the barrel-full! If you want to get your loved one a hi-fi gift that they will cherish forever (and in turn will cherish them!) then there are a great many things to chose  from. Where do you begin?

Spending on a higher-priced (and higher-quality!)

Whether it's a Christmas gift, a birthday gift, or a gift for no reason at all (quite possibly the nicest gift of all!) it's nice to do your homework and really knuckle down on the best possible gift in a sea of possibilities.

Or, y'know. you could let the likes of us do the hard work for you. And that's what we've done! Here are our top picks of the best gift ideas for your loved one. As long as they're a music lover, they'll love all of these. And all for under £500!

Let's start with...

1. Audio

It's a great time of year for reflection, and we have taken it upon ourselves to do all of your hi-fi-based reflection for you, so you know exactly what the best value gifts are. After all, the greatest gift in the world is music... but high quality hi-fi is even better! So, if you have a music lover in your life (or of course, you are one yourself!) here are the very best of the very best for under £100, based on our own observations, those of the critics and those of our customers (the opinion