Page 5 - News

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

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

Thanks to everyone who attended the Castle Galleries Mailbox gallery launch on 3rd December, where we also had KEF Muon on display. For those of you that don't know (and surely you do!) the Muon is KEF's £140,000 flagship speakers and were designed by artist Ross Lovegrove, so they're just as much beautiful contemporary art as they are unbelievable engineering.

Here you can see one of the KEF Muon's in the gallery...

It was a well attended event, with Castle Galleries other exhibitions on display,

We love it when a humble model, part of a system designed to work with the other 'parts' steps up and reveals itself as the star of the show - and that's exactly what has happened with the Tannoy XT6F. The winner of the What HiFi Award 2015 for "Best Floorstanders £600-£1200" had a slightly less glamorous beginnings.

The Tannoy XT6F speakers heralded some amazing things when it was premièred at the Bristol Hi-Fi show in 2015, alongside the rest of the system it was released with: the XT!

We were invited to the What Hi-Fi awards by KEF this year, who very kindly put us up in a hotel for the night, and had us seated at a table with a prime position in front of the main stage. Last year was great fun, but this year must be the most fun we've had at one of these awards events, with a good supply of champagne and wine and a fantastic meal (duck this year!) making it a very enjoyable event.

Can't wait to see them? View the award winners we sell on our website now

This was our view at the

It's one of the greatest debates in the world of retail: should I buy online, or should I buy in store? You'd think that argument would have been settled by now, and maybe you're looking for the definitive answer in this blog.

Well... you're not getting one. Not 'THE' answer, anyway. But you will get answers in the plural sense, and as many pros to each as we can muster. After all, it's a serious question. And if you're thinking about investing a lot of money in some hi-fi gear, every detail is

So, let me get this straight... you're reading our blog, but you haven't subsribed to our newsletter yet?! Okay, I'm making a sweeping generalisation here. But the chances are if you're already nice and subscribed, you probably didn't feel the need to read up on the reasons for doing so. On the off chance that you have already joined - hello! You're already doing everything right, just make sure you read your emails!

Otherwise, you'd best read what's below...

1. Limited Offers

Our newsletter subscribers