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 most popular ones (just in case you missed them!).
So, feeling a little hungover this New Years Day? Fancy putting your feet up an having a read of one of the biggest and best (… the jury’s out on that last one, but it’s definitely big!) hi-fi blogs on the interweb? Then you’ve come to the right place.
These are in no particular order, as doing so would just make this complicated. Right, let’s start with…
Rumour Has It: New Hi-fi Products for 2015!
Is it any real surprise that this was one of the most popular blogs of the year? First published on the 31st of Dec 2014 (… it counts! After all, this blog is technically a 23rd of December 2015 jobby…) this elusive a cheeky little number caused a small storm via our newsletter, and on social media. And everything it predicted came true! From the Arcam Solobar through to the Oppo PM-3s, we knew who were going to be the big players this year.
… and we were kinda right!
How To: Digitise Your CD Collection
Our How Tos are usually fairly popular. Easy guides full of tips and hints! This one in particular went down a storm with the digital crowd, and even caused a little controversy when first released (mostly from those who would never dream of digitising their CDs. There’s always some!) Digitising your CDs is kind of necessary this day and age, even if it’s purely for the purposes of backing them up. This blog gives you a few of the (many!) ways of doing that, as tried and tested by us.
What Hi-Fi Awards 2015
The What Hi-Fi Awards are always a highlight in the calendar, for both us and the hi-fi realm as a whole! We always attend and love to rub shoulders with the hi-fi giants, all the while witnessing the best players get rewarded for their outstanding work. This year was a real stand out, with some obvious winners and some real surprises!
Want the full run down? Then look no further than here.
The Pathways To Brilliance: Meridian
It’s always exciting when we take a new brand under our wing, but the arrival of Meridian to the Audio Affair family was worth a serious celebration! A gorgeous high-end brand which only makes a few highly specialist products (always a good sign!) Meridian have proven to be a serious lure to our showroom, for both their speakers, their amps and their highly innovative box of tricks. Not only were they a highlight of the year, but this little blog giving a nice brand overview was a little highlight too!
And while we’re on the subject of the new (to us for 2015…)
Introducing: Hi Fi Man Headphones
Do you know… The HiFi Man? Hifi’s the name, headphones (are!) the game. Deliriously high-end and an absolute joy for all to behold, this blog proved to be an excellent lure to our showroom for headphone fans to try these out for themselves as we had added the entire range to our ever popular headphone bar. Take a gander for yourself, you never know what might take your fancy…
Cyrus Update: Upgrade Your Decade Plus Gear by June 1st!
Okay, sometimes our blogs serve a greater purpose than just telling you what’s good to buy, and what to do with it once you have it. This was a pretty important Cyrus-based public service announcement, which had otherwise unknowing Cyrus owners flocking in their droves to update their systems before the timer ran out. This was Cyrus clearing their plate for some seriously special brand new models – and we can’t get enough of those!
How To: Get To The Point – The Importance of Speaker Stand Spikes
Spike shoes, speaker spikes, cones… whatever you call them, they’re an essential finishing touch. Why? Well, this blog investigated such, and I won’t spil the surprise! What I like about this blog (and how well it went down amongst our readers) is how well it sums up the pursuit of hi-fi: it’s all in the detail. And sometimes adding a tiny little ‘mod’ like a set of spike shoes to your speaker stands can make all the difference to your sound (even at the lower-end!) and is therefore essential information to any audiophile.
The 5 Vinyl Best Sellers
It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the wires, the circuits and the separates. Sometimes it’s nice to remind ourselves why we do this whole hi-fi thing in the first place: the music! Regardless of the advances of the year (and before, of course!) vinyl still rules supreme for that glorious, rich analogue sound. We recognised that in this Top 5, celebrating the best vinyl best sellers of all time. All of which we have available ourselves, and all of which never fail to test our systems to their fullest (and most glorious!) capacity. Hey, they’re the best sellers of all time for a good reason, y’know.
Speaker Accessories: Budget Tweaks & Big Improvements
When it comes to the world of hi-fi, you can go very very big… and very very small. All that matters is you go somewhere. It’s an ongoing process, and a labour of love, and there are no ends to what you can do. This blog wasn’t meant to be a mega-one, but it soared in popularity, demonstrating the two distinctly different ends of the hi-fi spectrum. Both how you can accomplish a lot with relatively little… and how you can really go to town on your system. Hey, it’s all part of the fun!
How To Know… Why Do I Need a Phonostage?
And last (but definitely not least!) another handy “How To…”, this one directly addressing one of our most common questions: “why do I need a phono stage?” some may laugh, but seeing as it’s one of our most read blogs of the year it’s clear that this is information that needed to be out there. We still use it as a point of reference to this very day whenever a customer asks us that very question! The fact of the matter is: you need one. There really is no ‘want’ about it. If you want vinyl, you need a phonostage of some form. Read the blog if you want to find out any more.
There’s plenty more where that came from (hundreds more, in fact!) and the above is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember to use the search function if you’re looking for something specific. Chances are, if you can think of it, we’ve covered it!
As always give us a shout if there’s something you can’t find. You never know, it might give us an idea of what to write about in 2016!
Right, that’s all from us for now. Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year from all of us at Audio Affair. Happy Listening!