Have you experienced this before? The system is installed. The speakers are wired. All components have been carefully selected. And yet the feeling of satisfaction still won't adjust properly. Maybe it's time to look beyond the edge of the stereo to the room with its acoustic properties.
What a couple of years ago sounded like science fiction in the truest sense of the word has now established itself as a serious foothold in the music industry. In 2013, the market share of online streaming services reached 5% of the total turnover of the music industry in Germany and a growth rate of 91% shows: Here the potential is far from exhausted. Meanwhile courting a number of providers for the favor of the customer. They differ not only in terms of the offered sound quality, but also in terms of compatibility and pricing model. So it's worth a closer look and what we have done in some of the great services on hand for you: .
Who would have thought? Outdated technology, bulky size, susceptible material and yet despite all this – or perhaps because of – vinyls are all the rage. The good old vinyl record is the deathbed risen to unite generations of music listeners. A kind of "back to nature" in the world of music media. But seriously: it actually seems almost like an unreachable kind of defiance of music that has lost almost every monetary value and is organized by supposedly intelligent algorithms even in genius playlists. While the CD despite haptic component already perfected the suspicion of the digital entitled adheres is safe with the vinyl disc: The computer isn't yet at the finish line
Christmas could not be further away. But nevertheless we've put together a package and the result is a worry-free hi-fi set from our vintage supplies. What lays in store:
MBL 4005 preamp including phono pre-amp
Vincent SP-997 (pair)
Quadral Aurum Orkan VIII (pair)
If you're already a customer of ours in store perhaps you're aware of our financing opportunity. What's new is that we now offer -- in cooperation with the Santander Consumer Bank AG, the leading German bank in consumer finance -- the ability to obtain financing for your purchases when shopping in our online store. The monthly rates and the duration can naturally be customised to suit you. So don't let anything stop your from letting your desires quickly and easily come true!*
Part two of our thoughts on your stereo investments:
If you're thinking that a compact system may not be enough for you -- perhaps your living room is large or sometimes you need a that extra high volume, or that you simply want everything to sound better -- then let us give you the low down on some current highlights across four price categories.
Fully-equipped package for €1,900
KEF iQ90 (€998), Denon PMA / DCD / DNP 720 together for €890, 2x high quality RCA cable to each €26 (AudioQuest 'Evergreen'), Chord Carnival 2x3m speaker cables ready-to-use at €70.
Our 'Evergreen': As before, a real highlight, especially when in close quaters of the pop /rock music areas The Denon components are in excellent workmanship and are controlled via a very good universal remote control and FM, CD, iPod /iPad, & Streaming Internet Radio. A turntable can be connected directly.
Price to performance ratio: Excellent!
After we explored local streaming audio in the first part of the series, and hopefully we've unravelled some of the key aspects of this comparitively complicated and relatively new technology bring us to the second episode of our mini-series. A true classic that, contrary to many predictions far from dead: The audio CD.
The range of avaliable audio-playback formats has reached an unprecedented diversity. For a long time vinyl, CD and tapes dominated the market, though with the rapid development in computer technology, digital formats and similar transfer technologies are ever establishing themselves attractive alternatives. The development of new technology and innovation is by no means complete and with the increasing diversity and complexity has increased significantly. All this is reason enough for Hifi-und-Friends.de to address the essential premise of better listening by a blog series of the same name, focusing on new and old technologies.
Buying compact HiFi at a budget-friendly price doesn't preclude getting great value for money! Generally we reccomend smaller units for smaller spaces -- a combination that works very well! However with smaller sets the price/performance ratio is still excellent with selected mini-systems, particularly the electronics of many small models stand out with top-quality processing, operation features and performance. When choosing the set as always, tastes vary. We have some exceptionally well-harmonised combinations here – of course there are further possible combinations which we can gladly discuss on a case-by-case basis with you.
Oppo is a Chinese company, which to date has produced some of the most superior Bluray players on the market (Oppo 103EU, 103D and 105D) and, along with its range of smart phones, it's really drawing attention to itself. All Oppo products have here an excellent price/performance ratio across all price ranges, exceptional production quality AND reliability.
