non geek guides to
HI-FI, HOME CINEMA &tech

An AV receiver is the heart, soul, engine room, call it what you will but for real home cinema entertainment you gotta have one. Here we have the best that you can buy, tested by our super, exacting reviewers

All you need for a fantastic cinematic experience in your own home, we've put together the systems that will open up new horizons in sound and vision, without the fuss

Television technology is a minefield of strange acronyms- just look at OLED, LCD and QD OLED for openers. Here we show you the easy route through

Surround sound speaker packages will delivery a home cinema experience like no other, you just need a bit of space to accommodate the speakers

A Soundbar is the easiest way to get better sound from your TV an add an essential element of home cinema without needing to take out a bank loan. Easy to install, the improvements they provide is to worth every penny

For those home cinema fans that like their pictures big and bright, here's the answer – our choice of the best projectors

Watching a film without a subwoofer in the system is like eating apple pie without custard, you get something, but nothing like the full effect

An amplifier is essential to get music from the source to your ear. There's a few stages along the way, but in essence, the amp drives the speakers that makes the sound. And, it isn't rocket science to understand the better the amp, its pretty much a case of the better the sound although that doesn't mean the higher the price the better the sound. Our list of recommended amps all deliver exceptional sound quality even if some only cost a few hundred pounds

The range of earphones, earbuds, call them what you will, is huge as is the variation in quality. Rest assured though, the recommended models from Sound Advice are all top knotch.

The Sound Advice reviewers are experts at matching components to get the best possible sound. Here, the team is recommending stereo systems, at all pirces, that will give you hours upon hours of musical satisfaction.

There's much more to the world of headphones than Beats and Airpods – spend a few minutes sorting out opened and closed backs and you will be rewarded with excellent sound and value for money. And if you are still in doubt, just make a appointment with one of the team for some tailor made advice.

Believe it or not CD sales are on the rise again. Why? Because they are physical and sound great, especially IF you have one of our highly recommended CD players

Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Qobuz are just a few of the music streaming platforms where you pay a fee to listen to your music. And what a choice Tidal alone has over 60 million tracks available. All you need is a music streamer to access these pots of preferably hi-res gold to enjoy a virtually unlimited choice of music. Music streamers come as a stand alone component for your hi-fi system or combined into an amp to provide the ultimate in hi-res, high quality convenience

Stereo speakers come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes but essentially they all the same thing - they play music. The glorious fact about all of recommended stereo speakers is the pure quality performance that they consistently turn in, be it delivering the brute force of Masterdon, the lightest of touches from Ravel or interpreting the nuances of a polyphonic choir. Stereo speakers are an essential element of a music system that can make the difference between delivery orgasmic joy to something akin to watching Dulux dry. Our recommendations, of course, all fall into the first bracket. And look out for our Most Popular models, these are the speakers most visited and read by you

Record players or turntables, the choice of moniker is yours. The name doesn't matter what's important is our choice of recommended turntables all spin the vinyl with panache and quality, delivering a sound that is pure joy. Not bought into the vinyl revival, read our guide to find out why this 70 year old tech refuses to take a back seat. Physical albums are alive and well and deserve to have a turntable of quality to enjoy the special sound

Wireless speakers are the ultimate in having high quality music with absolutely no fuss, clutter or complexity. Our recommended wireless speakers have all been rigorously tested by our uncompromising panel of experts to bring you a satisfaction guaranteed stereo pair at a wide range of budgets. Most wireless speakers are good to go straight from the box, streaming music from one of the many platforms, or from your phone or music library. what's not to love about wireless convenience - nothing really.

You have your headphones and they sound pretty good but... What you need to think about is some quality boosting add-ons such as an amp and a hi res music player to really bring the emotion into the music

Without a shadow of doubt, the StreamMagic app is one of the easiest to use for streaming music

MQA aims to “fundamentally change the way we all enjoy music”. It’s a method of digitally capturing and storing original master recordings as files that are small and convenient enough to download or stream

Based in Basildon Essex, Alpha Audio are a premium hi-fi retailer offering installations, online sales and excellent demo facilities in store

There's no shortage of choice for music streaming platforms, Qobuz, is probably one of the least well known and one of the best

Now you can have IMAX cinema entertainment and excitement in your own home

DTS has been there since the beginning, providing extraordinary surround sound in movie houses and home cinema systems

Dolby has been synonymous with cinemas, movies and home cinema for decades, rarely do we see a great film that doesn't benefit from the technology. And now its making its multi channel presence felt in music too