Hi-Fi Essentials
Hardware and treatment for a system you already own: headphones, DACs, amplifiers, streamers, isolation, racks and grounding. The next purchase after the system exists.
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This is the upgrade section rather than the starting point. It assumes you have a system, know roughly what it does well, and want to work out what to change next.
The order that usually works starts with the mechanical foundation. A rack that resonates undermines everything sitting on it, so proper support and isolation come first. Then the source, because nothing downstream can recover what a poor source has already lost. Then the electronics, and last the treatments that sit around the edges of a system, such as grounding.
Some of what is here is uncontested. Speaker stands, isolation feet and a rigid rack do measurable and audible things. Other categories, grounding in particular, divide opinion sharply, and we say so on the pages where that applies. What we will not do is recommend something we have not heard, or call a component essential when your system does not need it. Tell us what you are running and what you want to improve, and we will give you a straight answer.
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Synergistic Research
Synergistic Research MiG 2.0 Isolation Footers - Set of 3SKU: Synergistic Research MiG 2.0 Isolation Footers - Set of 3
£208.33Ex. VATThe original MiG or Mechanical Interface Ground is a superb footer that excels with a warm natural balance that can be tuned through two placement options to best match your system. Placing just one or two sets of MiG’s under your components can deliver a significant increase in sound staging with a balanced to slightly warm tonal balance. -
£829.17Ex. VATMiG SX footers are an evolution of SR's original MiG footers developed in 2008. They started with a new specially tuned MiG resonator forged from high carbon steel and add a precision-machined Aircraft Aluminum and Carbon Fibre three-piece chassis engineered to distribute vibration through a special tuning disc and a UEF tuning element into Carbon Tungston ball bearings. For a bespoke match to your system, MiG SX has two placement options that re-tunes your component’s resonance; choose between Ambient and Pin-Point configurations and pick the option that best suits your system on a component by component basis.
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Synergistic Research
Synergistic Research Tranquility POD Signal ConditionerSKU: SR Tranquility POD
£707.50Ex. VATSynergistic Research's new ACTIVE Tranquility PODs condition signal while it’s still in your system, just like full-sized Tranquility Bases but in a smaller and more flexible platform. And Tranquility PODs are based on the same ACTIVE EM Cell technology that powers their PowerCell line conditioners. But instead of conditioning AC electromagnetic fields, Tranquility PODs interact with the EM fields inside your components for more of what everyone loves about PowerCell line conditioners. -
Synergistic Research
Synergistic Research Tranquility Carbon Signal Conditioning BaseSKU: SR Tranquility Carbon
£2,495.83Ex. VATIntroducing Tranquility Base Carbon, the first all-new Tranquility Base in over a decade. SR started with a new chassis machined from a solid billet of aircraft aluminum for a 50% slimmer and 80% more rigid chassis. They then experimented with new laminates and arrived at carbon fiber for its superior response to mechanical and airborne vibrations. They then applied our most advanced EM Cell technology directly transferred from our Galileo SX PowerCell. Finally, its internal UEF Technology was transferred from our new state-of-the-art SRX cable loom. The net result is a thinner and more rigid Tranquility Base with a lower noise floor from which springs improved dynamics and soundstaging combined with smoother, more extended high frequencies. -
£7,079.17Ex. VATThe Galileo Active Ground Block is a top to bottom re-engineering of Synergistic Research's award-winning Active Ground Block SE with technology originally designed for our Galileo SX PowerCell as well as new technologies expressly developed to make this the world’s highest performance ground filter for your stereo. They started with a new chassis machined from a solid billet of aluminum and carbon fiber to address unwanted vibration and chassis resonance that would otherwise lower your system’s performance. -
£745.83Ex. VATSynergistic Research's UEF Record Weight was developed in conjunction with our new MiG SX footers and so shares many of the same sonic traits, including the ability to dramatically expand the scale and layering of your soundstage while improving timbral accuracy and tonal density. -
£329.17Ex. VATSynergistic Research's first in a series of record mats with a new UEF Treatment that dramatically improves sound quality with a lower noise floor, improved soundstaging, and enhanced tonal clarity on even the finest turntables. It starts with a unique carbon fiber disc that kills unwanted vibration between your record and platter without deadening or compressing sound. -
£1,579.17Ex. VATThe Synergistic Research FEQ Carbon is a third-generation, two-channel acoustic field generator. New to the FEQ Carbon is a wholly redesigned PCB with dual RF generators. The first function of the redesign was to provide the ability to create different wave shapes, and the second was the addition of a 2nd, independently controlled ULF generator channel. -
£208.29Ex. VATWith the elegant ELITE Full-Motion+ TV wall mount, you're choosing design and performance. The wall mount is specially designed for TVs from 32 to 65 inches in size and weighing up to 35 kg, and can be turned up to 180°, allowing you to optimally enjoy your TV from any corner in the room. In the starting position, there is only 4 cm between the TV and the wall. Available in White and Black colours.
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£249.96Ex. VATWith the elegant ELITE Full-Motion+ TV wall mount, you're choosing design and performance. The wall mount is specially designed for TVs from 40 to 77 inches in size and weighing up to 45 kg, and can be turned up to 180°, allowing you to optimally enjoy your TV from any corner in the room. In the starting position, there is only 4 cm between the TV and the wall. Available in White and Black colours.
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£291.62Ex. VATWith the elegant ELITE Full-Motion+ TV wall mount, you're choosing design and performance. The wall mount is specially designed for TVs from 55 to 100 inches in size and weighing up to 45 kg, and can be turned up to 180°, allowing you to optimally enjoy your TV from any corner in the room. In the starting position, there is only 4 cm between the TV and the wall. Available in Black only.
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£333.29Ex. VATWith the elegant ELITE Full-Motion+ TV wall mount, you're choosing design and performance. The wall mount is specially designed for TVs from 55 to 100 inches in size and weighing up to 75 kg, and can be turned up to 180°, allowing you to optimally enjoy your TV from any corner in the room. In the starting position, there is only 4 cm between the TV and the wall. Available in Black only.
