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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Where to spend next
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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£249.17Ex. VATThe Apollo Atlas WM1 is a solid oak wall mount shelf designed for turntables and hi-fi equipment, featuring a 20mm cable management gap, dual cable routing cut-outs, and compatibility with the optional Isoplinth 1 isolation module, made in the UK. -
From£499.99Ex. VATThe Apollo Athena VS1 is a solid oak vinyl storage coffee table with four dedicated LP bays storing up to 200 records, designed to complement the Apollo hi-fi furniture range, available in Natural Oak or Dark Oak, made in the UK.
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£166.66Ex. VAT
The Atacama Moseco 5.2 is a pair of bamboo speaker stands standing 560mm tall, featuring an enlarged 250mm x 340mm carbonised bamboo base, double the mass loading capacity of the standard Moseco 5, interchangeable tubes, and a modular top plate system, made in the UK.
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£166.66Ex. VATThe Atacama Moseco 6.2 is a pair of bamboo speaker stands standing 660mm tall, featuring an enlarged 250mm x 340mm carbonised bamboo base, double the mass loading capacity of the standard Moseco 6, interchangeable tubes, and a modular top plate system, made in the UK.
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£174.17Ex. VATThe Atacama Moseco 7.2 is a pair of bamboo speaker stands standing 760mm tall, featuring an enlarged 250mm x 340mm carbonised bamboo base, double the mass loading capacity of the standard Moseco 7, interchangeable tubes, and a modular top plate system, made in the UK.
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Atacama
Atacama Apollo Duet 5 500mm High Speaker StandsSKU: Apollo Duet 5 500mm High Speaker Stands
£208.32Ex. VATThe Apollo Duet 5 is a pair of solid oak speaker stands standing 500mm tall, featuring FSC-certified European oak construction for both base and pillars, adjustable spikes, isolation gel pads, and a 160mm x 220mm top plate, available in Natural Oak or Dark Oak, made in the UK.
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£45.83Ex. VATThe Ortofon Premium Libelle is a precision spirit level for turntables, offering a full 360-degree view with 1-degree accuracy, crafted from anodised aluminium with a wave-pattern grip surface and individually tested for measurement consistency.
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Ferrum
Ferrum Audio BROEN network streaming transportSKU: Ferrum Audio BROEN network streaming transport
£1,662.50Ex. VATThe Ferrum BROEN is a network streaming transport powered by Volumio, featuring the proprietary SERCE DDC module, galvanically isolated audio outputs, SFP modular network connectivity, an internal NVMe SSD slot, and AES/EBU, S/PDIF, I2S, and USB audio outputs, designed to integrate with the Ferrum WANDLA and HYPSOS ecosystem.
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Atacama
Atacama Optional Top Plate Packs for NeXXus, Moseco, and Cyclone XL speaker standsSKU: opt-top-plate
From£33.32Ex. VATOptional precision laser-cut carbon steel top plate packs for Atacama NeXXus, Moseco, and Cyclone XL speaker stands. Supplied in pairs with a satin black powder coat finish and eight domed gel pads. Five sizes available. -
From£162.50Ex. VATThe Little Fwend is a 100% mechanical automatic tonearm lifter that raises your stylus safely at the end of a record. Precision-machined in Scandinavia and hand-assembled in Oslo. Four models covering most turntable brands. -
From£2,999.17Ex. VATThe Astell&Kern A&ultima SP4000T is a flagship tube DAP with quad Raytheon vacuum tubes, dual AK4499EX DACs and Triple AMP modes for rich analog hi-res sound. Its Triple Tube and Triple AMP modes shape the tone across dozens of combinations, while native DSD512 and 32-bit/768kHz playback, Roon Ready and Qobuz Connect handle the finest hi-res files and streaming. Balanced 4.4mm output, 256GB storage and a 6-inch screen complete a reference-class player. -
£2,499.17Ex. VATThe Astell&Kern CLARUS is a flagship in-ear monitor built around a nine-driver tribrid architecture, combining a proprietary 9mm dynamic driver, seven Sonion balanced armatures and a silicon MEMS tweeter under a six-way crossover. Housed in a CNC-machined aerospace-grade aluminium shell and supplied with a custom Effect Audio cable, it is voiced for even, natural clarity across the full frequency range rather than for emphasis in any one region.
