Blog

51 years of rowing our own boat.

An important change for Rega Research Ltd.
Rega is recognised globally for producing high-performance, affordable, two-channel hi-fi, which lasts a lifetime. We never bow to industry pressure and actively work on being different from other companies. Focusing on this niche marketplace is the cornerstone of our company culture.
The 28th of October 2024 was a significant day in our history that will ensure Rega continues long into the future and our strategy will remain unchanged.
On this day, Roy Gandy gifted 100% of his shares (full ownership) of the company to a Trust to protect Rega long into the future. This incredible gesture, of which Roy Gandy receives zero financial gain, has allowed Rega to become an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). Becoming an EOT has many advantages, however, the main reason is to protect our culture and decades of hard work. Becoming an EOT prevents the company from being sold and potential buyouts (by the dreaded investors)

Naim Trade-In promotion

Over the past 18 months, Naim has seen many key components required in the repair of their legacy CD players become obsolete. Naim's Procurement team have bulk-bought much of the remaining stock, but they are now seeing these supplies run dry. This makes it difficult for them to offer the ongoing support that they always try to on all Naim products, especially on many CD player repairs. 

To offset this issue, Naim is pleased to announce the launch of a trade-in program. This will allow the eligible CD players (listed below) to be traded in for a preferential rate on a range of Naim equipment including the Uniti Star, the NDX2 or ND5 XS2 and the a Uniti Core.

ELIGIBLE CD PLAYERS FOR EXCHANGE

•    CD5
•    CDX
•    CDX-2
•    CD5i
•    CDS-3
•    CD5x
•    CD5i-2
•    CD5 XS

Please speak directly with your local retailer if you would like to take advantage of this offer, and they will be happy to guide you through your options.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

MONITOR AUDIO STUDIO 89 STANDMOUNT SPEAKER REVIEW

 Introduction

We at Hifi Gear have been lucky enough to have the brand-new Monitor Audio Studio 89 speaker in the store for the last month. The nice part about this is that we've had a good amount of time to get to know the speaker before its launch and to have it set up on a variety of different kit and in various positions. Being big fans of Monitor Audio speakers we jumped at the chance to get these speakers in the shop early and we're not disappointed. 

Design

Measuring 340 x 157 x 361 mm they are a beautifully compact and stylish speaker which when mounted to the matching stand wouldn't look out of place in many differently styled rooms. They come in one finish only, which is a high-gloss black with gold highlighted twin 4 1/4 drivers and an MPD III transducer sat between them with a small studio 89 logo on each outer edge. When taking the speaker out of the box you can tell you are in for something special. Monitor Audio has gone

After a short hiatus and a change of UK distribution, HiFi Gear is proud to announce that we are once again working with Rotel to provide some of our favourite Japanese hifi equipment.

To coincide with their return, Rotel have announced a suite of improved products, with many of their 14 series products donning a mk2 badge, to indicate an improvement to performance, internal components, board design and most importantly sound! Along with their even greater improved, flagship Michi series proudly wearing the 'Series 2' name, bringing along with it a whole host of improvements, more of which we will go into below, with further details on each product page.

Offering excellent build quality, unique technology and superb value, Rotel offer an amplifier for everyone, from their compact yet powerful integrated amps, to their range-topping pre & power amplifiers. In this blog post we will cover their key technology, some of our favourite models and why we think they make some of the best hifi kit

Focal headphone trade-in promotion

September sees a fantastic offer on the full range of Focal Headphones with a month-long Headphone Trade-In Promotion.

Conditions apply**, but essentially, we are giving headphone owners an opportunity to trade-in their current pair of headphones of any brand against any of the current Focal range.

Running from now until 30th of September you can receive a discount when you trade in any pair of Over-Ear or On-Ear headphones (working or not) against a pair of Focal headphones. If you have any questions on this promomtion, please call us 01432 354921 or email us at info@hifigear.co.uk . Discount already applied

• Bathys:    £150 allowance
  
• Celestee: £200 allowance
  
• Clear Mg: £300 allowance
  
• Stellia:     £600 allowance
  
• Utopia:    £1,000 allowance

This promotion has now finished

Naim New Classic Range Promotion

With the launch of both the 200 & 300 Series New Classic ranges, Naim has an exciting new range of products for customers to enjoy. The opportunity to enhance their systems for the first time in over a decade will give many customers food for thought, but Naim understand that some of these  owners will be reluctant to change what they love, but there’s unfulfilled potential in each of those setups.

To help encourage customers to incorporate New Classic, we’re now offering any cabling required for the integration into an existing system free of charge. This includes signal cables through to power supply Burndy cables, all free of charge with the purchase of any New Classic product.* (please see eligable cable list below)

All the customer needs to do is provide proof of their existing Classic system, discuss their New Classic requirements with us and identify the cabling required.

The longevity of Naim products is a point

Linn Sondek LP12-50

Linn today announces the launch of a special edition, 50th anniversary model of their legendary Sondek LP12 transcription turntable, designed with help from the creative collective LoveFrom.

Linn’s CEO, Gilad Tiefenbrun, had the following to say about this landmark collaboration: “My father Ivor’s Sondek LP12 turntable revolutionised the hi-fi industry. It employed precision engineering to extract more music from the grooves of a vinyl record and, in doing so, improved the sound of any hi-fi system, regardless of the amplifiers or loudspeakers. Whilst the original Sondek LP12 was the best it could be in 1973, Ivor understood that technology would improve over time, and so he designed his turntable in a modular, upgradeable and future-proof way. As a result, 50 years on, the Sondek LP12 remains the performance benchmark in vinyl playback, featuring over fifty distinct performance improvements, all of which can be retrofitted to existing models.
Some time last year,

Hi-Fi Gear and Naim are delighted to share that the customer upgrade path for Naims Uniti range has now been made easier than ever. To help our customers take next step on their musical journey, the Naim Uniti Exchange Promotion will run  throughout the month of July. Offering hundreds of pounds in savings against the Uniti Atom, Star, Nova and Core with any eligible trade in product.

All legacy Uniti product* are now eligible for hundreds of pounds in part-exchange value against the value of a new Uniti product**
Quite simply, to qualify for the Trade-in Value, the customer must prove the existence of their legacy Uniti product either by serial number submission or bringing the unit in-store. They are then eligible for the following value off the new Uniti product as per below:

Using a turntable is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding ways of listening to music but it can present issues occasionally. Setting up and using a turntable is a little tricker than pressing play on a CD Player or Network Streamer but is well worth a little hassle. If you’re having setup issues with your turntable, this guide should help.

For advice on setting up a Rega turntable, see our set-up guide by clicking here.

My turntable no longer turns on!

The first thing to check, if your turntable is belt-driven (e.g. Rega, ProJect, Vertere, Clearaudio) is that your drive belt hasn’t fallen off, it happens more often than you’d think. Your drive belt will either be wrapped around the turntables entire platter or, like with a Rega turntable, underneath the platter. This can be checked by lifting your platter straight up, to reveal the sub-platter underneath. Your drive belt should wrap around the sub-platter and the drive motor next to it.

If your drive belt is in place, check that

Rega Research builds some of the best sounding, built and designed turntables available today, ranging from their entry-level Planar 1, all the way to their range-topping Naiad. These turntables will provide years of musical enjoyment providing they are set up correctly. In this quick guide, we will show how to set up your Rega turntable to get you listening to your favourite records in no time.

Firstly, we recommend thoroughly reading the user manual provided with your turntable as not all Rega turntables are identical. The Planar 1 and Planar 1 Plus are sold pre-fitted with Rega's Carbon Moving Magnet cartridge and have a pre-set tracking weight stopper. To set up a Planar 1, simply push the provided counterweight to the end of the tonearm until you hit the built-in stopper. Now your tracking weight is set, It's as simple as that.

What will I need?

1x Rega Turntable (Of course)

1x Spirit or round bubble level

1x Turntable specific digital tracking force gauge (Such as the ProJect Measure