Charlie Lloyd

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

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

2 Channel Hifi System Installation - Gloucester

This Hifi System, consisting of a Rega Planar 2 Turntable, Rotel CD11 Tribute CD Player, Rotel A11 Tribute Amplifier and DALI Oberon 1 Speakers was demonstrated to a customer in our Hereford showroom before being set up and installed in their home.

Naim Uniti Atom HE (Headphone Edition) - First Impressions

Naim Audio, British manufacturers of some of the world's finest Hifi equipment, has recently released a new 'Headphone Edition' of their popular Uniti Atom All-In-One Streaming Amplifier. For this version of the Uniti Atom, Naim has removed the powered speaker connections and power amplifier section of the unit, in favor of a high-powered headphone amplifier section. The Atom Headphone Edition carries plenty of headphone sockets to suit whichever set of headphones you own, be it from Sennheiser, Focal, Audeze, Grado, or any other brand. On the front panel, you'll find the conventional stereo 1/4" Jack connection, below a 4.4mm Pentaconn Jack Connection. On the rear panel, you'll find a 4-Pin DIN connection, found on a number of high-end headphones such as the Sennheiser HD820's.

Unlike most other headphones amplifiers, which require a separate music source, the Uniti Atom takes all the streaming know-how Naim have gathered over