Get the best out of your hi-fi

Buying the right equipment will certainly get you part way along the road to good sound, but there’s lots of other stuff you can do once your new kit is in place. Tech Radar has a feature detailing 10 ways to improve the sound of your hi-fi without breaking the bank – or even without spending any money at all.

Yes, this old chestnut has been dragged out once again, but it still makes interesting reading if you haven’t tweaked your hi-fi in a while. Top tips include getting better cables or cleaning the ones you have, buying an equipment rack, letting your kit warm up before listening and, one we especially like, setting your speakers up properly.

Now while Audio Critic issue 26 doesn’t agree with many of these tips, there’s no denying that setting up your speakers properly is vital to achieving good sound quality. We have some advice on basic speaker placement here, and some more details on fine tuning them here.

A new idea for (im)personal stereo

We’ve probably all experienced the current trend among younger music lovers to play their favourite tunes out loud for the world, or at least the rest of the bus, to share their enjoyment. As this is normally from the speakers of a mobile phone, its not the best sonic experience, even if you do approve of the choice in music!

That’s why we’re not so sure how we feel this story we read on the Times Technology Blog. The Orbitsound T3 connects to your portable MP3 player just as you would headphones, but then creates a bubble of sound around your head, providing what is claimed to be proper stereo!

The claims for the technology are pretty interesting: the T3 apparently creates a personal sound bubble, uses your own body to reinforce the sound, and also has an ‘infinite stereo sweetspot’.

But, while the idea of the Orbitsound T3 offering apparently better sounding ‘personal’ stereo sound is appealing, does this mean that added to all those people who music you can hear on the phones, you’ll also have to listen to people’s Apple iPod as well!

And anyway, what’s wrong with headphones!