Times are a-changing in the music world, with CDs losing sales in favour of streaming music services and downloads, even something of a revival for vinyl, while smartphones and tablets are now by far the coolest way to control your hi-fi system. And there’s another trend — more people are realising the real value offered by high-end hi-fi systems.

“These systems deliver the ultimate in audio quality… they need to be heard to be believed,” says Rob Sanders of Entertaining Environments. Rob was responsible for the installation of the system pictured here, which uses amplification from Canadian high-end audio company Moon, together with unique architectural speakers from Wisdom Audio in Nevada, USA. These tall modular speakers use a rare planar-magnetic speaker technology capable of portraying the tinest details of music, so that you hear every nuance of a musician’s performance and every element placed in the mix by the recording engineer.

“You want to know how the music sounded when it was made in the original recording studio?,” asks Rob. “A system like this one brings that amazing revelation to your home.”

iPad control

“The client here favours digital files over CDs,” says Rob. “There is a CD player in the system, but he uses his iMac as his main source of music. Moon has just the hi-fi product for this — a box called the 180 MiND [it stands for Moon intelligent Network Device]. This small unit networks via Ethernet or Wi-Fi to stream music from the computer or the internet. Or if people store all their files centrally, the MiND can play from shared storage on the network.”

Even more usefully, the music can be controlled from either the computer or an iPad.

“The iPad control makes this a thoroughly modern front-end that drives a genuinely high-end hi-fi. The results — the music — it’s just glorious.”

Choosing the right hi-fi for you

If you’ve ever entered an old-fashioned hi-fi shop and been bewildered by the equipment on show, you’ll know how hard it can be to choose a whole hi-fi system from scratch.

“This is one of the biggest advantages of dealing with an organisation like Entertaining Environments,” says Rob Sanders. “You get to talk one-on-one with an experienced professional who understands both the electronics and the way it interacts with your home. They’ll ask what you’re after, what kind of music you like, and where you want it — you might want to have casual music playing in many areas of the home but also keep one area for something special like this.”

The first step

“Just call us!”, says Rob, “or start at the Entertaining Environments website to find someone near you. They can recommend equipment or work around something you already own and ensure the ultimate results. A proper hi-fi system professionally installed will simply blow you away.”