Read on to discover the perfect gifts for the audio lover in your life this Christmas 2024...
Audio gift guide 2024
Ruark R610 Music Console £1,200
A gift for those at the very top of Santa’s Nice List, Ruark’s latest music system is an absolute beauty, with a retro aesthetic harking back to the company’s inception in 1985. Available with or without matching Sabre-S speakers (£699 per pair), and in walnut or charcoal lacquer, the all-in-one streaming system features Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple Airplay 2 and Google Cast, plus Internet/DAB/DAB+ and FM radio tuners. The 75w Class D amplifier and 32-bit/384kHz resolution DAC promises great things, and there’s also HDMI for TV connectivity, a phono stage for your turntable and rumours of a CD drive being launched soon to complete the package.
Nothing Ear (open) £129
It’s good to see uber-cool tech brand Nothing adopting the latest ‘open’ style earbuds, which allow you to enjoy your music while remaining aware of the world around you. This is especially important when exercising, where noise cancellation can be dangerous. Early examples were a little clunky, but these are elegantly designed, weigh just 8.1g each – so you barely notice they’re there – and sound genuinely impressive without leaking audio to those who happen to be in the vicinity.
Fiio BT11 Lossless Bluetooth Transmitter £42
A brilliantly affordable audio upgrade for the headphone user in your life, this tiny USB-C plug-in transmitter upgrades the quality of your Bluetooth streaming. If you’re an iPhone user (limited to AAC quality of 320 kbps), you can now enjoy the improvements of Bluetooth 5.4 aptX Lossless (420 kbps), aptX HD (576 kbps) and Sony’s LDAC (up to 990 kbps). Your headphones will need to be compatible, and most are these days, but you can also plug it into your laptop’s USB-C port and boost the streaming from there too.
Audio gift guide 2024
JBL Spinner BT £379
JBL isn’t a traditional turntable brand, but this Bluetooth-streaming, belt-driven design is worth your attention. Pairing to any Bluetooth device is easy, making it a great option for those new to the joys of vinyl. But there’s also a built-in phono preamp, and traditional line-in so you can add active speakers for an audio quality boost, or plug into an existing amplifier. It comes with the popular Audio Technica AT3600L cartridge, which punches above its weight, but if you want to boost the performance, you can esily upgrade it.
Anker Soundcore Space One Pro £149
I’m not suggesting £150 is loose change, but compared to many headphones launched this year, the Space One Pro are possibly the best value. The four-stage active noise cancellation (ANC) is superb, the battery lasts an impressive 40 hours (60 hours if you turn off the ANC), and the engineers have developed a flexible head-band design that folds down to half the size of the competition. With detailed, balanced audio, they’re a superb all-rounder.
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Roberts Revival Rest £129
Instantly recognisable, and utterly adorable, this tiny bedside radio alarm clock could only be from Roberts Radio. It’s a shrunken (15cm wide) version of their classic kitchen design, but has all the features you need for bedtime, including dimmable LCD display, sleep timer and alarm clock that can be set to buzz you awake, or wake to your favourite radio station – Radio 3, naturally – as well as enjoy FM and DAB (DAB+) radio stations. Available in black or classic duck egg blue.
Audio gift guide 2024
Activo P1 £399
Regular readers will be well accustomed to my love letters to Astell & Kern and their fabulous – and fabulously expensive – hi-res music players. Well, good news: Activo is their sub brand, and the P1 is a pocket-friendly hi-res audio player that will happily compete with designs thrice the price. At its heart is the superb ES9219Q SABRE DAC that does magical things to your hi-res recordings and, with multiple connections and aptX HD and LDAC codec, supports your new Bluetooth headphones with fantastic streaming performance. That said, it will still sound best using wired headphones.
Audio Pro T3+ Jepson £180
You don't need to be familiar with the oeuvre of glam rock Swedish icon Mikael Jepson to appreciate the unique aesthetic of his limited edition portable Bluetooth speakers. This gorgeous multi-coloured design has a 30hr battery life and impressive sound quality, and it supports Apple lossless, MP3, WMA and FLAC1 files, while a 3.5mm input means you can also plug in a media player.
And on to 2025...
Over the summer I noticed something unusual: young fashionable types were all wearing wired earbuds. At first I thought Gen Z had experienced an audiophile epiphany, realising the best sound quality comes from plugging in. Sadly, it was simple 1990s nostalgia and a fashion rather than audio statement. And at £19, Apple EarPods (apple.com) are even priced nostalgically.
But nostalgia remains a big driver for audio brands, with retro-style turntables and speakers selling by the truckload. While rarely offering the best in hi-fi quality, these inexpensive Bluetooth designs help to bridge the gap between analogue and digital worlds. What next? I won’t be at all surprised if portable CD players make a comeback in the next 12 months.
At the other end of the spectrum, audio products now offer health screenings. Apple’s latest AirPods Pro 2 wireless earbuds can give a clinical-grade hearing test and use their multiple microphones as hearing aids. Described as Audio Computers, rather than headphones, the IYO One (iyoaudio.com), launched soon, uses AI to adjust the volume of sounds, just by looking at the object. New parents can thank me later
