Glasgow Audio

🎶 EDINBURGH HI-FI SHOW 🎶

We are so excited to confirm we will be showcasing peak Hi-Fi at this year's Edinburgh Hi-Fi Show!

Come along to experience our specialist-selected Hi-Fi and hear music like you've never heard it before⚡

More to be revealed soon...⏱️

🔥WIIM SALE🔥

Some of the deceivingly impressive WiiM products have had a price slash until October 10th!💲

If you're looking to get into hi-fi and you're seeking a compact and and user-friendly system with a clean and natural sound delivery - then here is your sign! ⚡

Demo time! 🎶

Today we have a side by side of two hi-fi favourites -
Sonus Faber vs. Paradigm! ⚡

Both of these loudspeakers perform beautifully but have their own style of singing your music to you.
Sonus Faber speakers are manufactured with all natural materials such as leather and paper pulp to create a rich tone with an exceptional mid-range emphasis - whilst Paradigm use materials such as Beryllium metal in their drive units to create a very detailed and punchy sound delivery.

There's something for everyone at Glasgow Audio 🔥

Happy to share with you all that Ruark have announced a BRAND NEW HI-FI SYSTEM 🔥

The R610 Integrated Streaming Amplifier and Sabre-R speakers are coming this November - just in time to treat yourself to a stunning music system for Christmas ❄️

🔥WIIM ULTRA🔥

The new hi-res streamer everyone's talking about is now available for demo here at Glasgow Audio 🎶

A one-of-a-kind PINK Rega Planar 3 for our customer 🩷🎶
Shout-out to for this amazing wrap job!

If you're looking to customise your turntable (via wrap or LED underglow) feel free to drop us a message! ⭐

How incredible are our Kudos Titan 808's? 🤩

These absolute beasts of floorstanders will blow your mind - pop in to see and hear for yourself!

(This exact demo pair is also on sale with £5k hacked off the price tag!🤑😉)

Ruark ⭐

Hi-Fi that will look and sound sublime in your home 🎶
(and has high wife-approval!😉)

Naim Audio are doing some awesome Mu-So 2 promotions right now for anyone looking for a good deal on premium quality hifi!🤩

1. Grab a free extra grille of any colour of your choice when you buy the Mu-So 2 Wireless Music System! This promotion is also valid for the smaller Mu-So Qb😎

2. A FREE Mu-So 2 worth £899 when you buy the NSC222 Streaming Preamplifier and NAP 250 power amp together 🔥🔥🔥

3. Get 50% OFF Focal Bathys Wireless Headphones when you purchase a Mu-So 2 Wireless Music System 😍🎧🎶

Don't miss out - offers end at the end of August! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! ⚡

Our gorgeous McIntosh Collection 💚

Free demos can be booked via our website!

You know you want to 😉🎶

☀️Summer vibes ☀️

ft. our gorgeous Pro-Ject Colourful Audio System 💛🧡

Pop into our Glasgow shop to see or hear it for yourself! 🎶

🔥CYRUS TTP TURNTABLE🔥

The show-stopping high-mass turntable from Cyrus is now finally at our Glasgow store for demo!

Visit our website to book your FREE demo to hear this beauty ⚡

ATLAS PRICE INCREASE

Atlas Cables have announced a price increase from September 1st 2024.

This is your sign to grab some Atlas Cables NOW and give your system the upgrade it deserves! 🎶

Visit holburnonline.co.uk for Atlas bundle deals that you won't find anywhere else ⭐

Behold...

Our new Sonus Faber Sonetto G2s! 😍😍😍

We've had these brand new speakers running in our shop for a few days now, and the sonic performance is nothing short of sublime ✨

This Thursday, August 1st, we are hosting another Sonus Faber x McIntosh event where you can hear these beauties driven by some exceptional McIntosh electronics 💚⚡

Book your free demo slot here! - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/enjoy-a-free-open-day-of-music-with-mcintosh-sonus-faber-at-glasgow-audio-tickets-951693921137?aff=ebpredboostfbandigads&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR28LyvftzBtPHX5YlhO-MMV1afZjt_8VZa3bz9G-aeWU7bg59mDngMpC3o_aem_pdXu3u8imDYj2LgGgY-QpQ&td_campaign_id=680624

We are once again hosting our popular Sonus Faber & McIntosh open day Next Thursday at Glasgow Audio! 😎

We'll supply the kit and the beverages, Bring your own music and come experience these two Hi-Fi heavyweights! 💪🎶

We should have the new range of Sonetto G2 Speakers in by then, Expecting them to arrive with us this week! 😁🤞
All the details in the post below! ⬇️⬇️

🎟 Enjoy a FREE open day of music with McIntosh & Sonus faber at Glasgow Audio Get your FREE tickets on Eventbrite before they are all gone!

⭐️NEW RELEASE⭐️

Good morning everyone! Happy to announce that JBL have officially launched their new range of AV recievers and speakers! 🔥

We are permanently profiling them in the shop - if you would like a demo please get in touch! 🎶

Attention all Naim CD player owners! 📢

Over the past 18 months, key components for repairing Naim legacy CD players have become obsolete. Despite bulk buying remaining stock, supplies are now exhausted, making ongoing support for most CD player repairs very difficult.

*For logistical reasons, this offer applies to the UK only.

Trade in your old CD models : CD5, CDX, CDX-2, CD5i, CDS-3, CD5x, CD5i-2, CD5 XS.

For a huge saving on any Uniti product, an NDX2 or ND5 XS2 streamer.

To participate in this trade-in programme, Message, visit us or give us a call. We will guide you through the process, helping you choose the best upgrade option for your needs and ensuring you receive the preferential trade-in rate.

Terms and Conditions:
• Offer Duration: The trade-in programme is available until 1st September 2024.
• Eligibility: The offer is only applicable for the specific CD player models listed above.
• Availability: The offer is subject to stock availability, so we encourage you to act swiftly to secure your upgrade.

Return of the extremely popular Streamer trade-in offer from Cyrus! 🔥 Get £500 off the Stream XR when you trade-in your old streamer, the Stream XR is a BELTER of a streamer, absolutely one of the top tier models on the market just now. Upgradeable with PSU-XR for even lower noise floor and all operating from the BluOS app for a seemless and reliable user experience. 👌

Offer is on until end of August! 😁🙌

The good news just keeps on coming from Cyrus!

You only celebrate 40 once, so why not make it a good one for all fans of Cyrus 😃 Following on from the popular CD trade-in, we are now running a trade in on the Stream-XR and Classic STREAM until the end of August.

Stream-XR - SAVE £500 - Trade in Price £1995
Classic STREAM - SAVE £300 - Trade in Price £1695

Contact your local Cyrus specialist today.

https://www.cyrusaudio.com/where-to-buy/

Summer is upon us and we are delighted to bring a variety of new exclusive Hi-Fi bundles to our summer sale! ☀️

We've created system bundles of all types, ranging from entry-level systems right the way up to reference systems and everything in between. 🔊

Check out our cable upgrade packages especially as these are an excellent way for anybody with an existing system to raise their game whilst making a huge saving! 😎

Check out our summer bundles here:

https://www.holburnonline.co.uk/collections/speaker-packages

If you missed our coverage of High End Society Munich show, here it is again… it’s raining outside so kick back with a coffee ☕️ and catch up on the latest…

Thank you to everyone who stopped by yesterday for our Sonus Faber x McIntosh event 💚

If you missed it, there's still time to experience exceptional Hi-Fi systems like this! ⚡
Our setups will still be up and running today 🤩

Come by tomorrow to experience sound like no other - Sonus Faber x McIntosh 😍🎶

Munich High End Society show report

You would think that two days at a HiFi show would be plenty, however, the scale of the High End made it feel like a flying visit.

We arrived the day before the show and had a leisurely walk round the BMW museum, a very spacious and beautifully presented exhibition plotting out BMWs history... that was the calm before the storm!

The headlines on The High End web site state: 550 exhibitors, 1000 brands, 30,000 square meters, 22,000 visitors, so although dwarfed by other consumer electronics shows it is packed with product and people. The show always has and a frenetic feel, and this year there seemed to be an extra buzz.

With so many people and demonstration spaces crammed together critical listening is, for the most part, challenging. There are a few rooms at corridor ends that are better isolated from what is going on around them, and these large spaces are generally reserved for the most exotic set ups one could imagine.

One such space is used by Chinese brand ESD audio to showcase their Dragon Loudspeaker system; conceived by the founders around a decade ago as the world's best HiFi.
A brief squint through the door of some rooms is enough to decide if venturing in is worthwhile... some need to be dismissed due to time constraints, however, last year the obvious "this isn't what we're looking for" reaction was put to one side at ESD's door when curiosity got the better of us.

Having been around a while it is rare to have a moment that changes attitudes, however, the absolute certainty that spending a couple of million pounds on a HiFi is totally bonkers (even if you did win the lottery or find it down the back of the sofa) was undermined, the certainty more than a little disrupted. In fact, three tracks into the demo, we found ourselves musing over what kind of room we'd need to build to house such a substantial set up and thinking just how big a win it would need to be to justify such an outrageously indulgent investment.

Even the most high end and exotic systems have compromises, not just in the amount of real estate required for their enjoyment, but also sonic imperfections that are overlooked because they do something's so well that their fans dismiss their limitations.

The ESD system may have some limitations but during our brief but wonderful times with them over the last two years at Munich, we have not come across any.

The scale is magnificent, symphonic pieces sounded like all 90 members of the orchestra pulled up pews and played for us. Contemporary acoustic instrumental with vocal tracks were presented as such; not suffering in any way from the oversized presentation (impressive but impossibly expansive and therefore inauthentic) that often comes with large scale systems.

Suffice to say that this system is our new benchmark of what is possible, something we can measure the performance of our real word budgets and sizes against and in finding it, our time was as valuably spent as it was enjoyable.

Now, back to reality, Munich is the place we can see and hear more of the latest developments from our existing and potential new suppliers than anywhere else, so here is a roundup of our highlights:

Fyne Audio

Scottish speaker brand, Fyne Audio have some excellent additions to their SP and Vintage Classic ranges that will make their way to us in due course. The exciting news here, however, is the release of their SuperTrax super tweeter.

This is an additional tweeter that mounts on top of their (or any manufacturers conventional speakers) with the purpose of extending the high frequency range far beyond the standard output limit (usually around the same as the upper limit of human hearing).

The obvious question of why we'd want to reproduce sounds we can't hear requires more time and space that we have available to explain here, however, there are "sound" reasons for making this a worthwhile endeavour.

Despite an A / B comparison with and without the SuperTrax being impossible at the show, we are fairly confident in our judgement that the listening session with them in place on a pair of Vintage 12s demonstrated a significant improvement over the standard speaker.

For those interested in finding out more about the SuperTrax and why frequencies in the range beyond what we can hear make a difference to what we do hear, Fyne's information on the subject can be accessed here https://www.fyneaudio.com/supertrax-series

The SuperTrax will be on demo as soon as possible with an expected release date in mid summer.

Innuos

Over the years, Innuos has expanded its footprint with us with the superb Zennith streamer becoming one of our few products on permanent demonstration.

New NG (new generation) streamers have added to or replaced existing models in the range and we experienced a compelling demo of improvement Zennith NG brings to the party when compared to the standard model.

Last year's excellent demonstration from founder engineer Nino Vitorino himself is still memorable and relevant because it tied the improvements in performance to each component in the box.

A busier room this year made it more of a challenge to absorb the voluminous information available... some home work will be required! We are looking forward to getting hands on with these NG variants in our own demo rooms.

Kudos

Our most highly anticipated product this year is the Asiago Drive from loudspeaker manufacturer Kudos.

This is an Active Crossover that allows us to bypass the crossover in a speaker. A crossover is a filter installed within most loudspeakers that ensures that only frequencies that each speaker driver can handle reach that unit i.e. only high frequencies reach the tweeter.

Filtering the frequencies into those required by each speaker drive unit before they reach the power amplifier stage allows the addition of dedicated power amplifiers for each frequency range and results in huge improvements in efficiency and performance.

Until now, Kudos have relied on third party manufacturers such as Naim producing active crossovers to suit their speakers and this has been problematic due to changes in ranges etc. so we are really excited that the Saigo drive allows us the freedom to “activate” Kudos speakers with our favourite amplifiers regardless of brand.

Kudos demonstrated the Saigo with a pair of Titan 808s in a large room at Motorworld Munich across the road from the main show ... (quite a spectical for the petrol heads among us!). The rooms at Motorworld are larger meeting and conference rooms than those at the main show, they have the benefit of each being disconnected from each other and as such suffer far less from surrounding noise. On entering the room, however, it was immediately apparent that the acoustics of the space could be extremely challenging... a hard floor and ceiling with floor to ceiling glazing on three sides may be typical of a modern penthouse living room but far from ideal for HiFi.

Many of the rooms at the main show venue have all kinds of acoustic treatments propped against the walls, huge power supply transformers, fearsomely expensive racks, stilts for speaker cables and all sorts of other bells and whistles* to eke out every possible morsel of performance from the systems on show. This room had the vertical blinds drawn, a few large banners and a couple of inexpensive freestanding slatted acoustic panels placed either side of the system... an embodiment of Kudos's down to earth attitude to engineering... oh, and it sounded excellent!

The Saigo can be used with Kusos's Super Cardea and Titan ranges and we will be arranging demo events in Glasgow and Aberdeen... keep your eyes peeled for dates or let us know if you'd like to added to the list for an invitation.

Back in at the main show we did a whistlestop tour of existing brands and some we've earmarked as potential additions to the range.

We tend to spend least time with brands we are most familiar with... the likes of Atlas Cables, McIntosh, Naim, Rega, Sonos Fabre, all have a presence at the show but since our shelves are already full with their latest and greatest, we concentrate on the things we've not seen or heard.

Although DALI are one of our top sellers, this was the first chance to experience their new Rubikore range of speakers.

The Kore, DALI's flagship speakers were released here in 2022 and in 2023 this was followed up with the Epikore (a half way addition to the range between our popular Epicon series and the flagship.

Not surprisingly the Rubikore is an updated Rubikon range with technology trickled down form the Kore. This makes for a perfect mix of relative affordable, high performance speakers that will play well in most living rooms... expect to see them in store soon!

Moving on, we were interested to see Loewe with a large demo space. The High End is not the place you'd normally find a TV manufacturer, however, it quickly became clear why Loewe had chosen this platform to launch their latest products.

We have been trying out their multi-room amplifier over the last couple of months... a small format amp with deceptively high output and all the streaming and multi-room capabilities we've come to expect from this type of product.

Loewe's large space had two demonstration areas, one with a Bild Screen looking as beautiful as ever and partnered with the brand's wireless speakers and sub-woofers to provide surround sound. Although this is a neat solution, we felt it needed a smaller room to work effectively.

In their second space Loewe were demonstrating some interesting speakers... not your usual lifestyle or TV bolt on type... proper HiFi speakers. First impressions were surprisingly good and we are looking forward to finding out more.

There were, of course, plenty of other visits made to plenty of other rooms and some will result in new product lines appearing in store... we're really looking forward to introducing them to you... keep your eyes peeled for more information and launch events over the coming months!

Happy Friday Everyone! 😎

Now that summer is here, it's the perfect time to get your hands on a handy bluetooth speaker and enjoy the sun! 🤩🏖

From today you can enter our GIVEAWAY for a SONOS ROAM!🎶

To enter the draw, all you have to do is:

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The winner will be selected on 1/6, so last day for entries is the 31/5!

Good luck all and we hope you're all loving this gorgeous weather!☀️

Glasgow Audio Award winning independent specialists in HiFi, Home Cinema, TV, Smart Home & Commercial AV