Whether you’re planning to spend the holiday season at a wild party or with your loved ones over a quiet dinner, there’s always a need for music to get your party into a joyous mood.
Over the past year, we have reviewed a slew of audio gear, so if you’re looking for a sound system or a pair of headphones to replace an aging set of sound buds to jazz up the holidays, we have some recommendations for you.
Sonos Playbar
The size of this Sonos sound bar belies its size. With enough oomph and sound to fill a living room, the Playbar’s audio quality ranks above many regular sound bars you find in electronics stores.
Packed in its shell are nine speakers that can handle movies and songs equally without any strain, despite its modest size. The Playbar can be controlled via an app on your iOS and Android devices, and should fit nicely into most TV consoles.
The Playbar will set you back by S$1,299, but you are paying for a topnotch sound. It is future-proof too – pair it with a Sonos sub and a pair of Sonos Play 3s when you are ready to upgrade a home theatre system.
A-Jays Five
If you own a pair of A-Jays, the latest version of these sound buds is a worthy upgrade. It has a similar design as its predecessors, and is the Swedish firm’s best tangle-free earphones yet.
The S$138 A-Jays Five comes with a completely new custom driver that has the characteristics of the popular a-Jays Four driver. That means you can expect powerful and precise bass, with improved details in the midrange and highs.
To ensure the remote on the A-Jays Five will work across mobile devices, the company has produced separate versions of the earphones for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone devices. Some users have reported that the remote on the Android version does not work on their devices, so try it out with your phone before buying.
Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear
These chic-looking headphones will turn heads with their polished, classy design that sports metallic touches and a well-built headband.
Other niceties include a removable cord that is inserted and secured to the headphones with a twist. This ensures the cables do not get yanked out accidentally.
As you would expect from Sennheiser, the Momentum On-Ear does not disappoint when put to the test. Jazz and rock numbers will leave you grooving to the beats when played through this pair of crowd-pleasing sound cans.
NAD D 3020
Any audio gear buying guide for the holidays would not be complete without mentioning the NAD D 3020.
Arguably the best value-for-money audiophile-grade amplifier in 2013, the D 3020 marries the best of the iconic NAD 3020 amplifier of 1979 with support for a range of digital music sources.
The D 3020 takes in digital signals from its USB, coaxial and optical inputs, and passes them through its 24-bit/96kHz DAC before belting out your tunes through your speakers. If you like, you can also pipe audio from an iOS or Android device wirelessly to the D 3020 via Bluetooth.
With a footprint that is roughly the size of an Apple Mac Mini, the D 3020 is unlike other amplifiers we have seen. Its all-black chassis is astoundingly compact, and will fit into a bookshelf, hi-fi rack or TV console.
Deezer gift card
Even without hitting the US, this French streaming service and worthy Spotify rival is already making waves around the world. It has five million paying subscribers from over 80 countries, and has just tied up with M1 to offer its music streaming service to M1 postpaid customers.
Deezer offers 30 million songs on-demand through a web browser or mobile device. A premium subscription offers higher quality tracks (up to 320kbps) with no ads, plus unlimited streaming.
If you are still mulling over which music service to subscribe to, the folks at Deezer are helping to make that choice easier. The company is now offering gift cards that come with a 12-month Premium+ subscription for S$99 (usual price S$118.80). Three-month and six-month gift cards are also available for S$29.70 and S$59.40 respectively. For more details, click on the Deezer Gift Card button on www.deezer.com/offers.
As part of its tie-up with M1, Deezer is offering its Premium+ service to M1 customers at a special price of S$5.99 a month. This offer is valid for a maximum subscription period of six months, and only available to M1 customers who sign up by 30 June 2014. For more information, visit www.m1.com.sg/deezer.
