The Speaker Shack 2024 Product of the Year Awards

As we head towards the end of 2024, The Speaker Shack has had a fantastic year of great HiFi and shows. With so much to see and hear this year, it has been the most productive since this site began. It would only seem fitting that we end the year with the best of the best and award the products that we feel have excelled, performed flawlessly, and provided the best HiFi of 2024 at home and from the shows.

The awards will be divided into several categories to represent the best of what The Speaker Shack has listened to and reviewed for 2024.

Those categories are as follows:

Best Speakers Award 2024

Best Integrated Amplifier Award 2024

Best Power Amplifier Award 2024

Best Analogue System Award 2024

Best Digital System Award 2024

Best Accessories Award 2024

Ultimate System Award 2024

Retailer of the Year Award 2024

Most Exotic Speaker System Award 2024

Ultra High-End Speaker Award 2024

Product of the Year 2024 (Speakers)

This has been a really tough one to decide on but with such fantastic speakers passing through The Speaker Shack’s music room this year there can be only one winner. It was a very close call between the AVID HiFi EVO Four stand mounts and the Tannoy SGM10s, the award for best speaker of 2024 goes to Tannoy and the simply stunning SGM10 speakers, these have been an absolute delight to have here at The Speaker Shack and they just seem to do everything so well, with a gloriously lush midrange and sublime top end they are without doubt one of the most musically engaging and fun speakers to listen to, they manage to portray all of the emotion and feeling that a great speaker can replicate so well, this translates into the beautiful music so perfectly, match that with the stunning looks and astonishing price, what more could you ask for!

Product of the Year 2024 (Integrated Amplifier)

The Speaker Shack has had a fair few Integrated amplifiers in this year to review and evaluate and all have been fantastic in their performance. It has been a fairly easy choice though as we feel that this amplifier ticks all of the most important boxes which make this amplifier stand out above the others but the price and performance of this one made it such an easy decision. The Product of the Year 2024 Award goes to the incredible AVID HiFi Accent Integrated amplifier, this is without a doubt one of the best-performing integrated amplifiers we have had here at The Speaker Shack and what makes it even more incredible is its price tag coming in at £4500. You get the amazing AVID Pellar phono stage built in as well as such a powerful and commanding performance which belies its modest power rating and sounds much bigger than the specs suggest, add to that the solid build and beautiful remote, and AVID really have delivered with this one, making it such a worthy winner.

Product of the Year 2024 (Best Stereo Power Amplifier)

This next award goes to one of the first reviews of 2024 here at The Speaker Shack and what a way to kick the year off as it was with the brilliant Chord Electronics BerTTi Stereo Power Amplifier. John Franks has managed to harness the incredible Ultima amplifier technology found in their larger amplifiers and shrink it down to size so that it compliments the rest of TT's range of products. I have been using it here at The Speaker Shack all of this year with stunning results. No matter what speakers are plugged in, it just performs flawlessly with excellent power and resolution of the music, it may be small in stature but sure packs one hell of a punch and therefore a worthy winner of the Best Stereo Power Amplifier of 2024.

Product of the Year 2024 (Best Analogue System Award)

The next award goes to the best analogue system that we have listened to and reviewed here at The Speaker Shack for 2024, hot on the heels of the stunning Accent Integrated amplifier which scooped the best Integrated amplifier award it was partnered with the equally impressive EVO Four speakers which makes up a formidable and compact 2 channel system for your vinyl listening, the Pellar phono stage in the Accent is exceptional and allows your vinyl records to be heard in full with stunning musicality, the EVO Four's bass and power are very special indeed and make for a sublime 2 channel experience, making it a firm favourite and worthy winner.

Product of the Year 2024 (Best Digital System Award)

The next award goes to the best all-digital system of 2024 and no introduction is needed for the impressive Chord Electronics TT range of products but partnered with the Tannoy SGM10 speakers it makes for one of the best compact high-performance systems. The Hugo TT2 DAC also takes on the duty of the preamplifier partnered with the M Scaler it is one of the best-performing DAC combinations we have heard, and the BerTTi takes care of the power side making it one of the most capable and resolving systems that we have reviewed and allows the Tannoy SGM10 speakers to be heard with the highest fidelity.

Product of the Year 2024 (Best Accessories Award)

In February of this year, we attended the annual Bristol HiFi Show and the Chord Company was demonstrating the latest cables and accessories to help improve your HiFi. The English Electric EE1 was one of those products that they were demonstrating and we came away impressed subsequently after I managed to review one in my own system, it has not moved and will not as it is an essential item that I use with my system from now on, it's only when you remove it do you realise how good it is at removing unwanted noise from your system and for what it costs it really is a bargain and an essential purchase making it the Best Accessories Award for 2024.

The next set of awards is for four very special categories. The Speaker Shack is awarding the Ultimate System Award, Retailer of the Year 2024 Award, Most Exotic Speaker System Award, and finally the Ultra High-End Speaker Award.

Product of the Year 2024 (Ultimate System Award)

Back in June, I was fortunate enough to hear a full AVID HiFi Reference system at the stunning premises of Studio AV in Cobham Surrey. They were running the incredible AVID Reference Three speakers, AVID Reference Stereo Power Amplifier, AVID Reference Preamplifier and the gorgeous Acutus turntable which featured the latest Nexus tonearm and Reference Ruby phono cartridge. I have heard so many high-end systems this year and without a doubt, the AVID Reference system is easily one of the best systems featuring some of the best vinyl playback that I have heard, you could feel the raw power in the room generated from the Reference stereo power amplifier with huge dynamics and stunning clarity to the music. The imaging that the Reference Three speakers managed to throw out into the room was sublime, the full orchestral pieces left me in awe; it is undoubtedly The Ultimate System of 2024.

Retailer of the Year 2024 Award

Following on nicely from the Ultimate System of the Year Award, Studio AV is one of the premium dealerships in the UK which offers a full AVID HiFi Reference system to demo and listen to amongst other well-known brands. Situated in the beautiful Surrey town of Cobham, this is a dealership which has some of the most luxurious surroundings and offers a very relaxed atmosphere for listening to some of the best HiFi available today. With such a friendly and welcoming staff this dealership wins the very first Retailer of the Year Award 2024 from The Speaker Shack.

Product of the Year 2024 (Most Exotic Speaker System Award)

I had the privilege back in April of this year to be one of the first journalists in the UK / World to listen to and review the newly released Ferguson Hill Jetstream speakers, it was an absolute honour to get such extended listening sessions of these incredible speakers with several visits to Ferguson Hill HQ and also on location at photoshoots. Tim Hill the designer has designed one of the most beautiful and exotic speakers that I have had the pleasure of seeing and listening to, the huge horns defy gravity and pictures don't honestly do them justice, which is why I have tried to get every angle of these stunning speakers in my videos that I have shot for my social media channels giving you some idea of their beauty and thankfully they sound as good as they look and for this reason, The Speaker Shack is awarding this incredible design with the Most Exotic Speaker System Award as there is nothing else like them available anywhere, which makes them so unique and such a worthy winner.

Product of the Year 2024 (Ultra High-End Speaker Award)

On to the the final award from The Speaker Shack for what has been an incredible 2024 with some stunning HiFi and systems that we have reviewed and listened to over the last 12 months. This speaker really has been the highlight for me and I’m sure for many others this year, I first heard this stunning speaker at the Munich High End Show 2024 at the MOC and came away utterly blown away from what I heard. Organ music really is something to behold when at a Cathedral or church and for a speaker to replicate this wonderful instrument perfectly is a gargantuan task and one that not many can achieve, that was until the Vivid Audio Moya M1 speakers arrived. The creation from the genius that is Laurence Dickie who notably designed the iconic B&W Nautilus speaker and the beautiful Vivid Audio Giya speakers. The Moya M1 speakers is the culmination of his expansive career in designing and building speakers, I got the chance to listen to a presentation by Laurence at the recent Ascot HiFi show which was fascinating and gave a true insight into how the Moya M1 speakers came to fruition. I also got the chance to hear them playing a variety of music selected by Vivid Audio to demonstrate their ability and performance and like Munich they did not disappoint. The Speaker Shack awards the Vivid Audio Moya M1 Speakers with The Ultra High End Speaker 2024 Award as they truly are an incredible design and worthy winner!