Best gifts for music lovers UK 2023: presents for audiophiles, from turntables, vinyl, to ANC headphones
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If music be the food of love - buy on, give a loved one excess of it. Regardless of whether you’re purchasing for a friend, a paramour, a colleague or a hard-to-buy for family member, if they’re an audiophile, you’re well positioned to find them something they love.
We’ll be covering all sorts of gift guides here at Recommended - from wine lovers, foodies, the lady or gentleman of your life, movie fans - it’s all covered! Here, we’re taking at look at the latest options for music lovers - the very best of the best.
How to tell if they’re an affirmed music lover? Do they ask you your top five Beatles albums? Recite Taylor Swift lyrics in daily conversation? Always underneath a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, or jumping to take charge of the playlist at a party? Then there will be something in this list to tickle them, we promise.
Best presents for music lovers at a glance:
- Best for an all-in-one vinyl set-up: Lenco LS-100 Turntable with Bluetooth and External Speakers
- Best for serious vinyl collectors: Blondie Against The Odds 1974 – 1982 (Super Deluxe Collector’s Edition)
- Best for music on the move: Marshall Monitor ii A.N.C
- Best for a portable party: Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 Bluetooth Waterproof Portable Speaker
- Best for a Beatles fan: The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present
- Best for listening and boozin’: Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks
- Best for a rock’n’roll retrospective: Life, by Keith Richards
- Best for a miniature guitar amp: Positive Grid Mini Spark Amp
- Best for an avid guitarist: Make Your Own Guitar Pick Punch
- Best for rocking your socks off: Sock Shop Music Socks
- Best for lovers of Girl Powah: Spice Girls Lego
- Best for wannabe disc jockeys: Pioneer PLX 500 DJ Turntable
- Best for practising piano at home: Casio CT-S1 Keyboard
Thoughtful gift ideas for music lovers
A fabulous, reasonably-priced all-in-one turntable for vinyl collectors.
With a gorgeous, retro inflected design, the Lenco LS-100 also benefits from the latest aural technology: you can access the player via Bluetooth and play tunes through the built-in speakers from differents sources.
A compact number, the sound quality is impressively good for such a low price point and easily beats the competition of other all-in-one turntable/speakers.
The queen of rock has released an absolute doozy of a vinyl boxset in time for Christmas. It’s the first time the band has released a boxset in their 50 year history, and boy, they haven’t skimped on quality.
With ten albums in total, including their first six studio albums recorded for Chrysalis: Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican, The Hunter.
The boxset contains:
• 124 tracks / 36 previously unissued
• Two volumes of liner notes, track by track commentary, illustrated discography, and dozens of previously unpublished photos
• Remastered from the original analog tapes, vinyl cut at Abbey Road Studios
Take our word for it - the albums sound quality is absolutely gorgeous. A must for serious vinyl collectors.
These beautiful cans are fabulous for serious musician credibility. Created by legendary amplifier brand, the over ear Bluetooth headphones offer superlative sound quality - crank up the beats when your out and about.
Better yet, the Active Noise Control technology is seriously impressive - we wore these on a long haul flight, listening to pink noise, and they blocked the cabin noise out and helped us lull ourselves to sleep very easily.
Oh, we love this. Want to get the party started, whereever you are? The Wonderboom will do you proud. Every edition of the Wonderboom has been fabulous, and although it’s little more than a Bluetooth speaker, it’s an awfully good one.
Why? It’s battery will last an impressive 22 hours off one charge, it’s bassy and loud - especially if you have a bass-heavy party playlist. It’s small, portable, and has a bluetooth range of 40m.
The outdoor mode is great: activate it, and the speaker will cut bass in favour of midrange and treble - you’ll notice how it helps the music fill the open air.
Know a musicophile? this will tickle her fancy - one of Britain’s most beloved, celebrated troubadours tells the story of his life via the astonishing lyrics he’s written.
Paul McCartney’s life and art is captured through 154 songs from every stage of his career: boyhood compositions, a decade with The Beatles, to Wings and his solo albums to the present.
It’s presented with a selection of never-seen-before material from McCartney’s personal archive - drafts, letters, photographs which make this also a unique visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
What a mighty speaker. Cor, we love this. This portable speaker is heat, cold, rain, humidity, sand, and everything else resistant. You can take it anywhere, and the sound throw is impressive - it’s beautifully bassy in an open space. Want to throw a garden party? The Move is your man. It’s capable of loud volume levels - and keeps composed when pushed to its limit. Sonically, its very satisfying when using Bluetooth playback too.
Of course, it syncs easily to any existing Sonos network, so you can set up the sound system in your home with ease.
Want to throw a great listening party? Booze and Vinyl is a brilliant guide - showcasing 70 great records from the 1950s to the 2000s, advising the cocktails to drink alongside. From modern craft cocktails to old standbys, Booze & Vinyl is organized by mood, from Rock to Chill, Dance, and Seduce.
This is your guide to a rich listening session for one, two, or more.
There are rock’n’roll autobiographies, and then there are rock’n’roll autobiographies. This is the latter.
If you’re in the market for a practice guitar amplifier that smokes the opposition in so many areas, the new Spark Mini from Positive Grid is an absolute shoo-in.
First and foremost, the Spark Mini is battery powered which means it can be used anywhere. For traveling musicians and buskers, this is a fantastic feature, not least because the USB-C rechargeable battery will provide up to eight hours of play.
Positive Grid has somehow managed to get the beefiest, deepest and richest of sound out of a cabinet that measures just 14.6 x 12.3 x 16.5cm while weighing a paltry 1.5 kilos. There is nothing screechy, thin and tinny about this diminutive amp – and it goes remarkably loud, too.
If you’ve an avid guitarist in your life that’s always losing their plectrum, this is the gift for them. It easily and deftly converts unused plastic, such as an oyster card or expired credit card, into a guitar pick. Fabulous.
If you’re going to buy someone socks for Christmas, make sure they’re cool socks. Sock Shop has a brilliant selection of rock socks, from the Beatles to Queen, Alice Cooper to Motorhead. Your tootsies have never been so hardcore.
Lover of all things Girl Power? The LEGO® BrickHeadz™ Spice Girls Tribute is for you. The iconic girl group is renedered in Lego form. With all five girls and authentic details such as Geri’s iconic Union Jack dress and Mel B’s animal print catsuit.
Zig-ah-zig-ah!
After a great DJ turntable that will also play your vinyl collection rich and true, but don’t want to spend a fortune? The Pioneer PLX-500 is a deck less than £300 which will do you proud.
A platter pickup will speedily zip to 33 1/3 in a second, impressive for a cheaper turntable.
If you’re practising your DJ skills, it’s up to the task of withstanding scratch manoeuvres like drills, tears and hydroplaning. For mixing, it’s impressive. The package comes with a slipmat, needle, and headshell.
The PLX-500 is a great deck - arguably the best out there at under 300 pounds. Perfect for newbie turntablists not wanting to spend too much, or any new DJs finding that find controllers fiddly and tricky.
Plus, it has a rich, rounded sound if you are just listening to your vinyl. A winner.
Burgeoning Chopin in the family, or Keith Emerson? Foster their talent with this brilliant keyboard from the synth specialists, Casio.
It’s a gorgeous little number - with a minimalist, slim design to integrate seamlessly into your living room or bedroom without feeling obtrusive. That slim design doesn’t mean it’s not a quality machine though - it’s tones are rich and expressive, and mighty powerful for so small a machine. The touch-sensitive keys make it perfect for practising featherlight fingering.
Available in three colours including sassy red - this is a jaunty number for someone looking to take their piano playing up a notch.