Music’s great, isn’t it? All those sounds, sequenced as to form a tune? Truly wonderful stuff. What’s even better though, is the gadgets we use to digest those tunes, which get more and more impressive each year that goes by. 2013 was a bumper crop for outstanding hi-fi equipment, but as we look ahead to 2014 we’re gifted with a plentiful bounty of audio related delights. So much so, in fact, that we’ve decided to write up what we consider to be the top five music gadgets for the forthcoming year. So why not join us as we share them with you, below.

1) Pono

‘Pono’ I hear you ask, to your screen? Yes, Pono. For the uninitiated, Pono is Neil Young’s vision for the future of portable music playback. It’s a two pronged affair, consisting of not only an audiophile class portable player, but also a digital store for you to purchase the new, high resolution audio files. Young describes it as “like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theater on a sun-filled day”, claiming they have “liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality — as it was in the studio”. Of course, we’ll believe all this when we finally hear it in early 2014 (Young claims), but for now, it stands as one of the most intriguing music gadget propositions of the forthcoming year.

2) ROCKI

Ever wished the speakers around your house spoke to each other? Ever wish you could make all the speakers in your house Wi-Fi, and control them from anywhere? That’s the promise of ROCKI (their capitalization, not mine), a diminutive box that connects via 3.5mm, RCA, HDMI or Optical input to whatever speaker or hi-fi you like and can then be controlled through either an application on your phone or on your PC to turn your entire house into one giant boom box. You can even control all your speakers at once, making Sonos seem old hat by comparison and certainly overpriced. The ROCKI is available to pre-order now and is shockingly cheap at $49

3) Harman Kardon Go + Play

Harman Kardon have a reputation for building excellent sound into everything they do, and the Go + Play speakers accomplish just that. Finished from stainless steel and packing Bluetooth along with the standard 3.5mm input jack, Superfi’s Harmon Kardon Play + Go is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to portable audio, putting its stalemates like Bose to a considerable degree of shame. For all those BBQ’s this year, the Go + Play seems set to beat all competition.

4) Sony ZX1

Harman Kardon have a reputation for building excellent sound into everything they do, and the Go + Play speakers accomplish just that. Finished from stainless steel and packing Bluetooth along with the standard 3.5mm input jack, Superfi’s Harmon Kardon Play + Go is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to portable audio, putting its stalemates like Bose to a considerable degree of shame. For all those BBQ’s this year, the Go + Play seems set to beat all competition.

5) AKG K451 Headphones

Each year, What Hi-Fi name their products of the year, with awards going to only the very best contenders from each category. So which set of headphones took the 2013 crown? Yes, the AKG K451 headphones won it, and received plaudits from almost every other source, each claiming them to be a fantastic set of over-ear cans. Frankly, we can’t argue, and as one of our favourite pair of headphones from 2013, the AKG K451 headphones from Superfi remain a must-purchase going in to 2014 too.