We all love our electronics – we use them every day, from smartphones, to laptops, to speakers, to smart watches, to gaming consoles, and everything in between. We also love upgrading our electronics, and unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. Our devices break or become obsolete. When an electronic device is no longer useful or wanted, this is known as e-waste.

Typically, when you think of cables, you probably think of pre-cut cables with connectors already attached, ready to be plugged in straight out of the box. For speaker cables, this most often means a stereo RCA cable to connect a speaker to an amplifier or receiver. But this is not the only way to buy cables! When it comes to full hi-fi audio systems, a popular alternative is DIY speaker cable. This means purchasing bare wire by the metre or by the roll and customising it yourself.

The days of analog are over. Now, almost all audiovisual electronic devices can produce hi-def sound or picture quality. And, in order to transfer HD data, you need an HD-compatible connection. That is why we have HDMI!

While we all love our furry friends, we know that they can be troublemakers. You're probably all too familiar with the dreaded feeling of finding out that the cat chewed through a TV cable, or the dog got hold of your new headphones. This is no infrequent incident -- pets cause an estimated $3 billion in damage to electronic devices each year! This, of course, is not just damaging to your electronics, but puts your pets in danger, especially when it comes to cables running electricity or swallowing batteries.

So, you just got a brand-new set of hi-fi loudspeakers for your home. You open the box, set everything up, plug them in, and voila! It's the best quality audio you've ever heard in your life.

Or is it?

You’ve probably heard of banana plugs, but not many people actually know what they are for. Banana plugs are commonly use to secure speaker cable within homemade cable systems. But are they necessary? What is the purpose of banana plugs, and how are they installed?

Do you ever find yourself disappointed with the sound quality of your TV? Flat screen TVs simply cannot be designed to produce booming, hi-fi sound. If you want better quality sound without investing in an entire surround sound system, a soundbar may be right for you. Soundbars are a great way to take movie night to the next level; they can produce louder audio and make dialogue easier to understand. They are also one of the most cost-effective ways to get hi-fi sound and are the perfect introduction to high fidelity audio if you don’t have a speaker system. Interested in getting a soundbar? Here are the most important things to consider before making a purchase:

Want to mount your TV, and wondering if you can do it yourself? Well, you're in luck -- mounting a television is certainly a safe task to do yourself, as long as you follow the right procedure and know about the proper safety precautions to take.

TV's are an expensive investment, so it's extremely important to make sure they are mounted properly. Otherwise, you could damage this valuable equipment as well as your wall, which could cost you hundreds of dollars and put someone in danger. As long as you put in the proper planning and do it the right way, mounting a TV is actually a breeze and completely safe. The first thing to consider is the type of mount that's right for your TV. Here's what you need to know about choosing a TV mount:

Gift shopping is not an easy task, especially when you want a personalised gift that the recipient will truly love and use. Nowadays, technology is usually the answer. Tech-related gifts are almost always used on a daily basis and are extremely versatile. If you’re shopping for someone who loves music or audio tech, check out this list of gift ideas:

For the past year and a bit I've been using a 2.1 Sound bar for my TV, it's been great. It's done the job and with HDMI-Arc it's been really easy to use without any fuss. But let's be real, a sound bar at that price (was around $350 when i purchased) doesn't exactly delivery a booming sound. It definitely fills the room but the wireless subwoofer is underwhelming given it's size.

Cable management is an important and often overlooked part of owning a sound system or many electronics. We all want our home theatre systems to look nice. All that equipment can be a large investment, so you want the finished product to not only sound good, but also look polished and impressive. Most often, when people get a new hi-fi sound system, one of the first things they notice is that once it is all set up, there are just about a million cables running in every direction. It's very easy to end up with a jungle of wires behind the TV and extension cords snaking around the room to reach surround speakers. This can really detract from the experience you worked so hard to create in your home. What can be done about all those cables?

As you probably guessed from the title, not all speakers are built the same. The hi-fi surround sound system you use in your home is much different from a pair of studio monitors and speakers designed for a PA system. If you’ve shopped around for speakers, you’ve probably noticed that these different have different price ranges, and may have wondered if they are interchangeable. What makes a monitor different from any surround sound speaker?