About Us

Why did we set up AudioPals…

Audiopals was set up out of necessity. Sitting around a table one night, a group of us said, “Why do you never see a bad review?” From that simple question, AudioPals was born.

AudioPals consists of a group of veteran audiophiles, all who have at least 10 years experience in the industry, as customers, or directly involved within the industry. The key thing about AudioPals is our reviews are honest! We won’t sugar coat it, and we WILL post a bad review. For us, reviews need to be both good and bad, otherwise what is the point of a review? We read review after review and if it was published, it seemed to be a pretty good review. We never saw a bad review. You never hear a reviewer say “Personally this product is just not for me” or “I really didn’t like it”

At the end of the day, reviews are subjective, they are one individuals opinion on a product, so we thought, let’s set up a review site ,that gives customers exactly that.. simply put: Here is a product, and here is exactly what I think about it! no sugar coating, no nonsense!

A review, in the dictionary is described as “a critical appraisal” so to us it seems quite simple, we will appraise it, if we like it, we will say that, if we don’t, we will say we don’t… its not complicated, right?

One question we get quite a lot on the site is “why no pictures of yourselves?” We don’t show pictures of our reviewers, because that way, we can review products at shows, in store etc… without anyone being able to manipulate or change the sound to suit us. Once again giving our readers honest reviews… no nonsense!

Matthew James

Matthew James has been involved in the industry for over 40 years, and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Matthew has a wide knowledge of products across a wide variety of price ranges, which allows him to offer fair and clear reviews of products at every price point.

To contact Matthew to organise a review, email mjames@audiopals.co.uk


Jay Brown

Jay has been an audio enthusiast for well over 40 years. He has owned literally dozens of systems in that time and has a massive collection of both vinyl and CD. More recently he has joined the streaming community as well so uses all types of sources in his current system. 

Although now retired David worked most of his life in the education system. In fact his work gave him great insight into Hi Fi equipment and audio systems. He lectured in environmental noise pollution which included room acoustics and how to treat both domestic rooms and concert halls. He is therefore able to bring that experience into his reviewing.  With all his free time he is looking forward to reviewing audio equipment while continuing to enjoy his current system. 

To contact Jay to organise a review, please email: jbrown@audiopals.co.uk


Billy Murphy

Billy Murphy is our designated “jack of all trades” With a music encyclopedia to put most to shame, and playlist’s that cover everything from rock to jazz to classical to rap, if Billy reviews a product, and likes it, you know it will work with all music genres. With knowledge of all sources, Billy specialises in nothing, but can therefore give fair and honest reviews on almost anything. Sometimes he keeps it simple, (he likes it or doesn’t, simple as that) but thats not always a bad thing!