The British hi-fi industry trade association

Specialist hi-fi is a small industry. It works better organised.

Clarity is the trade body for the people who make, distribute and sell specialist hi-fi in the UK — and the standard customers look for when they choose a shop.

Inside Martins Hi-Fi in Norwich: a listening area with loudspeakers and turntables against a brick wall, seating facing them
Martins Hi-Fi — Norwich
New for 2026

Membership now includes Bira

Legal, HR and health & safety advice, business services and Bira Direct — included for retail members since July.

The things a single business can’t do alone.

An independent shop has no leverage with a card processor, no realistic route to market data, and nobody to call when a supplier relationship goes wrong. A manufacturer has no reliable way to know whether its dealers are trained.

01

We negotiate as one

Card processing, carriage, insurance and vehicle leasing bought at the scale of the whole membership rather than one shop at a time.

02

We set a standard

A published code covering product knowledge, conduct, communication and responsibility — and a mark customers can look for.

03

We share what we know

Market data, an annual conference, and subsidised training that would be uneconomic for any one business to commission.

04

We speak for the sector

One recognised voice for specialist hi-fi, and through Bira a seat alongside thousands of independent retailers.

The Clarity Trusted Member mark
The mark

This is what a customer is told to look for.

It is not issued with a subscription. It says a shop has been measured against a published code — on training, on how equipment is demonstrated, and on how customers are advised.

Three ways to belong

Whichever side of the trade you’re on.

R

Retailers

Group commercial terms, full Bira membership, the conference, training, and the tick in your window.

M

Manufacturers & distributors

Closer to the dealers who sell your products, a view of the retail floor, and a floor under how your products are sold.

P

Trusted Partners

Services and suppliers to the trade — finance, insurance, logistics, research, media and training.

Membership

Three kinds of member. One table.

Everyone has an equal voice, a vote at the annual general meeting, and the right to stand for the board. Everyone appears in the directory.

Retailers

From£50
a month
  • Full Bira membership
  • Card processing through Blink
  • Carriage and postage terms
  • Insurance for specialist retail
  • Vehicle leasing
  • The annual conference, free
  • Annual market data
  • Clarity Training, subsidised
  • The Trusted Member mark
  • Eligible for the industry awards
Plus VAT · over ten months

Manufacturers & distributors

£500 – £1,000
by annual turnover
  • £500 up to £500k turnover
  • £750 £500k to £750k
  • £1,000 above £750k
  • The conference — the trade in one room
  • Market data from the retail floor
  • Direct access to the dealer network
  • A standard under how you’re sold
  • A route to raise channel issues
  • Clarity Training, subsidised
  • A say in the trade’s direction
  • Eligible for the industry awards
Plus VAT · over ten months

Trusted Partners

On application
services and suppliers to the trade
  • For businesses serving the industry
  • Finance, logistics, research, media
  • A route to the retailers who need you
  • Listed in the directory
  • Present at conference and awards
  • The same voice and the same vote
Talk to us about terms
The detail. Retailers £50 a month, plus £100 a year for each additional branch. Manufacturers and distributors by annual turnover, as above. Trusted Partner terms on application. All fees are plus VAT, collected by standing order over ten months, January to October. Joining part way through the year is charged pro rata.
What’s included

In detail.

Bira membership, included

Since July 2026, Clarity retail members receive full membership of Bira — the British Independent Retailers Association — at no extra cost.

Legal and HR advice

Employment questions, contracts, disputes and health & safety obligations, answered by people who do it all day.

Bira Direct

A buying group reaching well beyond hi-fi — useful for everything a shop buys that isn’t audio.

Business services

Terms negotiated across thousands of independent retailers rather than dozens.

Representation

A lobbying voice on business rates, retail crime and high-street policy. Clarity members now sit inside it.

Commercial terms

Card processing

Rates through Blink, with virtual terminals and EPOS integration. One of the larger fixed costs a shop carries, and one of the few that can be renegotiated without changing anything operationally.

Carriage and postage

Group rates on shipping to customers — web orders, marketplace sales and transfers between branches.

Insurance

A commercial package arranged through Clarity’s preferred broker, written for specialist retail rather than sold off the shelf.

Vehicle leasing

Terms for delivery and installation vehicles.

Knowledge

The annual conference

Free to members, and the only conference for this industry. Most of the UK specialist trade in one room for a day. For a manufacturer it is the shortest route to the entire dealer network.

Market data

An annual presentation to the membership — category performance, price points, where the volume is going. Research an independent could never commission alone.

Clarity Training

Sales training run with T21 Group, scoped to the team taking it, for retailers and brands alike, at member rates. More on this below.

The awards

The Clarity Hi-Fi Industry Awards recognise manufacturers, distributors, retailers and the people working in them.

In detail

Clarity Training.

A specialised customer experience and sales programme for the UK's hi-fi and consumer electronics industry, run in partnership with T21 Group — for retailers, brands and manufacturers who want to be genuinely good at the conversation that ends in a sale, not merely present for it.

The focus is shop floor performance and customer engagement, delivered as tailored, interactive courses and expert modules. It is built around the team taking it rather than pulled off the shelf — what a shop floor needs is not what a brand's field team needs, and the training is scoped to suit. Members arrange it directly with T21, at member rates.

What the training covers

Relationships

Building long-lasting and meaningful connections with buyers.

Consultative selling

Refining a high-end, advisory approach to selling rather than a hard sell.

Communication

Improving interpersonal communication, and understanding of the customer on the shop floor.

It is easy to think training is for new staff. In a trade that has taken a seismic disruption in recent years, the case is the opposite — everyone needs to be at the top of their game, both to deliver an experience that sets you above your competitors and to keep growing the business profitably.

Standing

The Trusted Member mark

For your window, your website and your social media — and the published code behind it.

The directory

Listed alongside the rest of the specialist trade, where customers and suppliers look.

A vote and a voice

Every member votes at the AGM and can stand for the board, whatever their size.

Member guides

Practical help running a specialist shop.

Written by people who run these businesses, on the things that actually move the needle for an independent retailer. All seven are free to read, member or not.

Legal, HR and health & safety advice comes through your Bira membership. These guides cover what Bira doesn’t — digital, marketing, payments, and the things specific to selling hi-fi.

Seven guides. All of them free.

Cover of Clarity member guide 01, Getting found locally Cover of Clarity member guide 02, Knowing what your website is actually doing Cover of Clarity member guide 03, Reels, hashtags and music Cover of Clarity member guide 04, Photographing your shop and your stock on a phone Cover of Clarity member guide 05, Writing about a product in your own words Cover of Clarity member guide 06, LinkedIn for retailers Cover of Clarity member guide 07, Turning an enquiry into a demonstration
01

Getting found locally

Google Business Profile, reviews, and local search. The single highest-return thing most independent shops can fix, and the one most often left alone.

↓ Download the PDF
02

Knowing what your website is actually doing

Google Analytics and Search Console, in four screens and twenty minutes a month. Free, unglamorous, and the fastest way to stop guessing.

↓ Download the PDF
03

Reels, hashtags and music

Why your reach looks healthy while the shop stays quiet, and why the audio keeps getting muted. The two rules nobody explains until you have broken them.

↓ Download the PDF
04

Photographing your shop and your stock on a phone

The demonstration-room photograph is the hardest-working asset you own, and it is usually the worst thing on your website. Fixing it costs nothing.

↓ Download the PDF
05

Writing about a product in your own words

Forty dealers publishing the manufacturer’s description word for word is forty pages that rank nowhere and say nothing. What to write instead.

↓ Download the PDF
06

LinkedIn for retailers

Mostly useful for supplier and brand relationships rather than customers. Worth knowing which, before you spend time on it.

↓ Download the PDF
07

Turning an enquiry into a demonstration

Everything else exists to make somebody get in touch. This is the point where the money is won or quietly lost, and it mostly happens in an inbox.

↓ Download the PDF
Start with guide 01
One of them, in full

Getting found locally.

Most independent hi-fi shops are invisible to the people most likely to buy from them. Not to the enthusiast who already knows your name — to the person forty minutes away who has decided to spend three thousand pounds and has no idea you exist.

That person does not start on a forum. They type hi-fi shop near me, or a brand and a town, and they choose from what comes back. If you are not in those results you were never in the running, however good your demonstration would have been.

01

Claim and finish your Google Business Profile

It is free, it takes an hour, and it is the single biggest factor in whether you appear in local results. Opening hours, photographs of the actual demonstration rooms, the brands you carry, and a description written for a person rather than for a search engine. An unclaimed or half-finished profile is the most common fault we see.

02

Ask for reviews, properly and regularly

Not a card by the till. A short message a few days after installation, when the customer is still delighted, with a direct link. Ten recent, specific reviews beat fifty old ones. Reply to all of them — the reply is read by the next customer, not by the reviewer.

03

Name the towns you actually serve

If people travel to you from three counties, say so in plain words on your website. Shops routinely name only the street they are on, then wonder why nobody a county away finds them.

04

List the brands you demonstrate, by name

People search for a brand and a place far more often than for a category. A page that says which brands you stock — and which you have set up and ready to hear — catches searches a general page never will.

05

Check what you already rank for

Google Search Console is free and shows exactly which searches brought people to your site. Most retailers have never opened it. It usually reveals that you rank for things you had not thought about, and are missing things you assumed you owned.

Reviewed April 2026. Guides covering digital tools are reviewed annually, because the ground moves. Where advice depends on a specific product or platform, it says so.
The Clarity Trusted Member mark
The Trusted Member standard

Not every hi-fi shop qualifies.

The mark is not given out with a subscription. It says a business has been measured against a published code — on training, on how equipment is demonstrated, on how customers are advised, and on how it treats the people it deals with.

Hi-fi is one of the last things you can still buy badly from a good shop.

The product is only half of it. An amplifier demonstrated in the wrong room, on the wrong speakers, to somebody who was never asked what they listen to, will disappoint. The same amplifier set up properly can be the best thing a customer ever buys. The shop is not a delivery mechanism — it is part of the product.

And the customer can’t tell in advance. You cannot judge a dealer from a website. Every shop says it is knowledgeable and impartial. The mark exists so somebody standing between two shops has more to go on than the size of the sign.

The code

✓

Product knowledge

Staff attend manufacturer and industry training regularly and keep up with what is changing. In a trade where the technology moves every year, this is the difference between advice and guesswork. Clarity Training, run with T21 Group, is one route to it — sales training at member rates, scoped to the team taking it and open to retailers and brands alike.

✓

Proper demonstration

Equipment demonstrated in conditions that mean something, across different rooms and set-ups, so you hear what you would actually be buying.

✓

Advice, not selling

Recommendations based on your room, your existing equipment and your budget — not on what needs shifting. No assumptions, and questions asked before answers are given.

✓

Communication

Clear, timely updates on orders, deliveries, repairs and servicing. After the sale as well as before it.

✓

Responsibility

Suppliers, staff and customers treated fairly. A safe and welcoming shop, and a commitment to reducing environmental impact.

For manufacturers and distributors

Your product is only ever as good as the room it’s heard in.

Brands spend years and fortunes on engineering, then hand the result to a shop floor they don’t control. A loudspeaker demonstrated against the wrong wall, by somebody who last had training four years ago, does not sound like the loudspeaker you designed. The customer doesn’t blame the shop. They blame you.

A floor under how you’re represented

The code commits every Trusted Member to regular manufacturer training and to demonstrating equipment in conditions that mean something.

Dealers who have been trained

You already invest in dealer training. The standard makes attending it an obligation rather than a favour.

Confidence when you appoint

Opening an account with an unknown retailer is a risk to margin and reputation. Membership is a signal that somebody other than the dealer has looked at how they operate.

Protection for the brand you built

Poor demonstration and bad after-sales do more damage to a specialist brand than any review. A trade-wide standard is the only realistic defence once the product has left the building.

A channel you can talk to

A common language for what good retail looks like — and a table to discuss it at, rather than one awkward conversation at a time.

The mark works for you too

Manufacturers and distributors carry it as well. It tells retailers a supplier is held to the same expectations.

Earned, and kept.

01

You apply

Trusted Member status is applied for, not issued automatically with a subscription.

02

You’re assessed

Against the five commitments above.

03

You display the mark

Window, website and social assets issued on approval.

04

It can be withdrawn

A standard nobody can lose is not a standard. Customers who believe a Trusted Member has fallen short can raise it with Clarity.

Who’s in

The businesses that take this seriously.

The Home Media shopfront in Maidstone, black and gold, with equipment lit in the window
Home Media — Maidstone
The Sound Organisation shopfront in York, blue frontage in a Victorian terrace
The Sound Organisation — York
The Dacombes of Wimborne shopfront, a wide grey fascia with home cinema and hi-fi displays in the windows
Dacombes of Wimborne — Dorset
The Martins Hi-Fi shopfront in Norwich, blue signage above two display windows
Martins Hi-Fi — Norwich
The Unilet Sound & Vision shopfront in New Malden, a white awning reading The Hidden Hi-Fi Store above a glazed entrance
Unilet Sound & Vision — New Malden
Billy Vee Sound Systems on a Lewisham corner, lit from inside at dusk
Billy Vee Sound Systems — Lewisham
The Soundcraft Hi-Fi shopfront in Ashford, black signage with loudspeakers in the window
Soundcraft Hi-Fi — Ashford
The Grahams Hi-Fi frontage in Islington, a blue sign above the entrance to a brick building
Grahams Hi-Fi — Islington

Brands & distributors

Naim AudioKEFPMCMonitor Audio BrystonMartinLoganAVM Heed AudioDolbyGIK AcousticsAirt Audio ParasoundQuiescentConnected DistributionEclipse

Retailers — London & the South East

Billy Vee Sound Systems — Lewisham Grahams Hi-Fi — Islington Oranges & Lemons — Battersea Infidelity — Kingston upon Thames Unilet Sound & Vision — New Malden P J Hi-Fi — Guildford Home Media — Maidstone Soundcraft Hi-Fi — Ashford

Retailers — South & South West

Dacombes of Wimborne — Dorset Oxford Audio Consultants — Oxford

Retailers — Midlands & East

Frank Harvey Hi-Fi — Coventry Martins Hi-Fi — Norwich

Retailers — The North

Peter Tyson — Carlisle Russ Andrews — Kendal The Sound Organisation — Yorkshire

Trusted Partners

Absolute MultimediaEssential InstallGfK Hi-Fi ChoiceHi-Fi NewsHiFi Critic Hifi PigHome Cinema ChoiceLoneStar Consulting Planet LeasingPursuit Perfect SystemRed Sheep Roger Batchelor AssociatesStereonetT21 Group The Audiophile ManThe EarWhat Hi-Fi?
News

What the industry is doing.

Partnerships signed, members joined, awards run, boards elected — and the conference that puts the trade in one room for a day.

Everything here is a real Clarity post. The day-to-day — member news, trade comment, congratulations, vacancies — moves faster on LinkedIn, where the whole board can contribute without anybody needing a login to the website.

Latest
Clarity and Bira announce partnership

1 July 2026

Clarity and Bira announce partnership

A strategic partnership with Bira, the British Independent Retailers Association, giving a small specialist trade a voice inside a much larger independent retail body. Full Bira membership is now included for Clarity retail members.

Read the full story

More from Clarity

Sean Hannam interviews Simon Burton of Home Media

26 August 2026

Sean Hannam interviews… Simon Burton, Home Media

The first in a new series of interviews with Clarity members. Simon Burton of Home Media, Maidstone, on three decades in Union Street.

→ Read the full story
Monitor Audio and Airt Audio join Clarity

29 June 2026

Monitor Audio and Airt Audio join Clarity

Clarity welcomes Monitor Audio and Airt Audio as new members.

→ Read the full story
Winners announced in the Clarity Hi-Fi Industry Awards

26 February 2026

Winners announced in the Clarity Hi-Fi Industry Awards

Clarity held its Hi-Fi Industry Awards at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show.

→ Read the full story
Public vote in the Clarity Awards at the Bristol Show

2 February 2026

Public vote in the Clarity Awards at the Bristol Show

Clarity returns to the Bristol Hi-Fi Show to present the annual Hi-Fi Industry Awards, with the shortlist put to a public vote.

→ Read the full story
The Clarity Hi-Fi Industry Conference

9 June 2025

The Clarity Hi-Fi Industry Conference

The association’s one unmissable day, and the reason a good number of members renew.

→ Read the full story
Clarity announces new board of directors

11 April 2025

Clarity announces new board of directors

Clarity held its Annual General Meeting, at which a new board of directors was elected.

→ Read the full story
Older posts
About

Who runs Clarity, and how.

Clarity is the trade association for the UK specialist hi-fi and home cinema industry, and the sector’s only professional body.

Governance

Run by a board of directors elected from and by the membership. Every member has one vote at the AGM and the right to stand for election, regardless of size.

What the subscription does

Negotiates commercial terms, runs the conference and the awards, commissions market data, maintains the Trusted Member standard, and represents the sector.

The Bira partnership

From July 2026, retail members receive full Bira membership — giving a small specialist trade a voice inside a much larger independent retail body.

Contact

PO Box 406, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6 1HF
clarity@clarityalliance.co.uk

The board

Run by people who run the businesses.

The board is elected from and by the membership at the annual general meeting. Every member has one vote and the right to stand, whatever the size of the business.

Directors are working members of the trade — they run shops, brands, distributors and the businesses that supply them, and they do it alongside the day job. The chairmanship changes hands rather than sitting with one person: the last handover followed a three-year term.

The nine directors

Elizabeth Gould

Martins Hi-Fi Chairman

Geoff Mathews

Soundcraft Hi-Fi Treasurer

Phil Hansen

Red Sheep Communications Operations

Paul Laville

T21 Group

Alister Smith

PMC Loudspeakers

Ian Sutton

Cadence Audio

Richard Coleman

KEF Audio

Michael Johnson

Monitor Audio Group

Wayne Hyde

Hyde Audio Consultants

Retailers, manufacturers and distributors, in one room, at monthly meetings.

What the board actually does

Runs the conference

The only conference for this industry, and the one day in the year when most of the UK specialist trade is in a room together. The 2025 event was held at the Dolby screening room in Soho Square.

Runs the awards

The Clarity Awards, presented either at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show — the trade’s largest public audience of the year — or at the conference, with the shortlist put to a public vote.

Negotiates the commercial terms

Card processing, carriage and postage, insurance written for specialist retail, vehicle leasing. Rates a single independent could never reach on its own.

Brought Bira in

From July 2026, retail members receive full membership of the British Independent Retailers Association at no extra cost — a small specialist trade given a voice inside a much larger body.

Maintains the standard

The Trusted Member code, and what it takes to carry the mark. This is the board’s most consequential job and the one that most needs deciding properly.

Commissions the market data

Category performance, price points and where the volume is going — research no independent could commission alone, presented to the membership each year.

Recruits

Members bring members. The most recent retailer to join did so after coming to an informal networking afternoon, which is how most of them arrive.

Speaks for the sector

Somewhere for the trade to raise an issue and have it taken up — on the high street, on channel terms, and on the things a single business cannot change by itself.

The year

How the year actually runs.

MTH

The board meets monthly

The commercial negotiations, the standard, the conference programme and whatever the trade has raised since the last one. It is the reason things actually move between the set-piece events.

SPR

The annual general meeting

Where the board is elected and appointments confirmed. One member, one vote, regardless of turnover — and every director stood for election and can be voted off. A trade association that appoints itself is a club; one that elects itself is a body its members own.

ANN

The Clarity Hi-Fi Industry Conference

The only conference for this industry and the one day in the year when most of the UK specialist trade is in a room together. Free to members. The date moves from year to year, so it is announced rather than assumed. The 2025 event was held at the Dolby screening room in Soho Square.

ANN

The Clarity Awards

Presented either at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, in front of the trade’s largest public audience of the year, or at the conference — it has been held at both. The shortlist is put to a public vote.

—

Clarity Hi-Fi Future — Women

A run of sessions across the year on women working in the industry: getting more of them into it, and keeping the ones already in it. Several sessions rather than one annual gesture, which is the only version of this that changes anything.

—

Informal sessions, through the year

Afternoons in a demonstration room with a glass in hand, and sessions on particular subjects. Unstructured on purpose: most new members arrive through one of these rather than through the website.

Any member can put an item to the board, and because it meets monthly nothing waits long for a hearing. Open to anything a member raises.
Getting more involved

The door is more open than people assume.

You do not have to be on the board to have a say in what the association does. Most of what Clarity runs came from a member mentioning something at a conference or over a drink afterwards.

The simplest route needs no seat at all: any member can put an item to the board, and it meets monthly, so a question raised now is discussed within weeks rather than at some point next year. Beyond that the routes in are ordinary ones — come to the conference and say what you think, come to one of the informal sessions, use your vote at the AGM, and when a seat comes up, stand for it. Any member may stand, whatever the size of the business, and small shops sit alongside large manufacturers on equal terms.

Nobody will chase you. But an association is only as good as the number of its members who treat it as theirs.

Common questions

What does membership cost?

Retailers pay £50 a month — £500 a year — plus £100 a year for each additional branch.

Manufacturers and distributors pay by turnover: £500 up to £500,000, £750 from £500,000 to £750,000, and £1,000 above £750,000. All fees are plus VAT.

Collected by standing order over ten months, January to October. Joining part way through the year is charged pro rata.

Who can join?

Any company or individual working in specialist hi-fi and home cinema — retail, manufacture, distribution, or the services that supply them. Home cinema and smart home businesses are included.

What is expected of members?

Trusted Members are held to the published code. Beyond that, attendance at the conference and the AGM is encouraged rather than required.

How long does an application take?

Applications are reviewed by the board of directors, and you will normally hear back within five working days.

Can I leave?

Yes. Membership runs annually and the subscription is collected by standing order, which you control.

Is Bira membership included for everyone?

Retail members receive it automatically. Manufacturers, distributors and Trusted Partners do not. Whether that changes is a question for the board.

Apply

Tell us about your business.

Membership is open to any company or individual working in specialist hi-fi and home cinema. Applications are reviewed by the board.

01

Send us the details

Company name and registered address, what you do, your website, and how many branches if you are a retailer.

02

The board reviews it

Membership is approved by the elected board of directors.

03

You’re in

Subscription by standing order over ten months. Bira activated for retailers. Trusted Member assets sent for your window and website.

Rather send an email? clarity@clarityalliance.co.uk

The form

Everything the board needs to decide, and nothing else.

Five questions are required, plus a tick to confirm. The rest help the board place you, but an application without them still gets read.

Your business
Who you are
Your application
The quickest way for the board to see where you sit in the trade.
Reviewed by the board · You’ll normally hear within five working days