THE NEW OPHIDIAN MINIMO 2… SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL!

Ophidian Audio is an award winning UK based loudspeaker manufacturer. Founded by design genius Gareth James in 2011 with the goal of creating loudspeakers with outstanding performance. Gareth likes nothing more than ignoring conventions and by thinking outside the box has designed some wonderful sounding loudspeakers over the past decade.

The newest loudspeaker to spring forth from their home on the Wirral are the rather small but perfectly formed speakers they like to call the Minimo 2 Micro Monitors. Measuring just 21cm high by 13.2cm wide and 19cm deep with their grilles on. Weighing in at 2.6kg each, the Minimo 2 is a complete reworking of the award winning Minimo micro monitor. A compact 2-way design suitable for use on bookshelves, desktops, wall mounts or on stands. The secret to its impressive sense of scale is the combination of a midbass driver with a powerful long throw motor system and the unique Aeroflex bass topology; a method of extracting the most clean and accurate bass out of any cabinet size - be it a full size floorstander or one the height of a CD case.

The MINIMO 2 features a 115mm midbass unit with a 65% greater surface area than the previous model, which allows greater power handling. Aeroflex technology enables this tiny speaker to produce deeper and more controlled bass notes than its size would suggest, by keeping port velocity to a minimum and ensuring the midbass unit is properly supported throughout its excursion. Complimenting the midbass is a 27mm tweeter with a Sonolex coated fabric diaphragm and low distortion neodymium motor system. The excellent dispersion characteristics combined with close placement within the small cabinet allow a seamless integration of the drive units and incredibly lifelike, realistic sound reproduction.

By building the port systems directly into the cabinet structure the outer walls are braced and strengthened minimising panel resonances. Integral rear inserts allow for easy wall mounting - especially useful for surround or background systems. Don't be fooled by the size though - MINIMO 2 is more than capable of powering most living room systems.

The Aeroflex technology very cleverly controls internal air turbulences, to dissipate any unwanted resonances and smooth out the airflow through the rear port of the cabinet. It is easy to test this by placing your hand over the rear port whilst playing music at a decent volume level. It was surprisingly noticeable how much the airflow and turbulence was reduced. In some designs that have a port, a chuffing sound can sometimes be heard as air rushes backwards and forwards through it. Many methods have been used to try and control that effect, drinking straws stuffed into the port tube being one – or dimpled port exits flared in shape. Some manufacturers like to partially block ports with foam bungs, an approach that I don’t personally like. Gareth’s design works really well though.

Let’s get down to some serious listening and put these things through their paces. I connected them up to a tried and trusted combination of Rega Apollo CD player and Rega Brio amplifier all joined together with a Rega Couple phono to phono lead and Chord Company Rumour X speaker cable. A combination that I know really well, so I will be able to tell exactly what the little Ophidians are adding to the sonic stew.

The music is as spooky as the cover art.

I thought I would be really cruel and play my three favourite bass monster tracks, to see what they can do. Firstly the gorgeous and very ambient (Psybient?) track called Evolution 1:1 by the beautifully named Connect.Ohm from the enigmatically titled 9980 album. This track has some deep low-end right from the start, but around half way in the bassline drops out for a few seconds, and when it comes back in they drop the bass down even lower. All the while gorgeous sounds waft across the background creating what is quite possibly the trippiest piece of electronic music this side of prime time Boards Of Canada. The first thought that came to mind was just WOW!

How do these little boxes manage to sound so big?

Being a small box means that the speaker becomes more of a single source point and with less cabinetry comes less colouration, meaning that these little wonders produce a big open stereo image that would shame many a bigger and more expensive design. The depth of bass is just staggering for such a tiny box.

This copy is a little beaten up…but then it does get a LOT of use because it is so lovely.

Next on the playlist is an album that has become my go to demo disc for the last couple of years. The wonderful band that goes by the name of Lump.

Lump consist of Laura Marling on vocals and Mike Lindsay from the band Tunng on instruments and stuff. The recording quality is to die for and the music is gloriously wonky and off kilter but catchy and engaging at the same time. On the Ophidians things sounded big, open and detailed, with sounds coming from way left and right of the loudspeaker placement which is just how I like it. Although the speakers are teeny weeny little things they can really shift some air. By the way Lump have just released a new track called Animal which is totally ace. Listen to it now!!

Oh…and the cover art is rather far out too.

Finally I played the song Brujo off the album Volition by avant garde jazz destroyers Krakatau. This track again has subsonic levels of bass and being on the fabby ECM label has dynamics that are off the scale. The Minimo 2s again fought valiantly, with another top quality performance. Height, width and depth all there, almost like you can hear around the back of all the instruments…..uncanny.

If you have a small room, or perhaps you are looking for a great little near field speaker for the desk in your office, then look no further. The Ophidian Minimo 2 should be the perfect loudspeaker for you. A great option to consider when thinking about upgrading your speakers, and it would integrate well in a wide range of home systems. The well balanced nature of the speakers offers a versatility when it comes to pairing with almost any amp. I have even used them as a great upgrade on the little Denon DM41 Micro System, which as a combo really works (rules were made to be broken I suppose). This little speaker system realiy can sound amazingly good and they’re not afraid of performing in a larger room too with their surprising bass response.

Give us a call in the Cheltenham store to arrange a demo. Bring in some of your favourite music too. See if you love them as much as we do.

Thanks a lot for reading. Andy, Jon and Farid - Audio T Cheltenham

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on Facebook to keep an eye on what’s happening in store

Ophidian Audio can be found at the following Audio-T stores

• CHELTENHAM

• ONLINE STORE

REGA PLANAR 1 AND IO - Detailed, Rhythmic and Fun System that Won't Break The Bank!

I think it’s safe to say that the general consensus on the new Rega IO amplifier and upgraded Planar 1 turntable is that they truly outperform their price point. Especially when you take in to consideration that both of these products are handmade in the UK. So join me now as I take a closer look at these giant slayers!

The Rega IO, the most affordable UK made amplifier on the market, is essentially a stripped back version of the ever popular Brio. An amplifier that has been known for making fantastic sounds for a number of years now. The IO may only have three of the five inputs its older sibling has, but don’t let that put you off; The sound produced by this little wonder is everything you have come to expect from Rega’s high quality of engineering. Although physically smaller, the IO uses the same power amplifier and phono stage as its larger, multi-award winning, brother. The IO aims to deliver exceptional sound quality in a smaller and more cost effective package. The class A/B circuit shares its DNA with the rest of Rega’s amplifiers, and as usual, great care has been taken in component selection.

Couple the IO with the latest incarnation of the Planar 1 turntable, which now sports a sleek matte finish in either black or white and a new updated eBLT drive belt which improves speed stability. This combination is truly a force to be reckoned with. This latest update loses none of its multi-award winning ‘Plug and Play’ design and is also accompanied by Rega’s handmade RB110 tonearm, with pre-set bias and a factory fitted Carbon cartridge. Set-up is possible in under 30 seconds and delivers incredible performance, well beyond its price point.

Let’s take a closer look

One review I read recently suggested that the little IO was half of the Brio in terms of both price and performance. I personally don’t think this to be fair or necessarily true. The IO may be cheaper but it is every bit as capable as the Brio in terms of its sound. One of the most prominent differences is that you don’t get all the extra inputs that you would find on the larger models in the Rega family. Also, the remote that is supplied with the IO may be smaller and a little stripped back but it has everything you need to make it an easy listening experience. Don’t forget the inclusion of a really great sounding built in headphone amplifier. The phono input is no slouch either and is more than capable of getting the most out of the Planar 1’s Carbon Cartridge, not to mention any other MM cartridge you may want to use.

There is an awful lot to be said for this small and simple unit, and as long as you’re not expecting to run it at really high volumes in big rooms, it can be capable of some stunning results.

So what about speakers?

Well, everyone’s tastes and budgets differ, however, we have been getting some fantastic sounds from the Rega combination paired with the new Monitor Audio Bronze 50 loudspeakers. A really funky looking and even better sounding little bookshelf loudspeaker.

This is one of those systems that works really well together to become way more than the sum of its parts. Producing a scale of sound that belies the nature of the small amp and speakers to give a big holographic soundstage. Instruments and voices are carried off into the air as if the speakers themselves are just not there. Truly stunning and for the budget it is just unbelievable what this little system can pull together and produce!

The only thing that this combo does not really get stuck into is the deeper end of the bass registers, however, that proved to be an easy remedy with the addition of the REL T Zero MK3 subwoofer. It is amazing what this unassuming little square box can add to the quality of sound. Everything is improved. Bass is deeper but also tight and in control, but somehow the mid range becomes even more open and transparent with a three dimensional soundstage. The top end also improves getting seamlessly integrated with the mid range, to the huge benefit of the vocals which become lush and way more realistic.

What this little system can do will truly knock your socks off. It has to be heard to be believed. We will be open again for demonstrations on the 13th of April, so make sure to give us a call or drop us an email, so you can book an appointment and hear what all the fuss is about!

Andy, Jon and Farid - Audio T Cheltenham

Rega can be found at the following Audio-T stores

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• ENFIELD

• MANCHESTER

• OXFORD

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE

HERITAGE SPECIAL FROM DYNAUDIO

It has been quite a while since my last blog but I have been tempted to put finger to key by these rather excellent new Limited Edition Dynaudio bookshelf loudspeakers. ‘Heritage Special’ isn’t just a name. It’s a salute to traditional high-performance Danish audio design.

Now at first glance you may think that these are rather expensive, but they may just be the best bookshelfers that you will ever hear. The first thing that struck me about these little marvels was how open and detailed they sounded and how they managed to image from way left and right of the speaker cabinets. This is something quite rare in a speaker, even at this price! Bass is effortlessly deep and taught as Santa’s belt. Top end is sweet and seductive. No one part of the music ever gets coloured by any of the rest making it so easy to hear and follow everything all at the same time no matter what type of music you listen to.

Slightly retro styling with state of the art drive units

Great artwork for some wonderful music

To give these beauties a real workout I thought I would try my 2020 album of the year - The wonderful triple vinyl compilation called Door to the Cosmos from On The Corner Records.

The album’s title, a nod to the afro-futurist jazzer Sun Ra’s infamous chant ‘dare to knock at the door to the cosmos’, is the perfect invitation to delve into this vast celestial journey of sound. Door to the Cosmos can only be described as a tremendous 24-track compilation album from the innovative and exciting left-field imprint On The Corner. For their 10th full album release they have gone all out to honour their adventurous, Miles Davis-esque ‘call it what you want’ philosophy. With over 30 artists featured on the album, from long-standing label contributors to those new to the On The Corner family, all are devotees to the curation of future sounds – melding ancestral music with club culture and pushing genres. The recording quality is sublime throughout as well. A great work out for your hifi system! Just listen to the seven and a half minutes of pure joy that is La Negra Lorenza by Jose Marquez. Intoxication isn’t the word…truly stellar!! and that is just one of a huge number of amazing genre bending wonders.

Enjoy the trip….

Be warned these speakers are strictly limited to 2500 pairs worldwide and are selling fast, even in these Covid restricted times, so don’t hang around too long or you may just miss out.

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing Jaw-Droppingly”

The build quality is amongst the best that you see. Look closely at the tweeter. Dynaudio historians will notice the unmistakable shape of the legendary Esotar T330D soft-dome tweeter. That’s Special enough on its own – But as they say, If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing jaw-droppingly. So they have replaced the insides with the finest tweeter technology they have ever created: Esotar 3. You’ll also find it, along with its powerful neodymium magnet, larger rear chamber and resonance-defeating Hexis inner dome, in their top-of-the-line Confidence series.

Taking on mid/bass duties is something equally Special: the 18W75 XL Heritage Special MSP Woofer (bit of a mouthful that, but whatever). If you were truly eagle-eyed, you might remember its exponential cone design from the magnificent Evidence Platinum series. The difference is, the Dynaudio boffins have taken it even further: this driver has an improved voice coil (a classic internal-magnet design with aluminium windings, now on a glass-fibre former); magnet system (a hybrid design with both neodymium and ferrite magnets for even greater flux control); and spider (Nomex, as seen on Confidence and Contour i).

All this attention to detail produces what must be one of the finest stand mount loudspeakers that we have ever had the pleasure of listening to. They are never harsh or bright sounding as so many of today’s newer designs can sound. These are speakers that you can listen to all day long and never get tired of. The bass is deep and juicy but always perfectly controlled. The whole soundstage they produce is big and open, extending massively outside the boxes. Dynaudio can be well and truly proud of these. They truly deserve that “Special” tag in their name.

If you would like any more information on The Dynaudio Heritage Special loudspeakers then please contact Jon, Farid or Andy in the Cheltenham store.

Farid has even a pair himself!

Dynaudio can be found at the following Audio-T stores -

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• OXFORD

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

Rega Aethos Update...

We have been selling this behemoth of an integrated amplifier for a few months now and in that time it has become our favourite amplifier at the price by quite some margin. It has been out performing all of the competition that have passed through our doors here in Cheltenham, some of which have cost almost twice as much. With that in mind we thought that it was about time to shout about this wonderful addition to the Rega range in one of our regular blogs. Can’t believe we haven’t done so already really. So here goes….

The Rega Aethos is an integrated amplifier that has been eagerly awaited for some time. In the last three years, Rega has released three turntables, Planar 6, Planar 8 and Planar 10, that can legitimately stake a claim to being close to or the benchmark at their respective price points. What Rega couldn’t do as easily was sell you an amp to go with them. The range has four relatively affordable amps (including the new Io and the very excellent Brio) and then a significant gap until you get to the flagship Osiris (which, by the way, is also rather excellent).

At one pound under three grand the Aethos is Rega’s exercise in making the ultimate sound they could for the price. They took out the phono stage. Their logic being that if you own an amp at this price you are more than likely going to run it with a turntable of at least the quality of the P6 if not a P8 or P10. So you will have a moving coil cartridge and will thus want to do it proper justice with an out board phono stage, such as the Mk3 version Aria or the Aura Reference.

The Aethos is a dual mono design that uses a custom wound toroidal transformer and regulated power supplies for the sensitive amplification and driver stages. The pre-amplifier stage uses class-A discrete circuitry throughout. It delivers a very impressive 125 Watts per channel into an 8 Ohm load, so it has the capability to go very loud, hence the chunky rows of heatsinks down either side. The Aethos’ build quality is impressive. The chunky styling of the new casework certainly feels rock solid and inspires confidence. The controls are simple enough with smooth-acting buttons for choosing the inputs for listening and recording.

Now of course its not all about volume (although that does help), the Aethos has control and dynamics, delivering an impressive performance that always makes the music sound vivid and alive. We have used the Aethos with many and various combinations of turntables, CD players, streamers and loudspeakers, and it always has an assured and solid sound staging ability. It possesses an amazing ability to get the sound of an instrument or a voice to appear to hang in the air in front of the listener, and to sound like it is way outside the left or right of the arc of the loudspeakers. There have been many instances where we have had one of these set up in our dem room for a customer to come in for a listen. And when the demo is over we have left it playing so that we can have a listen for ourselves, and the comments are always the same. “How does it do that for the price” or “ I want one!”

As can be seen from the picture above the Aethos is fitted with five RCA line inputs, a tape loop (that neatly features parallel outputs so you can drive a headphone amp and record at the same time), a power amp in and preamp out. This is partnered with a headphone amp running into a 6.35mm jack connection, and the performance on headphones is just as stunning as through the speakers. A nice chunky set of gold plated 4mm speaker sockets complete the line up on the rear.

The Rega Aethos has a very similar character to the Elex-R and Elicit-R but is more revealing and powerful, which opens up a wider range of loudspeaker options but does place higher demands on the source. Essentially it won’t gloss over anything coming from the front end, be that the hard- or software. But it is a very musical and compelling amplifier that makes you want to listen longer and, dare I say it, louder, which is one of life’s great pleasures after all. Add to this very high build quality, a good selection of analogue in- and outputs and you have a classic amplifier, built for sound quality first. What more do you really need?

During these difficult times we are operating on an appointment only basis, so if you’d like to listen call Audio T Cheltenham and book a demonstration.

Andy, Jon and Farid.

Rega products are available from all branches of Audio T

Stories from Lockdown - Five Wondrous Prog-Rock Albums that kept me sane!

It has been a bit of a while since my last blog, so for my first one back I thought I would try to entertain you with tales of the albums that kept me partially sane during the darkest days of the Covid Lockdown.

Now there were of course many varied albums spanning a myriad of weird and wonderful genres. Honourable mentions must go to (amongst others) The Grateful Dead, Ozric Tentacles, Led Zeppelin and Pere Ubu (I feel The Modern Dance is one of the most perfect things ever to be created by humanity and also happens to be a great recording to boot). But the top five groovy spiral slices of vinyl loveliness went to…

No. 5 - You by Gong

For the final instalment of the wonderfully named Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, band leader Daevid Allen assembled an all star bunch of hippy virtuoso musicnauts, intent on crashing their spaceship in to the deepest inner space. With help from the main protagonist, Zero the Hero, along with assorted members of Pothead Pixies, Octave Doctors and Flying Teapots.

For me the standout track is the beautifully titled “A Sprinkling of Clouds”. The track starts off slowly with synthesiser and glissando guitar panning from speaker to speaker, taking on momentum and building to a breathtaking crescendo of guitar, saxophone, bass guitar and drums that really will put your hi-fi system to the test. Only the best will hold this together and keep the whole band tightly locked in their hash-haze freak out!

No. 4 - Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson, Lake and Palmer

The artwork of this album alone ascends it above most of its peers. The fact that the music happens to be one of Prog Rock’s highest watermarks pushes it even further into the realms of the stellar. Packed with Prog-Rock excess, this power trio took the cake and the serving platter: Keith Emerson's keyboard showroom; Carl Palmer's motorised, rotating behemoth drum kit; sports-arena gigs with full orchestra and choir, etc. But here, they masterfully balanced the bombast and brilliance. Opening in full-tilt, English-poetic-visionary style with a soaring arrangement of William Blake's Jerusalem. On to one of my all time favourite demonstration tracks Still…You Turn Me On, which is a real work out for your loudspeakers!. Next up is Emerson's virtuoso riff on a piano concerto Toccata by 20th Century Argentine composer, Alberto Ginastera. Finally we have the nearly 30 minute long and multi-part dystopian fantasy Karn Evil 9, in which intoxicating entertainments (a sideshow where a Gypsy queen/In a glaze of Vaseline/Will perform on a guillotine) distract us from evil computer intelligence and modern surveillance-era interweb. Prescient and pretty damn rocking. Totally essential listening.

No. 3 - The Snow Goose by Camel

This one is just so incredibly gorgeous that I almost don’t know have the words to describe it. Have you ever found yourself listening to a piece of music that you totally get lost in and float away with? That is what this is! Quite possibly some of the best keyboard playing you will ever hear. And if you ask me, definitely one of rock musics juiciest guitar solos can be found on Rhayader Goes to Town. It's like it takes a scoop of David Gilmour and adds a dash of Robin Trower for good measure. Not an overly long album but crammed full of inventive loveliness. It is also another great recording that on a great system will let you hear all around and even behind the instruments, almost like you've been transported right in to the recording studio.

No. 2 - Relayer by Yes

This one is a little more complicated. This is the sound of a band pulling out all the stops. Rick Wakeman has been replaced by Patrick Moraz which some feel gave them an extra jolt of power. This can really be laid bare on a system that has great separation and mid-range detail. The full on power moments are tempered by the more delicate songs such as Soon, which is served like some sort of sorbet palette cleanser after the wildness that is The Gates Of Delirium and To Be Over which does the same after Sound Chaser. With amazing Sci-Fi artwork courtesy of Roger Dean adding to the already powerful vibe. This one may not be their best high fidelity recording, but played on a nice system you will hear a band at the peak of their powers and some absolutely stunning lead guitar work by Steve Howe.

No. 1 - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis

This has to be my all favourite Prog-Rock album. It is one that reveals more and more every time I spin it. A surreal , beguiling, elaborate and strangely rewarding listening experience. It contains within its double vinyl grooves some of the most powerful Prog-Rock moments of all time ever. Fact! Just take in the moment on Fly on a Windshield, when the band all come in together just after Peter Gabriel has sung the line “And I’m hovering in the air waiting for the windshield on the freeway”. That is proper power and just about as dark, dirty and evil as genesis ever got. This stands alone in their canon of work head and shoulders above all the others. The lyrics are just poetry and at times the music is truly breathtaking. It's all killer and no filler. For proper full on power and bass slam just try the afore mentioned Fly on a Windshield. If you don’t get goosebumps, your Hi-Fi just ain’t up to the job I'm afraid, simple as that.

These were the albums that crept towards the front of my vinyl play pile during the strange days of the Covid Lockdown. I hope this little blog inspires you to try them out and if by some chance you would like to make them all sound even better perhaps we can help you with an upgrade of one sort or another to your Hi-Fi system. Feel free to bring in some of your own Lockdown favourites to play as well but please call us on 01242 583960 to make an appointment first.

Andy, Jon and Farid. Cheltenham.

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Retro And Fun JBL L100 Classic Loudspeakers At Audio T Cheltenham

Originally introduced in the Summer of 1970 the L100 was conceived as the domestic version of the L4310 Professional Studio Monitor and it soon became JBL’s biggest seller.

This new JBL L100 Classic looks very similar and indeed keeps the original styling with the distinctive Quadrex grille foam, but the boffins at JBL have done a turbo on basically everything to put this new version in the mix with the very best.

Thicker cabinets with better bracing than the original models and a brand new and bang up to date complement of top notch drive units to include a 1” titanium dome tweeter with soft surround and acoustic lens wave guide, a 5” Pure-Pulp cone mid range drive unit and a monster 12” cast frame White Pure-Pulp bass unit all in a bass reflex enclosure weighing a very chunky 27kg each and tuned via a single front firing port. The front panel also has high and mid-range L-Pad adjusters. These may come in useful for a little fine tweaking work depending on personal tastes and speaker positioning but we used them set to their flat position.

Now in this day and age where the majority of fashionable loudspeakers tend to be tall and slim and come in all sorts of shiny piano lacquers, these JBL’s are quite a lot wider than they are deep, making them about as trendy as professing to be a Marillion fan. But then what do the fashionistas know about good taste anyhow. By dismissing Marillion they would be missing out on some of the loveliest music produced by a band in recent times and by dismissing these JBL’s they would be missing a loudspeaker that is loaded with fun. Accurate? …… Possibly not as accurate as the B&W’s, KEF’s and many others I could mention, but who cares about accurate when you can have this much fun? They are wonderfully animated with amazing dynamics and a real and palpable sense of authority. I played the track Eyes Of The World from the new live Grateful Dead album Saint Of Circumstance and they were digging out the most joyous of basslines and made the whole song take off within a soundstage bigger than most speakers can only dream of.

This album really gives those 12 inch pulp drivers a work out!

Prospective purchasers have the choice of walnut , walnut or walnut for the cabinet finishes but then you can choose between orange, blue or black for the grille foam colour to complete that real retro look.

They proved very easy to accommodate position wise in our demo room on the supplied JBL stands, which gets the speaker up off the ground and angles it back slightly. This helps with the time alignment of the mid and high frequencies, which will manifest itself as an improvement in clarity and detail. We had them working really well about 50 cm away from the rear wall and angled in slightly.

They proved to be a very moreish listen, making us want to try lots of music of many different genres one after another and they were not fazed by any of them. If you are into something that goes against the grain a little and offers up a charismatic alternative to many of today’s samey and some would say, boring speaker designs then give us a call and bring in a pile of your favourite music and have some fun……..we do! We also make great cup of tea or coffee and have some nice biscuits too!

Thanks lots for reading, Andy, Jon and Farid.

The JBL L100 Classic loudspeakers are only available at Audio T Cheltenham

A Couple Of Modern Classics! Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary Loudspeakers

Right then …..it’s that time of year for a bit of taking stock on what has gone before and the traditional end of year poll. I will keep this one nice and simple. It consists of my own personal favourite loudspeaker of the year and my own personal favourite album of the year.

Firstly and probably most importantly, by far and away the best album of the year is a little thing by the band Lost Crowns called Every Night Something Happens. This is one of those mind bending prog/jazz/psychedelic things that comes along once in a while and really gets your brain cells tingling.

Great music with great artwork. There are connections here with Cardiacs and Knifeworld but the songs are so much better than both of these bands. Great lyrics and wild complex rhythms bounce around and off each other bringing to mind prime time Frank Zappa and Cardiacs at their most gymnastic time signature shifting best and then add a dose of Anglagard prog rock thuggery then you end up with this aural jacuzzi for the brain. May even be album of the decade…….WOW!

The band Lost Crowns. How can a band who look this great not be good!

Now then. How about a great pair of loudspeakers to help make sense of all this prog rockery? Well try the new Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary loudspeakers. Retro beauty mixed with ultra modern drive unit and cross-over technology.

This is a design that is at once ultra revealing but at the same time ultra musical. Kinda the Holy Grail of speaker design. This results in one of those very rare designs these days that is both audiophile AND fun! So many manufacturers can do one or the other but somehow manage to forget to do both!

Boasting high-tech Kevlar constructed mid and bass drivers and a textile soft dome tweeter each housed in their own internal enclosure. The Peter Comeau designed cross-over is as close to inaudible as is possible to get which means that the drive units operate seamlessly. This means that they can image as well as anything and conjure up a depth of image that very few can manage regardless of price. This is just the perfect pair of speakers to play music like Lost Crowns through. The complex rhythms shift off and around each other bouncing along infectiously and conveying beautifully both the really dark musical moments and the humour within the lyrics.

The stands double up as great record storage too. When driven by a competent amplifier they truly disappear and the music is left hanging in the air in front of you. We love them and we think that you will too.

Come in to the Cheltenham store for a no obligation demo …..just remember to bring in some of your own favourite music and we will do the refreshments.

Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary loudspeakers are available at the Audio T Cheltenham.

Just contact Andy (blogger), Jon or Farid to arrange a personal demonstration,

Dynavector DV-10X5 MK2 Moving Coil Cartridge Just Gets Better

I know it’s not really been that long since my last blog but I just have to tell you about the marvellous little Dynavector DV-10X5 MK2 moving coil cartridge.

The 10X series high output moving coil cartridge has actually been around since 1978 and has won so many awards it is getting embarrassing. Over the years the 10X series cartridges have become widely accepted as the benchmark for high output moving coil cartridges at this price point and way beyond.

With the introduction of the Dynavector DV-10X5 MK2 there is no doubt that Dynavector will retain this enviable position for the foreseeable future.

Dynavector are world famous for their their capability of winding the finest coil assemblies and have been able to minutely increase the number of coil windings to achieve even better sound quality.

The head block is made from aluminium to provide a rigid platform for the cartridge motor and to provide a really rigid fixing to the tonearm.

It also sports a nude diamond Shibata 3 line contact stylus tip and hardened cantilever to ensure superb tracking over even the most torturous record grooves while still achieving extended high frequency response and enhanced musical resolution avoiding the harshness or irritating edginess that can occur in other moving coil cartridges.

I recently had the pleasure of listening to the Dynavector 10X5 MK2 fitted to a Rega Planar 3 turntable and the quality of replay produced by the pairing was just gorgeous. Being played through the Rega Elicit integrated amplifier (which was fine because the Dynavector is high output and will work into a moving magnet input) and a pair of the new Acoustic Energy AE509 floorstanding loudspeakers the system was delivering a quality of sound that was way above what is normal for this price! First on was the Nils Petter Molvaer album Khmer. This has only just been released on vinyl for the first time, although it first saw the light of day in 1997. Better late than never though eh? Stunningly recorded with some of the deepest bass in recorded music history. It is a wonderful pressing and recording produced by the wizard at ECM that is Manfred Eicher.

Massive beats and throbbing grooves underpin the Norwegian trumpeter’s fiery solos in a project that forms a bridge between ECM’s improvised soundscapes and the brave new world of trip-hop, drum and bass, ambient/illbient, techno, industrial, electronica and samples. Genius and should be in every self respecting audiophile’s collection.

Next on the playlist was the rather excellent album called Baby from electro boffins Yello. Played on the Dynavector and Rega P3 combination, this produced the kind of soundstage that was so large that the walls of the room just melted away and the music was left hanging in the air in front of me. It was one of those goose-bump inducing moments that meant I just had to play the whole album!

Time and again while playing this album I was left astounded by just how good this whole system was performing. The stand out tracks being Who’s Groove and Capri Calling both sounding lush and mesmerising. I am sure that this system combination will make the most of pretty much whatever it is asked to play. I listened to some classic Blue Note jazz some beautiful old Decca classical and a bit of the good old Grateful Dead and all were portrayed with that effortless ease that is the trademark sound of a great system working really well. All in all this sparkling little cartridge proved to be the icing on the cake for this particular vibration measuring machine!

Call us or pop in if you’d like to have a listen.

Dynavector phono cartridges are available from the following branches of Audio T: Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Manchester, Online, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Swansea

Rega Hi-Fi products are available from all branches of Audio T.

Acoustic Energy loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T: Bristol, Cheltenham, Enfield, Online, Portsmouth, Reading, Swindon

Bowers & Wilkins Loudspeakers Are Back At Audio T Cheltenham! Trade Up & Save Up To £600

We’re excited and delighted to announce that we are now stocking both the 600 and 700 Series loudspeakers from legendary speaker designers Bowers & Wilkins.

Both of these ranges use the innovative Continuum bass/mid-range cone technology that has been developed over an eight year period and first featured in the flagship 800 Series Diamond models. This drive unit material is very thin, very light and very stiff which means it can deliver a pure and precise soundscape that will allow you to enjoy all the layers of your favourite music.

The B&W 600 Series uses the latest generation refined and upgraded version of the Decoupled Double Dome tweeter to reveal pristine detail.

We now have in store for demonstration the 603 floorstanders and the 606 and 607 smaller standmount models.

The 600 series offers a lot of loudspeaker for not a lot of money. They are also very easy to drive as well so will suit a wide variety of amplifiers.

The jump up from the B&W 600 series takes you to (surprise surprise) the B&W 700 Series and good though the 600 Series speakers are this is where things get really special. A wealth of state of the art technologies all add up to make the 700 Series truly magical. The 700 Series flagship floorstander the 702s2 and the 705s2 which is the top performing standmount in the range both boast the use of a solid body Carbon Dome tweeter housing, sitting in a pod on top of the cabinet. This is milled from a solid block of aluminium and provides an acoustically optimised housing for the tweeter that is exceptionally inert and resistant to resonances, which translates into clearer and cleaner sound overall and improved sound quality.

All of the B&W 700 Series use purpose built Carbon Dome tweeters to raise the breakup threshold to 47kHz which is well outside the range of dog hearing let alone humans. This enables the speaker to deliver pinpoint imaging and amazing accuracy of detail.

There are soooooooo many technological innovations across these two ranges that it would take too long to write about them all here and it would get way too boring, but many improvements is technology that has trickled down from the flagship B&W 800 series, which are hailed as one of the best sounding loudspeakers in the world! Suffice to say both the 600 and 700 Series are a triumph of design and technology and a real delight to listen to. We have been getting wonderful results matching them up with Rega CD players and amplifiers which are a beautiful match for them giving a huge soundstage with great imaging and super fast timing with great deep and tight bass too.

Here’s the best bit…. right now and for a limited time only, B&W are inviting you to take part in their exclusive “Trade Up To Bowers And Wilkins 700 Series” sales promotion.

All you have to do is bring in any old pair of speakers in any condition, working or not and you will get £600 OFF 702 s2, £450 OFF 703s2, £350 OFF 704s2, £300 OFF 705s2, £200 OFF 706s2, and £150 OFF 707s2. Of course if your speakers are worth more than the value quoted above then we will give you more for them. Just contact us first for a quote. This offer ends on November 30th so be quick!

Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T: Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon.

More New Loudspeakers from Cirencester's Finest! Acoustic Energy AE509

This blog is really a follow on and update from the last we posted from in the Cheltenham branch. That last blog was based upon the new Acoustic Energy AE 500 stand mount loudspeakers and now we have the even newer AE509 floorstanding speakers.

Again using the new carbon fibre drive units designed to improve upon transient speed and clarity and to reduce distortion. They also have the same type of cabinet construction using Acoustic Energy’s new 18mm Resonance Suppression Composite (RSC) which is evolved from the famous Reference Series and is designed to reduce cabinet acoustic radiation which otherwise can cause cabinet colourations. Essentially it is a very clever method of building one cabinet around another one with a layer of damping in between. This makes the cabinet more inert so when you are listening to them the cabinets just disappear and you are left with the stereo image of the performance just hanging in the air in front of you.

Of course the main area of improvement over the already rather nifty sound produced by the little AE500 is in the bottom end. The bass on the AE500 goes down to a pretty decent (for the size of the box) 45hz whereas the AE509 digs out a much more respectable 32hz. After trying out a wide variety of music types I thought I would really put them through their paces by playing the fairly new album by a band called Lump. Lump is a wonderful collaboration between Laura Marling (vocals, flute and words) and mike Lindsay (Guitars, bass, rhythms, juno, pocket piano, lamba, drones, and textures) from a band called Tunng.

This album has truly seismic levels of bass at times and playing the track Late To The Flight produced beautifully articulated deep bass that was also clean and tight. The word that crossed my mind was “grunt”! Something that not many speakers at this price are remotely capable of. The really clever thing is that this bass does not colour or confuse the mid-range at all which remains clean and open at all times with some great stereo imaging to boot.

Next on my playlist was The Total Experience Live In Liverpool by Steve Hackett from which I played the track The Musical Box. This is an old Genesis song that gets somewhat of a re-working. Another piece of music that at times has spectacular levels of bass that the AE509’s just sail through.

Another thing I really like about these speakers is the gorgeous metal bases with proper chunky spikes. Most speakers these days treat the spikes as just a cheap add on and they don’t give you a great method of making sure your speaker does not wobble around whereas the Acoustic Energy base and spikes looks amazing, really works, and makes set up easy as well.

If you are interested in getting a listen to these amazing new speakers give us a call in the Cheltenham store and speak to Jon, Farid or Andy. Tea and/or coffee will be laid on …. there may even be some biscuits left!

Acoustic Energy Hi-Fi products are available at the following branches of Audio T: Brentwood. Bristol. Cheltenham. Online. Portsmouth. Preston. Reading. Swindon.

UK Exclusive......Acoustic Energy Do It Again With Their New AE 500 Standmount Loudspeakers

Acoustic Energy have been very busy of late and the latest fruits of their labour come in the guise of the brand new 500 series loudspeakers. And here in Cheltenham we have a UK exclusive as we are the only store in the whole country to have these in stock and ready to listen to until September!

The ones I have the pleasure of blogging about here are the AE 500’s which are a compact stand mount featuring some rather clever newly developed carbon fibre drive units designed to offer unparalleled levels of performance, quality and value. Acoustic Energy say that their aim is to make the speaker sound smoother and more transparent. Shall we see if they have succeeded?

I connected the AE500’s up to a Rega Brio amplifier and Apollo CD player using a Rega Couple interconnect and Chord Company Odyssey speaker cable then sat down with a cup of tea and a pile of my usual favourite demo CD’s.

The first thing that struck me about these little marvels was how open and detailed they sounded and how they managed to image from way left and right of the speaker cabinets. This is something quite rare in a speaker at this price!

I played the title track of the album Starfire by Jaga Jazzist and about half way through it gets all complicated and very proggy and throughout the little AE500’s it sound fully controlled and powerful. No one part of the music was being coloured by any of the rest making it so easy to hear and follow everything all at the same time! This piece of music is always a good test and the AE500’s made it sound totally engaging.

Next into the Rega Apollo CD player was the totally gorgeous piece of musical loveliness that is Angelina by Marillion from the equally marvellous album Marbles. The AE500’s again opened the sound-stage up. I closed my eyes and the speakers totally disappeared leaving the music just hanging in the air in front of me. This piece has a very deep bass line throughout and a soaring guitar motif and is recorded in such a way that puts the music in a huge acoustic space. This comes over convincingly on the AE 500’s. This is one album you must own if you have even just a casual interest in rock music of the prog variety. A majestic masterpiece from a band at the peak of their powers! Just make sure you get the double CD version!

Now a sizeable chunk of this magic comes from the carbon fibre drive units. Their very rigid but lightweight nature ensuring great mid-range definition and increased transient speed and clarity. Acoustic Energy have succeeded in their goal to make a smooth sounding loudspeaker, which is a great thing in this age where most companies make their speakers sound way too bright. This makes the AE500’s the type of loudspeaker that you can listen to for hours as they are not at all fatiguing.

The cabinet construction is rather special too using Acoustic Energy’s new 18mm Resonance Suppression Composite or RSC for short. This is basically a method of putting one cabinet inside another with a damping layer between them thus greatly reducing cabinet resonances which would otherwise colour the sound.

These speakers are a must listen if you are interested in a really high quality but still small solution to put on speaker stands (preferably) or bookshelves (at a pinch). If you have a yearning for owning a pair of those classic Acoustic Energy AE1 from the old days then look no further these little marvels will put a grin on your face a mile wide!

Finished in a choice of Piano Gloss Black, Piano Gloss White or American Walnut wood veneer finishes the AE 500’s will look great with any home decor. Come in to the Cheltenham store for a demo and a cup of tea or coffee …… we might even have biscuits! Let your ears be the judge, but we’re sure you will be very pleasantly surprised.

Acoustic Energy Hi-Fi products are available at the following branches of Audio T: Brentwood, Bristol, Cheltenham, Online, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Swindon.

Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport & 6000A Integrated Amplifier - The Sound Of Science

Going back in time to 1983 (!) Audiolab gifted the audiophile world the rather lovely amp that was the original 8000A. It was an iconic design way ahead of its time and sound for pound was not equalled anywhere else. It also cemented Audiolab’s reputation as a maker of great sounding, well built products at affordable prices.

Thirty five (!) years on we have more lovely gifts for modern day music lovers in the shape of the new 6000 series. Here in the Cheltenham branch we have just taken delivery of the 6000CDT and the 6000A.

The 6000CDT is a dedicated compact disc transport with a slot loading mechanism designed to be robust and reliable. It uses a very clever method of reading the disc ahead and buffering it. This way it can very cleverly play scratched and damaged discs that a lot of other players would not be able to.

The 6000A is not only an amp, it also has a built in digital to analogue converter with three filter settings, four digital inputs (two optical and two coaxial). It also sports three line level inputs and a rather good phono input for turntables, a built in headphone amp and it does Bluetooth too!

Of course all of this looks great on paper but the really important bit is how they perform. Do they make sweet music or are they just another hi-fi system!? After a jolly good running in period, we connected the CDT to the A with a good quality optical cable from Audioquest and hooked up a pair of Neat Acoustics SE2 floorstanding loudspeakers.

We sat down with a cup of tea and some cake (as you do) to have a critical listen. First to play through the system was Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead from the great album that is Kid A. A very dense piece of music with multi layered vocals but the Audiolab pair made it sound open and detailed with a big airy soundstage that flows way to the far left and right of the speaker cabinets. This is often a very difficult trick to pull off with this particularly wonderful piece of Radiohead weirdness!

Next we played the title track from Bright Size Life by Pat Metheny. Always a good tester for revealing how good a system is at with all that pitch and timing stuff. Once again they passed with flying colours! Jaco Pastorius sounding soooooooo delicate and nimble amongst Pat Metheny’s guitar cascades. I only intended playing the one track but this system was sounding so good that the whole album passed by really quickly and sounded gorgeous.

After that I fancied something a little different and alighted on the title track of an album called Fossil Scale by Georgia Ruth. Georgia is one of that new breed of folkies who is not afraid to mix in a bit of modern electronicness and distorty guitar to her sound. The track Fossil Scale features a delicate soaring vocal performance with a fascinating and floaty bass line that at times really plumbs the lower depths (you should look her up …she’s good!).

The Audiolab combination was both fast and bulbous (thanks Don) and in combination with the Neat speakers really laid bare the mix and presented the music in a big and open soundstage.

This is one of those combinations that brings true meaning to that phrase “system synergy” It can cope with whatever you play through it and is superbly detailed in its presentation bringing out lots of subtle nuances in the music that you would normally only expect from much more expensive systems.

For what it costs this is one of those set ups that you just have to audition. It will really surprise you and have you going through your music collection so you can hear all those details revealed that you never even knew were there!

For the boring techy stuff it’s probably a good idea to have a look on the Audiolab website……. for the fun stuff come to us at Audio T Cheltenham. There may even be some cake left!

Buy this album now …..its wonderful!

Audiolab Hi-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Portsmouth, Southampton

Neat Acoustics loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brighton, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading

The Amazing New Ruark R5 Compact Hi-Fi System

As a company, Ruark found fame by making rather nifty loudspeakers during the 1980’s, 90’s and part of the noughties. Since 2006 they have been pouring their considerable talents into designing and building some of the best compact audio lifestyle products on the market today!

The newest of these is the R5. Ruark call it a High Fidelity Music System.

Now you might think that their description may be stretching the truth a little and you’d be forgiven for thinking this upon first seeing it in the flesh as it is pretty small. Listening is another matter though! It has a lush sound with oodles of detail. This is partly down to the secret weapon lodged on the underneath…….an active sub woofer. This gives a the system a much deeper and more realistic sound than is usually associated with such systems.

You can wirelessly stream music, play from a phone via high quality Bluetooth, play from one of the squillions if internet radio stations, plug in a turntable using its built in phono stage or even play one of those old fashioned CD things!! Support for streaming music services such as Spotify, Tidal and Deezer is built in and there are also spare analogue and digital inputs meaning you can enjoy a multitude of other devices and also upgrade the sound from your TV too!

Ruark have not skimped on the styling either. There is certain retro chic going on here with the sleek curvy hand crafted cabinet and the fabric grille……all very cool and all very perfect for the music and design enthusiast alike.

We love it and we think you will too. The Ruark R5 is available in Walnut or Soft Grey finishes and is on permanent demonstration here in the Cheltenham shop and you are welcome to come in and have a play.

Tea and coffee are available!

Ruark Audio Hi-Fi products are available at the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Southampton, Swansea

Neat Motive SE2 - Thinking Inside The Box!

For a while now the speaker that we sell the most of has been the Neat Motive SX2. They are that great combination of being easy to drive, small in stature but sound big!

Recently we have discovered that there is an improved version (only made to special order) called the Neat Motive SE2 which boasts a new version of the classic EMIT planar magnetic tweeter that is ordinarily only found in the rather more expensive prestige Ultimatum models. Here the tweeter is very cleverly compliantly mounted within its own discrete cavity and boasts a new and enhanced crossover. And here’s the good news …….. all of this comes for only an extra £100! Bargain or what!! Sorry for all the exclamation marks but in this instance they are entirely justified!!!

Since we discovered these little gems it is now not often that we sell the SX2. Every time we demo the SE2 people always prefer its sweeter and more engaging presentation of the music.

These speakers are also not too fussy about position either. They do like a little room behind them and a bit of a toe in which will open up the soundstage, but if you are pushed for space and need to get them close to a rear wall or if you are listening off axis they will still do a great job. They also come in a variety of room friendly finishes too.

The Neat Motive SE2 really come to life when partnered with the amazing little Rega combination of Apollo CD player and Brio amplifier. This combination as system punches well above its weight. That all important thing of “system synergy” really comes into its own here producing a sound that is both finely detailed and musically engaging without ever sounding bright or harsh.

Playing a CD copy of the wonderful Prog Rock classic that is the first Riverside album “Out of Myself” the first track which is called The Same River has mid-range detail in bucket loads and proper deep bass that will drag you in and keep you hooked while the band builds up a true epic of the genre and until the very last note fades! This band should be huge. They are masters of creating Prog Rock epics building on the sounds of Porcupine Tree, Dream Theatre and Pink Floyd, this is a great disc for sorting out the men from the boys when it comes to loudspeaker reproduction. Like the soft petals of a flower unfurling to reveal a Venus Flytrap inside with the sting of a Scorpion (ooer!). And if you like this one there are lots more to discover as well!

So to conclude this little bloggy thing, we think that the Neat Motive SE2’s are one of those magical loudspeaker designs that you should really put on your shortlist what ever your budget is! You will not be disappointed!! Yikes …..more of those exclamation mark things again!! Oh Well.

Neat Acoustics loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brighton, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading

Rega Hi-Fi products are available from all branches of Audio T.

Change The Record And Keep It Clean! Pro-ject VCS MKII & Record Cleaning Accessories

OK, so you either you bought yourself or you’ve been gifted that lovely new turntable and you’ve been busy buying up lots of lovely new records to play on it. Now what if you discover that your recent purchase is in less than perfect condition?

Well you could of course go down the route of buying yourself a dedicated record cleaning machine. The one that we always keep on coming back to is the Project VCS Mk2. Hailing from the same company who are world famous for producing top notch turntables this cleaner is built like a tank and is super easy to both set up and to use! The VCS Mk2 has the remarkable ability of being able to rescue some of the crackliest sounding second hand purchases, making them sound and look like they are fresh out of the shop!

Sometimes even brand new and shiny looking LPs can suffer a little from stray clicks and pops caused by specs of dust that have managed to embed themselves deep in the records grooves and here a quick spin on the VCS Mk2 can reap rewards. We have two local second hand record stores who have both invested in this miraculous little machine and both of them swear by it and use them daily!

Now what if those dusty records have clogged up your brand new stylus with a little ball of tricky to remove fluff? You need one of these rather nifty little stylus cleaning brushes imaginatively named Clean-it!

The brush boasts a pad of short carbon fibres and all you do is run the brush down the cantilever and over the diamond stylus. This will remove dirt deposits and stray fluff from the stylus tip. And remember removing dust, dirt and fluff from the stylus not only prolongs the life of you cartridge but will also improve sound quality and most importantly of all protect your records from wear. And hey…..they are not expensive!

Logically it follows that the best way to stop your stylus from fluffing up at all is to give your records a good clean up before playing them. For this very purpose comes the carbon fibre bust that Project call Brush-it. I sense a theme here! This is every vinyl lovers’ essential piece of kit; a brush specially designed to keep your precious vinyl in optimum playing condition, free from atmospheric and residue blemishes.

As the record is spinning you simply drag the brush lightly from the inside to the outside and it will drag any dust out with it. It is also genius at reducing static charge in the vinyl too!

And talking of reducing static charge I come on to the phenomenon that is the anti static inner sleeve! Our preferred brand is the Nagoaka.

Coming in packs of fifty, not only will these prevent the build up of a static charge which can manifest itself as random audible clicks and pops that can interfere with your listening pleasure, they also provide a huge degree of protection from scratch damage when taking records from or putting them back in to those hideous cardboard inner sleeves that most record labels seem to deem adequate protection for their shiny new slices of vinyl (that happens to be one of my pet hates that one!) These sleeves are also an essential item for when you have just given your record a rejuvenating spin on the VCS Mk2 record cleaning machine!

Pro-ject turntables & accessories are available at the following branches of Audio T:

Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Swansea, Swindon

2018 Record Recommendations And Ortofon Cartridges to Play Them On!

In 2018 the Danish Cartridge manufacturer Ortofon celebrated its centenary. Yes you read that right. One hundred years and still going strong! Still making some of the best reproducers of music that your vinyl will ever give up its information for! And guess what? We love them!

Whether you decide to go for a moving magnet type from the 2M range or a more expensive option from the moving coil ranges such as Quintet or Cadenza your vinyl will be reproduced in such a way that you will hear way more of those tiny details, more space around all the instruments and a more open soundstage with music coming at you from further outside of the speaker cabinets than ever before!

2M Red

Of course the Cadenza range will be the logical port of call for those with a higher quality turntable and arm combinations and will eke out so much detail that you will be playing all your vinyl all over again because it will sound so amazing!

Cadenza Bronze

Of course the range we sell the most of are the 2M, which is a great range to pick from if you have something like an entry level Rega or Project deck and are hankering after a nice upgrade from the supplied cartridge (we will even fit it for you free of charge too!). The Ortofon 2M red is the place to start!

The Ortofon Bronze with its nude (ooh err!) fine line stylus is a great tracker and will help to reduce record wear and groove distortion. The body being made from a newly developed Noryl plastic/glass combination giving precise and accurate retrieval of the information. Designed by Ortofon former chief engineer and cartridge genius Per Winfield the 2M range really do punch above their weight!

Over the past year we have been using various of the Ortofon cartridges to play a selection of our favourite albums from the past year. Here are a few recommendations all of which sound amazing and all of which will help to show off just how good that new turntable can sound. So in no particular order, here goes………

Equinox Infinity

This was Jon’s pick…..Equinox Infinity by Jean Michel Jarre. This one really is a welcome return to form from the French Synth wizard and quite possibly his best piece of music since the original Equinox. This one uses themes from the first Equinox but weaves them into lush undulating soundscapes of analogue synthiness that will make your hifi really come to life!

Riverside

Next we have Farid’s choice cut of the year in the form of an album titled Wasteland by Polish prog rockers Riverside. This is their first album since the untimely death of their guitar player Piotr Grudzinski and it has a distinctly melancholy feel to it. Again it is superbly recorded with a lush expansive open soundstage and features a great set of songs beautiful in its bleakness and exquisitely played. wasteland features some of the most gorgeously painful moments any band has ever committed to vinyl.

All Traps On Earth

Andy’s album of the year by miles and miles and miles is the very lovely thing that is A Drop of Light by All Traps on Earth. I have mentioned this one in a previous blog so will keep it short! A double album in a gate-fold sleeve beautifully packaged and even more beautifully sounding. This is proggressive rock of the highest quality and is one of those that just keeps on getting better every time you listen to it. This is basically what the band Anglagard have become and features twisted rhythms of astonishing virtuosity and has some of the deepest bass you will ever hear on a rock music album. And they have not one but two Mellotrons! Nuff said!!

GoGo Penguin

A (very) honourable mention goes to this one ….. A Humdrum Star by GoGo Penguin. The bands fourth album and second one for the BlueNote record label finds them mixing electronic sounds with jazz rock elements and wickedly good interplay between acoustic bass grooves and wonderful rolling piano melodies (the drummer isn’t too bad either!). Another one of those albums that genuinely is of demo quality. Many thanks to Red House Records in Swindon for the recommendation.

You genuinely will not be disappointed with any of these and if you have any Christmas prezzie money burning a hole in your pocket……….well you know what to do!

See you again in the 2019 for more bloggy loveliness.

Andy, Jon and Farid - Audio T Cheltenham

Ortofon cartridges are available at all branches of Audio T.

Rega record players are available at all branches of Audio T

Pro-ject record players are available at the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Swansea, Swindon

Lagom & Hygge From Sweden Introducing Primare Prisma

Lagom (“lah-goam”) = Everything in perfect balance. Hygge (“heu-gah”) = The highest expression of living. The deep satisfaction of time well spent.

Two words that permeate through everything that Swedish company Primare make and do. Something that we can well appreciate and understand now that we are the proud sellers of all things Lagom and Hygge!

There is a sense of perfect balance and satisfaction that comes together very neatly in Primare’s new I35 integrated amplifier. As part of the Prisma range the I35 is the latest version of their iconic 30 series integrated amplifiers and is the first one to feature their brand new all analogue Class D amplifier technology, what they call UFPD2. Primare boast that this new power platform fully exploits the potential of Class D amplification.

A big boast. Can they back it up with action!?

According to the official blurb (I love that word) The I35 amplifier can deliver 150 watts at 8 ohms across the entire audible bandwidth and to see (or hear) how this equates into sound quality in the real world we decided to pair it up with the rather brilliant Martin Logan Electromotion X electrostatic loudspeakers and see what occurs!

Now, because the I35 is available in three versions…….

1. Basic amp with no extras

2. Amp with rather nice DAC built in

3. Amp with DAC and Streamer module…….. and we have the third option we can stream as much as we like!!

So first up from Tidal was the totally amazing thing that is the album Khmer by Nils Petter Molvaer on the ECM record label. This is an album that is amazingly well recorded with an especially juicy bass sound. A great one for demo use and for putting speakers through their paces.

As a pairing this combination of amp and speakers possessed that holy grail of hi-fi systems in the way it totally brought the music to life. The sound is fast, clean and agile. Soundstaging was wide and deep. The Primare i35 allowing the Electrostatics to deliver an un-coloured window into the music.

Next through the streamy bit on the Primare was the new helping of Prog Rock genius that is Roine Stolt’s new album called Manifesto of an Alchemist.

Again the Primare showed an ability to be both viscerally exciting and revealing in detail way beyond its price! This is one of those really magical amplifiers that should prove once and for all that Class D really can offer quality and affordability and make you think, do I really need to spend more? It is a fantastic amplifier, a very good DAC and a more than decent streamer! I can honestly say that I have not had this much fun with an amplifier since the days of chrome bumper Naim gear……remember them!!

Prisma provides multi room/multi zone connectivity and control for playback of stored and streamed media. Wired or wireless all managed from any mobile device through a dedicated control app. In addition to Bluetooth, Airplay and Spotify Connect Prisma features Chromecast built in a unique streaming portal allowing effortless direct connection to literally hundreds of streaming applications.

There is also a well nifty matching CD35 CD player should you want to add one to the system …..perhaps more on this at a later blog!!

All of these Primare products be auditioned at the Cheltenham branch! We hope to see you soon - Jon, Farid & Andy

Primare Hi-Fi is available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Bristol, Cheltenham, Manchester

Can You Get Excited By A Loudspeaker Stand? SolidSteel Stands To Reason!

I cannot remember ever being excited by a loudspeaker stand as much as this (apart from that time I bought a pair of Linn Sara stands for my …..err ….. Linn Sara’s)

These little beauties come courtesy of an Italian company that I’ve not come across before called Solid Steel. Now it transpires that they have been making speaker stands and Hi-Fi supports varying shapes and sizes since 1990 with a mission “To serve music and nothing else”

When their rep turned up at the store with what we thought was just another pair of speaker stands to say we were a little sceptical was a bit of an understatement! When he took our little Acoustic Energy AE100 off their Atacama stands and put on the Solid Steel SS6 the sound was totally transformed. We just looked at each other with open mouths and promptly ordered some!

Now they are not what you would call conventional looking stands . They are three legged which makes them really easy to rigidly fix them to your floor. The nice chunky spikes help too!

They are made from tubular stainless steel and have a special anti-resonant coating. They have height adjustable spikes and it is possible to add mass loading too for that little bit of extra performance. The really clever bit is the decoupling between the stand and the top plate. This is achieved through three high precision ball bearings upon which the top plate sits and is held in place by a metal tube which itself is de-coupled by a rubber “o” ring…….all very clever! This effectively means that the loudspeaker will be effectively locked rigidly in space which will result in a much cleaner and more open sound.

They come in three different heights to suit whatever bookshelf design of loudspeakers you might have. Different top plates are also available for that extra bit of customising to your speakers. Heights available are 525mm, 625mm or 725mm.

They are designed to be used with the single column at the rear which Solid Steel claim gives them improved rigidity but if you really prefer the look of them the other way round then ….. hey rules are made to be broken!

For the purposes of this blog I set up a system comprising of Rega’s rather lovely Planar 3 turntable with an Elys cartridge running into Rega’s Elex R amp (both recent What HiFi award winners by the way!!). I chose to partner them with the ATC SCM11 loudspeakers and to start with I put them on a pair of the HiFi Racks stands which are no slouches in their own right!

I chose an LP that I am familiar with, the rather lovely new album by a band called Lump. Lump basically consists of Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay normally part of the band Tunng.

Lump have been described as a heady blend of wonked-out guitars, Moog synths and pattering drums set against droning colliding clouds of flutes with lyrics inspired by early 20th century Surrealism and the absurdist poetry of Edward Lear and Ivor Cutler, slicing through the apparent emptiness of contemporary life. My copy is pressed on lovely translucent green vinyl!

This album has some great vocals and wonderful deep low bass and when I swapped the HiFi Racks stands for the Solid Steel stands the difference was just staggering. The bass that was already lush and lovely became deeper and tighter and within the bass was revealed lots of deep growly detail. The mid range became more open revealing tiny vocal nuances that just were not there before. Rhythms clashing and colliding off each other become hypnotic. The ATC really need this type of platform to perform of their best.

This result has been repeated in store with every pair of speakers that we put on them making these a must listen to upgrade if you want to get the best out of your bookshelf speakers. Pop in to Audio T Cheltenham store to arrange either a home demo or a demo in store….you will be amazed!!

SolidSteel stands are available at the following branches of Audio T: Brentwood, Cheltenham, Manchester

Spendor A7 Floor Standing Speakers Are Dynamic Open And Exhilarating!

Hello blog readers!. We held back from doing this blog for a while because from fresh out of their boxes these Spendor A7 compact (by some comparisons) 2-way floor standing speakers sounded really rather good and so we began to wonder what they would be capable of when properly run in!

Well we have done that (that Dedmau5 CD is good for something!) and I can tell you that they are one amazing pair of loudspeakers. They have had plenty of hours playing time and the sound has really opened up. Bass especially is impressive being deep and articulate with an overall sound that is open and detailed with a lovely left to right imaging capability!

Spendor proudly boast that they are calibrated and matched to broadcast reference standards and use their brand new design EP77 Polymer cones! They are slim, compact and worked well in our demo room relatively close to the rear wall. This is due to the rather nifty use of what Spendor call a FlowPort which means that the loudspeaker has less effect on the room boundary placement!

We had them playing with the brand new and equally lovely Arcam CDS50 SACD Player and SA20 Amplifier coupled together with a Rega Couple phono to phono cable and the sound they make together is actually rather exciting.

I played a variety of different CD’s and SACD’s through the system among them an SACD copy of Dark Side of the Moon which sounded so open and agile that I had to listen to it all the way through and I was certain that I could hear things deep in the mix that I had never heard before and that’s always good!

Then craving more of that lovely natural sound and glorious sense of soundstaging I played As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays from the album of the same name. This album has that typical lush 1970’s ECM sound with a wide open soundstage that you can just fall into. Listening through the Spendor A7’s was a delight and a revelation delivering a level of detail, definition and information that I didn’t even know were there. I just love it when that happens. This track is twenty minutes and forty two seconds long and it was totally mesmerising with not a dull second. Never has the word gorgeous been so appropriate!

Anyway after all the fun stuff comes the fact bit……. They Spendor A7’s cost £2995 (grilles are extra though at £195 a pair). Don’t let this put you off because they sound a lot more musical than many a speaker I have heard at two and three times the price. They come in Black Ash, Dark walnut, Natural Oak or Satin White to special order at £300 extra.

Well as it says in the heading of this blog the Spendor A7’s are dynamic open and exhilarating and I will leave the last words to Spendor’s head man Phil Swift who says “they will add a whole new dimension to your listening pleasure!”

We encourage you to come and have a listen to these speakers at Audio T Cheltenham.

Spendor loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Cardiff, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Swindon

The Latest News From Audio T Cheltenham

This is a bit of a break from the normal specific product related blog as we're not blogging on one particular Hi-Fi topic! This time around the intention is to keep you up to date with a number of things that are new or about to happen.

The first thing is...........

Naim 555 Network Player Summer Roadshow

We are very excited to have the opportunity (alongside our Bristol store) to host one of the Naim summer roadshows to launch the amazing new ND555 Network Player/Streamer. Tickets are available to book from the We Got Tickets website and they are FREE!!

A not to be missed opportunity to hear what is being hailed as the best streamer in the world being put through it's paces by the guys from Naim in person! If you have any Naim type questions of your own this will be the place to be!

The event takes place at the Gables Hotel in Falfield on Thursday 6th of September at 7:00 pm which is just off Junction 14 on the M5.......it's got to be a fun evening!! I will not add any more except to advise you to read the previous two blogs from the Brighton and Oxford stores for lots of in depth stuff to whet your appetite. 

The second thing is...........

We now have the rather lovely Spendor A7 floorstanding loudspeakers in store and available for demonstration. We think they are the best thing Spendor have made for a while and that's really saying something!

The third thing is...........

We are rather proud to announce that we now have ATC loudspeakers in store! 

We have three models in total the little SCM7 the slightly bigger SCM11 and the floorstanding SCM40 all of which sound great and are running in nicely.... see the picture below....

The fourth thing is...........

We have totally redecorated our AV demo room and given the shop a fresh coat of paint. Our AV demo room now has a 9ft fixed frame screen and an Optoma UHD65 4K projector looking rather lovely, in fact the best picture we have ever had in our dem room! Come and see!! There is always something playing and it always looks great and sounds even better!!! By now you'll probably have noticed that I like exclamation marks!!!

And fifth and finally...........

One of those "you really must listen to this" moments. 

This is a fairly recent album by the Yes legend Jon Anderson and Flower Kings Guitar maestro Roine Stolte. It sounds more like Yes than Yes have done since the 1970's and I'm not making that up .......it's true!! This comes across as a companion piece to the work of genius that is Tales From Topographic Oceans and if that was ever your fave Yes LP then you will adore this one.  It is called Invention Of Knowledge and does not have a dull second on it. If you thought Yes were no more then think again!! There go those exclamation marks again!!! 

Well that's it for this blog ....I'm off to play this on the new ATC SCM40 floorstanders to put them through their paces properly. You are always welcome to bring in some of your favourite music too and do the same .... you will be forever smitten!!

ATC Loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T: Brighton, Bristol, Cheltenham, Portsmouth

Spendor loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T: Cardiff, Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Swindon