From Studio to Stereo: Finding My Sound at Audio T Portsmouth

Hi, I'm Nathan, and I joined the Audio T Portsmouth team less than three months ago. My background is in music production, so I've always been interested in how music is recorded, mixed and put together. Since joining, I've been spending more time exploring the other end of that process: how we enjoy those recordings at home.

Having the opportunity to listen to different systems, spend time with the team and visit manufacturers has given me a much broader appreciation of hi-fi. I've already found equipment I've grown particularly fond of, and I've started planning my own home system.

So, I thought I'd share a few of the things that have caught my attention along the way.

our portsmouth store

Getting the right pieces working together

One thing that becomes clear quite quickly is how much the individual parts of a system depend on one another.

For anyone starting out, a traditional hi-fi system has a source, such as a turntable, CD player or streamer, an amplifier and a pair of speakers. An integrated amplifier combines the controls for selecting your source and adjusting the volume with the power amplification needed to drive the speakers.

With a digital source, a DAC, or digital-to-analogue converter, converts the digital audio into an analogue signal. That doesn't necessarily mean adding another box, as many streamers, CD players and amplifiers have one built in.

Vinyl takes a different route. A phono stage boosts the small analogue signal from the cartridge and applies the equalisation needed for record playback. Again, that can be built into another component.

Understanding where these functions sit helps make sense of a system. It also makes it easier to work out which connections and features you actually need.

Finding an amplifier I enjoy

One of the things I've enjoyed most is spending time with different amplifiers and hearing how they work with the rest of a system.

The Rega Brio has become a particular favourite. I've spent enough time listening to it now that I can understand why it's such a popular choice, and it's an amplifier I'm always happy to come back to.

I've also had the chance to listen to more expensive models, including the Cyrus 40 AMP. Making those comparisons has helped me appreciate the importance of considering an amplifier alongside the speakers it will be driving.

Price is part of that decision too. Spending more can bring improvements in build quality, power, features and performance, but it still matters how those benefits fit your system and the way you listen.

For me, the useful question is what a change brings to the music I enjoy. Is it something I value, and does it make sense for the system I'm putting together? Listening to different combinations gives me a much better basis for answering that.

The cyrus 40 amp & cyrus 40 cd.

Planning my own hi-fi system

This has probably been the most exciting part of my first few months: working out what I'd like to have at home.

At the moment, I'm planning on a Rega io amplifier, Acoustic Energy AE100² speakers, a WiiM Pro streamer and a Rega Planar 2 turntable.

The WiiM Pro has its own DAC, so its analogue output can connect to one of the io's line inputs. The io also has a built-in moving-magnet phono stage for the Planar 2. It's a useful example of how the functions I've mentioned can fit into a system without each needing a separate box.

I've deliberately gone for a relatively compact setup. As much as I love the Acoustic Energy AE309 and other floorstanding speakers, I simply don't have the space for them. The AE100²s make much more sense for my room.

Having streaming and vinyl available appeals to me too. The WiiM will take care of streaming, while the Planar 2 will let me spend more time exploring records, which is something I'm really looking forward to.

These are still plans for now, and I'm looking forward to hearing how everything works together once it's set up at home.

The rega planar 2.

A couple of experiences I won't forget

analogue interconnects on chord cables.

One of the highlights so far was visiting the Chord Company factory, where we had the opportunity to see how its cables are made.

It was fascinating to get an insight into the thought and work that goes into producing them. The listening demonstration with Ian was the part that stayed with me most, though.

Luke, Stephen and I listened to different cable ranges and compared them for ourselves. Before the visit, I probably wouldn't have expected a cable demonstration to hold my attention quite as much as it did. I found the comparisons interesting, and they gave me more to think about when considering the connections between components.

Then, just a week later, we visited the Naim factory in Salisbury.

The Naim statement.

Seeing how the products are made was brilliant, but the highlight was the opportunity to listen to the Naim Statement. Tom and Jason took the time to show us the system and talk us through it before putting some music on.

Incredible is probably the simplest way of putting it.

That listening session gave me a different perspective on what a high-end system can do. Getting to see the work behind the equipment as well as hearing it was a memorable experience.

Making time to listen

Back in the shop, those experiences have reinforced how useful it is to sit down and listen before making a decision.

Specifications help establish things such as connections, features and suitability for your speakers. Reviews can introduce equipment you might want to hear. A demonstration then gives you the opportunity to find out how a particular combination works for you.

Coming from music production, I've enjoyed spending that time concentrating on the finished recording and how I respond to it as a listener.

If you're putting together your first system, you can start by telling us what you currently use, what music you enjoy, how much space you have and what you'd like to spend. We can explain the options and help you hear what they offer.

If you've been enjoying hi-fi for years, those same conversations can help when you're considering a change. Bring along some music you know well, tell us about your existing system and explain what you'd like to improve. There may be a particular component you're curious about, or something in your current setup that you'd like to get more from.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my first few months at Audio T, and I'm looking forward to discovering more equipment, more music and, hopefully, getting my own system set up before too long.

If you'd like to explore a system of your own, or hear something different alongside what you already enjoy, get in touch with us at Audio T Portsmouth to arrange a demonstration. We'd be happy to put some music on and talk it through with you.

Thanks for reading

Nathan - Audio T Portsmouth

If you have any questions about the equipment featured here, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, please get in touch.

If you have enjoyed this article, take a look at our other blogs and follow us on our social media channels below…

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Rega, Acoustic Energy, Naim, Chord Company and WiiM can be found at the all Audio T stores:

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL

• ONLINE STORE

Cyrus can be found at the following Audio T stores:

• CARDIFF

• MANCHESTER

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWINDON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• CHELTENHAM

Cyrus 80 AMP Review: Twice the Size, Three Times the Fun

Matt from our Cardiff store is once again on the amplifier quest, this time with one of his favourite brands: Cyrus. Ever since hearing the new 80 AMP streaming integrated amplifier at this year’s Bristol Hi-Fi Show, it’s certainly piqued his interest. Now that we have one in store, Matt felt it was high time he brought it home and put it through its paces against his very own 40 AMP. Some would say this is David vs Goliath, but we’ll see which one of these amplifiers comes out swinging.

Another chapter in my Cyrus journey

Hi there once again to all you fantastic Hi-Fi fans and blog readers! Before I kick this one off, I’d like to say a big thank you to you all for reading my blogs every month and following my long and winding Hi-Fi journey. It certainly isn’t at an end, as fantastic new products keep grabbing my attention, sonically as well as visually.

This time, as the title of the blog suggests, it’s all about Cyrus’s new 80 AMP. As you all know, I’m pretty much a fanboy of this brand. Right from my early days at Audio T, I was introduced to their hot products of the time, the XR Series, which captured my ear more than any other comparably priced Hi-Fi amplification brand out there. I’ve written about this very subject on a couple of occasions.

As you’ve come to know through the various changes to my own Hi-Fi system, I currently have the 40 AMP and the 40 PPA phono stage in my setup, as well as a CDi-XR. So, when Cyrus announced the 80 AMP, my initial thought was the famous quote from the bowl of petunias in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Oh no, not again!”

In the immortal words from HITCHHIKER'S Guide to the Galaxy - “Oh no, not again!”

Of course, I don’t mean that in a negative way, as I was very much looking forward to its release. The quote was on my mind because of the effect it might have on my wallet! As they say, discovery leads to want, and then, when you hear it, you feel like you need it in your life.

All of this was going through my head at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show this year, when I first clapped eyes on it and heard it driving those massive Kerr Acoustic K200 speakers. They sounded phenomenal, as many of you who attended the show will know. As for getting my hands on one and trying it myself, of course I was patient… not! Now I have my hands on one, it’s high time to get it in the rack and put it through its paces.

A little Cyrus history

Before I dive into my big 40 vs 80 test, let’s talk a little about Cyrus’s history and the research and development that have helped make the brand a force to be reckoned with in our Hi-Fi world.

Cyrus Audio is an independent British Hi-Fi manufacturer with its headquarters in Cambridgeshire. Its story stretches back more than 40 years to the original Cyrus One amplifier, launched in 1984. Since then, it has built a range spanning integrated amplifiers, streamers, CD players, power amplifiers and power supplies, with manufacturing carried out in the UK by its partner, SMS Electronics.

The R&D team’s focus is on reproducing the original performance as faithfully as possible, including the emotion behind it. That certainly fits with what has kept me coming back to Cyrus over the years.

As Cyrus Audio’s managing director, Nick Clarke, explains, the aim is to bring us closer to the performance of the artist or band we’re listening to. As I say, it’s about perfection in imperfection, from the breath on a microphone right down to mistakes, like a fumbled note on a guitar. Cyrus certainly captures this, especially with the development of the new 80 AMP. Alongside the larger chassis, there’s a step up in power and, to my ears, performance. It really goes to show how Nick and the team at Cyrus push their products above and beyond expectations.

Cyrus 40 AMP vs 80 AMP specifications

Before I tell you all about my little David vs Goliath test, and who comes out swinging, let’s look at a few specs for both amplifiers.

Cyrus 40 AMP

• 100W per channel into 6 ohms, rising to 113W per channel with the optional 40 PSU

• ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M 32-bit DAC

• 4 x analogue inputs

• 1 x MM phono input

• 1 x optical digital input

• 2 x coaxial digital inputs

• 1 x asynchronous USB-B input

• 1 x HDMI eARC input

• 1 x analogue preamplifier output

• 1 x fixed output

• 1 x headphone output

• S/PDIF support: 16-bit/44.1kHz to 24-bit/192kHz

• USB support: 16-bit/44.1kHz to 32-bit/384kHz

• DSD support: up to DSD256

• DoP support: up to DoP128

Cyrus 40 AMP Rear Panel

Cyrus 80 AMP

• 150W per channel into 6 ohms, with both channels driven; Class AB amplification

• Built-in BluOS streaming

• ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M 32-bit DAC

• Full-colour 5-inch TFT display

• Built-in Wi-Fi antenna

• High-resolution streaming up to 24-bit/192kHz

• MM/MC phono input

• 4 x analogue inputs

• 2 x optical digital inputs

• 2 x coaxial digital inputs

• 1 x asynchronous USB-B input

• 1 x HDMI eARC input

• 1 x analogue preamplifier output

• Balanced XLR inputs and outputs

• Headphone amplifier

• BluOS Controller app for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Mac and PC

• Apple AirPlay 2, Roon Ready certification and MQA decoding

Cyrus 80 AMP rear panel

The listening playlist

Before I jump into full-on listening mode, as I do with all my blogs, here’s a list of the bands, tracks and formats I used for this test. Believe me, vinyl will be involved! And with Halloween on the horizon, the music choices will be on the dark side. Be warned: there may be some distortion and some scooped mids for good measure.

Vinyl choices

• Iron Maiden: “The Writing on the Wall” from Senjutsu (2021)

• Metallica: “To Live Is to Die” from ...And Justice for All (1988)

• The Cure: “Lullaby” from Disintegration (1989)

• Led Zeppelin: “Achilles Last Stand” from Presence (1976)

Streaming choices

• Quiet Riot: “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” from Metal Health (1983)

• The Temperance Movement: “Always Been Love” from New Promise Land Incorporated (2026)

Setting the benchmark with the Cyrus 40 AMP

Before switching to the 80 AMP, I played each vinyl track on my current amplifier and phono stage, the Cyrus 40 AMP and matching 40 PPA. As we always say, it’s best to play each track on your own system before swapping out a component. The reason is simple: familiarising yourself with how it sounds makes it easier to pick out the differences when you make a change.

Cyrus 40 AMP

And now for my favourite part. You guys know the routine by now: let’s get the coffee of choice and crank up the tunes!

With everything settled and the kit warmed up, the first track in the line-up was, of course, Iron Maiden’s “The Writing on the Wall”. This is a rather busy track for any Hi-Fi system to handle well, but it’s very well recorded, considering there are three guitarists to deal with. The track opens with an acoustic guitar, with a good amount of reverb in the mix. Then Adrian Smith’s main guitar riff punches out, setting the scene for the track. Nicko’s drums have wonderful feel and presence, while Bruce Dickinson’s vocals are perfectly centred throughout. And, of course, Steve Harris’s unmistakable bass playing cuts through the mix, giving this track Iron Maiden’s signature sound and feel.

As I, and some of you out there, have come to know with Cyrus kit, you pretty much get that near-perfect sonic performance and pace, with an almost-live feel to it.

The standout track for me had to be “Achilles Last Stand”. Right from the opening, with Jimmy Page’s layered guitars in the mix, I could hear that swirling guitar sound moving between the speakers, almost behaving like a Uni-Vibe. Then there’s Zep’s rhythm section: John Paul Jones on bass and John Bonham on drums, with fantastic separation and pace, while Robert Plant’s vocals sit forward in the mix.

This is a very long track, with a lot going on, but my system dealt with it beautifully, keeping my head nodding rather than moshing! This is one of my favourite Led Zeppelin tracks, and the 40 AMP really did it justice.

Switching to the Cyrus 80 AMP

And now for the changing of the guard: it’s time to switch out my 40 AMP for the full-width 80 AMP.

A wider stage for the music - Cyrus 80 AMP

Before I dig in, there’s something to be said for an amplifier with more power in reserve. It’s useful when the music gets demanding, even if you’re not trying to turn the volume right up, although that can be a lot of fun! What struck me here was the greater sense of control and authority with the music I was listening to.

The keen-eyed among you may have noticed in the pictures that I’m still using my Cyrus 40 PPA with the 80 AMP. The 80 AMP does have a switchable MM/MC phono stage built in, which sounds phenomenal, but I prefer the quieter background I hear with my 40 PPA in the system. Keeping it in place also meant I was comparing the amplifiers using the same phono stage.

For those about to rock, the 80 AMP certainly does just that, and more!

With the 80 AMP warmed up and a record on the turntable, I’ll tell you about the track that stole the show: Metallica’s “To Live Is to Die”. Let me put it this way: I’ve never heard this track the way I heard it that evening.

There’s a great saying about how you remember where you were when you first heard an album. I remember buying ...And Justice for All on cassette in 1988 from my local record store and taking it straight over to my dad’s studio, getting him to put it on the rack-mounted cassette player, which was made by Tascam, as I recall.

Anyhow, I’m digressing again! What I’m saying is that listening to this transported me back. The track had a greater sense of authority, with more definition between Lars’s drum kit and James and Kirk’s guitars, especially when those guitar parts harmonise. As those of you who know this track will know, it’s largely instrumental, aside from a brief spoken-word passage, so there’s plenty of opportunity to get lost in the playing.

Streaming amp, you say? Stream I shall!

As all of you know, I’ve yet to buy a streamer. When Cyrus announced that the 80 AMP has BluOS built in and uses the onboard DAC, I thought, “Count me in!” This amplifier really does have everything I’m looking for.

Cyrus 80 AMP With BluOS built in

With Qobuz queued up on my phone, there were two tracks, out of the many I listened to throughout the evening, that caught my ear.

Quiet Riot and a little music history

The first was a bit of a classic-rock guilty pleasure from Quiet Riot: “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)”. I’ll admit it’s not the best recording, but this track holds memories for me. It sounded big and open, from the first strike of that shotgun snare right through to Carlos Cavazo’s anthemic guitar riff, which we all know and love.

Quiet Riot was pretty much a revolving door when it came to great musicians. Before Carlos joined the band, its guitarist was, for me, the greatest of them all: Randy Rhoads, who left to join Ozzy Osbourne’s band. But Randy wasn’t the only one. Bassist Rudy Sarzo also played with Ozzy before returning to Quiet Riot.

The Temperance Movement

The next track to catch my ear was from a new record by a band that had been on hiatus for a while: The Temperance Movement, with their brand-new album, New Promise Land Incorporated, and the single “Always Been Love”.

The first thing that hit me on this track was that opening guitar riff. It cut through the mix perfectly, while all the other instruments had plenty of space around it. Then, of course, Phil Campbell’s powerful vocals kicked in with great presence, pulling the track together.

I highly recommend getting this album on your playlist or, even cooler, buying it on vinyl. You know it makes sense!

Is the Cyrus 80 AMP worth the upgrade?

For me, a very big, resounding yes! The Cyrus 80 AMP really is the whole package. Alongside the extra power, it offers multiple inputs, the aforementioned MM/MC phono stage and, of course, built-in BluOS, as well as that phenomenal display that shows off the album artwork. It feels like the ultimate all-in-one, high-end integrated amplifier for my listening habits.

“Is the Cyrus 80 AMP worth the upgrade? For me, a very big, resounding yes!”

Could I see myself upgrading to the 80 AMP?

Personally, I can see it on the horizon, and I’d love one. As they say, once you’ve heard it, you can’t unhear it! But right now, it’s a pretty big jump for me, especially as I’m just moving house.

For fellow 40 AMP owners, it’s also worth remembering that there’s another upgrade route: adding the 40 PSU. Cyrus quotes an increase from 100W to 113W per channel into 6 ohms, alongside the wider performance benefits of the external power supply. It’s an option I’d recommend hearing for yourself.

If you’d like to put these two amplifiers up against each other, as I have, get in touch with us at Audio T Cardiff or speak to your local Audio T store about arranging a demonstration. Bring along some music you know well and see which one gets your head nodding. I highly recommend it!

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and for following the next chapter in my Hi-Fi journey. For now, the 40 AMP is staying put, but I suspect this won’t be the last you hear from me about the 80 AMP!

Matt - Audio T Cardiff

If you have any questions about anything covered in this article, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Cyrus can be found at the following Audio T stores

• CARDIFF

• MANCHESTER

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWINDON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• CHELTENHAM

What should I Naim this? Inside the Naim Factory: From New Classic to Statement

Louis and Martin from Audio T Brighton recently visited the Naim factory to see how its products are made and hear the range in action. From the engineering behind Statement to a listening session through the New Classic range, Louis shares what they discovered along the way.

The Naim factory tour was quite the experience, that's for sure. Although the traditional lab coats were gone, Naim's energetic and welcoming atmosphere was still as strong as ever. This time the focus of the visit was for Martin and me to get some first-hand listening experience with the full Naim Classic range, while also learning more about the thinking, engineering and processes behind some of the company's most iconic products. The ultimate aim was to explore what separates each step along the journey from the Naim 200 Series all the way to the legendary Naim Statement, an incredible opportunity on many levels.

My first look at Naim Statement

Our visit began with a brief look around the demonstration room, where we were given our first glimpse of the impressive-looking Naim Statement (pre and power).

Naim statement pre and duel power

We also had the chance to see some of Naim's earlier equipment, including specially made, distinctive acrylic-topped units which were particularly cool to see in person, offering a glimpse into the company's design history and the evolution of the familiar Naim aesthetic.

An old nap 250 classicS acrylic demo edition.

From there, we headed onto the factory floor to see some of the manufacturing processes first-hand, including the assembly of the Naim Statement. This was where things started to get particularly interesting. Rather than simply seeing the finished products, we were able to get hands-on experience following parts of the manufacturing processes and a closer look at the components and engineering that go into building them.

Transformers at the heart of the sound

Our first stop was the transformers – the heart of Naim's amplification designs, and certainly not components to be messed with. The sheer size of the coils was striking. Throughout the tour, we were given the opportunity to handle various components, but I don't think a single one of us managed to pick up the Statement's transformer, and no one seemed particularly keen to risk putting their back out trying!

Can you guess what this one is?

The scale of the transformers used in products such as the NAP 250 was especially surprising to me: about half the internal volume of these devices was taken up by the coils – which just shows that their surprisingly meagre power ratings say very little about the quality and scale of sound they produce. We would get a particularly impressive demonstration of this later, when the NAP 250 was given the job of driving a pair of enormous Focal loudspeakers in the demonstration room.

naim statement transformers

Moving on from the transformers, we got a closer look at various other stages of the Statement assembly. While the impressively large capacitors were certainly a sight to behold, I was particularly interested in the chassis construction of each stage. As shown in the picture, the milled metal construction is hefty. The sheer thermal mass capacity of the design is impressive, with the symmetrical dual internal heatsink fins helping to dissipate the stored thermal energy from the amplifier's output stages efficiently. But obviously, more importantly, it looks wicked cool.

Naim statement chassis assembly

Super Lumina: the details behind the cables

The next focus point, unsurprisingly, was cables. Naim likes their cables – a lot, and it has some pretty good reasons why. During the tour, I was lucky enough to watch one of the technicians assemble some of Naim's famous Super Lumina cable, which was certainly quite interesting but also raised some questions. Firstly, in each Super Lumina cable, a small incision is cut into the cable housing, and a resistor is soldered between the L- and R-channel metal shielding. This resistor is certainly not there just for looks, especially since it is covered up underneath the housing that controls the cable split at the speaker end. It was explained to me that this resistor differs depending on the length of the cable (3m, 5m, 7m, and so forth) and is one of the reasons behind these preset length options. From what I gathered, the resistor's job is to help regulate the resistance differences between the different lengths of shielding, helping to manage RF interference as the cable length changes. As I understood it, there was additional discussion on how this resistor would also help standardise the change in total cable resistance between cable lengths – ideally so that the amp always sees the same value regardless of length.

SUPER LUMINA INTEGRATED RESISTOR

Another curious technique I was surprised to learn about within Super Lumina was its multi-layered conductor design. The basic layout of each polarity wire consists of a central copper conductor surrounded by a shielding layer, which is then surrounded by another copper conductive layer, connected to the first at both ends of the cable. This is then covered by an additional shielding layer. Although, once again, I may have misunderstood some of the finer details, our discussions centred around the idea that, as audio travels down a wire, its frequencies partially separate, with the higher frequencies moving towards the outer edges of the cable and the lower frequencies moving more towards the centre. This is part of the reasoning behind the two-layered conductive design of Super Lumina, which aims to take advantage of this natural separation to create better isolation and separation for ultimate clarity.

Cable manufacturing

The famous Naim cable shaker

Continuing with the cable discussion, the famous Naim “cable shaker” (or “wiggle machine” according to my partner) was next on the itinerary. Although rather comical, it serves a genuine purpose. Naim claims it makes a significant difference to the sound of its interconnects, to the extent that it takes the time to run each cable through it twice! The shaker links back to a core principle behind every aspect of Naim's design: decoupling! Naim recommends that all cables are left hanging loose and without tension, avoiding twists or kinks that put strain on the wire or terminals. By allowing the cable to hang freely, the “loose” cable terminals can remain as such, reducing the amount of mechanical vibration transferred between the loudspeaker and the amp or preamp. Speakers have large mechanical forces at work, so preventing those vibrations from reaching the amplification equipment is something Naim has identified as highly beneficial to the sound. So, how does the cable shaker relate to this? Well, it's simple! It shakes them loose! Giving the cables a good shake helps the fresh rubber loosen up and gain elasticity, while also helping the copper settle internally. This reduces overall rigidity and stiffness, allowing the cables to hang more naturally.

The famous Naim cable shaker

Demo time (aka the fun bit)

After some very welcome lunch in the Naim canteen, we settled down in the demo room for a run-through the current Naim separates range. We took up our listening positions in front of a pair of ‘just run-in’ Focal Utopia III Evo floorstanders. Jason and Tom from Naim assured us that the speakers, priced at around £35k, would allow us to hear the benefits of any system upgrades made.

We began the listening session with the entry-level NSC 222 streamer/pre-amp and NAP 250 power amp. Our initial assumption was that the entry-level combo might struggle with the Focals. We were, however, surprised by how good they sounded, with plenty of resolution and dynamics available.

We continued to progress through the range, with the NSS 333 streamer/NAC 332 pre-amp and NAP 350 monoblocks up next, and again the extra dynamic headroom and increased clarity levels were readily apparent.

What a power supply upgrade can do

Jason then introduced an NPX 300 power supply to each component, from the NSC 222 to the NSS 333 streamer and NAC 332 pre-amp, and the sequence was repeated. The sound became smoother and more resolving, whilst losing none of its dynamics. Jason explained Naim’s ethos of customers being able to upgrade the performance of their existing components that they know and enjoy, just by adding a separate power supply. By removing the interference caused by having a power supply active in the same chassis as sensitive audio electronics, audible improvements to the sound quality were made. We had listened to a track, ‘One of a Kind’ by Tia Gordon, which demonstrated the differences well.

Making a Statement

Finally, we were treated to the ND 555 streamer and Naim Statement. With over 700 watts of power on tap, we held on to our seats! Jason played ‘Stimela (The Coal Train)’, a live recording by South African jazz artist Hugh Masekela. The track builds from a syncopated bass drum and cowbell riff that makes you smirk with the sheer power and dynamics present. We also listened to Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’. I’ve heard this track many times before, but was amazed by the ability of the Statement to pull out details and vocal inflections I’d never heard before.

Similarly, Buddy Holly’s ‘True Love Ways’, recorded in the 1950s, sounded fantastic over the Statement, with a real sense of being in the studio with the musicians if you closed your eyes when listening.

From the sheer scale of the Statement’s transformers to the tiny details in a Super Lumina cable, the visit gave Martin and me a greater appreciation of the work behind Naim’s products. Hearing the systems afterwards brought it all together, showing how those engineering decisions translate into the listening experience. Seeing the care taken to keep older equipment playing was another real highlight.

A big thank you to Jason and Tom for a very entertaining and informative day, and for taking the time to share their knowledge and answer our questions. We came away with plenty to think about and a few tracks to revisit back in Brighton. There’s certainly a lot going on behind those familiar Naim boxes!

Thanks for reading.

Louis - Audio T Brighton

If you have any questions about anything covered in this article, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Naim can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• BRISTOL

Cyrus Audio 80 Amp: Serious Power and One-Box Convenience

The 80 Amp is much more than Cyrus’s first full-width product - it may well be the company’s most important product in years.

Alan at Audio T Southampton has been listening to the Cyrus 80 Amp in store and at home. Here, he shares his thoughts on its sound, streaming features and what Cyrus’s move to full-width casework means for this all-in-one amplifier.

The cyrus 80 Amp opens a new chapter in the company’s story

There is a long history of hi-fi brands sticking to their guns when it comes to the engineering and design principles baked into their products.

In large part, this is a function of the fact that so many renowned hi-fi brands were founded by enthusiasts who were chasing the best sound, as they saw it, rather than solely the bottom line on a balance sheet.

Being driven by passion as much as profit meant that the founding philosophies continued to guide product development for decades. You only have to think of the enduring design principles behind classic products like the Linn LP12 and Rega Planar turntables.

Cyrus Audio is another great example of this approach. Beginning life as a spin-off from Mission Electronics, it launched the Cyrus One integrated amplifier in 1984 in what was to become iconic half-width casework.

The groundbreaking Cyrus One amplifier

Despite being a keenly priced amp, it used high-quality components and short signal paths to show what a pocket-friendly hi-fi product could achieve in terms of sound quality.

Later iterations retained the half-width cases but introduced further changes, including aluminium alloys to reduce electromagnetic interference, mounting the transformers to the top inside of the cases, off-board power supplies and countless other improvements over the years.

From the early days, the Cyrus sound has majored on detail, agility and timing. At their best, Cyrus products could make competitors sound heavy-footed.

fast, agile and detailed - the cyrus CDi

But it was also true to say that Cyrus owners, and I was one for many years, sometimes craved a little more weight and fullness in what was, by design, a lean sound. And, if we weren’t careful when it came to system matching, that wonderfully agile and transparent sound could edge towards brightness.

With the launch of the 40 series two years ago and now the 80 series, Cyrus have opened a new chapter in their history.

The 40 series – comprising amp, streamer, CD player and power supply – moved away from the company’s familiar half-sized, die-cast cases with slightly chunkier (albeit nowhere near full-width) aluminium boxes.

The 80 amp is building on the success of the current cyrus 40 series

They retain that wonderfully agile Cyrus house sound but add a little more warmth into the mix to produce what is, for want of a better word, a lusher overall presentation.

The 80 series – 80 Amp, 80 Pre, 80 Power – takes this evolution a step further with full-width aluminium casework, ending four decades of familiar, compact Cyrus design. The good news is that all that extra space means there’s room for more amplification and a whole lot else besides.

In fact, the Cyrus 80 Amp is the most powerful integrated amplifier ever sold by Cyrus, outputting 150 watts into 8 ohms. Only the Mono X200 and X300 power amps produced by Cyrus exceeded this.

A Cyrus Mono x300 brought new levels of power to the brand

We have had a Cyrus 80 Amp in the Southampton shop for a few weeks now and have been hugely impressed with this new unit, which combines streaming, amplification and pre-amp connectivity.

The 80 Amp sits among what some might term hi-fi ‘lifestyle’ products, that is, attractive one-box audio solutions. Lifestyle is not a particularly good term because it could be taken to imply a slight lack of ‘proper’ hi-fi credibility or even a whiff of style-over-substance.

The 80 Amp is very much in the same category as the Naim Uniti Nova, Hegel H400 or the Arcam Radia SA45. And anyone dismissing such products as somehow not proper hi-fi would be sorely mistaken.

OK, they are single-box solutions and, as we know, by separating hi-fi functions into separate boxes, we reduce the risk of electromagnetic interference and increase the space available for optimising components and layout.

So comparably priced separates may well deliver more detail, a lower noise floor and a wider and deeper soundstage and so on – albeit likely at a greater cost given you would need to buy more than one box plus the necessary interconnect cables.

But for those looking for a quality hi-fi system without the need for multiple boxes, with all their interconnects and power cables, products like Cyrus 80 Amp offer a slice of genuine mid-to-high-end sound in a beautifully functional package.

What’s in the box

All that extra room in the casework means that the 80 can offer a gutsy 150 watts per channel of class A/B amplification, giving it the sort of power and headroom expected from a serious standalone integrated or power amplifier.

The 80 also has a sophisticated digital-to-analogue section, analogue connectivity, a built-in MM/MC phono stage, headphone amplification and integrated network streaming.

It uses the well-established and slick BluOS operating system for streaming, which means it offers user-friendly access to all the main streaming services, including Qobuz and Tidal, with support up to 24-bit/192kHz. It supports Apple AirPlay 2 and is certified Roon Ready.

In terms of connectivity, the 80 Amp is well-furnished, offering four RCA analogue line inputs, balanced XLR analogue inputs, two optical inputs, two coaxial inputs, an asynchronous USB-B input, an HDMI eARC input, an RCA pre-amplifier output and a balanced XLR pre-amplifier output.

The 80 amp is well-furnished with inputs and outputs

Cyrus has paid particular attention to the digital circuitry. The 80 Amp uses the audiophile ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M 32-bit DAC chip, with Cyrus pointing out that its implementation has been extensively optimised at both component and circuit-board level. It supports PCM up to 24-bit/192kHz and DSD256.

The chip is only part of the story. Power supply design, analogue output circuitry, clocking and board layout all influence the final result. And Cyrus has paid attention to all of these in the digital section to optimise sound.

The sound

The worst thing the Cyrus engineers could have done with the 80 series was to drastically alter the Cyrus sound along with the looks. Cyrus kit is famed for its agile, open, fast sound and you tamper with that ‘house sound’ at your peril.

Happily, the engineers have not only retained the characteristic transparency, speed and timing but they have augmented it considerably thanks, in considerable part, to the additional clean power available.

There is an authority and effortlessness to the 80’s presentation that no legacy Cyrus amplifier, barring perhaps the previously mentioned Cyrus Mono X200 or Mono X300s, could hope to match.

Yet that weight and power are deployed deftly. There is excellent control over the low frequencies which have heft but produce basslines which are tight and musical.

With great power comes responsibility and the Cyrus 80 deploys its muscle deftly

That extra grunt helps the Cyrus 80 Amp maintain a spacious and open soundstage within which voices and instruments have room to shine.

Give the 80 Amp a well-recorded orchestral piece, live recording or densely produced rock track and its power reserves become increasingly apparent.

The presentation has scale, with instruments occupying their own space rather than crashing together when the arrangement becomes busy. Dynamic contrasts also have room to breathe. Quiet passages can remain intimate before the amplifier opens up when the recording demands it.

The move to a substantial 150W Class A/B design makes absolute sense by providing additional headroom and contributing to a feeling of effortlessness.

The midrange retains Cyrus’s characteristic openness and transparency. But there is more control, precision and texture in the way voices are projected. With the right recording and speakers, the 80’s midrange presentation is hugely engaging.

Move into the treble and the same philosophy is evident. Detail is readily available, but the 80 is no high-frequency show-off. Treble performance is better integrated into the whole musical presentation than in earlier Cyrus integrated amps, giving the 80 a superb musical coherence and balance.

Overall, the Cyrus 80 Amp is a beautifully poised and polished performer. It is like the 40 series but with extra grunt, giving it a more dynamic, beefier sound. Yet it loses nothing of its smaller stablemate’s detail and transparency, and arguably that extra power affords the 80 a more open and controlled soundstage.

And if the 80 Amp is anything to go by, then the 80 Pre and Power amps, which we are due to get our hands on soon in the Southampton shop, should be a cracking combination. Plus you can upgrade to a pair of 80 Powers and run them in bridged-mono configuration, which promises a further mouth-watering upgrade in performance.

Having listened to the 80 Amp in the shop and at home on a number of occasions, I expect it will prove very easy to live with. Whereas in the past Cyrus owners might have thought it wise to steer clear of speakers and cables with a reputation for brightness, the 80 Amp seems far less fussy about partnering equipment.

Of course, different partnering equipment will change the sound you get from the 80. But it seems to us that you would have to go some to unsettle this impressively composed amplifier.

Conclusion

The 80 Amp's biggest achievement may ultimately be how much functionality it manages to combine without losing sight of its primary purpose, which is to deliver a genuinely hi-fi musical performance.

You get BluOS, Roon Ready functionality, AirPlay 2, a high-resolution DAC, MM/MC phono, HDMI eARC, USB, optical and coaxial digital inputs, balanced connectivity, a headphone amplifier and 150W-per-channel Class A/B amplification. There is a full-colour 5-inch TFT display on the front panel.

That makes the 80 Amp considerably more than a traditional integrated amplifier. It is effectively a complete digital and analogue music hub.

Its strongest selling point isn't any one specification. It's the combination: serious Class A/B power, high-resolution digital processing, BluOS streaming, vinyl support, TV connectivity and balanced analogue connections in one box.

Sonically, the emphasis is on control, clarity, detail and dynamic confidence rather than gimmicky hi-fi fireworks. Pair it with a capable set of loudspeakers and the 80 Amp easily has what it takes to become the centrepiece of a genuinely high-performing hi-fi system.

I’ll stick my neck out here and say that, based on what I’ve seen and heard over the past few weeks, the 80 Amp is shaping up to be one of the most significant and best Cyrus products in a long time.

Thanks for reading.

Alan - Audio T Southampton

If you have any questions about anything covered in this article, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Cyrus can be found at the following Audio T stores

• CARDIFF

• MANCHESTER

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWINDON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• CHELTENHAM

Does Hi-Fi Have to Be Expensive? Why System Matching Matters

Can money buy you more musical satisfaction? Well, it certainly can. There are some wonderful high-end Hi-Fi systems out there, and extra investment can bring very real improvements. But getting a system right involves rather more than adding up the price tags.

Some of the most enjoyable set-ups I have heard have been comparatively modest affairs, carefully chosen so that the individual components work together. The sort that has you reaching for another record and losing track of the time.

So, does Hi-Fi have to be expensive to be any good? In my experience, there is a great deal of musical enjoyment to be had from spending carefully. Come with me now and I will show you one of those wonderful music makers!

So Good I Had to Write About It

I have recently had in our demo room a system comprising the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition turntable, Rega Brio MK7 amplifier, Arcam Radia CD5 compact disc player, Bluesound NODE ICON streamer and Acoustic Energy AE1 40th Anniversary loudspeakers. It sounds sooooooo good I just had to write about it!

That systen in our demo room

Now, with three different sources, this is still a substantial investment. You could, of course, start with the format you play most and add the others later. The point here is how much musical enjoyment these carefully chosen components deliver together for the money.

Source First

Turntable first. I have always been a great believer in getting the source right. Information lost at the beginning cannot be put back further down the line, so it makes sense to give the component playing your music some proper consideration.

For me, vinyl is still the best way to play my music, and here we have the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition. The factory-fitted Nd5 moving magnet cartridge and included Neo Mk2 power supply make this a very appealing package. The latter also gives you electronic speed selection, saving a little faffing about when changing between albums and singles.

It is a serious record player, and a rather good place to start if you want to hear just how much enjoyment is tucked away in those grooves.

Still Spinning

Next source component is the Arcam Radia CD5, a CD spinner that, to my ears, takes some beating for the money.

If you have shelves full of CDs, a good player deserves a place on your shortlist. Those carefully collected discs can still provide years of musical enjoyment, and a system like this is a very good excuse to get a few old favourites off the shelf again.

Streaming Icon

The Bluesound NODE ICON is being roped in for streaming duties here because it sounds great and is so easy to set up and use. The BluOS app is a joy to use, which counts for rather a lot when you are browsing for something to listen to.

Bluesound Node Icon

Its dual-mono DAC design gives it some serious digital credentials, but the everyday pleasure of finding and playing music matters just as much. Being able to follow a musical hunch, look up an artist and disappear down a rabbit hole of new discoveries is a wonderful thing.

A Little Brio

Volume control, input selection and the business of driving the loudspeakers are being handled by the Rega Brio MK7 amplifier. One model up from the entry level in Rega’s amplifier range, the Brio remains, for me, one of the most musically rewarding amplifiers in its class.

Rega Brio MK7 AMplifier

Its built-in moving magnet phono stage also means the Planar 3 RS can plug straight in. A useful bit of system matching that keeps the box count down and gives the turntable a suitable partner from the outset.

Bringing Up the Rear

Bringing up the rear, so to speak, are the beautiful little Acoustic Energy AE1 40th Anniversary loudspeakers. Mini marvels that sound way bigger than they have any right to. Do not be put off by their small size!

Mounted upon the Solidsteel SS-6 loudspeaker stands and cabled up with some Chord Company OdysseyX speaker cable, the AE1s sound truly holographic and are an utter joy to sit in front of. I chose Rega Couple 3 interconnects to feed the signals from the CD player and streamer into the amplifier and complete the set-up.

It also pays to spend a little time on speaker positioning. Giving a pair of loudspeakers the right support and finding where they work best in your room can make a considerable difference to the result. Another part of getting the system right.

Wig Out With the Smoke Fairies

Musical duties throughout were mainly, but not exclusively, handled by Smoke Fairies’ The Three of Us EP and the rather wonderful Wig Out at Jagbags album by ex-Pavement man Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.

wig out with the fairies

For good measure, and to see how the system handled the less well-recorded side of things, there was also a live version of Do Anything You Wanna Do by Eddie and the Hot Rods!

That last choice matters. Our favourite music does not always arrive wrapped in a pristine recording, and I want a system that makes me want to play the records I love, rough edges and all.

The All-Important System Synergy

The all-important thing here is system synergy. It is very often glossed over, but it has an enormous bearing on how much enjoyment you get from your Hi-Fi.

Reviews and specifications can help you draw up a shortlist. Listening to the components together tells you how well they get along. The amplifier needs to suit the speakers, the speakers need to suit the room, and the whole lot needs to suit you.

Simply assembling a collection of well-reviewed products does not guarantee that they will make the right system for your ears. Choose an unfortunate combination and you could find yourself thinking of a blender full of marbles!

A carefully matched system gives each component the chance to do its job properly. That principle applies just as much to a modest set-up as it does to something considerably more exotic. Whatever your budget, getting the combination right helps you make the most of it.

This Is Where We Come In

This, of course, is where we come into our own. We have been doing this for a long time. In fact, we have over 100 years’ experience between the three of us here in Cheltenham, and an awful lot of listening has gone into choosing the equipment we stock.

We spend time trying different combinations, moving things about and finding the components that work well together. It also means we can help you build around equipment you already own, choosing where an upgrade will do the most good.

If you would like to hear this system for yourself, please pop into Audio T Cheltenham or give us a call to arrange a listen. Bring some favourite music along and tell us a little about your room and what you would like to spend.

this months blog writing essentials

You really can get great performance without spending bonkers amounts of money. A little careful choosing goes a long way!

Many thanks for reading.

Andy, Audio T Cheltenham

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not read some more of our blogs and follow us on our social media channels below…

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Audio T Stores:

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE
  
  

Are Cheap Headphones Any Good? I Let My Ears Decide

The days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and the jumpers are coming back out. That can mean only one thing: Christmas shopping isn’t far behind.

Headphones are always a popular present, but are the cheapest pairs actually worth buying? Audio T’s Head of Marketing, Brad Tyler, puts a pair of wireless headphones to the test and asks whether budget means bargain or false economy…

For reasons that I’m sure made perfect sense at the time, I subscribe to a monthly raffle that tempts entrants with the prospect that one day somebody will knock on the door holding an enormous cheque. You’ve probably seen the adverts. They appear every time you turn on the television or listen to the radio.

So, when an email arrived announcing that I was a winner, my imagination got slightly carried away. For a few brief seconds, I had paid off the mortgage, bought a campervan and made several completely unnecessary additions to my record collection.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite the life-changing windfall I had already spent in my head.

Instead, I could choose from an assortment of bric-a-brac, including luxury teabags, food-storage containers and various other household items. All perfectly useful, I’m sure, but none were likely to have me running excitedly down the street in my slippers.

Then I spotted some earbuds, wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers from a brand I had never encountered before. A quick scout online suggested that they generally sold for between £25 and £35. And so I thought to myself, “How good could they actually be?”

Curiosity got the better of me, so I ordered a pair of wireless over-ear headphones to find out.

Setting Expectations

Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight. I wasn’t expecting £30 wireless headphones to perform miracles, and I’m not here to give an unknown manufacturer a public kicking. From what I can tell, these appear to be generic OEM headphones produced to a very tight budget, which is precisely why I wanted to try them.

This also isn’t about looking down our noses at inexpensive products. £30 is still £30, particularly when household budgets are stretched, and not everybody wants or needs to spend a small fortune simply to listen to some music.

I wanted to know whether the cheapest end of the wireless market could offer a genuine bargain or whether that tempting price would prove to be a false economy. I tested one pair rather than an entire warehouse, and no laboratory coats were worn, so consider this an honest account rather than a verdict on every affordable headphone ever made.

“Turn Up Your Moments”, Apparently

The headphones arrived while I was enjoying my usual pre-work coffee. Inside the delivery packaging was a retail box that could politely be described as functional. It was plain, slightly bland and gave very little away.

There were none of the familiar Bluetooth, Google Fast Pair or Apple compatibility logos. Their absence doesn’t automatically make a product poor, but recognisable compatibility information can offer some reassurance about features and support.

I did find a CE mark, although this indicates declared conformity with the applicable requirements. It isn’t a rosette awarded for outstanding sound quality.

Opening the box revealed the slogan:

“Turn up your moments.”

I’m still not entirely sure what that means. It sounds like something AI would generate for a motivational fridge magnet, or perhaps the tagline on a poster for a Zumba class.

I briefly disappeared down a Google Translate rabbit hole and discovered that, if you take “turn up your moments” and send it back and forth between English and Simplified Chinese, you eventually arrive at “Make your moments even more spectacular.” That does sound better, to be fair... but only just.

Alongside the headphones were a short USB-C cable and some safety information. There were no operating instructions, no quick-start guide and no explanation of what any of the buttons did. There was also a mysterious 3.5mm socket, but no cable or indication whether it would work with a flat battery.

That was a small plastic mystery for another day.

The Ghost of Headphones Past

The first thing I noticed was how light the headphones felt. Lightweight headphones can be a good thing, but these didn’t feel carefully engineered to be light. They felt light because there simply wasn’t much to them.

The construction was almost entirely plastic. Nothing creaked, snapped or immediately fell off, but they didn’t inspire much confidence about how they might look after a few months of daily use.

To give them some credit, they sat quite nicely on my head. The earcups fitted around my ears and the soft pleather cushions initially felt comfortable.

Unfortunately, I know how this particular story ends. I was immediately transported back to Year 7 music lessons, wearing battered school headphones with cracked and flaking black cushions. By the end of the lesson, pieces of pleather would be attached to your forehead, leaving you looking as though you had developed a strange skin condition.

Naturally, somebody else would notice before you did.

Children can be brutal.

Manual? Never Heard of Her

With no instructions to follow, there was only one thing for it: plug them in and hope for the best.

I connected the USB-C cable and a small red LED appeared beneath one earcup. Just over an hour later, it went out. Either the headphones were fully charged or they had simply given up. I decided to be optimistic.

After pressing several buttons and achieving absolutely nothing, I held down the largest one I could find. This is the internationally recognised procedure for dealing with an electronic product when you haven’t read, or in this case haven’t been given, the instructions.

The LED flashed red and blue, the headphones appeared in my MacBook Pro’s Bluetooth settings and they connected without any fuss. I still didn’t know which codec they were using or what several of the buttons did, but music was coming through both earcups.

Success. Of a sort.

A Zimmer Frame of Reference

My musical taste has always been a bit all over the place. I spent my younger years playing in punk bands, went through an avant-garde electronic and ambient phase while studying Studio Recording and Live Sound, and somehow ended up assisting on classical orchestral recordings along the way.

When testing headphones or a hi-fi system, I often begin with film scores. A full orchestra gives you deep bass, a busy midrange, delicate high-frequency detail and enormous dynamic swings. If there is an obvious weakness, this sort of music usually finds it.

My trusty qobuz playlist for such an OCCASION

My playlist includes plenty of Hans Zimmer, including “One Day” from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, “Chevaliers de Sangreal” from The Da Vinci Code and several tracks from Disney’s The Lion King. From there, it moves through John Murphy, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, John Williams and Philip Glass.

It is wonderfully dramatic music, and these headphones certainly added some drama of their own.

Bass, Bass and a Little More Bass

My first impression? Bass. Lots of it.

This wasn’t deep, controlled bass with any real shape or texture. It was simply big, heavy and determined to make itself the most important part of everything I played.

Lower notes arrived with plenty of force but very little definition. The midrange sounded thin and distant, pushing strings, voices and other familiar details into the background. At the top end, the treble was bright, sharp and occasionally piercing.

The overall balance felt completely wrong. The bass and treble had both turned up looking for a fight, while the midrange appeared to have stayed at home.

There was no companion app or built-in equaliser to calm any of this down. I could have experimented with software equalisation on the MacBook, but a straightforward pair of wireless headphones shouldn’t need a rescue operation before the first few tracks have finished.

After several orchestral pieces, I had to admit that the experience was fairly unpleasant. Then I wondered whether I was being unfair. Perhaps film scores simply weren’t what these headphones wanted.

Nu-Metal, Same Old Problem

Maybe they wanted something younger, louder and considerably less likely to involve a French horn.

As I have absolutely no idea what teenagers are listening to in 2026, I returned to what my friends and I enjoyed in our early teens. This led to an unexpected session featuring Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Slipknot and My Chemical Romance.

The headphones coped slightly better with these dense, heavily produced recordings. The exaggerated low end gave the drums and bass plenty of weight, while the aggressive treble added bite to the distorted guitars.

Unfortunately, it was still too much. I repeatedly turned the volume down because everything became overbearing surprisingly quickly. This could be a sign of increasing wisdom and maturity, although it is more likely to mean that I am now 40 and need a sit down.

The enjoyment came from rediscovering the music, not from hearing it reproduced particularly well.

The Search for Something… Anything…

Not ready to give up, I threw just about everything else I could think of at them: Mumford & Sons, Dolly Parton, The Streets and an assortment of fairly middle-of-the-road pop from the past 25 years.

I even listened to a guilty pleasure that I cannot believe I am publicly divulging: Tinchy Stryder’s “Number 1”.

There. It’s out in the open now. We all have our secrets.

Eventually, I returned to familiar punk recordings from The Bouncing Souls, The Clash, NOFX and Rancid. These are songs I have listened to for decades, so I know where the guitars, backing vocals and smaller details should sit within the mix.

Through these headphones, some of those elements seemed to have disappeared. They were still present, of course, but the oversized bass and abrasive treble were masking them. Familiar songs sounded like completely different mixes that nobody had asked for.

My Ears Lodge a Formal Complaint

After around an hour, my ears lodged a formal complaint in the form of a familiar ache above the bridge of my nose.

It took me back to university, when long mixing sessions usually involved an approaching coursework deadline, far too much coffee and the realisation that I should have started several weeks earlier.

This is commonly described as listening fatigue. It isn’t a specific medical diagnosis, and developing a headache doesn’t automatically mean that you have damaged your hearing. It is a useful term for the mental and physical tiredness that can develop when listening begins to feel like hard work.

Poor fit, clamping pressure, heat, excessive volume and long sessions can all contribute. An unbalanced sound can also become tiring because you find yourself trying to pick out details that are being masked by the bass or overwhelmed by aggressive treble.

Bluetooth compression, dynamic range compression and distortion are separate technical issues, and poor sound alone isn’t proof of hearing damage. The main risk is much simpler: listening too loudly for too long.

“Turn Up Your Moments”… Within Reason

According to the World Health Organization’s safe-listening guidance, its adult reference is around 40 hours per week at 80dB, but only four hours at 90dB. Keeping your device below 60% volume is a useful rule of thumb, although actual output varies between headphones and devices.

Persistent ringing, muffled hearing or difficulty following conversations shouldn’t be ignored. In my case, I stopped listening. Encouraging me to turn the volume down was probably the most positive thing these headphones achieved all morning.

Price alone doesn’t determine whether headphones are dangerous. A £30 pair used sensibly isn’t automatically riskier than a £300 pair, while expensive headphones played too loudly can still cause harm. Your ears don’t care what was written on the price tag.

The experience also made me think about children using headphones with tablets. As a new parent, I completely understand the appeal. Sometimes you need ten quiet minutes, and I’m told an episode of Bluey may be the only thing standing between you and complete societal collapse.

The WHO uses a more cautious reference for children of 75dB for 40 hours per week. Proper fit, reliable volume limiting, sensible listening levels and regular breaks therefore matter far more than bright colours or cartoon characters

So, Are Cheap Headphones Any Good?

In the case of this particular pair, no. They connected, sat reasonably comfortably on my head and produced sound, but they made familiar recordings feel unbalanced, incomplete and tiring.

In the interests of fairness, I gave them another 15 hours of use before returning to the same tracks. If running-in was going to perform a miracle, it had apparently declined the invitation. They may have loosened slightly, but the overpowering bass, recessed midrange and piercing treble hadn’t meaningfully changed.

However, that doesn’t mean affordable headphones are inherently bad or that you must spend inordinate amounts to get something that is enjoyable. The problem is that, at the very cheapest end of the wireless market, one small price has to cover the drivers, Bluetooth electronics, battery, controls and everything else. Inevitably, compromises have to be made.

For only a little more, established manufacturers such as Sony, Sennheiser and the other brands we stock can offer properly developed alternatives from decades of manufacturing experience, with more considered sound, clearer support and greater confidence in what you are buying.

The Sony WH-CH530 Wireless Headphones, for example, are an affordable model from a recognised manufacturer and are available in six colours. If wireless features aren’t essential, a similarly priced wired model may offer even better sound for the money.

That isn’t about telling somebody with a limited budget to spend a fortune. It is about helping them avoid spending £30 on something disappointing when a relatively small step up could provide far greater enjoyment and better long-term value.

At Audio T, customers looking for affordable headphones are every bit as welcome as somebody shopping at the other end of the range. Tell us what you listen to, where you’ll use them and what you can realistically afford. Bring your own phone or favourite playlist, try a few options and decide with your own ears.

We aren’t going to steer everybody towards the most expensive pair in the shop. You may discover that the least expensive model you try is also the one you like most. The point is to find something that suits your music, requirements and budget.

So, are cheap headphones any good? Some certainly can be. But there is an important difference between something that is merely cheap and something that represents genuinely good value.

As for my raffle prize, I’m still wondering whether I should have chosen the teabags.

Thanks for reading.

Brad Tyler
Head of Marketing at Audio T

If you’re considering a new pair of headphones, contact your local Audio T for friendly advice and the opportunity to arrange a demonstration.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not read some more of our blogs and follow us on our social media channels below…

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Headphones & Earbuds can be found in all Audio T stores:

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

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• BRISTOL

• ONLINE STORE

A Tale of Four Streamers: From Budget to Serious Hi-Fi

Music streamers have become increasingly popular over the last few years, and it is easy to see why. Access to a vast choice of artists and recordings, thousands of internet radio stations and a seemingly endless supply of podcasts is a rather beguiling proposition. Whether you are revisiting old favourites or discovering something completely new, there is an enormous amount of music at your fingertips.

Off the back of our popular Streaming is Believing events across all Audio T stores, we thought we’d take a closer look at four music streamers here at Audio T Swindon. With models from WiiM, Bluesound, Eversolo and Cyrus, we’re moving from an affordable introduction to streaming through to more ambitious hi-fi territory. What do you get as you move up the range, and where might it make sense to spend a little more?

Do music streamers really sound different?

We often get asked, “Do they sound different? Surely it is all just ones and zeros?” It is a conversation that takes me back to the early days of CD. The digital recording is only part of the story: when you use a streamer's analogue outputs, its digital-to-analogue converter, or DAC, and the surrounding circuitry also play a part in what reaches your amplifier.

Firstly, there is clocking. Jitter describes tiny variations in the timing of the digital audio clock, which can introduce distortion during conversion if they are not adequately controlled. Well-designed DACs can suppress jitter, so its effect depends on the implementation. It is not an automatic explanation for every difference we hear.

Secondly, there is electrical noise, including radio-frequency interference. If this is not sufficiently controlled, it can affect sensitive analogue circuitry. Power supply design, circuit layout, shielding and grounding all have a role to play.

Lastly, there is the DAC and its analogue output stage. The DAC converts digital audio into the analogue signal your amplifier can use. The conversion chip matters, but so do the power supplies, filtering and circuitry around it. A chip's specification alone does not tell you everything about the finished product.

How you connect the streamer matters, too. Using its analogue outputs includes its built-in DAC and output stage in the signal path. Connecting it digitally to a separate DAC changes which components are doing that work, so you should not assume the same listening comparisons will apply in both situations.

WiiM Pro Plus

WiiM has made quite an impact at the affordable end of the streaming market. There is plenty of choice within its range, but the Pro Plus and its bigger brother, the WiiM Ultra, represent particularly appealing options among its standalone streamers.

WiiM Pro Plus

Why should I buy it?

The Pro Plus is an excellent starting point if you want to dip your toes into streaming without blowing the budget. It is also a sensible partner for a modestly priced hi-fi system, bringing a wide choice of music and useful features to an amplifier and speakers you already enjoy.

WiiM Pro Plus (rear view)

Is it any good?

In a word, yes. The WiiM Home app is good, which matters more than you might initially think. If an app is clunky or unresponsive frustration soon follows, however capable the hardware might be.

The Pro Plus is compact and supports services including Spotify, TIDAL, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Presto Music. AirPlay 2, Google Cast and multi-room playback add to its flexibility. For someone taking their first steps into streaming there is a great deal to like.

Bluesound have been around for many years and during that time have built up an enviable reputation for high quality but still affordable streaming solutions.

Bluesound NODE

Bluesound has built an enviable reputation for high-quality streaming products that remain within reach of a wide range of listeners. The NODE is a familiar name for good reason, combining a well-established streaming platform with plenty of practical connectivity.

Bluesound NODE

Why should I buy it? Is it a step up from the WiiM?

To our ears, yes. A little larger than the WiiM, the NODE feels more substantial and offers a similarly broad choice of streaming services. Its connections include HDMI eARC for a compatible television, alongside two-way Bluetooth for receiving audio or transmitting it to compatible headphones or speakers. This makes it a useful hub for music and TV sound.

The BluOS app and wider BluOS system are particular strengths. It is one of our favourite streaming platforms, especially if you want to use compatible products in several rooms.

Bluesound NODE (Rear View)

Compared with the WiiM, we find the NODE's presentation more refined. Bass sounds fuller and carries more heft, while the soundstage feels more spacious and layered. Its overall character is smooth and easy-going. Both the NODE and its bigger brother, the NODE ICON, would make worthwhile additions to many existing hi-fi systems

Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2

Like WiiM, Eversolo has made a big impression in a relatively short space of time. The DMP-A8 Gen 2 takes us further into premium territory, with a more substantial build, a large touchscreen and features that allow it to play a wider role in a hi-fi system.

Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2

Why should I buy it? Is it a step up from the NODE?

For us, yes, and I sense a theme developing here. The all-metal construction and large display give the Eversolo a reassuring sense of quality. The app is very good, although a little busy at times, and support for Apple Music is a useful attraction alongside its other streaming options.

Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 (Rear View)

The DMP-A8 Gen 2 also includes an analogue preamplifier section with analogue volume control. This allows it to partner directly with a suitable power amplifier or active speakers, controlling the listening level without relying solely on digital volume adjustment. It is a useful option if you want your streamer to become the control centre of your system.

Topology: Special demonstration units of the Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 can be found in our stores with display windows to see the components inside

Compared with the NODE, we hear greater resolution, clearer separation and a more dynamic presentation, with improved depth and focus to the soundstage. These are our listening impressions of the complete product, rather than a judgement based solely on its DAC chip. This is a serious bit of kit, and if streaming is an important part of your listening, it is well worth considering.

Cyrus 40 ST and Cyrus 40 PSU

Cyrus has a long and successful history in hi-fi, and the 40 Series continues that story with a distinctive design and an emphasis on performance. The 40 ST can be bought on its own, with the option to add the 40 PSU external power supply either at the outset or further down the line.

Cyrus 40 ST

Why should I buy it? How does it compare with the Eversolo?

Build quality is superb, and the controls are well thought out. The 40 ST uses BluOS, the same streaming platform found in the Bluesound NODE, giving you access to the familiar app and its core selection of integrated music services. As mentioned earlier, this is one of our favourite platforms for everyday use.

Cyrus 40 ST (REAR VIEW)

The comparison with the Eversolo is rather more about personal preference. The Eversolo is very good indeed, but to our ears the Cyrus has the edge in rhythmic drive and musical flow. The Eversolo, meanwhile, arguably has the advantage in fine detail and ultimate resolution. Both have their attractions, which makes a direct listen particularly worthwhile.

The Cyrus 40 Amp, 40 ST and optional 40 PSU

One of the Cyrus's attractions is its upgrade path. The optional 40 PSU provides a separate, regulated power supply to key sections of the 40 ST, including the analogue side of its DAC and the BluOS network module.

With the 40 PSU connected, we find that fine musical details become easier to follow. Vocals and instruments are more clearly separated, with more space around them, while the bass sounds better controlled and the overall presentation cleaner. For someone who enjoys the 40 ST's character, it is an upgrade well worth hearing before deciding whether the additional investment makes sense.

Which music streamer is right for you?

These four streamers share a common purpose, but they offer different combinations of features, sound and flexibility. The WiiM Pro Plus is a very appealing way to bring streaming to an existing system without a large outlay. The Bluesound NODE adds the strengths of BluOS and useful TV connectivity, alongside a presentation we find more refined. The Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 combines an informative display and preamplifier facilities with an impressively detailed sound, while the Cyrus 40 ST offers an engaging musical presentation and the option of a later power supply upgrade.

The right choice depends on how you listen and what you already own. Think about your preferred streaming service, how comfortable you find the app, which connections you need and whether you will use the built-in DAC. If you already have a separate DAC you enjoy, that changes the comparison. Equally, an analogue preamplifier or HDMI eARC connection may be particularly useful in one system and barely relevant in another.

Visit us at Audio T Swindon

There is also the question of balance. A more expensive streamer may have plenty to offer, but the worthwhile upgrade is the one that makes sense with your amplifier, speakers and budget. Familiar music is useful here: listen to how easily you can follow a vocal, pick out instruments or enjoy the rhythm of a track. Comparing at closely matched listening levels helps you make a fairer judgement, too.

If you are choosing your first streamer or wondering what an upgrade might bring, get in touch with Audio T Swindon to arrange a demonstration. Tell us about your current system and bring along a few favourite tracks. We will be happy to talk through the options and help you choose something you will enjoy using as much as listening to.

Thanks for reading. We look forward to welcoming you in-store soon.

Jon and Andy - Audio T Swindon

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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WiiM , Bluesound and Eversolo can be found at the following Audio T stores -

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE

Cyrus can be found at the following Audio T stores

• CARDIFF

• MANCHESTER

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWINDON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• CHELTENHAM
  

EQ or Not to EQ? That is the Question. Getting the Best from the WiiM Ultra

Getting the best from a hi-fi system means paying attention to the room as well as the equipment. In this blog, Paul from Audio T Bristol explores speaker placement, room acoustics and the WiiM Ultra’s RoomFit and parametric EQ features using his own home system. Drawing on his background in film and TV audio post-production, he shares how a few careful adjustments helped him achieve cleaner bass and more natural vocals, with some favourite test tracks along the way…

Right on EQ

When I first started getting into hi-fi, a lot of decent mid-budget amps didn't have tone controls. It was expected that the manufacturers had done all the work possible to get the best sound from an amplifier without any tonal adjustment from the owner.

My Cyrus One had volume and input, nothing else. My Audiolab 8000S likewise. Position your speakers in the optimum place in the room, switch on, and that was your set-up ready to go.

These days, devices such as the WiiM Ultra give us a few more tools to work with.

Speaker Location, Location, Location

My current home set-up consists of:

• WiiM Ultra – Streamer/Preamplifier

• Chord Company ClearwayX ARAY Analogue 2RCA to 2RCA – Interconnect

• Advance Paris X-A160 – Power Amplifier

• Chord Company ClearwayX 4m Ohmic Terminated – Speaker Cable Pair

• Acoustic Energy AE300² – Standmount Speakers

One of the first questions we ask a customer who's interested in a new system is what size and shape the room is, and where they would like to place the speakers. These two factors have an enormous impact on what equipment you should be auditioning to get the best sound possible.

My listening room is a medium-sized rectangular room. But I have an opening to a kitchen on the left-hand rear wall, which has a big impact on the room acoustics. My speakers are placed 43cm from the rear wall, toed in slightly towards my main listening position.

audio t, stereo imaging staple - Album - Duets, by rob wasserman, Track, Ballad of the runaway horse with jennifer warnes

Our go-to track to check the speakers are positioned correctly is Ballad of the Runaway Horse on Rob Wasserman's Duets album. Any Audio T staff member will tell you this is the musical equivalent of one of your five-a-day veggies. With a slight bit of tweaking of the speaker placement, this was sounding as it should, with Jennifer Warnes' vocals dead centre of the stereo stage.

RoomFit for Improvement

As my listening room isn't symmetrical, I decided to use the WiiM RoomFit™ feature.

WiiM RoomFit™ setup system settings

The default settings on RoomFit™ can be tweaked to suit an individual system before running it. Trawling through various hi-fi forums, and with a bit of help from AI, these are the settings that I found gave the best results for my set-up. They're a starting point for my room, rather than a recipe for every system.

WiiM RoomFit™ definitely ironed out some of the acoustic issues with the room. The vocals on Ballad sounded much more focused and natural; positioning and projection were both noticeably improved.

However, there were still some major issues. High-frequency sibilance on vocals was much more prominent on the right-hand side. But the major issue was bass “chuffing” on the very low bass notes.

Chuffing is the sound of turbulent airflow through a speaker's bass port, particularly when it is working hard on low bass notes. Nearby walls can also reinforce bass and affect its balance, but that is a separate issue from port noise. As I didn't want my speakers in the middle of the room, it was time to... bring in the paramedics.

Bring in the Parametrics

As I've spent most of my career before Audio T working in audio post-production on films and TV, I have a lot of experience with EQ.

Too much traffic noise behind that voice? Let's lose some of the lower frequencies to minimise it.

Want that dinosaur footstep to sound bigger? Take a recording of an explosion and EQ it to fit the impact.

Underwater sequence? No problem, take that recording of a river, slow it down and remove all the high frequencies.

The WiiM EQ function has a variety of presets (acoustic, classical, rock, etc.), which can suit different listening preferences. They are much more sophisticated than the over-the-top novelty features found on some 80s hi-fi.

The really interesting feature, familiar from the pro world, is the parametric EQ, so you can create a bespoke EQ suited to your individual system and room.

As a starting point, forums and AI can suggest things to try. Then tweak to your own requirements.

My first issue was the chuffing. By reducing the offending frequencies and then adding a little more bass at frequencies that didn't cause chuffing, I ended up with a very satisfying lower end which sounded full and warm with no issues.

A slight dip around the frequencies that emphasised the sibilance reduced this and produced a much more natural vocal. This is a trick I've used on films before to add warmth to an actor's voice that had been recorded in a room with bad acoustics.

(Sound)track Listing

As Audio T has systems that range across the price spectrum, I could listen to tracks on my home set-up and then listen again on a much higher-end set-up to use as a reference. A mid-budget system may not reach the giddy heights of a high-end one, but at least it gives your ears something to aspire to.

As I tend to listen to a lot of film soundtracks, there is an emphasis on that genre in this short list, but these are some of my go-to tracks to audition a system.

Always You by Depeche Mode, from Memento Mori

This is a great track to check the tightness and punch of the bass. Even at low volumes, this now sounded great, with the bass hitting right where it should with no artefacts.

Now You Don't by Brian Tyler, from the soundtrack to Now You See Me, Now You Don't

The hi-hat and cymbals that open the track are clear and detailed with no irritating harshness. The strings sound natural, wide and open, and when the drum kit kicks in, it really does, with great projection in front of the orchestra.

Lonely City by Bill Callahan, from My Days of 58

Callahan's vocals sound warm, rich and natural. The bass drum that kicks in around the 1 minute 30 mark has real impact with no bass distortion.

The Anaconda Adventure by David Fleming, from the soundtrack to Anaconda

WiiM RoomFit™ Final EQ adjustments (in white) original flat tone curve ( in yellow)

This is a great all-rounder. The various ethnic percussion instruments and acoustic guitar are clear and detailed. When the full orchestra enters, it has real impact, with the lower frequencies sounding punchy and engaging.

Reinventing the Wheel?

I think my system now is sounding as good as it can, given the room limitations.

But look at this (right):

Here's the end result of the parametric EQ process. Apart from reducing the low frequencies to tame the chuffing, adding a slight boost to the bass above those frequencies, and a slight dip around the sibilance frequencies, I haven't actually moved very far away from the sound I enjoyed from the system in the first place.

The key thing is to try and bring out the best of your system, without losing the character you enjoy. Which, after all, is why you chose it in the first place.

Thanks for reading

Paul - Audio T Bristol

If you have any questions about the equipment featured here, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, please get in touch.

If you have enjoyed this article, take a look at our other blogs and follow us on our social media channels below…

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Audio T Stores:

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE

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Streaming is Believing at Audio T Bristol

We have our Streaming is Believing event coming up on Saturday 17th October. Every music format has its own strengths and appeal. Our aim is to provide a friendly, informative environment where you can experience modern streaming for yourself and learn more about the options available.

Whether you're taking your first steps into streaming, looking to upgrade an existing player, or simply enjoy spending an afternoon listening to great music with like-minded people, we'd love to see you there.

After all, when it comes to streaming, sometimes hearing really is believing.

Book your place at Streaming is Believing

Denon PMA-600NE vs Marantz PM6007: Which Budget Amplifier Gets My Vote?

For anyone building their first serious hi-fi system, the Denon PMA-600NE and Marantz PM6007 are two amplifiers worth putting on the shortlist. Both deliver 45 watts per channel into 8 ohms, and both are aimed at music lovers looking to step beyond budget mini systems without spending a fortune.

An integrated amplifier combines source selection and the amplification needed to drive your speakers in one box. These two also include digital inputs and a phono stage for a compatible turntable, giving you several ways to build a system around the music you enjoy.

On paper, they seem remarkably similar. In practice, their features and presentation give you a few useful points of difference. So which one deserves a place at the heart of your first stereo system?

At a Glance

Power into 8 ohms: Both amplifiers deliver 45 watts per channel.

Built-in Bluetooth: Available on the Denon PMA-600NE. The Marantz PM6007 has no built-in wireless connectivity.

Digital inputs: Both have two optical inputs and one coaxial input.

Digital audio support: Both accept stereo PCM signals up to 24-bit/192kHz through their wired digital inputs.

Phono input: Both include a moving-magnet phono stage for connecting a compatible turntable.

Subwoofer connection: Both have an output for an active subwoofer.

Design and Build

Both have the familiar layout of a traditional hi-fi amplifier: clearly labelled controls, a proper volume dial and connections for several sources. Select an input, adjust the volume and start listening, without working through a menu on a screen.

Denon PMA-600NE

The Denon adds built-in Bluetooth for music from a phone or tablet. It also includes Analogue Mode, which switches off power to the digital input circuitry and Bluetooth module when listening to an analogue source. The intention is to reduce interference from unused circuitry.

Marantz PM6007

The Marantz concentrates on wired sources, suiting a system built around a turntable, CD player or separate streamer. Both offer tone controls and a Source Direct option, which bypasses the tone and balance controls when you prefer to leave those adjustments out of the signal path.

Sound Quality

This is where the comparison becomes more personal. Specifications give an indication of an amplifier’s capabilities, but they cannot tell you which presentation you will enjoy most.

Denon PMA-600NE

The Denon delivers a lively, energetic presentation. To my ears, bass has good weight and punch, making rock, electronic music and modern pop sound engaging. The midrange is clean, while the treble has enough detail to keep things interesting without becoming overly bright.

Overall, I would describe its character as warm but slightly forward. A driving bass line or a strong drum beat has plenty of presence, while vocals remain easy to follow. That sense of enthusiasm can be a very appealing quality in a first system.

I also find it relatively forgiving of less polished recordings. That is useful when your collection covers everything from beautifully recorded albums to older favourites that have never sounded particularly pristine. The Denon makes it easy to enjoy a broad selection of music.

Marantz PM6007

The Marantz gets my vote for refinement. I find vocals more natural, instruments more clearly separated and the soundstage more spacious. There is a little more room around individual parts of a recording, making it easier to follow each musician.

Compared with the Denon, the qualities that stand out to me are the more precise stereo imaging, cleaner high frequencies and better-defined bass. On a busy recording, that separation helps the music feel more organised. On something simpler, the voice and the character of the instruments come to the fore.

The difference is not enormous. My preference is for the Marantz’s more composed presentation, particularly when settling down with an album. Your speakers, room and music may lead you to a different conclusion, which is why comparing them with familiar tracks is so useful.

Bluetooth: Denon’s Biggest Advantage

For many first-time buyers, the Denon’s Bluetooth will be a deciding factor. Pair a compatible phone or tablet to play Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music or whichever app you use. It is also handy when a visitor wants to put a favourite track on.

The Marantz has no built-in wireless connection. You can add network streaming with a separate streamer, such as one from the WiiM range, using a suitable analogue or digital connection. The same option is available with the Denon.

Bluetooth plays audio sent from your device, while a dedicated network streamer can access supported music services through your home network. Neither amplifier has network streaming built in. A separate streamer can offer more features and the potential for better sound, depending on the source and connection, but it needs to be included in your budget.

Built-In DAC

Both include a DAC, or digital-to-analogue converter, which converts digital signals into analogue audio. Two optical inputs and one coaxial input on each allow you to connect equipment such as a CD transport, streamer or television with a suitable digital output.

Around the back - MaranTz PM6007

Both accept stereo PCM signals up to 24-bit/192kHz through those wired digital inputs. That specification does not apply to Bluetooth. Matching numbers do not guarantee identical sound, as the converter and surrounding circuitry all contribute to the finished design.

Around the back - Denon PMA-600NE

My preference is again for the Marantz’s more refined presentation, although I would judge the complete system. If connecting a television, set its digital output to stereo PCM. Neither amplifier decodes Dolby Digital or DTS, and neither has HDMI ARC.

Phono Stage

Both include a moving-magnet, or MM, phono input, allowing a turntable with a compatible cartridge to connect without a separate phono preamplifier. That keeps the system straightforward and leaves more of your budget for the turntable and speakers.

The Denon’s phono presentation is warm and enjoyable, while my preference is for the Marantz’s refinement and detail. If vinyl will be your main source, the PM6007 would be my starting point for a demonstration. The cartridge, turntable setup and speakers will also influence the result.

Check your turntable’s cartridge before connecting it, as a low-output moving-coil cartridge needs additional equipment. If your turntable has a built-in phono stage, you can usually switch it off and use the amplifier’s phono input, or leave it on and connect to a normal line input. Your local Audio T can advise.

Speaker Matching

Both can form the basis of a capable system in a small or medium-sized room with suitably matched speakers. The 45-watt rating does not tell the whole story: speaker sensitivity, impedance, listening distance and your preferred volume all affect the demands on the amplifier.

Ranges worth considering include Wharfedale Diamond, Acoustic Energy, DALI Oberon and Monitor Audio Bronze. These are starting points for a demonstration, as individual models have different requirements and will behave differently in your room.

I would try the Denon with speakers that allow its warmth and punch to come through without making the presentation too forward. With the Marantz, I would look for a combination that makes the most of its clarity and spaciousness. Using the same speakers for both makes their characters easier to compare.

Everyday Use and Room to Grow

The Denon has the advantage if you want music from your phone with minimal additional equipment. Convenience can matter just as much as a small difference in sound quality, particularly if several people will use the system.

The Marantz is equally straightforward once your sources are connected. If you already own a CD player or turntable, the lack of Bluetooth may make little difference. If streaming is your main source, allow for a suitable device from the beginning.

Both have an active subwoofer output, giving you the option to add more bass extension later. You can add sources as your interests develop, too. Separates let you change individual components over time, so think about what you might want to connect next year as well as what you own today.

Which Should You Buy?

Choose the Denon PMA-600NE if:

• You regularly play music from your phone or tablet.

• You want Bluetooth without buying another component.

• You enjoy a warm, punchy and energetic presentation.

• You want a straightforward starting point with several connection options.

Choose the Marantz PM6007 if:

• You prefer the more refined presentation described here.

• Vinyl or CD will be an important part of your listening.

• You already own a streamer or plan to add one.

• Built-in wireless connectivity is less important to you.

Final Verdict

Both amplifiers offer a convincing introduction to a proper separates system. The Denon PMA-600NE combines an engaging presentation with the convenience of Bluetooth, making it a particularly appealing choice if you want to get started with the equipment you already have. It is an amplifier I would happily recommend putting on your shortlist.

For me, though, the Marantz PM6007 takes the overall win. Its more refined presentation, sense of space and ability to separate the different parts of a recording are the qualities that give it the edge. If I were choosing between these two with sound quality as my main priority, it would be my pick.

My winner - The Marantz PM6007

That is of course my personal opinion, rather than a definitive answer for every listener. We all enjoy different music and listen in different rooms, and the amplifier that suits my preferences may not be the one you prefer. The Denon’s character and convenience could make it the better choice for your system.

The best way to decide is to hear them for yourself. Contact your local Audio T to arrange a demonstration and compare the Denon PMA-600NE and Marantz PM6007, or any other hi-fi products you would like to explore. Let the team know what equipment you already own and bring along some favourite music, so they can help you find a combination that suits your ears, your room and your budget.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen - Audio T Portsmouth

If you have any questions about the equipment featured here, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, please get in touch.

If you have enjoyed this article, take a look at our other blogs and follow us on our social media channels below…

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Both Marantz can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• SOUTHAMPTON

• ONLINE STORE

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL

Denon can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• SOUTHAMPTON

• ONLINE STORE

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

New Toy Day! Putting the Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 Through Its Paces

We always enjoy new toy day here in Audio T Swansea, and we’ve been looking forward to this particular one for a wee while. With AURALiC no longer in the picture, we’ve been on the lookout for a music streamer higher up in the canopy than our favourite Bluesound NODE ICON, but a little more attainable in price than the offerings from the otherwise excellent Innuos Audio.

the eversolo a8 gen2 streamer/dac/pre

Eversolo, under the aegis of parent company Zidoo, has distinguished itself recently by offering products with a very attractive price-to-performance ratio. The Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 sits towards the upper end of this line-up, representing more than an incremental update to the previous streamer/DAC. Our demo unit is a little more special than a standard unit in that it has a glass top panel, so we can admire all the deliciousness contained therein. Nice!

The front panel is almost entirely taken up by a TFT touchscreen. Full control of the unit is possible from here, as well as through the app for tablets and smartphones.

Under the Hood

The A8 combines four distinct functions within a single aerospace-grade aluminium chassis: a network streamer capable of bit-perfect playback, a flagship Japanese DAC, a fully balanced analogue preamplifier featuring an R2R resistor-ladder volume-control network, and digital signal processing, including room acoustic correction. Gosh. Eversolo’s approach places considerable emphasis on keeping noise and interference away from the sensitive analogue circuitry. The design separates digital processing from analogue conversion, with each stage assigned its own job rather than asking a single chip to do everything.

“the trouble with glass ade, is that it will reflect light when you try to photograph it” - nic

The core of the conversion system moves away from the ESS Sabre chips used in the entry-level series, opting instead for an Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) dual-chip architecture featuring Velvet Sound Verita technology.

Which all sounds lovely.

one of the clever bits (no pun intended)

The AK4191EQ digital delta-sigma modulator handles the complex computational tasks associated with digital filtering, noise shaping and signal modulation. Keeping this processing separate from the chip that generates the analogue waveform is intended to reduce interference between the digital and analogue stages. Each component can concentrate on its particular part of the conversion process. Very sensible, if you ask me.

two of the other very clever bits. this time: clocks! (that one was deliberate)

The AK4499EXEQ stereo DAC receives the upstream modulated signal and translates it into an analogue waveform. This separation is designed to deliver low-noise, low-jitter conversion and preserve the fine detail in the recording. We shall see! The system supports PCM up to 768kHz/32-bit and native DSD512 files, including through the USB-B input. Maximum playback resolution depends on the connection and settings, but there should be enough here to keep the geekiest geek very happy.

Analogue Preamplifier and R2R Volume Control

Many competing streamers adjust volume in the digital domain. The Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 instead incorporates an analogue line preamplifier that is fully balanced from input to output, with volume adjustment taking place after digital-to-analogue conversion. This avoids relying on digital attenuation to set the level of its analogue outputs.

Volume adjustment is handled by an R2R resistor-ladder network, with precision resistors switched via miniature mechanical relays. The intention is to provide accurate level control while preserving dynamics and detail across the listening range. Useful when listening at very low volumes late at night. The analogue circuit also provides up to +10dB of gain, giving the Eversolo greater flexibility when matching it to power amplifiers or active speakers. Another plus.

that trick volume control ladder

Equipment Connectivity

A near-full suite of digital and analogue sockets graces the rear panel. Optical, coaxial, HDMI ARC/eARC and USB-B digital inputs are present, plus analogue RCA and XLR inputs should you wish to utilise the A8 as a preamplifier.

RCA and XLR analogue outputs cater for those of us with existing preamplifiers and integrated amplifiers, as well as the clearly intended power-amplifier and active-speaker applications. A submenu allows you to toggle between fixed and variable output. The default is variable, for obvious reasons! No headphone socket is provided, however. An enormous amount of effort has been spent on keeping noise to a minimum, after all!

the socketry is high quality and very solid indeed. note the triggers should one own an eversolo power amplifier

Network Connectivity

Alongside those audio inputs, the rear panel offers digital outputs, including AES/EBU for connection to a compatible external DAC. HDMI ARC/eARC takes care of stereo PCM audio from a compatible television. Network connectivity brings something rather more unusual: the Gen 2 introduces an SFP (Small Form-factor Pluggable) network port for fibre optics, allowing an alternative to the traditional copper-based RJ45 Ethernet connection.

the app works well, even if it did cause my bluesound-centric colleagues a moment of pause

By using a compatible optical SFP transceiver and a fibre-optic cable, the electrical connection between the home network and the streamer is broken at that link. Routers, NAS drives and PCs can all introduce electrical noise, particularly through their switching power supplies. An optical network connection provides galvanic isolation at this point, helping to prevent conducted interference from travelling along the network cable into the streamer. The aim is to keep that interference away from the sensitive audio electronics.

(Never let a software engineer tell you digital hardware is unimportant: “…because it’s data, Ade, it’s just zeroes and ones!”)

Eversolo has produced and supports its own app, which has hitherto proven stable and easy to navigate. Pleasingly, when you select a track, album or playlist, the app displays a cheerful “Success!” icon. It’s reassuring to know I’m good at something.

Eversolo EOS

that wee hatch with artistic bokeh in the foreground. cough.

This innovation is the Eversolo Original Sampling-rate Audio Engine, a technology developed to bypass the sample-rate conversion associated with the standard Android audio path. Android playback can otherwise be resampled by the system mixer rather than retaining the recording’s original sample rate. EOS is designed to allow compatible third-party applications, such as Apple Music, TIDAL and our favourite, Qobuz, to deliver audio at its native sample rate, whether that is 44.1kHz, 192kHz or another supported rate. Compatibility depends on the application and playback settings, and bit-perfect playback requires signal-altering processing, such as EQ and room correction, to be disabled.

under the aluminium hatch is the loading bay for your ssd. neat as a wee pin.

Expandable Storage

A removable panel on the underside of the unit gives access to an M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD slot. This Gen 2 model supports compatible solid-state drives with capacities of up to 8TB. Fit a drive and the A8 Gen 2 can act as a high-speed local music server, eliminating the need to keep a computer or NAS running constantly to play your stored music. It also takes network file transfers out of the equation when listening to tracks held on the internal drive.

Whilst we’re here, and apropos of nothing at all, I shall mention that the front panel can be configured to display VU meters, or a spectrum analyser, à la the 1970s and ’80s. Such fun!

did i mention the vu meters? it’s got vu meters!

Usage Modes

The operational flexibility of the Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 allows it to serve three main roles within an audio system, depending on the output and settings selected. Source and Preamplifier Mode offers the most integrated approach. The Eversolo connects directly to a power amplifier or a pair of active speakers using, for example, balanced XLR cables. In this scenario, the unit fully utilises its analogue preamplifier section. You control the system’s master volume directly from the Eversolo interface, or via the smartphone app, minimising the number of interconnect cables and chassis components in the living room. Useful if you have limited space available.

Fixed Line Out Mode is probably the configuration most likely to be utilised by traditional Hi-Fi enthusiasts. The A8 Gen 2 can be set to a fixed analogue output level, leaving volume adjustment to your existing preamplifier or integrated amplifier. The device then functions as a streamer and DAC, delivering a nominal signal of 2.1Vrms via RCA or 4.2Vrms via XLR to the connected amplifier. In our case, we used Black Rhodium Operetta XLRs to a Hegel H400 amplifier, Black Rhodium Calypso speaker cables and ATC SCM11 loudspeakers on Solidsteel SS-6B stands, another favourite at Chez Swansea.

Streaming Transport Mode may appeal if you own, or intend to acquire, a high-end DAC in the future. If this scenario is at all on the cards, I would heartily recommend the Eversolo T8 or T10 streaming transports instead of this unit. As it stands, the DAC in here is excellent and will make your other digital sources sing. Speaking of which…

appropriately for the 1970s, the eversolo’s VU meter colour palette includes tobacco brown.

What Does It Sound Like?

Massive Attack – “Teardrop” (from Mezzanine, 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC)

This familiar track puts the handling of low frequencies and rhythmic stability to the test. The synth bassline, pulsing constantly in the background, feels appropriately earth-shaking. The bass is visceral, remarkably tight and articulate. At the same time, the metallic, percussive ticking that marks the tempo remains crystal clear, floating in the soundstage without being even slightly masked by the energy unleashed by the lower frequencies. Elizabeth Fraser’s voice emerges at the centre of the soundstage with disarming transparency, focused and free of artificial sibilance. Lovely stuff.

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, 24-bit/192kHz via Qobuz, with EOS bit-perfect playback)

The complexity of a monumental symphony orchestra combined with a full-scale polyphonic choir is a tough test. The A8 Gen 2 handles Mahler’s score with ease and authority. The virtual soundstage is reconstructed with great precision: the violins are positioned on the left, the cellos in the centre and the double basses set back on the right, while the woodwinds and brass occupy the rear rows, creating layers of sound that are deep and easily discernible to the listener. Impressive.

In fortissimo orchestral passages, where the entire ensemble and the timpani strike in unison, the Eversolo shows no sign of dynamic compression or sonic muddiness. The sound remains clear, airy and transparent. The brass instruments retain their metallic brilliance without ever veering into harshness or shrillness; the choir emerges from behind the orchestra with distinct separation between the individual vocal sections, ensuring an intelligibility of the sung text that is moving in its realism.

Miles Davis – “So What” (from Kind of Blue, Legacy Edition, 24-bit/192kHz FLAC)

To evaluate the reproduction of acoustic wind instruments and the sense of rhythm, we selected this masterpiece. Miles Davis’s trumpet is rendered with extraordinary brilliance and sonic penetration, yet the high-frequency sharp edges that can sometimes make this recording fatiguing on analytical digital sources are skilfully smoothed out. Julian “Cannonball” Adderley’s alto saxophone possesses abundant warmth and physical presence, rich in the detail that allows you to hear the mechanical clicking of the keys. The track’s timing is impeccable: the ride cymbal in Jimmy Cobb’s drumming features a silky, shimmering and incredibly extended metallic decay that floats in the air, defining the rhythm with precision and engaging energy. Just wonderful.

Verdict

Anyone seeking a competent streamer/DAC capable of serving as the heart of a Hi-Fi system, handling both cloud streaming and local libraries, delivering excellent sound quality and offering features such as DSP and room correction will find the Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 to be a fine solution. With CD-quality files, it sounds excellent, and some of the higher-resolution recordings I tried sounded better still. I found myself seeking out higher and higher resolutions to try.

An album I found, Nearness by Lizz Wright, was available on Qobuz as a 24-bit/96kHz FLAC stream. The display showed around 2.65Mb/s, and it sounded incredible. For context, uncompressed CD audio runs at 1.411Mb/s; Higher bit rates alone don’t guarantee better sound, of course, but this particular recording was a treat. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned the evotune room correction or the DSP-based 20-band EQ system, mostly because I haven’t played with them yet. So much to discover.

The DMP-A8 Gen 2 comes highly recommended to any and every music enthusiast. Playing in Demo Suite One all this week, and likely the next…

Thank you for taking the time to read my scribblings. I hope you enjoyed them.

Ade - Audio T Swansea

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Eversolo can be found at the following Audio T stores

• ONLINE STORE

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

On Tour with Audio Note: Music, Valves and Vinyl

“It was a great honour…” is not a phrase I find myself saying all that often. In a super busy year, with all sorts happening, opportunities to get involved in hi-fi activities outside our Reading store had been rather hard to come by. That didn’t look likely to change anytime soon.

So, when Micky Seaton of Audio Note extended a kind invitation to support him and the team at the Stereonet Hi-Fi Expo 2026, I jumped at the chance. Not only do Audio Note build beautiful-sounding electronics at their manufacturing home in West Sussex, but they also have a gift for playing great music at hi-fi shows. I’ve often found myself camping out in one of their rooms.

But would it be a great honour to don a proverbial Audio Note cap and represent them for the weekend? I thought it would be fun to take you all with me and share the experience…

Selection Headache: ‘Lots’ of Music

Having never taken part in a show with Audio Note before, I asked Micky if there was anything I should bring along. I was expecting a lengthy response that might cover anything from suitable attire to reading material about the equipment, or perhaps a plentiful supply of drinks. Bottled water, of course. Instead, he replied rather succinctly: “Music, Rishi… bring lots of music on vinyl and CD.”

That evening, like an excited young pup in an older dog’s body, I started rifling through my CD and record collection, asking myself throughout: just how much is ‘lots’ of music?

Realising that Audio Note would most likely be forklifting in a tonne of music themselves, I decided on a less-is-more approach and packed about ten records and fifteen or so CDs. A clutch of music that I hoped might hold a small torch, even just a lighter flame, to Audio Note’s much-admired selection.

First Day on Tour with Audio Note

The first morning arrived, as had I, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at the Audio Note exhibition room where I’d been asked to report. That’s when James Taylor of Audio Note told me that Micky had unfortunately needed to leave and wouldn’t be able to take part. This was a big change, as Micky is a tour de force for Audio Note, having delivered a vast number of shows for them. I’d been looking forward to working with him, and it immediately dawned on me that my first Audio Note gig would be without his great company and expertise to lean on.

James stepped up to the plate and marshalled us superbly in Micky’s absence. He took the reins of Audio Note’s more aspirational system showcasing their new IZVOR ladder DAC technology and field-coil loudspeakers. The assignment for Dan Houston, an acquaintance of Audio Note and a former writer for Hi-Fi Choice magazine, and me was to run the system in the adjacent room.

Even though Micky had left his personal treasure trove of music behind, thankfully he’d also briefed Dan to bring his own swag bag of CDs and vinyl. Between us, we therefore had some familiar tunes to pull from. It wasn’t long before I was wishing I’d brought ‘lots’ more music, just as Micky had advised! Audio Note are strong advocates of physical music formats, and our demonstrations were firmly centred on CDs and records.

So, whilst we didn’t have a streaming playlist to fall back on, we did have the opportunity to live out our innermost DJ fantasies. With Audio Note, it’s all about actually playing music, one song after another. If you’ve spent time in one of their demonstration, you’ll probably know that the record boxes are never far away. Occasionally, they’re close enough to require a little care on your way in. Mind that wax!

The Audio Note Demonstration System

Let’s get into the equipment we had the pleasure of operating. Our CD source was a CDT One/II CD transport, paired with a DAC 1.1x/II digital-to-analogue converter. For vinyl, we were cueing up records on a TT-One Deluxe turntable, fitted with an Arm One/II tonearm and an IQ2 moving-magnet cartridge.

Both sources fed an M1 Phono preamplifier, which in turn was connected to the star of the show: Audio Note’s new 35th Anniversary P1 SE Signature power amplifier. All of this played through the AN-E/D loudspeakers, the entry point to Audio Note’s AN-E range.

At the time of the show, the complete system was priced at around £24,000. ‘Entry point’ is therefore relative when we’re talking about Audio Note’s range! I’d particularly like to share more about the amplifier and speakers, as this was my first experience of both and they each left a lasting impression.

Centre Stage: Audio Note’s 35th Anniversary P1 SE Signature

The new 35th Anniversary P1 SE Signature is a pure Class A valve power amplifier, comprehensively revised by Audio Note engineer Andy Grove. Improvements include revised output transformers and a redesigned power supply, alongside other component changes. In his notes on the anniversary redesign shared by the P1 SE and OTO SE amplifiers, Andy talks about achieving “a realistic bass kick”, with the sound and feel of an actual kick drum or bass guitar.

Before knowing anything about what Andy had said, what struck me about our system was how organically it delivered bass. There was plenty of shape and texture underpinning whatever we played, rather than simply a low-frequency thump. It was a quality that made itself felt across a wonderfully varied selection of music.

Another interesting part of this power amplifier’s design is its volume control. This proved useful for finding a sweet spot in the system’s gain, allowing the preamplifier’s volume control to work comfortably within its range. Once we’d found that balance, the preamp, power amp, speakers and room all felt as though they were singing as one.

In Focus: Audio Note AN-E/D Loudspeakers

Audio Note’s AN-E family offers an extensive choice of models, with differences in drivers, internal wiring and construction, as well as appearance. The AN-E/D loudspeakers we were demonstrating sit at the beginning of that range. They forgo the more elaborate cabinet construction and choice of wood finishes found further up the family, coming in black ash with a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter and an 8-inch paper mid/bass driver.

Inside, they use Audio Note’s own copper cabling, a relatively modest specification compared with the more substantial wiring options in some of the company’s other models. On paper, there’s less to get excited about than with their more expensive siblings, but that hardly tells the whole story.

It had never really occurred to me to recommend this particular model, as I’ve generally regarded Audio Note’s Level 2 and Level 3 equipment as a sweet spot. But, by gosh, these stripped-back speakers were in no way showing themselves to be a poor relation. What they perhaps missed in outright detail, they more than made up for with a soothing and forgiving presentation. They were fully capable of revealing the realistic tone, shape and energy that the anniversary power amplifier was serving up in spades.

A Sonic Sanctuary: The Audio Note Effect

From my memories of previous exhibitions, Audio Note’s rooms have often served as a sonic spa or sanctuary: somewhere to sit down, escape the busy corridors and settle into the music. What became apparent in our room was how quickly visitors latched onto what we were playing, before remarking on how good and unfatiguing it sounded.

I can remember only two occasions over the whole weekend when the conversation ventured into what you might call ‘hi-fi speak’. One visitor mentioned the spread and depth of the soundstage, while another noted the lack of grain or harshness from the speakers. Mostly, the response was much simpler: a gentle smile, followed by someone slipping into a vacant chair for an extended listen.

Another visitor asked about the power output of the 35th Anniversary P1 SE Signature. I had to raise my voice above the music to explain that it was rated at 8 watts per channel, which rather helped make the point! With suitably efficient speakers, a modest power rating certainly doesn’t mean a modest musical experience.

Other comments ranged from “It’s nice to hear real music being played” and “I can actually feel the person singing” to “This is the most enjoyable room so far” and “Which song is that you’re playing?” For me, those questions and reactions were as rewarding as any discussion about the equipment.

Wrapping Up: A Terrific Tour with Audio Note

After two days of exhibiting with Audio Note, my favourite part of the experience was listening to good music and exchanging discoveries with the people in our room. It was lovely to show somebody a CD or record sleeve when they wanted to know what was playing. It was also great fun to work our way through almost every track on a compilation CD that a visitor had put together and handed to us. We left it running as a crowd of music lovers began to form, enjoying it every bit as much as Dan and I were.

At that moment, the system was truly singing and nobody seemed to want to leave. That’s another nice touch with Audio Note: if you bring along a CD or record, you can ask them to play it and they’ll make every effort to do so. That willingness to share music was a lovely part of the experience.

My time with Audio Note was all about the joy of listening to music, and what could be a greater advert for their equipment? It truly was a great honour to play ‘lots’ of music and enjoy it so thoroughly in room S21.

Come and Hear Audio Note for Yourself

If this has whetted your appetite, get in touch with us at Audio T Reading or our colleagues at Audio T Bristol to arrange an Audio Note demonstration. Bring along some of your favourite music, tell us what you enjoy listening to, and we’ll help you explore a system that suits you.

You can also experience Audio Note at The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2027, taking place from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th February, as we celebrate 40 years of the Show with our 38th event. It’s another opportunity to settle in, discover some music and hear Audio Note for yourself.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. Below is a selection of songs, in no particular order, played by Dan, our visitors and me during the weekend. You might just find a new favourite among them.

Thanks again,

Rishi - Audio T Reading

If you have any questions about the equipment featured here, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, please get in touch.

If you have enjoyed this article, take a look at our other blogs and follow us on our social media channels below…

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Our Audio Note Playlist

• “Lit” and “Dragged” by Kiasmos

• “Strings of Light” by Yussef Kamaal

• “Battleships” and “Awaze” by Makaya McCraven

• “Bless Me (Mike Schommer Rmx)” by Babe Roots

• “Kamaloka” and “Home” by GoGo Penguin

• “Palmistry” by Tabla Beat Science

• “All Melody” and “A Place” by Nils Frahm

• “On the Seven Seas Dub” by Nightmares on Wax and Adrian Sherwood

• “Brothers and Sisters” by Butch Cassidy Sound System

• “Slabo Day” by Peter Green

• “Show Some Emotion” and “Woncha Come On Home” by Joan Armatrading

• “Outsiders” by Jean-Michel Blais

• “Lights Out” and “Three Faces” by Menahan Street Band

• “Continuum 5” and “Continuum 6” by Nala Sinephro

• “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” by Ryuichi Sakamoto

• “Tswana Dub” by Intrusion

• “Walking in the Rain” and “Pull Up to the Bumper” by Grace Jones

• “I’m in the Mood” by John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt

• “Queremos Paz” by Gotan Project

• “Out of Sight” by Moderat

• “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits

• “The Race” by Yello

• “Superstylin’” by Groove Armada

• “Welt am Draht” by Pantha du Prince

• “Manhattan” by Blossom Dearie

• “God’s Comic” by Elvis Costello

• “One Away Lover” by Norris Cole

• “The Unforgettable Year 1919: Suite, Op. 89a, The Assault on Beautiful Gorky” by Shostakovich

• “Los Endos” by Genesis

• “Kashmir” and “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin

A Day at Chord Company: My Journey to Cable Enlightenment

Nick and I took a trip from Audio T Cardiff to Chord Company’s headquarters in Wiltshire. We wanted to see how its cables are made, learn a few things from the people who make them and, naturally, find out what we could hear in the listening room.

Hello again, all you wonderful folk in the beautiful world of hi-fi. It’s me again, here to talk your ears off about something I’ve touched on in a few of my blogs: the cables connecting our systems together. From the source to the amplifier and on to the speakers, every connection has a job to do. I’ve spent plenty of time listening to different cables at home and in the shop, but I’d never seen how they were made. That seemed like a good reason to ask Ian Booth at Chord Company if I could pay them a visit.

When I mentioned the trip to Nick, our Cardiff store manager, he was keen to come along. Nick wanted to refresh his cable knowledge, and I was looking forward to getting behind the scenes and hearing some of the higher ranges in a system we don’t encounter every day. Ian kindly arranged the visit, so off to Wiltshire we went. Before I tell you how we got on, though, I think this story deserves a little trip back in time.

Chord Company HQ

From a dinner-table idea to a cable company

The story begins in 1985. I was still at school and remember seeing Van Halen’s Jump on television, which probably tells you quite a lot about where my musical interests were heading. Over in Salisbury, a conversation over dinner was setting something else in motion. A group of visiting Naim Audio retailers from America had asked the people at Naim UK for a good quality DIN-to-RCA interconnect. Sally Gibb, who was at the table, suggested she could make the cable and maybe start a business. With Naim’s blessing, she set about doing exactly that.

Sally didn’t stop at making a cable. She designed the logo and packaging, tested the early prototypes and helped turn that initial request into a company. The first prototype was called Chrysalis, and an order from the American retailers gave the fledgling business its start. I love stories like that. What began as a practical answer to somebody’s problem became a brand we now know throughout the hi-fi world.

The company has grown well beyond that first interconnect. Alongside its speaker, analogue, digital and mains cables, it makes power distribution and noise reduction products. There’s also English Electric, whose network switch many of you will know from streaming systems. What struck me on our visit was that the interest in music isn’t confined to a design department. We met people across the business who love listening to music, and quite a few who make it themselves. As a guitarist, I felt I was among my own people.

A look around the factory

We arrived with the sun shining and were greeted by Ian, whom we know well from his days working at Audio T. He introduced us to some of the team before taking us through the shipping and export area and into the production rooms. When you see a finished cable in a box, it’s easy to overlook how much work goes into selecting the materials, preparing it, fitting the connectors and checking the result. Walking through the factory put the finished product into a different perspective for both Nick and me.

One of the more unexpected things I learned concerned Taylon, the insulation used in the flagship ChordMusic range. Ian told us about the material’s origins in demanding military applications. You may be wondering what the hell that has to do with a hi-fi cable, and I had much the same thought. The important point for the cable designers is its phase stability, which is why Chord Company chose to use it in some of its most ambitious cables. It was fascinating to hear about the thought that goes into something most of us only ever see disappearing behind a rack.

Then we reached what, for me, was the beating heart of the visit: the area where cables are built. We saw work on everything from more familiar ranges such as ClearwayX through to cables at the very top of the range. I also discovered that the company makes instrument cables. As you can imagine, that caught my attention immediately. I’m just as bad for looking at guitar gear as I am for looking at h

Nick and I get to work

After a lovely lunch with the team, we were taken to a pair of workbenches and introduced to Hayley, who would guide us through building our own cables. This was the part I’d really been looking forward to. Watching somebody work is interesting, but having a soldering iron and crimpers in your own hands gives you a much better idea of the skill involved. It also makes you appreciate how easy the production team makes it look.

I made a pair of EpicX speaker cables and an Epic Digital coaxial cable. Nick made a pair of EpicX ARAY RCA interconnects and a mains cable from the Epic range. Hayley talked us through each stage, from preparing the cable to making the connections and finishing it properly. There’s a satisfying point in the process where it begins to look like the cable you recognise from the shop, although getting there takes more care than you might think.

I used to work as a guitar technician, so I went in feeling reasonably confident about my soldering. I soon realised I still had things to learn. Hayley showed me a few techniques that helped me get a much better result, and I picked up some useful tips while making the speaker cables as well. It was a proper hands-on lesson, rather than simply being allowed to put a connector on the end for a photograph. The nicest part was that Nick and I were able to take home the cables we’d made. At that point I would already have called the day a success, but Ian had something else waiting for us. And yes, there was more coffee.

Into the listening room

Ian and the team had put together a pretty serious streaming system for our listening session. The source was a MOON MiND 2 network player feeding a Chord Electronics DAVE DAC. There was CH Precision amplification driving a pair of Peak Consult Sonora floorstanding speakers. An English Electric network switch was part of the streaming set-up, and a PowerHAUS unit handled mains distribution. In other words, this was a system with plenty of ability to show us what was going on.

With everything warmed up and Nick and I settled in, Ian began with cables from the Epic range, including EpicX ARAY interconnects and EpicX speaker cables. He put on an acoustic track, and my first reaction was that it sounded pretty damn good already. The vocal sat nicely in the centre of the soundstage, the guitar had clear definition and the whole performance was easy to listen to. It’s an important starting point because, if you’re going to change something, you need to know what you were enjoying in the first place.

Ian then changed the speaker cables to EpicXL. Nick and I could both hear a change, although I’d describe this first step as subtle rather than dramatic. There was a little more to the presentation that drew my attention into the recording. That’s one reason I enjoy these sessions: sometimes a change announces itself straight away, while at other times you find yourself listening a bit longer before you can put your finger on what’s different.

Next, Ian moved the system on to Signature cables. This was familiar territory for me, as I’ve written before about trying Signature in my own system. Using another similar acoustic track, I heard a more substantial step. The vocal seemed to have greater presence, and there was more texture in the performance. One little detail that caught my ear was the drummer counting in on the hi-hat. I love moments like that. It’s a tiny part of the recording, but hearing it makes you feel closer to the people playing the music.

Just as I was thinking that things were sounding pretty much perfect, Ian changed the cables again, this time to Sarum T. This was a range I’d not had the chance to hear in a system before, and it made one of the biggest impressions on me during the session. There was more texture to the sound and a much bigger sense of space. Instead of hearing a group of instruments arranged between two speakers, I found it easier to picture the musicians occupying their own places. It had more of that “band in the room” feeling we’re always chasing.

Then, just when I thought Ian might let us catch our breath, he brought out the big guns: the flagship ChordMusic cables. This is the range I’d now love to get my hands on, although that may have to remain a dream for the time being. The presentation opened out further, and I could place what individual band members were doing with greater ease. I could hear the singer taking a breath near the microphone and the odd note from the guitarist that didn’t land quite where it was meant to. Being a guitarist myself, perhaps I notice those things more than most.

Those little imperfections are part of why I love listening to music. As I always say, there’s perfection in imperfection. If a system lets you hear the breath, the movement and the occasional fumbled note as well as the polished parts of a performance, the people making the music feel more human. That was what stayed with me about the listening session, beyond any particular cable change. I wanted to keep playing tracks and discovering what else was tucked away in recordings I thought I knew.

What I brought back to Cardiff

Nick and I learned a great deal that day, both from watching the production team and from having a go ourselves. The listening session gave us another way of understanding the ranges and what we might want to try in a customer’s system. It also reinforced something I’ve said in previous blogs: trust your ears. We can tell you what we heard, but the worthwhile test is to listen with your own equipment and music, then decide whether the change matters to you.

I didn’t wait long to follow my own advice. When I got home, I fitted the EpicX speaker cables I’d made and swapped the digital cable connected to my Cyrus CD player for my new Epic Digital coaxial cable. After spending the day making and listening to cables, there was no chance those were going to sit unopened in a bag. I suspect Nick was just as keen to try his when he got home.

If this has made you curious, I’d encourage you to try some cables for yourself. Chord Company has a cable library, and we can talk you through demonstration and home-loan options at your local Audio T store. Bring along some music you know well, have a listen and see what you notice. That’s much more enjoyable than taking my word for it.

Finally, a really big thank you to Ian Booth for organising our visit, and to Hayley and everyone at Chord Company for giving us so much of their time.

Thank you, too, for taking the time to read my article.

Matt - Audio T Cardiff

If you have any questions about anything covered in this article, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Chord Company can be found at the following Audio T stores

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE

The lowdown on the wonderful and sometimes weird world of bass

Bass is one of the most debated and misunderstood aspects of audio reproduction. And it’s no wonder, because bass reproduction and our perception of it are more interesting, and stranger, than most of us realise.

It’s probably fair to say that no other aspect of audio reproduction grabs our attention as much as bass. Bass is the foundation of music, providing the rhythm, scale, tonal realism and much of its emotional power.

Bass can have us reaching for adjectives like immense, awesome and killer to describe what we experience. By comparison, the descriptors we apply to the midrange or treble tend to be altogether tamer: words like natural, sweet and open.

It captures the popular imagination in ways that mids and highs don’t. There was a reason why so many (often barely) portable music players from the 1970s and 1980s were called ‘boom boxes’ and featured ‘mega bass boost’.

You don’t have to be a ‘bass head’ to love bass. But how that bass is produced and how it interacts with our rooms and our ears is a complex and far from straightforward matter.

Bass basics

The first thing to note about bass is that the lowest frequencies can contain some of the largest amounts of energy in recorded music.

The energy in a kick drum, double bass, bass guitar, pipe organ or deep electronic note can be far greater than at higher frequencies. You only have to think of how bass can physically hit you in the chest to realise the energy involved.

Large pipe organs produce exceptionally low but high energy frequencies

Because of these large amounts of energy, bass is challenging for hi-fi systems to produce. It places significant demands on our equipment, especially amplifiers and speakers.

The biggest challenge is in producing and, just as importantly, controlling low-frequency sound.

For example, the wavelength, peak to peak, for a 100 Hz sound (typical bass guitar notes) is about 3.4 metres. At 40 Hz (think double bass), it is about 8.6 metres, and if you hit 20 Hz (a pipe organ or sub-bass synth note), it is about 17 metres, or more than 55 feet! By comparison, high-frequency wavelengths can be just a few centimetres long.

Large-diameter drivers are generally better at bass because they can move more air than small cones. But they need enough power and excursion to move the air required at low frequencies.

That’s not to say that a smaller-diameter driver cannot move a lot of air. With a strong motor assembly, a powerful amp and enough excursion or ‘throw’, it can. Some compact subwoofers have surprisingly small-diameter speaker cones.

REL’s T Zero subwoofer is small but still packs a low end punch

The key question with any speaker, especially one with smaller cones, is how loudly it can play very low sounds without noticeable distortion.

Speaker cabinet design also has an impact on bass response, with larger-volume cabinets, which also usually have larger drivers and cones, tending to deliver more bass.

And ports are widely used in many speakers to augment bass reproduction.

A bass-reflex or ported enclosure uses a tuned resonant system to increase acoustic output around a particular frequency range. Other approaches, such as transmission lines, passive radiators and horn loading, use different acoustic principles to control the bass response of the speaker.

A sealed enclosure uses the trapped air inside the cabinet as part of the driver’s mechanical suspension. Its response typically rolls off progressively at low frequencies. Sealed designs tend to give less low bass than ported designs, but their bass response can sound tighter and faster.

like many speakers the dali’s rubicore 2 uses a tuned bass reflect port

There is no universally correct cabinet type. Choose speakers that sound right to you.

Under pressure

All sound is a form of energy travelling in pressure waves. Our ears detect these pressure changes, usually in air, and turn the physical movements inside our ears into minute electrical signals. That is how we hear.

Human hearing tends to sit between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, although this can vary considerably, especially at higher frequencies as we age.

Our hearing evolved primarily around the frequencies that are important for speech and our awareness of our surroundings, like keeping an ear out for predators.

We are less good at hearing very high and very low sounds, such as the infrasound produced by elephants and whales or the ultrasound used by bats.

This relative insensitivity to very low frequencies partly explains why, when we turn the volume down on our hi-fi, we seem to hear the bass disappear. To make low frequencies clearly audible to us, they need to be played at a higher level.

human hearing has not evolved to pick up infrasound produced by animals like elephants

The phrase ‘Fletcher–Munson curve’ is often used to describe the phenomenon whereby the frequencies we hear and the balance we perceive between them depend on sound-pressure level.

At high playback levels, our hearing becomes relatively more sensitive to bass. At lower levels, the bass must be substantially stronger before it is perceived as equally loud.

Too little bass and our music will sound thin. Too much and bass can over-pressurise a room and our ears, creating overpowering and out-of-control bass.

The goal isn’t to hear more bass than the recording contains. The goal is to clearly and accurately hear the bass that is actually there.

Power hungry

Reproducing deep bass at volumes we can appreciate demands considerable electrical power from an amplifier.

Remember, a speaker’s bass driver has to move enough air at low frequencies and do it quickly and accurately enough for the bass to sound tight.

But as frequency falls, achieving sufficient bass output can require increasingly large excursions, all while maintaining speed and accuracy. That requires amplifier power and grip over the speakers. Bass output that lacks amp grip can sound loose and boomy.

A hi-fi system may sound effortless with vocals and cymbals but suddenly struggle if asked to reproduce a synthesised 20 Hz note or organ music. We have all heard systems where the lowest bass notes are pretty much absent.

So, not only must the speakers be up to reproducing low frequencies, but the amplifier driving them must supply the electrical energy necessary to ensure the drivers’ motor assemblies move accurately.

Timing

This is crucial for reproducing well-controlled bass. As mentioned, it is not just about how much a bass driver can move but how it starts and stops during its excursion.

Instruments have an attack, a sustained portion and a decay. If a speaker or amp is slow to capture the attack or allows low-frequency energy to linger after the musical event has ended, notes can blur together.

The effect is particularly noticeable with rhythmically complex music. When bass notes are reproduced with good timing, the listener can follow bass lines and drum patterns more easily. The result is a greater sense of rhythm and musical involvement.

bass is key to following complex rhythms like those created by the late, great neil peart

Perhaps surprisingly, bass quality has a significant effect on our perception of the midrange and treble. When bass is reproduced accurately, the entire frequency range rests on a solid foundation.

Well-controlled bass can make a system sound cleaner and more open. When low-frequency energy is properly reproduced, the rest of the music has space to breathe.

Harmonics

As most of us will know, a bass instrument does not produce just a single frequency or tone. When we hear a bass guitar, synth, double bass or organ, we are actually hearing a collection of low tones and harmonics.

A good hi-fi system should reproduce all of these elements rather than reducing bass to a single ill-defined rumble.

One of the most interesting aspects of bass perception is that the ear does not always need to receive the fundamental frequency, or lowest tone, to perceive the overall pitch of a note.

Effectively, our brains fill in the lowest or fundamental frequency, even if it is not actually produced by our speakers.

Consider a musical note with a fundamental frequency of 30 Hz.

Its harmonic series might contain:

• 30 Hz — fundamental

• 60 Hz — second harmonic

• 90 Hz — third harmonic

• 120 Hz — fourth harmonic

• 150 Hz — fifth harmonic

Even if the 30 Hz fundamental is weak or absent in a hi-fi system, we can sometimes infer the missing fundamental or lowest bass note from the harmonic relationships.

This effect even has a name: the missing fundamental phenomenon. It is extremely important to the perception of bass.

A small loudspeaker that cannot reproduce 30 Hz with any significant output can nevertheless produce a convincing impression of a 30 Hz bass note if it reproduces its higher harmonics accurately.

A lot of speaker manufacturers use this to make relatively small and often inexpensive speakers sound surprisingly bassy.

However, it should be remembered that the perception of deep bass is not the same as hearing the accurate reproduction of deep bass.

In the former scenario, the low-frequency pressure waveform is missing, but our brains ‘trick’ us into hearing what it ought to sound like. In the latter scenario, that low-frequency pressure wave is present and we are actually hearing it.

Room acoustics

Bass reproduction is also unusual because our listening rooms have an enormous influence on what we hear.

As we know, low-frequency wavelengths are long, and they interact strongly with room boundaries. Standing waves can create large peaks and dips in response, to the extent that we sometimes hear next to no bass in one part of a listening room but weighty bass just a few feet away.

So, when considering bass response, it is wise to spend some time experimenting with the positions of our speakers and our listening position until we achieve a good bass response.

spending time sorting out speaker placement pays dividends in terms of sound quality

This can involve moving the speakers closer to or further away from rear or side walls, bearing in mind the fact that walls tend to reinforce bass response.

It is worth remembering, however, that speakers do not have to be equal distances from the boundary walls. Rooms are almost never perfectly acoustically symmetrical, and so using a tape measure to position both speakers equidistant from the walls is unlikely to yield the best sound. Better to position speakers using your ears.

Try to lock in one speaker first to get that sounding as you want it to, and then adjust the other until both are locked in and you have a focused sound stage and tight bass. You can also experiment with speaker angles or toe-in, as this can have an impact on the perceived bass response.

If you still have unruly bass, you may need to look at acoustic room treatments such as bass traps. Soft furnishings can help with other reflections, but they are less effective at taming deep bass.

That said, it is usually better to try to get a system sorted first, for instance by choosing the right source, amplification, speakers and cabling to deliver the bass response you like, then spending time setting up the speakers before immediately looking to room treatments.

Bring on the subs

A well-integrated subwoofer is a must in most home cinema systems to give weight and slam to sound effects. But it can also be a fantastic addition to a two-channel system, helping to resolve many bass issues and more besides.

The advantage isn’t simply its ability to reproduce very low notes at pressure levels most speakers cannot match.

While a speaker may nominally be capable of producing sound at 35 Hz, it may only be able to deliver that at such a low volume that we struggle to really hear it, and so it will do little or nothing for the music.

Because a sub provides plentiful low-frequency output, it gives the mids and highs a superb foundation on which to expand and breathe. Introducing a well-integrated sub can improve the mids and highs and likely expand the sound stage.

An added advantage is that subwoofers like those made by REL can be adjusted to deliver more or less bass and to blend in with your speakers.

That said, a poorly integrated subwoofer can over-pressurise a listening room, allowing the bass to swamp the music. A properly set-up sub should make your speakers sound bigger, bassier and more dynamic rather than hog the bass limelight for itself.

The bass paradox

Ultimately, the importance of bass in hi-fi is not about creating the bassiest possible sound. Leave that to the bass heads who show off their car audio systems at SPL (sound pressure level) car meets.

In hi-fi, the role of bass is to help reproduce recordings faithfully.

Excellent bass should make a system sound more natural, not merely more powerful. It should allow a double bass to sound like a double bass, a kick drum to have realistic impact, an organ to convey its enormous scale, and a bass guitar to have a clearly identified space and melody within the performance.

When bass is accurate, controlled and properly integrated with the rest of the system, it becomes almost invisible as a separate feature. Instead, it becomes part of the complete musical picture.

And that is the bass paradox. When the bass is just right, it disappears. We don’t notice it as a separate element within the music. All we hear is our music sounding natural and immersive.

And finally

Don’t forget that no hi-fi system can reproduce bass properly if the music we feed it has been recorded or mixed to have next to no bass.

A recording may contain little energy below 100 Hz because of the studio microphones used, other recording equipment, mixing decisions or mastering. Other recordings may contain oceans of sub-bass.

So bear in mind that, if you are auditioning new equipment (especially speakers or an amp), you should play at least one track with well-recorded, weighty low bass to test the response. The same applies if you are setting up your speakers at home.

Thanks for reading.

Alan – Audio T Southampton

If you have any questions about anything covered in this article, or any other hi-fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

Forward! Victory is Near! When Shostakovich Met Arcam’s CD25 and A50 Signature

I think classical music often gets cruelly overlooked when trying to find great-sounding music that will really show off what your hi-fi system is capable of. So I intend to right that wrong here and now with this month’s blog, which focuses on the staggering work of art that is Symphony No. 8 by Dmitri Shostakovich, with Bernard Haitink conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The bold russian text translates to “Forward! Victory is Near!”

The Context

Before I talk about the music, I feel a little context regarding the strikingly beautiful cover art is needed… It is a reproduction of part of a 1944 Soviet World War II propaganda poster titled “Forward! Victory is Near!”, designed by artist Nina Vatolina. It features a determined Soviet soldier in a helmet in the foreground, with red flags and Red Army tanks rolling forward in the background.

Written in 1943, Symphony No. 8 was an attempt by Shostakovich to convince people to contemplate the horrors and terrible tragedy of war and yearn, not for victory, but for peace. Criticised at the time for being overly dark and bleak, the piece was thought to dwell too much on the dark and fearful aspects of reality!

Contents

The Aftermath

I feel that this symphony is more about the aftermath of war than the actual process of war itself or the dictator in charge at the time. The music is as desolate and brutal as the sense of the advancing, relentless waves of destruction by the Soviet tanks. The stuff of nightmares!

This nightmarish vision is most apparent in the section that we use most for demonstrations here in the shop: Part III, Allegro non troppo. This particular piece is machine-like in its brutality, evoking in the listener a sense of terror and vulnerability. A lone bugle call brings out the human note from amongst all the energy. Huge rushes of orchestral bass slams underpin the crossfire of banshee cries from the brass. All of this seeps out of a soundstage that has no bounds in any direction. This album has been a vital part of our demonstration material here in the Cheltenham shop for years now and is well worth investigating, even if you think that you don’t particularly like classical music. This one may be the album that will change your mind. At times it has the beauty and delicacy of the finest folk music, whilst at other times it has the savage ferocity of the best prog rock, and I love it!

exciting new delivery

Bang On Cue

To help me prove the point, and bang on cue, here come the brand-new Radia CD25 compact disc player and Radia A50 Signature amplifier from Arcam.

the CD and amplifier

The Radia range has been a great seller for us here in Cheltenham, and we have been looking forward to the addition of these two new models at the top of the range for a while now. I don’t particularly feel that a list of specifications will be entirely helpful here, and anyway, they can be found on the relevant sections of our website quite easily!

the radia A50 signature

Particularly Exciting

The A50 Signature amp is particularly exciting because that signature belongs to one of the hi-fi world’s greatest amplifier design gurus, and one of the people who founded the company fifty years ago when it went under the name of A&R Cambridge. That man is John Dawson… And the Radia A50 Signature marks the company’s 50th anniversary!

signature of design genius john dawson

John Dawson’s signature sound is all over this little beauty. Those of you who are old enough to remember (or even to have owned) the legendary A60 amplifier from the 1980s will know what I mean, and the Radia A50 Signature made me come over all nostalgic. This new amp reflects that historical continuity while looking firmly forward. John’s involvement in the project was guided by a clear principle: not to revisit past designs, but to ensure that Arcam’s amplifier philosophy remains relevant to how people listen today. His signature on the rear cowl and the internal PCBs is proof of his passion and acknowledges that connection.

Kicking Some Proverbial

Playing the Shostakovich on this combination of CD player and amp was one of those wow moments that don’t come along that often. The sense of space and depth was just huge. It just lets you into the heart of the music with no effort needed on behalf of the listener. It was possible to follow the flow of every single section of the orchestra with an uncanny sense of realistic space and three-dimensionality. This new pairing is definitely going to be kicking some proverbial… I can hear the sound of goalposts being moved as I type. Arcam has designed a brute of an amp that could just become the new reference at the price!

Super sexy CD

Also good news is that the burgeoning resurgence in the popularity of the compact disc format shows zero sign of slowing down any time soon. And to celebrate this, the all-new Radia CD25 is destined to be at the vanguard of great and affordable CD replay for a sizeable chunk of the future.

The Bit At The End

I am pretty certain that there is no streamer anywhere near the Radia CD25’s price that will compete with it for sound quality, and if you don’t believe me or are even a tiny bit sceptical of that boast, give us a call here in the Cheltenham store or pop in and bring in some of your favourite CDs, and I will show you what I mean! Played together with the A50 Signature amp, the hi-fi world has just become a much better place. And I have not heard the Shostakovich sound this amazing for a long time! Get a listen for yourself and be amazed.

Blog Writing Essentials This Month…

aided and abetted by this month

Many thanks for reading.

Andy - Audio T Cheltenham

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Arcam can be found at the following Audio T stores

• CHELTENHAM

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE

• READING

Two Turntables, Two Personalities: Rega Planar 2 Nd3 vs Pro-Ject Debut EVO 2

There has never been a better time to get serious about vinyl. Modern turntables have become remarkably sophisticated, yet you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy genuinely engaging performance. Two models sitting firmly in that sweet spot are the Rega Planar 2 with the new Nd3 cartridge and the Pro-Ject Debut EVO 2. Both are beautifully engineered, both are designed to extract plenty of music from your records, and both take a slightly different approach to achieving it.

Rega Planar 2 and Pro-Ject Debut Evo

So, who are Rega and Pro-Ject?

Rega was founded in 1973, and its very first product was a turntable. While the company remains particularly well known for its record players, it now produces a complete range of Hi-Fi equipment, including tonearms, cartridges, phono stages, amplifiers, CD players, loudspeakers and more. Rega’s products are designed and assembled at its facility in Essex.

Pro-Ject was founded in Austria in 1991 and, like Rega, began with a turntable. Their turntables are manufactured in Europe, and the company has since developed an extensive range of Hi-Fi electronics and accessories, including amplifiers, phono stages, CD players, streamers and loudspeakers.

Both companies have decades of turntable-building experience behind them, but their approaches to designing one are quite different. That becomes obvious as soon as you place these two decks side by side.

Design and set-up

Up CLose: The Rega Planar 2 with Silkscreen Logo

The Rega has the cleaner lines of the two and exudes a certain understated elegance, while the Pro-Ject has a more solid and slightly chunkier appearance. Neither approach is right or wrong, but they will appeal to different tastes.

Stealth: Pro-Ject Debut Evo 2

Neither deck is difficult to set up, with only a small amount of final assembly required. Setting the tracking weight on the Rega requires the user to know how many turns of the counterweight are needed, although this is explained clearly in the manual. Setting the anti-skating is a doddle, thanks to the marked slider attached to the arm assembly.

The rega RB220 Precision tonearm

The Pro-Ject has a graduated scale attached to the counterweight, making the tracking weight a straightforward matter. Its anti-skating is achieved by hanging a small weight from a fine thread. At my age, this is definitely a reading-glasses job!

The new Debut EVO 2 features the a 8,6‘‘ one piece carbon tonearm design.

Of course, if you would rather not worry about any of this, we will be happy to set either turntable up for you. Both are supplied with moving-magnet cartridges, but neither has a phono stage built in, so you will need an amplifier with a suitable phono input or a separate phono stage.

What do you get for your money?

The Rega Planar 2 has been around for some time, but the addition of the company’s new Nd3 moving-magnet cartridge gives the current version a significant boost.

Rega has concentrated heavily on keeping the Planar 2 light, rigid and mechanically simple. Its RB220 tonearm uses low-friction bearings and a lightweight aluminium arm tube, while a 24V low-noise motor drives the 10mm glass platter through Rega’s Advanced EBLT.

More than ten years in development, the Nd3 uses a powerful neodymium magnet and a bonded elliptical stylus. It is factory-fitted using Rega’s three-point mounting system, which also removes much of the potential guesswork from cartridge alignment. The Planar 2 is available in Gloss White, Gloss Black and Walnut finishes.

The Pro-Ject Debut EVO 2 takes a somewhat different route. It is a substantial-looking turntable with a 1.7kg damped aluminium platter and an 8.6-inch one-piece carbon-fibre tonearm. The heavy platter uses a thermoplastic elastomer damping ring to help control unwanted resonances, while the tonearm is both light and extremely rigid.

Pro-Ject Debut EVO 2 is available in eleven different finishes including satin steel blue

A switch underneath the plinth provides electronic selection between 33 and 45rpm, so there is no need to move the drive belt when changing speed. The cartridge is Pro-Ject’s new Pick it MM EVO, developed in collaboration with Ortofon, and there is a wide selection of plinth finishes available.

In simple terms, the Rega strips the design back to the essentials, whereas the Pro-Ject gives you a heavier construction and a little more day-to-day convenience.

How do they sound?

I gathered a handful of records and a mug of hot tea. It’s a hard job evaluating Hi-Fi, but someone has to do it!

First, the Rega. The Planar 2 is all about musical communication. It has that classic Rega ability to make records sound lively and involving, with a strong sense of rhythm and momentum. The bass is tight and agile, guitars have bite, drums have snap and vocals sit clearly within the soundstage.

It is an energetic presentation, but not a fatiguing one. The Planar 2 has a knack for getting straight to the heart of a recording and encouraging you to play another album. Changing speed involves removing the platter and moving the belt onto a different section of the pulley. It sounds like a faff, but in reality it only takes a few seconds.

The Rega PLanar 2 is available in Black, White, Red and Walnut

The Pro-Ject has a different character. It feels confident and composed, with a greater sense of solidity to the performance. It sounds clean and controlled, the midrange is excellent, and instruments are placed precisely within the soundstage. Its presentation is smooth, but not soft, and there is enough detail and rhythmic ability to keep the music interesting.

The Pro-Ject’s electronic speed control will also be useful if you have a large collection of 45rpm records or regularly move between the two speeds.

If I were to sum them up using musicians as an analogy, the Rega would be Jeff Beck and the Pro-Ject would be John Williams. Both are supremely talented, but their approaches are very different.

So, which one should you choose?

If push comes to shove, I would say the Rega has the edge with rock and pop. Its lively, rhythmically driven presentation gives electric guitars, drums and bass plenty of energy. The Pro-Ject scores particularly highly with jazz and acoustic music, where its composure, spaciousness and excellent midrange come into their own.

That doesn’t mean either turntable is restricted to certain types of music. The Rega can sound wonderfully expressive with an acoustic recording, while the Pro-Ject certainly won’t fall apart when asked to play something heavier. This is simply where I felt each model’s particular strengths were most apparent.

The Rega will appeal if you value simplicity, energy and a direct connection with the music. The Pro-Ject offers a more measured presentation, a substantial build and the convenience of electronic speed selection.

Ultimately, the best choice will come down to your records, the rest of your Hi-Fi system and your personal taste. The only proper way to decide is to hear them for yourself, preferably side by side and with music you know well.

If you would like to compare the Rega Planar 2 with Nd3 and Pro-Ject Debut EVO 2, bring a couple of your favourite records along and we will be happy to arrange a demonstration.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to welcoming you in-store soon.

Jon and Andy, Audio T Swindon

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

Rega can be found at the following Audio T stores - Pro-Ject turntables can be found at the Swindon store.

• BRIGHTON

• BRISTOL

• CARDIFF

• CHELTENHAM

• MANCHESTER

• PORTSMOUTH

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• SWANSEA

• SWINDON

• ONLINE STORE

Pro-Ject can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• ONLINE STORE

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL

• BRIGHTON

• READING

Audio T: Born in 1966. Still Obsessed with Sound.

Audio T is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Brad Tyler looks back at six decades of change, the people who kept the company going and an industry that has been written off more times than anyone can remember.

Sixty years is a difficult length of time to properly get your head around. In 1966, The Beatles released Revolver, The Beach Boys gave us Pet Sounds, Bob Dylan unveiled Blonde on Blonde and England won the World Cup. Rather more importantly, at least for the purposes of this article, John Bartlett started a small Hi-Fi business from his home.

I cannot claim any first-hand knowledge of those early days. I was still two decades away from making an appearance and only joined Audio T in 2019. However, one of the things I have always loved about the company is that its history has a personality. This is not the story of a carefully planned retail empire created in a boardroom. It is far stranger, more rebellious and considerably more entertaining than that.

So, Where Did Audio T Come From?

John originally called the business Audio Technica, before discovering that a Japanese company had already beaten him to the name. “Technica” was swiftly dropped and Audio T was born.

The business was initially run part-time from John’s home, with equipment advertised in The Gramophone as “ex-demonstration” or “display” stock. In reality, much of it was brand new. At the time, retailers were not permitted to discount new equipment, so this was Audio T’s slightly creative way around the rules. That probably tells you quite a lot about John from the outset.

Audio T’s First Real Store

By 1968, Audio T had grown enough to move into its first proper premises at Dryden Chambers, just behind Oxford Street in London. The building had previously been a Victorian brothel and later appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy. Not many retailers can boast that particular combination on their company CV.

However, there was more to Audio T than unusual premises and a casual disregard for retail conventions. John was determined to find the best and most reliable equipment, often from small manufacturers that were largely unknown at the time. If a product was not good enough, Audio T would say so, regardless of how large or influential the manufacturer might be.

Equipment was independently tested and the results were published. This occasionally caused a few disagreements along the way, including one particularly public falling out, but customers appreciated the honesty.

In 1972, Audio T moved to West Hampstead and became the first British retailer to offer direct-cut vinyl, five-year warranty options and full amplifier test reports. There were also midnight sales and a policy of closing on Mondays, another tradition that has stubbornly survived in our stores to this day. Audio T broke the rules, and people rather liked it.

A Few Familiar Faces

Audio T’s independent, straight-talking approach attracted quite a following over the years, including more than a few familiar faces. Our stores have welcomed everyone from conductor Leopold Stokowski, Elton John, Keith Moon and John McVie of Fleetwood Mac to Johnny Rotten, Noel Gallagher, Bernard Sumner of New Order, Mani of The Stone Roses, Jay Kay of Jamiroquai and Emma Watson.

That would make for a fairly unlikely queue outside a demonstration room.

The full roll call is considerably longer and covers musicians, actors, composers, conductors, sportspeople and television personalities from several generations. Other notable customers have included Andrew Lloyd Webber, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, Bonnie Tyler, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith of Underworld, Dr Karl Jenkins, Will Young, Russell Watson, Joe Jackson, Kevin Rowland, Colin Blunstone of The Zombies and Mark Potter of Elbow.

They came to Audio T for much the same reason as everyone else: knowledgeable advice, carefully chosen equipment and a shared enthusiasm for great sound. Celebrity or otherwise, the approach was exactly the same. Listen first, offer an honest opinion and find the system that best suits the person sitting in front of you.

Everything Changes. Then Comes Back Again.

The world of Hi-Fi has changed almost beyond recognition since 1966. Audio T has seen vinyl supposedly replaced by cassette, cassette replaced by CD, CD replaced by downloads and downloads challenged by streaming. We have watched home cinema arrive, televisions become enormous, headphones become wireless and whole music collections shrink into something that can be carried around in a pocket.

Curiously, many of the things pronounced dead have refused to stay dead. Vinyl has returned in a way few people would have predicted 20 years ago. Turntables are introducing a new generation to physical music, while plenty of existing listeners are rediscovering collections that had been gathering dust. Even the CD, after years of being told its services were no longer required, is showing signs of renewed interest.

Every few years, someone announces that Hi-Fi itself is finished. People have phones, smart speakers and endless access to music, so why would anyone need a proper system? The answer is quite simple: having access to music and really listening to it are not the same thing.

Streaming has not killed Hi-Fi. If anything, it has made more music available to more people than at any other point in history. The challenge for our industry is showing those people what can happen when that music is played through something better.

Once someone hears a familiar recording properly reproduced, the conversation changes. They notice an instrument, a harmony or a tiny detail they had never heard before. The music feels bigger, more involving and more human. That moment is why this industry keeps going.

Surviving Isn’t the Same as Standing Still

Reaching 60 does not mean Audio T has simply carried on doing exactly the same thing while the world changed around it. The company has expanded, contracted, merged with other respected retailers and adapted to some extremely difficult trading conditions.

In 1990, Audio T joined forces with Oxford retailer Absolute Sound and Video. The three Jeffries Hi-Fi stores followed in 2002, before Audio Excellence and Practical Hi-Fi became part of the business in 2008.

There have been recessions, changing shopping habits, the rise of internet retail and the small matter of a global pandemic. Stores have opened, moved and closed, and many familiar names from the wider Hi-Fi industry have sadly disappeared altogether. Specialist retail is not easy, and it probably never has been.

What has allowed Audio T to persevere is the recognition that our role is about more than putting products into boxes and taking payment. You can find specifications, prices and opinions online within seconds. What the internet cannot easily tell you is how two products will behave together, whether a pair of loudspeakers will suit your room or if spending more money will genuinely give you something worthwhile.

Sometimes the best advice is that you do not need to spend more at all. That is not always the most effective sales technique, but it is a good way to build a relationship that lasts longer than a single purchase.

Sixty Years of Knowledge

No celebration of Audio T would be complete without recognising the people who have worked here over the years. Our staff have built up an extraordinary amount of knowledge, and it has not come from simply memorising specifications.

Some of our staff, past and present, at the bristol hi-fi show

It has been gained through thousands of demonstrations, installations, home visits and conversations. It comes from matching countless combinations of amplifiers, loudspeakers, turntables and source equipment. Occasionally, it comes from making mistakes so that you do not have to.

Many members of the team have spent a substantial part of their working lives with Audio T. They know which products complement one another, which combinations are best avoided and how apparently small changes can completely alter the balance of a system.

More importantly, they understand that there is no single “correct” system for everyone. We all listen differently, live in different homes, enjoy different music and have different priorities. Good advice begins with listening to the customer. The equipment comes afterwards.

Of course, conversations in our stores have a tendency to wander away from the equipment and into discussions about albums, concerts and which version of a recording sounds best. That is not an unfortunate distraction from the job. It is a large part of the reason most of us got into it.

Thank You for Keeping Us Here

The truth is that no independent business reaches its 60th anniversary without loyal customers. Some of you have been visiting Audio T for decades, gradually building and changing your systems as your circumstances, homes and music collections have evolved. Some have introduced children, friends and other family members to us. Others may have discovered Audio T only recently while searching for a first turntable, a better pair of headphones or a way to get music out of a phone and into the room.

Our destination store, just outside of reading, in swallowfield

Every one of those customers is part of this story. Your purchases have obviously kept the business going, but so have your recommendations, reviews, event visits and conversations. Every time someone tells a friend about a good experience in one of our stores, it helps an independent retailer continue doing what it does.

That support is something we should never take for granted. To everyone who has trusted Audio T over the years, thank you. Whether you have bought several generations of equipment from us or have only just walked through the door for the first time, you are always welcome.

Another Anniversary Is Coming

The celebrations do not end with Audio T’s 60th. In 2027, it will be 40 years since the first Bristol Hi-Fi Show took place in 1987. The next event will be the 38th Show and takes place from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th February at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Bristol City Centre.

The Show has changed over the years, just as the industry has, but its purpose remains remarkably similar. It brings manufacturers, retailers, music lovers and curious newcomers together in one building and gives people the opportunity to experience an enormous range of equipment for themselves.

It is also fairly compelling evidence that the Hi-Fi industry still has plenty of life left in it. We will be celebrating those 40 years properly in Bristol next February, and we hope many of you will be there to join us.

What About the Next 60 Years?

I would be lying if I said I knew what Hi-Fi would look like in another 60 years. By then, we may be controlling our systems with our thoughts, listening through invisible loudspeakers or having heated arguments about whether music sounded better before it was beamed directly into our brains.

Whatever happens, I suspect people will still care about music. They will still want to feel something when they listen, and they will still be curious about whether their favourite recordings could sound better.

That is why Audio T is still here. The technology has changed, the formats have come and gone (and come back again) and the company itself has changed, but the reason behind it all has remained remarkably consistent.

Born in 1966. Still obsessed with sound.

Here’s to whatever comes next.

Thanks for reading.

Brad Tyler – Head of Marketing at Audio T

If you have any questions about Hi-Fi or Home Cinema, be sure to contact your local Audio T.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

How to Choose a Turntable: What You Need to Know Before You Buy

Buying a turntable ought to be simple. You choose one you like, put a record on and enjoy the music.

Then you start looking properly…

Belt drive or direct drive? Manual or automatic? Moving magnet or moving coil? Do you need a phono stage? Does it come with a cartridge? And why can two turntables that appear to do exactly the same job have wildly different price tags?

Before long, something that should be one of the most enjoyable ways of listening to music can start feeling unnecessarily complicated.

It really doesn't need to be.

I've been buying and playing records for a large portion of my life, and one thing I've learned along the way is that choosing a turntable isn't about ticking the most boxes or having an expert-level of understanding for every technical term. It's about finding something that works with your system, suits the way you listen and, most importantly, makes you want to keep pulling records off the shelf.

So let's forget the jargon for a moment and start with the things that actually matter.

First rule of vinyl playback - get your fingers off the playing surface!!!

The quick answer: how do you choose the right turntable?

If you're short on time, start with these questions:

• What will the turntable be connected to?

• Does your amplifier already have a phono stage?

• Do you want manual or automatic operation?

• Is a cartridge included?

• Do you want something simple, or something you can upgrade over time?

• Where will the turntable sit?

• What records do you actually own?

• And perhaps most importantly, how much do you want to spend?

Answer those and you've already narrowed things down considerably. The rest is about finding the turntable that makes you want to keep putting records on and, ultimately, that's the bit that matters.

Start with your existing Hi-Fi system

One of the easiest mistakes to make is looking at a turntable as an isolated purchase. It isn't.

The vinyl replay chain looks something like this:

Record → Stylus and Cartridge → Tonearm → Turntable → Phono Stage → Amplifier → Speakers

Everything affects everything else, but that doesn't mean you need to spend exactly 23.7% of your Hi-Fi budget on a turntable because somebody on a forum said so. There are no magic percentages.

If vinyl is your main source and you've spent the last 30 years amassing several thousand records, it would be perfectly reasonable to put a sizeable chunk of your system budget into playing them properly. If you own 40 LPs but stream music every evening, you might make a different decision.

Personally, my record collection has been growing for longer than I'd care to admit, so vinyl is important to me. But that's my system. Your system should reflect the way you listen.

Do I need a phono stage?

This is probably one of the most common questions we get from people buying a turntable, and it's a sensible one because turntables are slightly awkward little things.

The signal coming from a cartridge is extremely small. Much smaller than the signal coming from a CD player, streamer or DAC. Before your amplifier can do much with it, that signal needs to be amplified and equalised by something called a phono stage.

You may already have one. If your amplifier has an input labelled Phono, there's a good chance it contains a phono stage. You'll just need to establish what type of cartridge it supports, usually Moving Magnet, Moving Coil or sometimes both.

Some turntables have a phono stage built in too, meaning they can connect directly to a normal AUX, Line or analogue input on an amplifier or powered speaker system.

A good real-world example is the difference between the Rega Planar 1 and Rega Planar 1 Plus. Both are designed to make getting into good-quality vinyl replay relatively straightforward, but the standard Planar 1 needs a suitable Moving Magnet phono stage somewhere in the system, whereas the Planar 1 Plus has one built in.

If your amplifier doesn't have a Phono input, that little word Plus suddenly becomes rather important.

And then there are separate phono stages.

Yes, that's another box… Welcome to Hi-Fi!

A separate phono stage gives you much more freedom to choose something that suits your cartridge and upgrade it independently later. So the broad rule is:

Built-in phono stage = simpler.
Separate phono stage = more flexibility.

Neither is automatically better. The important thing is knowing what you actually need before you get your shiny new turntable home and realise you've got nowhere to plug it in.

Belt drive or direct drive?

Ah yes. One of those age-old Hi-Fi debates.

With a belt-drive turntable, the motor turns the platter via a belt. With direct drive, the motor drives the platter directly. Simple enough.

For decades, direct-drive turntables became closely associated with DJ use, while belt drive became the default choice for many specialist Hi-Fi manufacturers. That doesn't mean belt drive is inherently better.

You can see both approaches in the turntables we stock at Audio T. Rega makes extensive use of belt drive, as does Pro-Ject with models such as the Debut EVO 2. At the other end of the argument, the Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB uses direct drive.

Belt drive or direct drive?

Modern direct-drive designs can provide superb speed stability, excellent torque and very high performance. Likewise, a well-engineered belt-drive turntable can isolate motor vibration extremely effectively and sound fantastic.

The important word in both examples is well-engineered.

I wouldn't choose a turntable simply because someone tells you belt drive is more "audiophile", nor would I choose direct drive solely because it gets up to speed half a second quicker. Look at the complete design: motor, bearing, platter, tonearm, cartridge, power supply, isolation and setup all matter.

Or better still, listen to the thing.

Manual or automatic?

This one is much easier because it's really about how you like to listen.

With a manual turntable, you generally switch it on, move the arm across the record and lower the stylus yourself. At the end, you lift it back up.

An automatic turntable can do some or all of that for you.

The Dual CS 329, for example, takes care of pretty much the whole process. Press Start and the tonearm moves into position and lowers itself onto the record, then returns at the end of the side and stops the motor.

Compare that with something like a Rega Planar 3, where you're very much part of the process.

Personally, I like the ritual of a manual turntable. Taking the record out of the sleeve, giving it a quick clean, lowering the stylus and hearing those first few seconds before the music starts is part of the appeal.

But I'm not going to tell somebody they're "doing vinyl wrong" because they'd rather press a button. They're not.

If automatic operation makes you more likely to play your records, buy an automatic turntable. If you love being involved in the process, go manual.

There isn't an exam at the end.

Don't overlook the cartridge

The cartridge is one of the smallest parts of the system and one of the most important. The stylus sits in the record groove and physically follows the information cut into it, with those tiny movements then converted into an electrical signal.

When you really think about what is happening, it's slightly ridiculous that it works at all. And yet here we are.

Many turntables come with a cartridge already fitted and aligned. For somebody buying their first proper turntable, this makes life much easier. As you move further up the ladder, you may find turntables supplied without a cartridge, allowing you to choose one that suits the tonearm and system.

The two main types you'll come across are Moving Magnet (MM) and Moving Coil (MC).

Very broadly, Moving Magnet cartridges are generally easier to live with, widely compatible and often have replaceable styli. Moving Coil cartridges can offer higher levels of performance, but they tend to need more careful matching and usually require a compatible phono stage.

We'll cover all of that properly in our dedicated Moving Magnet vs Moving Coil Cartridges guide.

For now, just make sure you know two things: does the turntable come with a cartridge, and can your phono stage work with it?

How important is turntable setup?

Very. Probably more important than many people realise.

I've spent enough time in recording studios to know that vibration has an annoying habit of turning up exactly where you don't want it. A turntable is trying to read incredibly small movements from a groove, while your loudspeakers are doing their very best to fill the room with vibration.

You can see the potential conflict.

Ideally, your turntable should sit on a solid, stable and level surface, away from the loudspeakers. Putting a turntable and speakers together on the same lightweight sideboard might look lovely on Instagram, but acoustically it isn't always the cleverest idea we've ever had.

And yes, we appreciate that not everybody has the luxury of a dedicated listening room with equipment racks, wall shelves and enough floor space to host a small orchestra. Real homes are real homes.

The point is simply to give the turntable the best chance you reasonably can. If you've got suspended floors, awkward furniture or very powerful speakers, isolation can become particularly important.

Sometimes a decent support or wall shelf can achieve more than spending the same amount of money upgrading another component.

How much setup do you want to do yourself?

This is worth thinking about before buying.

Some turntables are deliberately straightforward. You take them out of the box, make a small number of adjustments and you're listening to music fairly quickly.

Others allow you to adjust:

• tracking force

• anti-skate or bias

• cartridge alignment

• tonearm height

• platter or sub-platter

• external power supplies

• cartridges

• belts

• isolation

If you're reading that list and thinking, "Brilliant, I love tinkering", then an upgradeable deck may be exactly what you want.

If you're thinking, "I just want to listen to Rumours", that's fine too. You don't need to turn record playing into an engineering project.

One of the advantages of buying from a specialist is that we can deal with the setup for you. You still get the benefits without spending your Saturday afternoon staring suspiciously at a protractor.

Do you want to upgrade later?

Turntables can be wonderfully upgradeable things.

Depending on the design, you may eventually be able to improve the cartridge, stylus, belt, platter, sub-platter, tonearm, power supply, phono stage or isolation.

How far you can take things varies enormously. A Rega Planar 3, for example, gives you sensible future options around cartridges and power supplies, while something such as the Linn Majik LP12 takes the idea considerably further, with a modular design that can evolve piece by piece over many years.

That can be great fun, but there is a slight danger in Hi-Fi that we spend so much time thinking about what we're going to upgrade next that we forget to enjoy what we've already bought. I've certainly been guilty of it.

An upgrade path is useful. An obligation to keep upgrading isn't.

If you want something that can evolve with your system over the next ten or fifteen years, choose accordingly. If you want to buy a turntable and leave it alone, that's an equally valid approach.

What speeds do you need?

For most people, this is straightforward.

The majority of record collections are made up of 33⅓rpm LPs and 45rpm singles, and practically every conventional Hi-Fi turntable will play both.

The difference is often in how you change speed. Some turntables use an electronic switch, while others require you to move the drive belt manually from one pulley position to another.

Electronic speed change is undoubtedly more convenient. Manual speed change isn't exactly hardship. It takes a few seconds.

Where you do need to pay attention is if you own 78rpm records.

Not every turntable supports 78rpm, although there are models that do. The Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB mentioned earlier is one example, while Rega also makes the dedicated Planar 78 specifically for 78rpm records.

12” LP, 7” Single and a 10” Gramophone record

Older shellac records will generally require an appropriate stylus too, so if you've inherited a stack of old 78s from your grandparents, make sure you mention it before buying.

What about Bluetooth and USB?

Turntables have changed.

It's now quite common to find models with Bluetooth, USB outputs or built-in phono stages. Purists may need a cup of tea and a sit down at this point, but there's nothing inherently wrong with these features.

USB can be useful if you want to digitise records. Bluetooth can make vinyl much easier to incorporate into a modern wireless system. A built-in phono stage can simplify the whole setup.

The AT-LP120XUSB is a good example of how these worlds can meet: it's still a fully manual direct-drive turntable with a conventional cartridge and tonearm, but it also has a built-in switchable phono stage and USB output.

The question is whether you need any of those things.

If sound quality is your priority, I'd always start with the fundamentals: is it a good turntable, is the tonearm good, is the cartridge good, and is it well engineered?

Connectivity comes afterwards. There's not much point having seven different ways to connect a turntable if the basic record-playing bit isn't particularly good.

Should I buy a turntable with a built-in phono stage?

For plenty of people, yes. It can make getting into vinyl enormously straightforward.

Turntable into amplifier. Done.

It's particularly useful if you're using active speakers or an amplifier without its own phono input. But if you're building a more ambitious system or think you're likely to experiment with cartridges later, a separate phono stage gives you greater flexibility.

There's no need to get hung up on this. You can build a fantastic system either way.

It comes back to one of the main themes of this whole guide:

Buy for how you're actually going to use it.

Not for how somebody on the internet tells you a "proper" vinyl system should look.

Don't become obsessed with specifications

Specifications are useful. They can tell you about things like speed accuracy, wow and flutter, output level, tracking force and dimensions.

What they can't tell you is whether you'll actually enjoy listening to the turntable.

I studied this stuff. I still don't sit at home admiring a wow-and-flutter figure.

At some point you need to put a record on.

Two turntables costing roughly the same amount can sound quite different. One might feel more rhythmically engaging, while another might sound bigger and more spacious. You might prefer one immediately and somebody else might choose the other.

Neither of you is wrong. That's the joy, and occasional frustration, of Hi-Fi.

Take records you actually know to a demonstration

This might sound obvious, but it's worth saying.

If you're comparing turntables, take music you know. Not an immaculate £50 pressing of something you've never heard before simply because somebody told you it's "audiophile".

Take your records.

I've got records that are beautifully produced. I've also got records I adore that sound like they were recorded in a shed with three microphones and a prayer.

Both matter to me.

If you've listened to an album hundreds of times, you'll immediately hear when something changes. You'll notice the bass, the voice, whether the drummer suddenly sounds like they're actually sitting behind the kit rather than being politely suggested somewhere in the distance.

And you'll know whether you're enjoying it.

That is far more useful than trying to remember a list of Hi-Fi terminology while somebody stands next to you waiting for a verdict.

How much should you spend on a turntable?

The annoying answer is:

It depends.

I know. Helpful. But there's genuinely no universal figure.

Spend enough to achieve the performance you want without completely unbalancing the rest of your system.

If vinyl is your main source, then spending a significant proportion of your budget on record playback can make perfect sense. If vinyl is something you enjoy occasionally alongside streaming and CD, you may want to spread the budget differently.

And don't forget that the turntable itself may not be the whole bill. You could also need:

• a cartridge

• a phono stage

• interconnects

• equipment support

• record cleaning equipment

• replacement styli

There's little point spending every last penny on the turntable and then balancing it on an old IKEA unit next to the subwoofer because you forgot about everything else.

New to vinyl? Don't overthink it

If this is your first proper turntable, there is a temptation to research absolutely everything.

YouTube reviews. Forums. Specifications. Cartridge compliance calculators. Arguments between complete strangers about whether a particular belt sounds better after 37 hours of running in.

Eventually your brain melts.

Start simple. Ask yourself:

What equipment do I already have?
How much do I want to spend?
Do I want manual or automatic?
Do I need a phono stage?
Do I want to upgrade things later?
Where will the turntable sit?

Then listen. You can learn the rest as you go.

That's half the fun.

My advice: buy the turntable that makes you want to play records

After all the technical stuff, this is really where I land.

A turntable isn't there to impress somebody reading your equipment list. It's there to play music.

Some people want a beautifully simple deck they can keep for twenty years. Others enjoy upgrading cartridges, power supplies, phono stages and everything else they can get their hands on.

Some people have thousands of records. Others have just bought their first five. There is room for all of them.

For me, vinyl has always been about the connection with the music. Choosing an album, pulling the record from its sleeve, looking at the artwork, lowering the tonearm and dropping the stylus.

Then inevitably realising you've left your cup of tea on the other side of the room just as the music starts.

That's part of it.

The best turntable isn't automatically the most expensive. It isn't necessarily the one with the longest specification sheet. And it definitely isn't the one somebody on a forum tells you you're supposed to own.

It's the one that works properly with your system and makes you want to get another record off the shelf.

Before you buy…

• Does my amplifier have a phono stage?
  Check for a Phono input, and whether it supports MM, MC or both.

• Does the turntable include a cartridge?
  Some do, some don't. Make sure you know what's included in the price.

• Where is it going to sit?
  Stable, level and ideally away from your speakers.

• Do I want manual or automatic?
  There's no right answer. Pick the one you'll actually enjoy using.

• Can I hear it first?
  Preferably. Take a couple of records you know and see what grabs you.

Still not sure which turntable is right for you?

Come and talk to us. That's not a clever marketing line. Turntables are simply much easier to choose when you can see them, hear them and work out how they'll fit into the rest of your system.

You can browse our full range of turntables here, or better still, bring along a couple of records you know well and visit your local Audio T store.

We can help you choose the right turntable, cartridge and phono stage, make sure everything works with the equipment you already own and take care of the setup too.

You don't need to know all the terminology before you walk through the door. That's our job.

Yours is to bring your ears.

Thanks for reading.

Brad Tyler – Head of Marketing at Audio T

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact your local Audio T.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Turntables from varying brands can be found at all Audio T stores:

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

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• BRISTOL

• ONLINE STORE

Moving Magnet vs Moving Coil Cartridges: What’s the Difference?

If you've spent any time looking at turntables or cartridges, you've probably come across two little abbreviations that seem to crop up everywhere: MM and MC.

Moving Magnet and Moving Coil.

At first glance, it can feel like another one of those Hi-Fi choices where you're somehow expected to know which camp you belong to before anyone lets you through the door.

Thankfully, it isn't.

Both are simply different ways of doing the same fundamental job: taking the incredibly small movements of a stylus as it follows a record groove and turning them into an electrical signal that eventually comes out of your speakers as music.

The differences are in how they do it, how much signal they produce, what equipment they need around them and, ultimately, whether one makes more sense in your system than the other.

And before we go any further, let's get one thing out of the way.

Moving Coil is not automatically better than Moving Magnet.

There. I've said it. Now we can get on with things.

The quick answer: MM or MC?

If you want the abbreviated version, Moving Magnet cartridges generally produce a higher output, are easier to match with phono stages and, in many cases, allow the stylus to be replaced or upgraded separately.

Moving Coil cartridges tend to produce a much lower output and require a compatible MC phono stage, but their lighter moving generator is one of the reasons they have become so closely associated with more ambitious vinyl systems.

There are, naturally, exceptions to pretty much all of that.

Because Hi-Fi wouldn't be Hi-Fi if somebody hadn't found a way of making a simple answer slightly more complicated.

If you're choosing your first cartridge, MM is often the easiest place to start. If you're building a more ambitious vinyl setup and have the turntable, tonearm and phono stage to support it, MC becomes very interesting indeed.

First, what does the cartridge actually do?

It's easy to overlook the cartridge because it's tiny, but there's quite a lot happening down there.

The stylus sits in the record groove and moves as it encounters the information cut into the vinyl. That movement travels through the cantilever and into the cartridge's generator, which converts the mechanical movement into an electrical signal.

A microscopic view of a stylus in the grooves of a record

When you actually stop and think about it, it's still fairly miraculous.

You're dragging a tiny diamond through a plastic groove containing microscopic variations and somehow Mr. Brightside comes out the other end.

Not bad.

The main difference between MM and MC is essentially which part of that generator moves.

How does a Moving Magnet cartridge work?

In a Moving Magnet cartridge, small magnets attached to the cantilever move in relation to fixed coils inside the cartridge body.

As the stylus traces the groove, those magnets move and generate an electrical signal in the coils.

One of the main advantages is output. MM cartridges generally produce a relatively healthy signal, which makes them compatible with the Moving Magnet phono inputs found in a huge number of amplifiers and standalone phono stages.

They're also available at a very broad range of prices and performance levels, which is where I think the phrase "entry-level cartridge" can become a little misleading.

Moving Magnet might be where many people start, but it certainly isn't where the technology stops.

Moving Magnet doesn't mean basic

You only have to look through the cartridges we stock at Audio T to see how varied MM designs can be.

The Audio-Technica VM95 Series is a particularly good example. The same basic cartridge platform can take you from a simple conical stylus through elliptical, nude elliptical, MicroLinear and Shibata options.

That's useful because you don't necessarily have to throw the entire cartridge away every time you want to improve things. In many cases you can simply change the stylus assembly and move further up the range.

Ortofon does something similar with its hugely popular 2M family. Something like the 2M Blue uses a Nude Elliptical stylus, while the 2M Black takes things considerably further with a Nude Shibata profile.

Both are still Moving Magnet cartridges.

Then you've got cartridges such as the Sumiko Amethyst, which uses a line-contact stylus and a more sophisticated generator.

So if anybody tells you MM is only for inexpensive turntables, things have moved on a bit.

How does a Moving Coil cartridge work?

A Moving Coil cartridge turns the principle around.

Instead of moving magnets in relation to fixed coils, tiny coils attached to the cantilever move within a magnetic field.

Those coils can be made extremely small and light, reducing the moving mass at the business end of the cartridge. In a suitably capable system, that can allow the stylus and cantilever assembly to respond exceptionally quickly and accurately to what's happening in the groove.

That's one of the reasons MC designs have become so closely associated with high-performance vinyl replay.

But there is a catch.

Those tiny coils don't generate very much electricity.

A conventional low-output Moving Coil cartridge may produce only a fraction of a millivolt, while a typical MM produces several millivolts.

Which brings us neatly to probably the most important practical difference between the two.

Your phono stage matters

A lot.

If you've already read our How to Choose a Turntable guide, you'll know that a turntable cartridge can't simply be connected to any old amplifier input.

It needs a phono stage, and with MM versus MC the type of phono stage becomes particularly important.

A Moving Magnet phono stage is designed around the relatively strong output of an MM cartridge. A low-output Moving Coil cartridge requires significantly more gain, and better MC phono stages may also allow you to adjust things such as loading to suit the cartridge more precisely.

So if you've spotted an MC cartridge, fallen in love with the idea of it and are hovering over the Buy button, check your phono stage first.

Buying the cartridge and then discovering your amplifier only has an MM input is a slightly irritating way to spend an afternoon.

Some phono stages support both MM and MC. Others are dedicated to one type, so system matching matters just as much here as it does with the turntable itself.

And then there are high-output Moving Coils…

Remember when I said Hi-Fi likes making things complicated?

Some Moving Coil cartridges are designed with a higher output so they can be used with the sort of phono amplification normally associated with Moving Magnet cartridges.

The Dynavector 10X5 MkII is a great example. Its high-output version produces considerably more signal than a conventional low-output MC and is specifically designed to work into an appropriate MM-type phono input.

Hana takes a similar approach with the S Series MKII. The SL MKII is a conventional low-output MC intended for suitable Moving Coil amplification, while the SH MKII is a high-output version designed to work with an appropriate Moving Magnet phono stage.

Same basic cartridge family. Different electrical requirements.

This is why I wouldn't buy any cartridge based purely on the letters printed on the box.

Does MM mean the stylus can always be replaced?

No. It's another one of those generalisations that is mostly useful until it suddenly isn't.

On many Moving Magnet cartridges, the stylus assembly can be removed and replaced without changing the whole cartridge. That's useful because styli wear out, but it also gives manufacturers such as Audio-Technica and Ortofon the opportunity to build very sensible upgrade paths.

Audio-Technica offer one of the easiest upgrades with their At-VM95 series

If you've got an AT-VM95 body, for example, you can move through several different stylus profiles without replacing the generator itself. Likewise, an owner of an Ortofon 2M Bronze can move to a 2M Black stylus without necessarily replacing the complete cartridge.

But not every MM cartridge works that way.

Rega's current Nd range is a useful example. The Rega Nd5 and Nd7 are Moving Magnet designs, but their styli aren't intended to be swapped by the user. Instead they have to be returned to Rega to be rebuilt.

So don't choose MM solely because somebody has told you, "You can always replace the stylus." Usually isn't the same as always.

Moving Magnet or Moving Coil isn't the whole story

This is probably one of the most important points in the whole article.

MM or MC tells you how the cartridge generates its electrical signal. It doesn't tell you everything about the stylus that's actually touching the record.

You'll also encounter stylus descriptions such as conical, elliptical, nude elliptical, Fine Line, MicroLinear, Shibata and other line-contact profiles.

These shapes affect how the stylus contacts and traces the groove, and increasingly sophisticated profiles can retrieve very fine information when they're properly aligned.

That's why an advanced Moving Magnet cartridge such as the Ortofon 2M Black or Rega Nd7 shouldn't be dismissed simply because it isn't Moving Coil.

Equally, an MC cartridge isn't automatically brilliant simply because somebody has fitted tiny coils to it.

You have to look at the complete design: generator, stylus, cantilever, cartridge body, tonearm, phono stage and setup.

There's that whole-system thing again. Hi-Fi does love ruining a beautifully simple answer.

So does Moving Coil sound better?

Sometimes. (Helpful, I know).

A good Moving Coil cartridge in a properly matched system can be wonderful. There's a reason manufacturers put so much effort into reducing moving mass and refining these incredibly small generators.

But simply fitting an MC cartridge doesn't unlock a secret layer of information that's been hiding on every record waiting for you to spend more money.

A well-chosen MM cartridge on the right turntable, feeding a good MM phono stage, can make considerably more sense than buying an expensive MC and then compromising everything around it.

This is something that gets forgotten whenever Hi-Fi gets reduced to hierarchies. More expensive must be better. Moving Coil must beat Moving Magnet. Bigger number wins. It really isn't that simple.

I've heard systems where changing the cartridge has transformed the whole presentation, but I've also heard expensive cartridges fitted to turntables where you can't help thinking the money would have been rather better spent somewhere else.

Balance matters.

Don't forget the tonearm

Cartridge matching goes beyond checking whether your phono stage says MM or MC on the back. The cartridge also needs to work mechanically with the tonearm.

Cartridge weight, compliance, tracking force and the effective mass of the arm can all come into play.

I'm deliberately not going to turn this into a cartridge compliance mathematics lesson. You've got records to listen to and I've got a word count to think about.

The important thing is simply to understand that not every cartridge is automatically an ideal match for every tonearm.

The physical dimensions can matter too. Ortofon, for example, offers its lower-profile 2MR versions for turntables and tonearms where the height of the standard 2M body isn't ideal.

So if you're replacing a cartridge on an existing turntable, it pays to check before assuming anything with two screws in the top will work perfectly.

Cartridge setup isn't the place for "that looks about right”

A cartridge is trying to trace incredibly tiny variations in a record groove, so positioning it several millimetres out and thinking, "Yeah, that'll probably do" isn't really the ideal approach.

Correct setup can involve cartridge alignment, tracking force, anti-skate or bias, tonearm height, azimuth and, with some MC systems, phono-stage gain and loading.

Some cartridges and tonearms make installation beautifully simple. Others make you wonder whether a third hand might have been a useful evolutionary development.

But it matters.

A cartridge that's badly aligned or incorrectly adjusted isn't just unlikely to sound its best. Poor setup can also affect tracking and increase wear.

If you're not comfortable fitting one yourself, there is absolutely no shame in getting somebody else to do it.

I've spent enough of my life fiddling around with turntables to know there are occasions when "I'll let someone with the right tools do that" is an entirely sensible decision.

When would I choose Moving Magnet?

For me, MM makes a great deal of sense if you're buying your first proper cartridge, your amplifier already has a good MM input, you value simplicity, or you'd like an easy stylus upgrade path.

But none of those things mean it has to be a stepping stone to something else.

A cartridge such as the Ortofon 2M Black, Rega Nd7 or Sumiko Amethyst can sit perfectly happily in a serious vinyl system.

You don't eventually have to "graduate" from Moving Magnet. There is no ceremony. No certificate arrives in the post. If you've got an MM cartridge you love, enjoy it.

When would I choose Moving Coil?

MC becomes particularly appealing when the turntable and tonearm are capable enough to justify the investment, you've got appropriate phono amplification, and you're looking to push more performance from an already well-balanced vinyl system.

It doesn't necessarily mean jumping straight into a low-output design either. Products such as the Dynavector 10X5 MkII, Hana SH MKII and Sumiko Songbird High demonstrate that high-output Moving Coils can give you another route, particularly if you've already invested in a good MM phono stage.

Ultimately, though, the deciding factor should still be the same.

Listen.

If you prefer one cartridge to another and it works properly in your system, the badge on the front matters considerably less.

Don't upgrade the cartridge just because you can

Cartridges are tempting upgrades because changing one can produce a very noticeable difference, but before spending the money it's worth looking at the rest of the system.

Is your existing cartridge actually worn? Could you upgrade the stylus instead? Would the turntable itself benefit from attention first? Would a better phono stage make more sense?

And is the turntable sitting on something resembling a trampoline?

There's rarely only one route.

If you're still at the stage of choosing the deck itself, start with our How to Choose a Turntable guide before disappearing too far down the cartridge rabbit hole.

Before you buy…

• Is my phono stage MM or MC compatible? A conventional low-output MC needs much more gain than a typical MM cartridge.

• Will the cartridge suit my tonearm? Electrical compatibility is only half of the equation.

• Can the stylus be replaced or upgraded? Many MM cartridges allow it, but not all do.

• Does it need professional setup? A great cartridge badly installed is still a badly installed cartridge.

• Have I actually listened to one? Specifications can narrow the choice. Your ears should finish the job.

So, Moving Magnet or Moving Coil?

If you've made it this far hoping I'd finally declare a winner, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you.

There isn't one.

Moving Magnet offers enormous choice, straightforward compatibility and potentially superb performance across a huge range of systems.

Moving Coil can take things considerably further in the right setup, but it usually asks more of the turntable, tonearm, phono stage and installation around it.

The best choice is the one that makes sense as part of your system.

Not the one with the more impressive initials.

You can browse our full range of turntable cartridges here, but if you're thinking about replacing or upgrading yours, I'd strongly recommend speaking to your local Audio T store first.

Tell us what turntable and tonearm you're using, what phono stage or amplifier you've got and what you're hoping to improve. We can help narrow down the options, make sure everything is properly matched and take care of fitting and setup where required.

Because whether it's MM or MC, there's really only one thing the cartridge ultimately needs to achieve.

Make you want to turn the record over and play side two.

And as a little side note, if you buy a cartridge from your local Audio T store, we'll fit and set it up on your turntable free of charge. So if the thought of alignment protractors, tracking force and tiny screws fills you with dread, you can happily leave that bit to us.

Thanks for reading.

Brad Tyler – Head of Marketing at Audio T

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact your local Audio T.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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Cartridges and Styli from varying brands can be found at all Audio T stores:

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL

• ONLINE STORE

Does your Hi-Fi sound better at night?

Have you ever sat down in the evening, put on one of your favourite albums and thought, “That sounds particularly good tonight”?

Nothing has changed. The amplifier is the same, the speakers haven’t moved and it might be an album you’ve listened to hundreds of times. Yet everything seems a little clearer, the bass sounds better and you’re noticing things in the recording that you don’t remember hearing before.

So, does your Hi-Fi actually sound better at night? Possibly, but there are a few fairly simple reasons why it might seem that way.

Everything Around Your Hi-Fi Is Quieter

During the day, most homes are much noisier than we realise. The heating may be running (although recently it’s more likely to be a fan or AC if you’re lucky enough), the fridge is humming, traffic is passing outside and somebody has probably got a television on in another room. Add in the washing machine, phones going off and people generally getting on with their day, and there is quite a lot competing with your music.

None of these sounds may be particularly loud, but together they create a constant level of background noise. This can cover up some of the quieter details in a recording without you even noticing.

Later in the evening, most of that starts to die down. There is less traffic, fewer appliances running and, if you’re lucky, everybody else has gone to bed. Your system probably isn’t producing any more detail than it did during the day. It is just easier to hear what was already there.

Small things such as a singer taking a breath, the ring of a cymbal or fingers moving along guitar strings become easier to pick out when they aren’t competing with a washing machine attempting to escape from the kitchen.

You’re Probably Listening More Carefully

The other big difference is you.

During the day, music is often something we have playing while doing something else. We might be cooking, answering emails, looking at our phones, doing housework or thinking about the long list of jobs we haven’t got around to yet.

At night, we are far more likely to sit down and properly listen. Once the phone is out of reach and there is nothing else demanding our attention, it becomes much easier to follow the music.

That can make an album you know well sound surprisingly fresh. You might suddenly notice an instrument tucked away in the background or hear more of the space around a singer’s voice. It isn’t necessarily something your system has suddenly found. It may simply be something your brain ignored the last time you listened.

Being more relaxed helps too. Music is usually more enjoyable when you aren’t trying to do six other things at the same time.

What About the Mains Electricity?

This is where things get a little more interesting, because the quality of the mains supply can affect the performance of electrical equipment, including Hi-Fi.

Our homes are full of devices that can introduce electrical noise into the mains, from household appliances and lighting controls to phone chargers, computers and inexpensive power supplies. Some of that noise can find its way into an audio system, potentially affecting things such as clarity, dynamics and the amount of background noise you hear.

The mains supply can also change throughout the day. When homes, offices and businesses are busy, there are far more electrical devices operating and feeding noise back into the supply. Later at night, when many of them have been switched off, the mains may be quieter. This could be one reason why some systems seem to sound cleaner or more open during an evening listening session.

Hi-Fi equipment contains its own power supply and filtering, but that doesn’t mean it is completely unaffected by the quality of the electricity feeding it. This is why specialist mains conditioners and filters from companies such as IsoTek and Chord Company exist. They are designed to reduce unwanted electrical noise and provide connected equipment with a cleaner supply.

How much difference this makes will depend on your home, the equipment you use and the condition of the local mains. It may not be the only reason your system sounds better at night, but it certainly shouldn’t be dismissed. A quieter room, fewer distractions and potentially cleaner mains power could all be playing their part.

Your Room Feels Different at Night

The room itself doesn’t really change when the sun goes down, but it can feel very different.

Sitting in a quieter room with the lights turned down removes a lot of the things that normally distract us. Without so much going on around you, it can be easier to focus on where instruments are placed and how wide or deep the soundstage feels.

The singer may appear to sit more clearly between the speakers, individual instruments become easier to follow and the sound of the room where the music was recorded can be more noticeable. Again, the system may have been doing all of this earlier. You just weren’t in the best situation to hear it.

You may also listen at a lower volume at night, particularly if the rest of the house is asleep. That can change how we hear bass, midrange and treble, so comparing daytime and nighttime listening isn’t always straightforward. If you want to give it a fair go, try to use the same music, seating position and volume setting.

Give It a Try

Choose an album you know really well and listen to it during the day. Rather than leaving it on in the background, sit in your normal listening position and give it your full attention.

Try the same album again later that evening using the same volume setting. Turn off the television, put your phone to one side and lower the lights. You may be surprised by how different it feels, even though nothing in the system has changed.

You could then try making the room as quiet as possible during the day and listening again. If it suddenly sounds just as good, the mains electricity may have been innocent all along.

So, Does Hi-Fi Really Sound Better at Night?

Your amplifier probably doesn’t gain special powers after dark. More often than not, the biggest difference is the quieter room, fewer distractions and the fact that you are actually sitting down and listening properly.

Sometimes we spend so much time thinking about changing amplifiers, speakers, cables and sources that we forget to make time to enjoy the system we already have. A quiet room, a favourite album and an hour without looking at your phone can be a surprisingly effective upgrade.

Of course, if you would like to hear what a new system or component could bring to your music, you can book a demonstration with your local Audio T store. Bring along a few albums you know well and we’ll give you plenty of time to listen and compare.

Sadly, our doors close at 5.30pm, so don’t expect us to dim the lights, fetch the slippers and get cosy with you after dark. You’ll have to recreate that part at home.

Thanks for reading,

Luke - Audio T Portsmouth

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

How Do I Get This Band I Love Out of My Phone and Into My Room? A First Step into Hi-Fi

The Dilemma

It is daunting. It really is. Your folks have got a big TV and a soundbar (great!) and Netflix sounds all right, but music through it is flat and a bit soulless. Even Grandma and Grandad have a soundbar, ostensibly so they can hear what the experts are saying on Antiques Roadshow. You recall Gramps saying with a grin, “It’s these Sunday-night costume dramas. The actors can barely manage a mumble, so we bought a soundbar like your dad.”

Sigh. Not one of those, then.

What’s a young person to do?

Your Bluetooth headphones sound pretty good, but that’s in the privacy of your own skull, which is fine. You suspect the crumblies are quite happy about that too, but it can hardly be described as a visceral experience. Man/Woman/Chainsaw absolutely did not sound like this at Rough Trade last week!

we’re nothing if not literal here.

Take Action!

Step one is crossing the threshold of that hi-fi shop you walk past occasionally. You know the one: three blokes lurking among shelves of electronics and displays of big wooden speakers with scary price tags. You’re positive you’ve got an uncle or cousin somewhere who is into all this stuff.

Step two is a deep breath and your opening gambit: “Hi. I really like music and I’ve already got Bluetooth headphones, but I want to play music out loud in my room.”

The Proposition

Step three is absorbing the inevitable dad joke, “You’re in the right place!” Then you let the grinning salesperson ask a few gentle questions: What do you listen to? Where will the system go? How loud can you realistically play it? Do you want the TV connected too? And, importantly, what sort of budget would be comfortable?

That leads us to a sensible place to start: streamed music and a smart speaker such as the WiiM Sound Lite.

Wiim Soundlite

You recognise the idea from online reviews, but you’ve never experienced one IRL. It’s a pleasant surprise how nice it sounds, and the app is dead easy to use. You can link two together and that’s called stereo. All you know is that it sounds miles better.

The music seems to come from the space between the speakers. The guitar is on the right, the bass player is on the left and the singer is slap bang in the middle. The drums stretch across the lot. That’s pretty cool. They both need power, though. Hmmm…

the wiim soundsmart smart speaker notice the porthole touchscreen. not just a display, one can access music with it too.

The salesperson points out that WiiM makes a larger smart speaker too, and it does sound a bit better. But ‘Sales’ has noticed you noticing that two speakers are much more satisfying than one, so their instinct is to lead you towards a neat little silver box wired to a slightly larger pair of speakers, all sitting on their own shelf.

the wiim amp streamer/amplifier now we’re cooking

This is a WiiM Amp streaming amplifier connected to a pair of Acoustic Energy AE100² speakers. The Amp uses the same control app as before and the whole rig looks like a miniature version of the system at the far end of the shop. The prices aren’t anywhere near as salty, though. In fact, they’re fine: just a few quid more than the pair of smart speakers would cost.

A couple of taps on the app and this time the music springs out of the speakers and fills the room. The bass guitar now has distinct notes of its own. It has weight, too, and you can feel it in your chest a bit. The singer sounds as though she is right in front of you, while the drum strikes are sharp and fast enough to shake the air. This is more like it!

our favourite inexpensive speakers, the Acoustic energy AE100² - brilliant value

The same little box can play music from Spotify, TIDAL or Qobuz, and there are sockets on the back for a TV and other sources. YouTube, TikTok, The Last of Us and GTA can all get in on the act too. It isn’t a system that only does one job, and it doesn’t require half the room to house it.

“This is where it starts to get interesting,” says ‘Sales’. “It’s a proper little hi-fi and brilliant value for money, but with a little extra effort, we can make it fly. Have a listen to this…”

Sales grabs a couple of compact metal frames with rubber at the corners and pops one under each speaker. “These are IsoAcoustics isolation stands. They help isolate the speakers from the desktop or shelf they’re sitting on. You’ll see the same idea beneath studio monitors used by musicians and producers.”

isoacoustic aperta desktop stands. if you have your speakers on a desk or shelf, you must try these. they are absolutely transformative to the performance.

Sales presses play.

Whoa! How on earth did that happen? Everything sounds meatier but crisper too. The voices are fresh and clean, as is the bass. The lead and rhythm guitars are easier to separate, and so are the ride cymbal, crash and hi-hat. Neat.

they have a tilt function too. so very useful

The WiiM Amp is then swapped for the rather more handsome WiiM Amp Ultra, with its touchscreen display, reassuring weight and very solid-looking sockets on the back. Another tap on the app and the music pours out again, this time sounding effortless and richer, but with more urgency and drama than before. How is it doing that?

The music appears to occupy three dimensions now, which is both curious and impressive, all through the same speakers. In fact, it sounds great. That’s… intriguing.

the wiim amp ultra. with a touchscreen and a healthier amplifier than the standard wiim amp.. when powering modest loudspeakers, it’s a class act; rich and solid.

It’s still perfectly compact and will take up very little real estate back in your room. This is perhaps the biggest surprise of all: hi-fi doesn’t have to mean a wall of boxes, enormous speakers and a degree in electrical engineering. It can be small, straightforward and built around the music service you already use every day.

“We can go further, of course. Much further, in fact, but I don’t want to overload you with information and scare you off.”

Scared? Not any more, you’re not!

The Solution

This is the bit people often misunderstand. You do not need to know the difference between watts, ohms and optical inputs before walking into a hi-fi shop. You only need three things: some music you love, a rough idea of what you would like to spend and an idea of where the system needs to live. The rest can be worked out by listening.

A first hi-fi system does not have to be your final hi-fi system either. A compact streaming amplifier and a pair of speakers make a proper starting point, but they also give you room to experiment later. You might change the speakers, add isolation stands, improve the amplifier or simply leave the whole thing alone and enjoy it. There is no compulsory upgrade conveyor belt.

Specifications can tell you what a product does, but they cannot tell you whether it will make the band you love sound more like the band you heard playing live last week. For that, you need to hear it for yourself, preferably using your own phone, your own music and your own ears.

Cross any Audio T threshold and ask us to play something for you. It really is our pleasure.

Thank you for taking the time to read my scribblings. I hope you enjoyed them.

Ade - Audio T Swansea

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not go ahead and read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…

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WiiM can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• ONLINE STORE

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL

Acoustic Energy can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• ONLINE STORE

• PORTSMOUTH

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL

• SOUTHAMPTON

• MANCHESTER

• BRIGHTON

IsoAcoustics can be found at the following Audio T stores

• SWINDON

• CHELTENHAM

• READING

• SOUTHAMPTON

• ONLINE STORE

• BRIGHTON

• PORTSMOUTH

• MANCHESTER

• CARDIFF

• SWANSEA

• BRISTOL