Music, Emotion And Hi-Fi. It's All About System Synergy & Set Up

Blogs are usually about a piece of Hi-Fi equipment and how it stands up against its peers or the previous version of it. This time I wanted to do a blog about a system and the way it makes me feel.

In our newly refurbished demonstration room at our Bristol store, we had just set up a system for a reviewer for one of the UK Hi-Fi magazines. The review was for the REL 212 sub bass system and to see how well it integrated with a pair of Kudos Titans. Looking at what had been put together and the reasoning behind the system, you soon realise that the magic doesn't just come from one bit of Hi-Fi equipment, it comes from all of the components working well together.

The kit that was used:

Chord cables throughout
Bryston 4B SST
Bryston BP26 plus MPS2
Naim NDX
Naim XPSDR
Kudos TITAN
x 2 REL 212SE stereo pair run via longbow

This is not an inexpensive Hi-Fi system but thats not what this is about. If you're a music lover you invest in Hi-Fi because you love music and the feeling and enjoyment you get when it immerses you in the artist's performance when it plays. To get to that point of musical nirvana, it takes both time effort and a level of skill to set up to ensure the system is as musical as possible.

The finished result after many hours of fine tuning, was a highly musical system that put a great big smile on my face and gave me chills when listening to it. So good that it made you want to keep playing one more track..... and the worries of world just drifted away. Probably one of the best sounding Hi-Fi systems I have ever listened to and in my time I have listened to quite a few.

Audio T established in 1966 has 14 stores from Preston down to Brighton. All of our friendly and helpful staff are music or film enthusiasts, most of who have been working in the industry for many years. Their collective knowledge and experience of a wide variety of different Hi-Fi systems is considerable and they do know what works well together and how to set it up correctly to make sure you get the most joy from your music and film collections. We all have different ears and tastes for how we like our music to be presented, so we will always listen and proffer friendly advice, but ultimately your own ears will be the judge..

Kevin Starkie, General Manager - Audio T

Come And Hear The New PMC twenty5 Series Saturday 29th October

Join us as we put the new PMC twenty5 range through its paces in Hi-Fi and Home Cinema set ups.

We invite you to take a closer look and listen to the new twenty5 range as we put on yours and our favourite pieces of music in our Hi-Fi demo room. We will be working through the range from the twenty5 21 to the twenty5 26's.

twenty 26's pictured, the new twenty5 range will be shown on the day.

In our Home Cinema room we will also have the twenty5 range set up in a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos configuration. The Twenty5 23's, Twenty C, Twenty5 21's & Twenty Sub.

twenty 22 and twenty Centre pictured.

The PMC representative will be attending to answer any questions you may have. We welcome you to bring down your favourite pieces of music or films to test the new twenty5 range.

We looking forward to seeing you.

Many Thanks

Simon, John & Mahmood.

Audio T
159A Chase Side
Enfield
EN2 0PW

Tel: 0208 367 3132
Email: enfield@audio-t.co.uk

Live Music Event At The Norwegian Church Cardiff Featuring Spendor And Nytech

We love a music event here at Audio T Cardiff and this October we are holding our best yet! Held at the iconic Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay there will be an evening of live music and of course a chance to listen to some stunning Hi-Fi.

The event starts at 7pm on Thursday the 6th of October and we will have the Welsh debut of Spendor's brand new D9 loudspeakers being driven by the excellent Nytech CP202 Pre-amplifier and CPA402 power amplifier. We will be listening to the equipment using the new Project classic turntable as well as high resolution streaming as sources and will be playing a selection of music to really show off what the system can do.

As an extra treat live music will be provided by renowned Cardiff musicians Erin Williams-Jones and Cat Vonhausenberg. We also have an former BBC sound engineer recording the duo so we can play it back through the Hi-Fi to look at how close a good system can get to live sound.

There is no cost to get into the venue so please feel free to come along for an enjoyable night of music. Any questions about the event at all please get in contact with us at the shop.

Neat Iota Alpha, It Appears Good Things Do Come In Small Packages

We had been waiting to get our hands on a pair of these since the Sound & Vision, The Bristol Show in February, we knew they were small but when they arrived....it was oh! That small!

Neat Iota Alpha Floorstanding Loudspeaker

We should have guessed really as we have stocked and sold the diminutive Iota, a great performer for anyone that has a small  space and hooked up with something like the Naim Unitilte makes for a great all in one system.

Once we had run this pair in for a week we hooked them up to a Naim Superuniti to see what they could do, and we weren't disappointed, these are a very musical speaker and despite their small size the addition of the downward firing bass driver below, they can certainly fill a decent size room, whether it's a string quartet or dub reggae that's your bag... these will get your toes a tapping.

Like its smaller brother this speaker uses a ribbon tweeter and bass/mid driver, these are positioned on the front of the speaker at the top and are angled upwards helping to project the sound up into  the room from such a low floor standing speaker.

As mentioned earlier this is now all underpinned by a downward facing bass driver and some large floor spikes to lift the driver to the required height for getting a tuneful and rhythmic bass output which once positioned correctly for the room is in no way woolly or boomy.

These really are a great speaker, writing this and listening to some great music on them using  a Naim CD5xs and Naitxs2 they are still growing on me even more, and for anyone who has a problem with big floorstanding speakers dominating their living room or for those who love music but would like something discreet these are the boys or gals!

Test drive a pair today.....come in and see us and prepare to be wowed.

Neat Acoustics Speakers are also stocked at the following branches of Audio T:
Brighton, Cheltenham, Oxford, Portsmouth, and Reading

Hear PMC's New twenty5 Series At Our PMC Listening Event

To celebrate the arrival of the new twenty5 series from PMC we're having a day devoted to these wonderful new speakers.

There will be a variety of speakers on demonstration, a chance to chat to a representative of the company, and some drinks and nibbles available.

Why not come along on Saturday the 20th of August from 10am and enjoy some great sounds and feel free to bring some of your own music along! Plus there will be some exclusive offers to all attendees.

We'll look forward to seeing you.

Paul, Jason and Francis

Russell K Speakers Now Available At Audio T Enfield

"With a combined Hi-Fi industry experience of more than 50 years the Russell K team introduces loudspeaker systems designed to sound like the real thing at affordable prices"

Russell K RED 50

Russell K does many things differently, unlike most speaker designs Russell K chooses to use no internal dampening and thin cabinet walls with internal bracing shelves instead of a more commonly used thick MDF body with lots of internal dampening. The crossover circuit is particularly interesting, in that it uses only a single coil on the mid/bass driver and a single capacitor in line with the tweeter. All of which creates a sonic performance like no other.

Russell K RED 50

The range starts with the RED 50 bookshelf speakers pictured above, which uses a 5" bass/mid driver & 25mm soft dome tweeter. The sound is unique, without coloration & transparent which allows the speaker to truly disappear. A must on anyone's audition list, for £1,000 high quality small bookshelf speakers.

Russell K RED 100

The RED 100 standmount speaker pictured above follows, which uses a bigger 6.5" bass/mid driver but shares the same 25mm tweeter, it also features a forward firing bass port which helps with speaker placement close to rear walls & helps to produce an even tighter bass response. The RED 100 builds on what the RED 50 already achieves, a bigger more effortless presentation is unlocked with the RED 100.

To complete the range the RED 150 floorstanding speakers have been painstakingly created & designed to achieve even greater depth in bass frequencies whilst retaining the speed & agility of a smaller one. 

We currently have both the RED 50 & 100's on demonstration, so book your demo today of these unique and great sounding speakers.

Many thanks

Simon, John, Claire & Mahmood.

Audio T
159A Chase Side
Enfield
EN2 0PW
Tel: 0208 367 313

Russell K Loudspeakers are also available at Audio T Portsmouth

New PMC Twenty5.23 Loudspeakers Arrive at Audio T Swindon

We have always liked PMC speakers and so we were really excited when these new Twenty5 23 arrived. This is just one of 5 new speakers in the range. So what is the difference compared to the previous Twenty23? Quite a few things...

PMC twenty5 23

The first thing that you notice are the newly designed plinth bars including spikes. When you look up to the drive units you notice the shiny surround of the bass/mid driver and a new tweeter. 

Turn the speaker around and you see a new even shinier back plate (or I would call it a mirror, good for checking your looks when connecting your speakers!) with newly designed 4mm speaker binding posts.

So far so good but what do they sound like? In a few words - Superb, excellent, outstanding! We noticed a controlled greater deeper bass with a nice smooth top end. Due to the advanced transmission line (ATL) concept with the new Laminair vent technology, these PMC Twenty5 23 rock but not only with rock music. They are a very nice listen.

There is a choice of 4 real-wood veneer finishes in oak (our pair), walnut, amarone and high-gloss diamond black. The retail price is £2970 for all finishes.

Please come in for a listen and and don't forget to bring your favorite music with you. CD's, records or some great tunes on a usb stick . We are sure you will enjoy the time here as much as we do.

See you soon

Stefan and Andy

PMC Hi-Fi loudspeakers are available from:
Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon

Audio T Southampton Summertime Store & Hi-Fi News!

We may have been quiet on our store blog for a while but we have certainly been busy!

We have just finished a makeover of our store.  It's now looking clean and bright with freshly painted walls and new carpet throughout. 

Here's part of the shop front with walls resplendent in crisp Atlantic Surf, white with a hint of blue, replacing tired old magnolia! The new carpet tones in with both the new shop colour and the dem room.

The dem room walls are painted in soft grey, befitting the lower light conditions required for home cinema.

To go with our new shiny shop we have a lot of new products to show you.

Here's a taster!

Sony VPL-VW320ES 4K Projector

Our new Sony VPL-VW320ES 4K projector is producing spectacular images to complement the great sound in our Dolby Atmos dem room. 

Dynaudio Contour S 3.4LE

With the demo room in music mode we have been wowed by the awesome sound of these stunning Dynaudio Contour S 3.4LE speakers, in beautiful high gloss Bubinga finish.  Running from a Naim NAC N-272 streamer/pre-amp into our brand new NAP300DR power amplifier, with mains conditioning courtesy of an Isotek Sigmas this system is truly spectacular.  IsoTek's Titan and Mosaic Genesis mains regenerator are currently on hand for those who want to push audio performance to even greater heights!

Interest in vinyl continues to grow and we have some new turntables in store to suit all budgets.  

TEAC TN-300

Teac's TN-300 is a well engineered and beautifully finished record player for £299.95.  Ours looks great in lacquered cherry, one of five superb finishes available.

Rega Planar 2 

Rega have impressed us with both the superb build quality and performance of the new   Planar 2 and Planar 3 models. Fantastic sound at affordable prices as always from Rega.

Michelle Gyro SE

We thought it was time to offer another great British turntable brand so now have a magnificent Michell Gyro SE. Currently fitted with a Dynavector 10X5 it's not just beautifully engineered but sounds superb.  It looks good on our new carpet too!

Moving from source to speakers, we are delighted we now have some of the new PMC Twenty5 range on demo.

PMC twenty5 21

The Twenty5 21 look splendid in oak.  The cabinets are even better quality than the Twenty 21, our previous favourite compact speaker, and improvements in all key areas have really raised the audio performance to great effect.

PMC twenty5 23

Twenty5 23 looks set to overtake Twenty 23 as our most popular floorstanding speaker, building on the strengths of the earlier model whilst maintaining the all important compact, domestically acceptable, cabinet.

PMC twenty5 24

The Twenty5 24 is a revelation, sounding markedly superior than it's predecessor.  Our demo pair look splendid in Amarone finish.  Twenty5 22 and 26 will be in store soon.  We can't wait!

So, we have lots of new products for you to see and listen to in our newly refreshed store.  We look forward to welcoming you into our comfortable demo room very soon.

Alan and John

P.S. Watch this space for exciting news of a very exclusive product range arriving imminently!