Rega Isis & Osiris

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Isis and Osiris

We are proud to announce that we now have on demonstration the new Rega Reference products, namely the Isis CD player and the Osiris integrated amplifier.

You know, once in a while a product, not just a HiFi model, comes along and stops you in your tracks. Where the design is so arresting that you can’t help but take notice. It’s happened to me on a number of occasions in the past. The Linn CD12, Apple iMac & iPhone, Audi TT, Lotus Elise MK1 to name a few, though to be honest I’m struggling to think of many more but now you can add one, no make that two more, these two Regas.

People often say there are things you must own, use or do before one dies and you guessed it, I think these are two products that fit the bill, such is their performance. You see, like the above mentioned, these are no superficial trinkets, they are the real deal, top drawer high-end HiFi at, and he’s the best bit, real-world prices, well compared to most that is claimed to be high-end.

Yes, nearly £6000 each (£11000 for the two if bought together) is a lot of money in anybody’s book but in typical Rega fashion, they truly represent a bargain in this end of the market, both in performance terms and build quality. They are both housed in solid anodised machined billet aluminium casework, the Isis weighing in at 19Kg and the Osiris an impressive 25.6Kg Be it sound or build quality, no-one will ever accuse them of being light-weight! Full details can be found at www.rega.co.uk

This is a total departure from Rega’s usual market area and I was as surprised as many have been by their introduction so one has to ask who are they aimed at? Someone upgrading through the Rega range?, probably not, though you could do no better. Someone looking for a true high-end solution in two gorgeously designed units rather than multiple boxes, add-ons, tones of cabling etc, most definitely. Now one can down-size if that’s what’s asked, without downgrading!

Put simply, we all love the way these two sound. They have that rare combination of effortlessness and dynamic drama. They excel with all music genres from the purity of classical to heavy rock and all points in between. I’ve especially been enjoying choral music through them and as you can see from my profile, this is not my usual taste. I guess that’s what I like best about them, they broaden your musical horizons.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we will be running an open day on the 26th May 2010. This will take place at the Reading store and will include a Rega turntable clinic and prize draw for a Rega product! Details to follow so watch this space.

Simon

!!STOP PRESS!! SENNHEISER HD800 ON DEMO!!!

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Yes it's been exactly one year since I heard the HD800s when launched at our Bristol show and today we have a pair on demo!

You've read all the reviews no doubt and you'll be expecting 'the best headphones in the world' as many have claimed. I can tell you they sound absolutely amazing, like no headphone I've ever heard and now you can finally hear the BEFORE buying them.

Permanently on demo so bring along some music and have a cup of tea and enjoy.


Simon

Mains: part 1

Friday, 12 February 2010

MusicWorks Reflex Lite IEC

We at the Reading store have been fans of MusicWorks mains products for many years now, in particular their Megablock 6 way mains distribution block. It’s design was simple yet most effective. Ignoring the trend by some to incorporate any form of mains filtration, it was largely made from third party components and ‘tweaked’ by way of removing all ferrous metals and crucial to its design, star earthed. The sonic benefits were obvious to all who heard it and was reasonable priced at about £200. If it had drawbacks, it was rather long, being 6x switched sockets mounted inline, and nothing if not purposeful in its design.

A little while ago MusicWorks decided to totally redesign the whole thing from scratch, to produce what one must agree is a most elegant solution.
The new models, ( there are a number of variants including deep cryogenic treating ), are now housed in a beautiful layered acrylic form to control unwanted vibration ( a material know for such properties ). As one can see from the photo, gone is the inline form, now it’s a more easily accommodated 3 by 3 layout and the sockets are now un-switched. Retained of course is the crucial star-earthing arrangement.

At a starting price of £400 for the Reflex Lite IEC model, (having no mains lead attached allows one to using a matching lead to the ones used for the components) we were a little concerned as to its new price point and the impact it would have on sales. We shouldn’t have been. This has proven to be our fastest selling mains product ever such is the improvement in performance over the Megablock and all others now I come to think of it.

The look of disbelief on our customer’s faces when we demo it says it all really, often transforming the sound of what is already top-notch equipment as well as working its magic on more affordable components.

But hey, don’t take our word for it, why not take one for a no obligation home demo in your own system and hear it for yourselves.

NOW ON PERMANENT DEMO INSTORE OR FOR HOME LOAN BY APPOINTMENT.

Simon

Fabulous NaimUniti

Now On Demonstration

Well, after a long wait, the NaimUniti arrived yesterday. After rushing to get it un-boxed and powered up, I was determined to see how intuitive the set-up procedure was so I decided to attempt it without the manuals.

Five minutes later I had it connected to our network and sitting back and enjoying streams via the Mac and listening to internet radio using its iRadio feature.

Wow, I have to say it is the best I've ever heard internet radio, on anything! Classic FM and Radio 4 sounded more like a DAB transmission, mightily impressed.

Comparing the streams from iTunes to a CD loaded in the drive bore similar enthusiasm.

I have to say though, I still can't see how they can offer all of this functionality and maintain they're audio quality at the price, time to have a chat with the wife!

NaimUniti will be on permanent in-store demonstration, so why not pop in for a quick listen and play or if you prefer, book a demo.

This is going to prove to be this summer's No.1 attraction.

Simon

STOP PRESS! HD750 Firmware update now on demo!

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

I'm pleased to announce that we have had our HD750 updated with the latest firmware which enables it to be ISF calibrated perfectly and is ready for demo.

Now that we've had the time to play further with these amazing projectors and fully calibrated them, they are proving to be among the best we've ever seen, especially the HD750, indeed I bought one!

They truly have made high-end front projection most affordable!

Simon

March 2009 News

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

New products have been arriving thick and fast from most of our top suppliers. They include:

Naim Audio have been particularly busy this past few months. First our new ‘reference’ Phonostage, the Superline which left us speechless such was the level of it’s performance. To complement their superb interconnect, the Hi-Line, Naim have introduced the Powerline mains lead which if anything makes a larger improvement than that from the interconnect which came as something of shock to us all. Feel free to book a lone if you think you need convincing.

As I write this I’m listening to Nam audio HDX Hard-Disk Music Player and what a great product it is too. Clearly aimed at those who want to reduce the clutter of 100’s of CDs. It features their own CD ripping engine and as you’d expect from Naim, it’s a true audiophile product rather than the usual compromise one has to suffer for the sake of convenience. Full details on the Naim webpage.

Recent weeks saw the introduction of the new Nait XS, their latest member of the Nait family of integrated amplifiers. The Nait XS boasts DNA from their flagship integrated, the Supernait but in a 5 series case and what fun it is to listen too. It's no wonder the press love it so much!

And if that wasn’t enough, this year’s Bristol show saw the world premier of the NaimUniti, a one box music player featuring CD, 50w Amp, DAB/FM tuner and internet radio plus you can connect it to your home network to share music files. All for just £1995.00.
They also premiered their new standalone DAC, which sounded great when added to the HDX. We hope to see that in the summertime.

Cyrus too have been busy, introducing their best CD Players yet in the form of the CD6SE, CD8SE and CDXt transport. They spent countless months developing the new CD engine, the result of which has taken their award-winning players to another level.

Last year I mentioned Arcam’s forthcoming AVR600 AV Receiver and I’m pleased to announce that they are just beginning to ship, we are expecting ours any day soon. This promises to be a top seller for our most discerning customers, a true audiophile AV receiver, no longer will one have to trade 2 channel sound quality for 5.1 thrills.

If there is something positive to be had from the current economic situation, it is that these technology based companies have to be really competitive and we all benefit from the fruits of their labour.

Simon

Keith Monks Record Cleaning Machine is back!

Thursday, 9 October 2008

We are very pleased to announce, after a very long break, the return of our record cleaning service. For the past few years our Keith Monks cleaning machine has been playing up and we had to cease this service but luckily for us Steve is an engineer and he was tasked in finding the fault which turned out to be a ever so slightly pitted ball bearing.
Being American made, the bearing size was non-standard but Steve managed to track one down and now it’s all up and running.

So now it’s time to dig out those precious records and we’ll return them to their former glory (condition permitting) in the way only a Keith Monks record cleaning machine can!

We’re expecting a large take-up and being quite time consuming, would you please book in advance for quantities of more than ten records

£2 per disc including a new antistatic sleeve, (original returned). 

Panasonic PT-AE3000E has arrived!

Saturday, 15 November 2008

It was this time last year when Panasonic released the ground breaking PT-AE2000E 1080p HD projector and I distinctly remember thinking ‘this could not be substantially be improved upon at the £2000 price point’, well I don’t mind being wrong on this one.

Enter the new PT-AE3000E. Outwardly almost identical but the picture, well, how do they do it? Like many, I take the specs with a little scepticism but the results are nothing short of amazing especially considering it’s only £199 more than last years model.

The headline grabbing new feature is ‘LENS MEMORY’ which allows the users of 2.35:1 screens the ability to zoom the image to fill such a screen and then zoom back for a 16:9 with a single press of a button whilst retaining focus, clever.

This will appeal to the many videophiles amongst you but for me the best bit is ‘FRAME CREATION’. Not to get too technical, (there’s plenty of info on this on Panasonic’s own and many other sites) this is where the projector interpolates additional frame/s to produce smoother motion. Don’t think this is just some sort of gimmick just for action movies, no the improvement in retained detail with any motion is awesome and makes the whole experience that more relaxing and enthralling.

Like the PT-AE2000E, the PT-AE3000E has ‘SMOOTH SCREEN TECHNOLOGY’ to give a totally non-pixelated image alongside perfect colour balance in Colour 1 mode, and Hollywood approved colour in Cinema 1 mode but due to the improved light path it has far better blacks, more saturated colour and an overall brighter image, it’s more 3 dimensional and, well, the images just seem to pop off the screen.

Well done Panasonic you’ve done it again. The PT-AE2000E was our best selling projector last season and I expect the PT-AE3000E to do even better.
Oh well, off to the dem room for some more ‘testing’. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it!

It’s now in stock so please call us if you would like to arrange a demo of this wonderful addition to our range.

Hopefully by this time next month we should have the new JVC flagship projector the HD750 at £5500. We saw a pre-production unit a month or so back and, well, it was just jaw dropping. I’ll save the details for another posting when we receive our demo unit. Personally I can’t wait.

Simon

Naim CD555 Upgrade

Wednesday, 8 October 2008

For those of you fortunate enough to own the wonderful Naim CD555, you have every right to believe it to be the best CD player ever made, well, believe it or not but they have found away to significantly improve it.
Over the last few months Naim have had very good reason to be upbeat, what with all their new products such as the Superline, Powerline, HDX etc. but I can’t remember Jason from Naim being quite so excited as he was the other day when he broke the news to us, and that’s saying something!
Apparently Roy George, Naim’s head of design, had been trying a few things out and found that by using, not one but two NAPS555 power supplies for the CD555 made significant improvements.
Having two Burndy connections, one for the digital section and one for the analogue, installation is straight forward enough. Unlike the pre and power amplifiers, the CD555 doesn’t earth through its power supply but through the Hi-line interconnect via to the pre-amp so there are absolutely no earthing anomalies when configured this way. I understand Naim had tried this idea with both the 500 series pre and power but with multiple earths it actually made them sound worse.
Naturally we couldn’t wait to try this out and boy did Jason have every right to be so chipper. The resolution of the system appeared to take a leap forward bearing otherwise unheard textures coupled with greater image stability, focus and poise. Just as welcome was the total lack of any emphasis of the higher registers or harshness even on those awkward discs that you rarely play, we all have them don’t we? Far from muting the top end it actually seems to have increased the system’s bandwidth whilst rendering higher volume levels far easier on the ear, just what we all want, no?
Anyway, we could go on and on but space dictates and therefore we would strongly suggest a demo as soon as you can. This set-up is now on demo here at the Reading store.

Welcome to the Blog!

Wednesday, 8 October 2008

Simon, Steve, Keith and Frank would like to warmly welcome you to the all new Audio-T Reading blog in which we shall be bringing you, amongst many other things, news of new and exciting products for the coming season. This is of course the time of year when many of our suppliers choose to launch new and updated models to tempt you and this year promises to be a bumper year! We also aim to regularly post articles on our favourite ‘toys’ and how to get the best out of them.

Look forward to reading about some of our existing favourites in the form of the fabulous Meridian F80 transportable entertainment system, Naim’s awesome new phonostage, the Superline and their Powerline mains lead and Chord Electronic’s stunning DAC64 replacement, the QBD76 or Quarterback as it’s known.

On top of that we’ll have forthcoming goodies such as new Blu-Ray players and plasmas and LCD TVs from Pioneer and Panasonic plus three new affordable 1080p projectors from JVC and Panasonic.

And if that wasn’t enough, we can’t wait to get our mits on the mouth watering new Blu-Ray player and AV Receiver from Arcam!

Oh wow, we think we are in for some real treats this year and we can’t wait to share the experiences with all of you.