Dreaming About Music Streaming? What Does It All Mean?

There are a raft of new products available that allow you to stream your music and the idea behind this blog, is to highlight one or two products and explain the basics of how to incorporate a "streamer" into your existing Hi-Fi system.

Streamers - Clockwise from top left: Bluesound Node 2 £499, Yamaha WXAD-10 £149, Sonos Connect £349, Naim ND5XS £2430, and Yamaha WXC-50 £329

Firstly perhaps I should explain what we mean by "streaming". There are two forms of streaming:

1. Directly from the Internet via a service like Spotify, Qobuz or Tidal. These services are a little like SKY, you pay a subscription every month and get access to their massive, and constantly updated, music library. Prices are usually £10-20 a month. The streamer needs to support the service you are interested in and not all streamers support all streaming services.

2. Music stored locally on a computer or network hard drive (NAS drive). Usually these are CD's that have been copied onto a computer / NAS drive, or music downloaded from the internet.

Bluetooth or Airplay could also be considered "streaming" but neither are a particularly high quality method so I'm not going to cover those. However a number of streaming products do include them.

Our Apple iPad Mini with the Tidal App. 9 out of 10 Streamers use an App as a remote control so you will need an iPad / iPhone or Andriod phone or tablet (like a Samsung)

So why bother with streaming?

The two main reasons are:

1. Easy access to your entire record collection without having to go looking for the CD.

2. By adding more streamers you can get music all around your house, easily controlled by a tablet or smart phone

You can make playlists, or you can just play a random selection from your whole collection, it's great to hear some of the older stuff that got buried at the back of your CD rack and forgotten about. If you subscribe to a streaming service you have access to millions of tracks and never need to buy a CD again!

What about quality?

Typically streamed music is around the same quality as CD. You can make it better if you get the more expensive kit but most of the time it's roughly comparable to CD quality. Tidal and Qobuz are better quality than Spotify if you are using a streaming service but are more expensive, but do allow you to stream (Qobuz / Tidal) and download (Qobuz) 24bit Hi-Res music. 

However copying (ripping) your CD's is where it can seem complicated because there are so many different file types used to store music. Pretty much everyone has heard of MP3, but that's the lowest quality 'lossy' format which in the process of conversion removes some of the information to allow it be compressed down to the smallest possible file size.

You could start with Apple Lossless, it's better than MP3, Itunes is easy to use and it's widely supported - it's a proprietary format and will only work with Itunes and the Apple ecosystem. However, we would recommend FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), it's the next step up in quality it's an open (not hardware dependent) lossless (No data is removed from the converted file) format and is widely supported. WAV is the original CD source file but it's uncompressed, so it takes up a lot more hard drive space and there can be problems with track information (meta data) being transferred correctly, so unless you are going for high end quality we would suggest using FLAC or ALAC if you're an Itunes user - FLAC will not play on ITunes. If this seems really daunting then there are several products that will rip and store your CD's, making the process as simple as possible. e.g. Innuos Zen Mini or Naim Uniticore

Time to look at kit.

If you want to dip your toe into the "streaming" water, Yamaha have just realised a new product, and at £149 it's very affordable.

Yamaha WXAD-10

The Yamaha WXDA-10 uses Yamaha's MusicCast technology which is also incorporated in a good number of other Yamaha products including most of their recent Home Cinema Amps. The MusicCast app is pretty good with all the normal streaming services like Spotify etc.

Yamaha MusicCast app

The WXDA-10 only has analogue connections so plug it into an aux input on your amplifier and follow the instructions on the app to set it up in 5 mins.

Another recent addition to our collection of streamers is the Bluesound Node 2 £499

Bluesound node 2

The Node 2 can be connected with normal analogue interconnects, but also has digital outputs.

bluesound node 2 back panel

It's an obvious sonic improvement over the cheaper Yamaha. The Bluesound boasts MQA (Master Quality Authenticated)  compatibility (yet another new high resolution music file format!) along with all the other usual features, and a decent app better used on a larger ipad.

Bluesound App

All the streamers mentioned or pictured are available for demonstration in store, where you can try the apps for yourself. We will always try to answer any questions you have.

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

Bluesound Hi-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Manchester, Online, Portsmouth, Swindon

New Denon DM41 Micro System With Bluetooth

Denon have come up trumps once again with the new DM41 Micro System. It has long been a Denon strength and the new model proves to be a winner as we would expect.

Now with Bluetooth connectivity as well as CD replay, DAB/DAB+ and FM radio, analogue and two optical digital inputs, which can be connected up to improve the sound of your TV!

Matched with suitable speakers from Rega, Dynaudio, B&W or Q Acoustics etc. it offers quite surprising results.

Available in black or sliver, this little system does a grand job when space or cost is a particular issue and if you are looking for a compact but great sounding all in one system for another room.

Denon products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Oxford, 
Portsmouth, Preston, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon

New Rega Ania Moving Coil Cartridge

Building on the success of the Apheta 2 and Aphelion moving coil cartridges Rega have introduced the new Rega Ania.

Rega's design approach is unique for moving coil cartridges using an undamped ultra low mass generator with a rhomboid pivot for the cantilever coupled with an exclusively designed neodymium magnet system. This approach requires a cartridge body that has virtually zero tolerances to allow exact positioning of the magnet system relative to the pivot mounting hole. This is achieved in the Apheta and Aphelion models by machining ultra high grade aluminium to achieve the tolerance levels required (Within one thousandth of a millimetre).

Rega Ania

The process of machining aluminium to this tolerance level is exceptionally expensive so when Rega decided to design the Ania moving coil cartridge their solution was to use a moulding process using an unusual poly/glass combination called 'Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS-Forton). The special attributes of this material are its hardness and stability in shape and dimension after the moulding process. Rega have designed and built a new production mould tool to enable this extremely complex body shape to be achieved to the exacting specifications required.

To achieve the performance of the Ania cartridge they have combined the PPS body with an elliptical tipped diamond stylus and cantilever with an iron cross and micro coil assembly (one of the smallest MC generators). Special three point stainless steel inserts have been used for secure three point coupling to the tone arm.

Three Point Mounting System

Sound Quality:

With the Ania MC cartridge firmly fixed to a Rega Planar 3 my first impression was that it shouldn't be able to do that for the money. It wasn't just good, it was astonishing. I first played Crazy Love by Poco off the album Legend and even though I thought I knew this one inside out the Rega combination laid out the harmony vocals and acoustic guitars within a huge soundstage ....one of those "shivers down your spine" moments! To make sure this wasn't a fluke, on went another demo fave in the shape of Faron Young by the rather wonderful Prefab Sprout and sure enough everything was bigger more open and more detailed than I have ever heard a Planar 3 before. The Thomas Dolby production work really coming alive with great deep but tight and fast bass allied to a wide open mid-range and a sweet top end.

Appetite whetted we then decided to put the Ania in the RB808 arm on the Rega RP8 turntable where it really excelled. The Poco and Prefab Sprout tracks opening up to reveal yet more detail. This really is one of those items of Hi-Fi that makes music fun to listen to and that will have you rooting through your record collection to hear what delights it will reveal next. In fact we were so impressed that Jon has ordered one for himself and I am thinking that my Rega P7 turntable may be paired up with one when my Dynavector wears out!!

The unique design concept of the new Rega Ania MC cartridge has produced a market leading cartridge with exceptional musicality, speed, clarity and detail retrieval not before achieved at this price point (£499.00 Inc VAT).

We have fitted our demonstration Ania to the Rega RP8 and have coupled it with phono stages from the Rega Fono MC, Arcam R-Phono and Rega Aria with outstanding results. If you are looking for a new moving coil cartridge that does not cost the earth a demonstration of the new Rega Ania is highly recommended. 

Almost forgot Kung Foo Hamster

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Farid, Andy and Jon - Audio T Cheltenham

Rega Hi-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Oxford, Portsmouth, 
Preston, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon

New Russell K RED 120 Floorstanding Speakers Available

Discover a new world of music with Russell K RED 120 floorstanding speakers. They bring a fresh new sound to music that we thought we already knew!

The RED 120 join an already strong family of loudspeakers, the RED 50 bookshelf, RED 100 standmounts and RED 150 floorstanders.

The Russell K RED 120's are a compact floorstander which are closely related to the RED 50 as they share the same drivers and crossover. Despite the RED 50 and RED 120's shared components, extended low frequencies have been achieved by a carefully calculated cabinet design over the RED 50 bookshelf speakers, that deliver amazing results. 

High quality speaker binding posts are used to ensure performance isn't lost. 

The spikes to level the speaker is a solid straight forward design, which are adjustable from above. Also you may see that you can't see internal wool to dampen the inside of the cabinet... don't worry this is a very deliberate design decision. Russell K speakers don't follow many other designs, very simple crossovers, no internal damping and bitumen damped thin cabinet walls are just a few things that are done differently. 

We love them!

But come down and hear the difference for yourself

Many Thanks

Simon, John, Claire & Mahmood

Audio T Enfield - 0208 367 3132

Russell K loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Enfield, Portsmouth, Reading

Musical Fidelity And Dali Making Beautiful Music Together

We have two Hi-Fi brands which are new to the shop this month Musical Fidelity electronics and Dali loudspeakers. As we have found, they are capable of making beautiful music together.

An array of Dali speakers and Musical Fidelity electronics.

Musical Fidelity is a well established British Hi-Fi company who have been exciting and innovating for many years.

Shown here are the M3si integrated amp, the M3s CD player and the M6si integrated. The M6s CD player will follow soon. All of these components follow the Musical Fidelity ethos of making accurate, but exciting music.

We're also having a lot of fun exploring the M6 Encore 225

Encore 225

This amazing one box system is a music store, CD player, streamer, and amplifier all in one incredibly intuitive and easy to use package. It sounds wonderful too!

Dali are a Danish loudspeaker manufacturer who have been going for over 30 years producing everything from budget to high end speakers. We're still discovering what these can do but we have representatives from the Spektor, Zensor and Opticon ranges plus the beautiful little Menuets and the rather stylish Katch portable bluetooth speaker.

So far we've been throwing all sorts of music at the various pairings, the M3 components with the Opticons loved the new Anathema album "The Optimist" (check it out if you like intelligent melodic rock) 

Both brands seem to major on creating large believable soundstages; a recording of the Tallis Scholars singing Tallis anthems filled the room with the sense of a cathedral, while the perennial "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd was huge!

We'll report more as we get to know these components, but suffice to say we're excited and looking forward to the discovery. Why not come and have a listen yourself?

And finally all components in this blog have the Boswell seal of approval!

Musical Fidelity Hi-Fi products are also available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Southampton, Swansea, 
Swindon

The Wonders Of Room Correction With Arcam And Dirac

If you love music and film but have a strange shaped room or are suffering from a disappointing home cinema experience due to poor room acoustics, then we may have a solution for you.

The new Arcam AVR550 and AVR850 amplifiers have been out in the market for a while, but what you may not know is they have a secret weapon. Arcam's Home Cinema products also include the very latest room correction technology from Dirac Research.

Dirac Research was founded in 2001 from Uppsala University, Sweden, where the founders have been conducting research in signal processing, automatic control, systems modelling and acoustics for many years.

“Dirac Live for Arcam will provide users with world class precision room correction with amazingly transparent results.”, says Charlie Brennan from Arcam.

Using the latest is computer wizardry and a high quality microphone Dirac seeks to compensate for frequency and EQ issues reproduced within the room. A great deal of which are very difficult or impossible to remove with traditional EQ setups. If unresolved this can affect the quality of the sound output which impacts negatively on the listening experience. The advanced Dirac software analyses the speakers as well as the room and corrects these issues with the aim of achieving a much more immersive experience.

Using a microphone, laptop and network access, each of the speakers are measured from 9 different test microphone positions. This way, a clear map of the room and the speaker's acoustic behaviour is built up.  The whole process can take a while dependent on the complexity of your system. After these measurements are taken, the results are processed very quickly and remotely (via the web to Dirac HQ in Sweden) and received back ready to be applied. This file is then uploaded to the Arcam  AVR550 or AVR850 and you're ready to listen. 

Arcam have put together a video on Dirac:

In tests in store using the Arcam AVR550 with a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos setup we switched between the standard room EQ method and Dirac. The results were amazing Dirac Live brought the whole sound together, tightened the bass response and focused the imaging. Dirac makes the entire system faster, more dynamic and much more fluid. The most amazing effect was how it seemed to make the walls disappear and propel you into the film.

While watching Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation we were transported into the atmosphere of the opera house scene. During Gravity we were there with the astronauts in space, physically ducking to avoid space debris. Then in the insanity of Mad Max Fury Road we found ourselves totally immersed in the massive sand and lightning tornado that whistled and roared around the room.

If you want improve your home cinema experience, I would strongly recommend getting an Arcam AVR550 or AVR850 amplifier and exploring the benefits of Dirac. So call us, ask about the Arcam products and let us show you the benefits of such an amazing technology suite. Don't give up on your system we can help.

Arcam products are available at the following branches of Audio T:
Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Southampton, 
Swansea, Swindon

Neat And Tidy Loudspeakers

We're are delighted to announce the arrival of Neat Acoustics loudspeakers, which are now in store for demonstration or available for home loan.

The Iota Alpha is a small floor standing speaker with a height of only 45cm with a down firing bass driver. We have found this such an easy speaker to work with as far as positioning goes and doesn't disappoint with timing and imaging, giving a very well balanced presentation. This is a small speaker that offers a big room filling sound.

Neat IOTA Alpha

Also in the range we have the Neat Motive SX2 at 76cm high a slightly taller floor standing speaker but still very compact and easy to place, we tried these with various electronics and they performed well with all, a very open sound with a controlled bass.

Neat Motive SX2

The last, but no means least the tiny Neat Iota, a very flexible in terms of positioning, measuring just 13cm high the Iota's can be placed almost anywhere, although a dedicated stand can be purchased for them if needed. We were very impressed with the imaging they gave, and the tight controlled bass gives this tiny speaker a room filling sound.

Neat IotA

If you're in the market for new loudspeakers why not come and have a listen. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Ian, Gavin & Andy

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

New Speakers From Dynaudio Are Sure To Excite!

We have recently taken on the new Dynaudio Excite X14  and Excite X18 stand mounted speakers. They may look like stand mount speakers, but in a blind test you would never guess it by the big room filling sound.

The X14 are centre with their big brothers the X18 either side

There are four pairs of speakers in the Excite range comprising of two floor standing and two stand mount speakers. There are also two centre speakers to choose between. The floor standers are the X34 and the X38, the stand mounted speakers (shown above) are the X14 and X18, and the two centre speakers being the X24 and the X28.

We have had a lot fun trying the X14 and X18 on various systems. They are fairly easy to drive so the entry level Rega Apollo-R and Brio could be used, but they really benefit from higher quality electronics like the Naim CD5XS and Nait XS2 or even higher. On each system they had a really fun and musical presentation with clean, refined high frequency and a surprising amount of bass wallop.

Rear View. X14 (Walnut) and X18 (Rosewood) Satin Black and White also available.

We use a number of demo tracks, The King Singers - Good vibrations sounded brilliant giving a phenomenal impression that the sextet was playing in the room with you. Steve Vai - Warm Regards really shows the bass capability, it can sound a little confused on some speakers but the Excites held it together perfectly. With more commercial recordings like Snow Patrol they let you know it's a rougher recording but not so much that it spoiled the music, it sounded fun and kept toes tapping.

Come down to the Portsmouth Audio T and join in the EXCITEment!

Home trials are also available.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Nick, Joe and James

Dynaudio Loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Online, Oxford, Portsmouth, 
Reading, Southampton, Swindon

New Naim Uniti Atom, Chord Electronics Hugo 2 & Russell K RED 120 Arriving Soon

After quite an extended period of having little new product to blog about; just like the proverbial bus, three come along at the same time... well nearly.

After numerous delays Naim has finally given a likely manufacturing date for the first of the superb Uniti products, the entry level Atom which will commence shipping by the end of this month, we can't wait. I first heard it at the official launch back in November partnered with a pair of Focal Sopra 1s. What seemed like a most unlikely pairing turnout to be a revelation and breaking most system building rules. This promises to be a top seller.

Naim Atom

Not wishing to rest on the laurels of their success, Chord Electronics have launched Hugo2. The original Hugo set the standard for portable a Dac/Headphone amp but they have been beavering away to produce what on paper promises to be a true bar-raiser...again; such is the genius of their designers and Bob Watts in particular. Due this month though we understand the first shipment is already completely sold out but we will have a permanent demo unit so don't delay.

Chord Hugo2 in silver and black

Missing from the line-up in the Russell K loudspeaker range is a slim, affordable floor stander which is by far the most popular speaker type at present. Well, the wait is over. Due to arrive in 2-3 weeks, the all new Red 120. A 2.5 way compact floor stander with a massive heart. We heard these a month back and were taken by them immediately. The competition better look out because these are seriously good!

Russell K Red 120 Shown here in walnut, other finishes available. 

Naturally I will be blogging about these three exciting additions and any others as soon as they arrive so watch this space as they say.

Simon & Marc - Audio T Reading

KEF Reference Loudspeakers Now At Audio T Swansea

The eagle-eyed and bat-eared amongst you may recall that Arcam chose KEF Reference loudspeakers for their astonishing home theatre installation that toured the serious Hi-Fi shows of Europe, including our very own Sound and Vision Show in Bristol.

Nic, Chris, myself (Ade) and a number of the Audio T Swansea faithful heard them in action and were impressed enough to want to hear more. We persuaded the lovely Alex from KEF to lend us a pair of their delightful Reference 3s for evaluation. We were very reluctant to let them go, even though we did have them here for quite a while...*cough* (Thanks Alex!).

Hooked up to our Chord Electronics Dave DAC, CPA3000 pre-amplifier and SPM1200 power amplifier we bathed in their lush, glossy, even, wide and deep soundstage. Virtually every track we played we looked at each other puff-cheeked in admiration and realised we really had to stock them. Fast-forward a few weeks and we're the proud owners of a pair of KEF Reference 1s and a pair of KEF Reference 3s. (Yay!)

As you can see in the picture above and below, the Reference 1's look a million bucks in Gloss Rosewood with that brushed aluminium front baffle. Fitted with the latest iteration of KEF's speciality, the UniQ combined tweeter/midrange unit - here in 125mm (5 inch) - it's designed to provide a common point source for high and mid frequency sound. This gives us a better sense of integration, yielding a much larger sweet-spot and a more natural sound. The all-new 165mm (6.5 inch) alloy woofer that KEF is rather proud of, are beautifully finished and look very pretty too.

Around the back are what can only be described as luxury Bi-Amp/Bi-Wire terminals. In case you were wondering, the centre wing bolts connect the low and high frequency terminals together should you choose to single wire them. (We happen to be using Black Rhodium Encore Bi-Wire in this instance, so have them wound out.)

Initial listening is pretty encouraging as the soundstage is wide open, but they clearly need running in. After a couple of hours they'd fleshed out a fair bit, but are nowhere near their potential yet. We're going to give them a run overnight and report back in the morning. We need to get them singing soon as we've had our first request for a home demonstration - that didn't take long!

KEF Reference loudspeakers are available from Audio T Swansea and Audio T Preston

Acoustic Energy 100 Series Return to Audio T Bristol

It's been a few years since we stocked Acoustic Energy speakers and we are pleased to see them back in store. Like AE's of old this new range offers fantastic value for money.

The AE100 is a compact standmount that retails at a very modest £199.99 in walnut and £229.99 in black, we have to say they offer exceptional value for money. They are a very capable speaker and in store they have shocked us by playing everything we have thrown at them regardless of genre and volume and to a standard of presentation that belies their price tag. The small cabinet houses a wide dispersion soft dome tweeter that never becomes harsh even at high volumes whilst the 4in long throw bass/mid produces a surprising amount of bass for such a small enclosure that never gets out of hand no matter how loud you like to play your music. 

AE100

The AE109 is the floor standing version. It has all the same attributes of the AE100 including the look and finish but has an extra bass/mid resulting in a speaker that produces music with more scale and can easily fill a big room and can also go very loud. Although it is a floor stander it is not all that big, it stands just 800mm tall and as it's only 160mm wide as such they are unobtrusive. It's no lightweight though as the cabinet is loaded with the bottom part filled with sand. At £499.99 for a pair in walnut and £549.99 in black which in our view is an absolute steal. We don't usually stock floor standing speakers below the £800 mark because it is hard for a manufacturer to produce one that performs adequately, but the AE109 certainly does perform and as I mentioned earlier if you like your music played loud you can crank the volume up.

The AE109

So they look good and sound great and offer exceptional value for money. All that's left is for you to come on down and have a listen at Audio T Bristol. Bring some of your favourite music and sit back and relax in comfort in one of our demonstration rooms. 

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

Acoustic Energy AE100 Series Loudspeakers Return To Audio T Cheltenham

Acoustic Energy have been producing class leading loudspeakers for the past thirty years. Many speakers such as the Classic AE1 have been born from the demanding studio environment. Twenty years ago the AE100 series of loudspeakers were introduced and effectively redefined the budget domestic speaker market - especially in the form of the original AE109 floor standing loudspeakers. After many months of development Acoustic Energy have now re-introduced a new and much improved version of the original AE100 series loudspeakers.

AE100
The AE100 is a classic two-way compact stand mount / bookshelf loudspeaker. The AE100 has been designed to achieve high sound pressure levels from a compact enclosure. Utilising a 4 inch paper cone bass driver with a high power long throw motor system., This is coupled with a 25mm soft dome high frequency drive featuring Acoustic Energys' wide dispersion technology. The drive units are housed an ultra rigid cabinet manufactured from 18mm MDF. To avoid noise created by air travelling through the reflex port a rear mounted slot design has been used. This also allows for very easy room placement.

Acoustic Energy AE100

AE109
The AE109 is a 2.5 way bass reflex floor standing loudspeaker akin to the original AE109. Housed in a elegant slimline cabinet the 109 has been designed to offer effortless room filling performance. The AE109 utilises two 4 inch paper cone bass drivers coupled with a 25mm high dispersion dome tweeter. Extreme care has been paid regarding the phase and time alignment of these drivers to produce the most cohesive musical performance possible. Again the cabinets have are constructed of 18mm MDF resulting in a very rigid enclosure and with the use of a rear mounted slot reflex port room placement is very easy

Acoustic Energy AE109

Both loudspeakers are available in Satin Black Ash or Walnut finish.

Listening
Equipment used: Rega Apollo CD Player, Rega Brio 2016 Amplifier, Rega Couple interconnect, Chord Sarsen Speaker Cable.

AE100
In a world populated with so many little bookshelf speakers do we really need another? Well the answer is a resounding yes! Acoustic Energy have well and truly moved the goal posts with these little £200 stand mounters. First I thought I would test them out with Get Miles the first track off the first Gomez album Bring It On and the sound-staging on them was surprisingly large and the deep rolling bass guitar really did plumb depths not normally reached by speakers of this size and price. I then fancied trying something a little more acoustic and found a copy of David Sylvian's Brilliant trees that I have not played for a while and again the AE100's acquitted themselves beautifully. I got the real sense that I could hear everything in the mix and they did not get shouty or boxy and I didn't want to stop the music playing at all. After a while I played a little classical music courtesy of the Allegri String Quartet with added Clarinet from James Campbell. This album was released on the Naim label and was mastered by the legendary Julian Vereker and on the AE100's sounded lush and engaging. All the instruments clearly distinct from each other yet intertwined with each other to perfection! It is great to have Acoustic Energy back and sounding so good......move over Wharfedale and Q Acoustics I have a new favourite entry level speaker!  Oh and they look gorgeous too with their curvy top corners and bases..... a must listen to at or around this price! Satin black finish is £230.00 a pair and Walnut wood effect are £200. 

AE109
After the very pleasant surprise of the AE100's I was expecting great things of these £500 floor standing speakers (£550 in satin black). They do not disappoint having all the good attributes of the AE100 but offering a much bigger sound. The Gomez track (Get Miles) sounding really juicy! Classical also benefited from the extra scale that the AE109 articulate with it's larger cabinets. The Allegri String Quartet bounced along with extra everything!! A great speaker with more than a cursory nod to the legendary Acoustic Energy speakers of old. Nice to have them back!

A demonstration is highly recommended.

We look forward to seeing you. Bring some of your favourite music and sit back and relax in our dem room and we'll bring you a cup of your favourite beverage.

Audio T Cheltenham - Jon, Farid and Andy

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

IsoTek Mains Conditioning Event 2nd & 3rd June At Audio T Swindon

Visit us at Audio T Swindon on Friday 2nd June (12pm - 5:30pm) and Saturday 3rd June (10am - 5:30pm) and come and hear for yourself how the benefits of mains conditioning in conjunction with IsoTek can give you more enjoyment from your music.

The quality of the electricity we feed into our Hi-Fi and Home Cinema systems has a profound effect on how our music and films sound. As the electronic devices we use at home grow and the demand for electrical power increases, the quality of the electricity we feed our systems continues to degrade from RF interference and mains noise.

Win an IsoTek Polaris Mains Block and an Evo3 Initium Mains Cable worth £470 In Our FREE to enter competition

IsoTek is a leading brand of power management products for Hi-Fi and Home Cinema use. Its product range includes high-performance mains cables and connectors, plus a range of performance enhancing power conditioners focused on the specific requirements of individual systems. IsoTek have earned numerous accolades from specialist audio and AV publications worldwide. The product ranges comprise of the following solutions:

Mains Cables and Blocks:
The standard black mains leads supplied with your Audio and AV components are designed to do a basic job, no more. They lack the quality of materials and construction needed to protect the integrity of the electricity they feed your system, thereby degrading performance. The first rung on the IsoTek ladder is to replace these leads with EVO3 Premier power cables. We will have the following on demonstration:

The new Evo3 Initium , Premier, Elite and Optimum mains cables

The IsoTek Aquarius and Sigmas mains conditioners, plus the new Genesis One and Mosaic mains regeneration units.

Evo3 Initium Mains Cable

Mains Conditioners:
These are designed to remove noise contamination from both Differential noise that is created by the power supplies in all electronic devices and Common Mode noise in introduced by RFI and the wireless communications.

Regenerators:
These are state of the art hybrid power cleaning systems. They effectively take the mains and regenerate it having taken out all the noise.

Prize Draw
We will put the names of all attendees into a prize draw giving you the opportunity of winning an Isotek Polaris mains block and an Evo3 Initium mains cable with a combined value of £470. The draw will be made at the end of the event day on Saturday.

This is a great opportunity to hear how much you can improve the sound quality of your system and an affordable and worthwhile Hi-Fi upgrade.

Refreshments and snacks will be served over two days and of course we will be more than happy to answer any questions you have. 

Exclusive offers available for attendees on the day.

We look forward to seeing you.

Stefan and Andy

ProAc Loudspeakers Now Available At Audio T Brighton

We are really pleased to have added ProAc loudspeakers to our portfolio. A very well respected manufacturer with decades of experience in loudspeaker design.

They are well made and nicely finished, and sound rather good too, suiting all styles of music and presentation.

Proac Tablette 10 Maple

The Tablette 10 is the tenth generation Tablette and begins the range with an excellent small sealed box loudspeaker, that is suited to positioning close to a wall.

The same dimensions as the classic BBC LS3/5A and Linn Kan models of the past, the Tablette 10 is a fine, communicative performer.

Proac Response DB3 Oak

The Response DB3 is the next model we have on demonstration. This new loudspeaker is a stand mounter that needs a bit of space around it to give a nicely balanced result. Capable of a big sound from a compact size.

Proac Response D2 Ebony

The Response D2 is another stand mount design, a bit bigger and rather more able.

Proac Response D20R Cherry

The Response D20R is an updated D20 and utilises the ProAc ribbon tweeter that the more upmarket Proac speakers use. 

This floorstander is refined and capable, and we hope to have the Response D30RS alongside soon.

The quality cabinets are available in Black, Cherry, Mahogany, Maple, Oak and White as standard, with extra cost finishes in Ebony and Rosewood.

Other models in the ProAc range are available for demonstration by arrangement, so please contact us to listen to them.

Julian, Paul and John

ProAc loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brighton, Preston

Vertical Vinyl! Old Meets New With The New Project VT-E BT Turntable!

This month we are taking a look at our newest product in Cardiff, something ideal for those who want to play vinyl but want to save on space and avoid having cables about the place and it's a great talking point too - the Pro-ject VT-EBT.

The VT-E BT is far from the first vertical turntable that has existed but could well be considered one of the first audiophile ones. Based on the Project Elemental the turntable includes the same pre-mounted Ortofon OM5E cartridge, low vibration synchronous motor & DC power supply but that is where the similarities end.

The turntable can be either mounted on a wall or placed on a flat surface - both wall brackets and an attachable stand are included. Of course this means the size of the turntable is reduced but this does not impact the performance, in fact the shape of the turntable means that a left handed version with the arm on the other side of the usual setup is also available.

Of course for a turntable to play vertically a normal arm won’t cut it, so while the armtube and headshell are the same as on an Elemental the VT-E BT requires a unique bearing housing, counterweight and base, with the secret to the whole thing being a spring specially placed to allow the stylus to track vertically and not just flop down towards the floor! A clamp is also included in the box, which is again an absolute requirement to use when you're playing vertically so that the record stays flat against the platter.

This turntable gets very interesting when we talk about connectivity, like its brother in the range the VT-E it has a normal phono output to link up to a phono stage, however the VT-E BT also features an on board phono stage and its party trick Bluetooth. This means you can play your records with no cables needed other than a power cable. Once the turntable is powered up it will latch onto the strongest available Bluetooth signal and stay connected unless you unplug it from its power. The opportunities this lends itself too are huge, the BT-E BT can be placed anywhere in a room within range of a Bluetooth speaker, creating a minimalist and very tidy setup.

We tried the VT-E BT on a multitude of Bluetooth devices including the new Ruark MR1’s, the Naim Mu-so QB and the Auralic Aries Mini streamer. Connection was quick and easy and we were thoroughly impressed every time. Even with a relatively basic cartridge the turntable is just pure fun to listen to, bass is punchy enough and the mid range detail is great, even via Bluetooth. We also found the concept of a wireless turntable an intriguing conversation starter with everyone who has come into the shop and are sure it would be at home as well! As always we are available to demonstrate this great turntable at any time, so do please come in and have a listen.

Pro-ject Hi-Fi products are available at the following stores: Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Preston, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon

Martin Logan Electrostatic Loudspeakers The Definition of Clarity!

We're really excited to have Martin Logan hybrid electrostatic speakers we have. These beautiful speakers are a hybrid electrostatic with a transparent panel handling the mid and high frequencies and a traditional cone driver for the bass. And boy do they offer astonishing insight into the music!

We have two models for demonstration although others in the range can be booked by contacting us and giving us a few days notice. The Martin Logan Electromotion  (pictured above on the left) is something of a bargain in the world of electrostatics, it's a single wired panel with a single bass driver mounted in the base.

On the right is the Martin Logan Electromotion X which has a bigger electrostatic panel for wider range, and two bass drivers mounted fore and aft, it also has bi-wire terminals.

As you can see there is quite a difference in size between the two.

Being an electrostatic speaker they need a mains supply as well as speaker cables. Fire them up and the results are breathtaking.

The first thing you notice is the clarity!

Put some female voice like your favourite Sarah McLachlan or Agnes Obel disc on and you're literally faced with the singer in the room. The imaging, detail and subtlety is nothing short of superb. They're not restricted to simple recordings however, we've been having a great time with some Yello and Boris Blank albums and they've even revealed details in Metallica recordings we hadn't heard before!

For those of you who want a lot of bass the bigger Electromotion X are ideal filling our big dem room with sound. The smaller  will, as you would expect, suit smaller rooms better.

Jean Claude van Boswell couldn't resist getting in on the act!

Often people who hear electrostatic speakers for the first time fall in love and won't go back to traditional box speakers. Why not come in and find out if you are one of those people. The designs and look of them is also a great talking point!

Paul, Francis, Jason and Boswell

Martin Logan Electrostatic speakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Audio T Brentwood, Audio T Cheltenham and Audio T Swindon

Cyrus Experience Day At Preston Store Saturday 13th May

Come & Experience Cyrus Audio - Great Sounding British Hi-Fi            

Hi-Fi | Home Cinema | Brands | News | Deals | Clearance | Store Finder

SPECIAL PRODUCT EVENT! COME AND EXPERIENCE THE FULL RANGE OF CYRUS AUDIO PRODUCTS AT AUDIO T PRESTON - FROM ENTRY LEVEL CYRUS ONE TO SIGNATURE REFERENCE.

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE AT THE PRESTON EVENT ON SATURDAY 13TH MAY

Come and experience Cyrus Audio, a great British Hi-Fi brand that offers great sounding products that help you get the most from your music, regardless of format. Click here to view the full range of Cyrus Hi-Fi products.

Quadraspire Sets The Stage With The New Soundstage

Unveiled at Sound & Vision - The Bristol Show this year, Quadraspire's Soundstage is not to be underestimated. Retailing at just £100, we consider it to be one of the most affordable and versatile upgrades you can implement into your Hi-Fi system.

If you consider that the price of dedicated Hi-Fi furniture can quickly mount up, £100 gives you the ability to turn any existing desk, table, cupboard, sideboard into a Hi-Fi shelf.

The science behind the Soundstage follows suit with Quadraspire's approach to reduce mass and retain rigidity. Also, the soundstage uses unfinished bamboo, no oils or lacquers are used, just raw bamboo, that has been gently sanded. Alester from Quadraspire pointed out that coating the Soundstage with anything would hinder its performance.

The Bamboo cut out, reducing the mass of the platform whilst keeping the original strength of the shelf. 

The solid bronze feet have a bamboo insert that won't scratch your lovely desk or sideboard.

That looks comfortable chromey,  take a seat.

The solid phosphor bronze feet plant the SoundStage to any surface. With the option to have 3 or 4 feet simply by unscrewing them. So, for example, a Linn Sondek would require 4 feet and a Rega turntable would need 3. All other pieces of Hi-Fi like CD players and streamers would work with 4 feet. 

Chromey and his Bronze minions

The Quadraspire Soundstage gave a tighter, more controlled bottom end, whilst expanding (you guessed it) the soundstage. Doing an A to B demo with our Rega Planar 1 really made a difference, night and day between listening sessions. Quadraspire say “a Hi-Fi system from amplifier to source including record decks, CD players and streamers are microphonic and produce resonance that will distort the quality of the music reproduced by a Hi-Fi system” we agree, and to this end the results were nothing short of impressive.

Alester, the design guru at Quadraspire, has come up with another well designed product, you may have a hit on your hands here Alester, well done. 

The Soundstage is on demonstration at Manchester now, as well as other dedicated Hi-Fi furniture from Quadraspire.

Quadraspire racks and stands are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Manchester, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, 
Southampton, Swansea, Swindon

The New Ruark MR1 MK2 Speakers Have Landed In Oxford.

Over the last couple of years if a customer asked for inexpensive desktop speakers, our recommendation had always been the brilliant Ruark MR1 speakers. These compact speakers were fantastic value for money and could not be bettered for the price. The MR1 desktop Bluetooth speakers are now four years old, so Ruark has decided to update them and here we will review the new MR1 MKII.

The drivers are the same as before, but Ruark has made changes to the crossover to help give the MK2 version a bigger more open sound.  Style wise Ruark have done away with the removable grilles of the MK1s and in their place is a fixed version. There is no denying that the appearance and quality of finish is a marked improvement over the Mk1s.

The MR1 Mk2 are a two-way bass reflex speaker system utilising a 20mm treated textile dome tweeter and a 75mm long throw bass driver, with a powerful neodymium magnet. The MR1s have a built in 20W Class A-B linear amplifier incorporating a high quality switch mode power supply.  

The MR1 Mk2s now have an optical input so you can connect external devices such as  your TV or Chromecast Audio etc, to improve the sound. They also offer apt-X Bluetooth for CD-quality streaming from compatible devices (Laptops, Phones, some TVs etc) and an analogue input for connecting a turntable.

To complete the package and to offer a great upgrade path they also have a subwoofer output for connection to an active subwoofer.

The Mk2 Speakers provide a sound quality and scale that belies their price and size. We listened to a variety of music from Ella and Louie singing “Summertime” to more testing music from the likes of M83s “Hurry up we're dreaming” and the Mk2s never skipped a beat. The performance was superb without any hint of boxiness and the bass extension was deeper than expected for such a compact design. These speakers may not be able to fill a large room but if required you could partner them with an external powered subwoofer to provide a great compact speaker solution.

The MR1 Mk2s are available in Rich Walnut and Soft Grey Lacquer finishes. An optional BackPack II power pack is available to free the MR1 Mk2 from the shackles of mains power (the slave speaker can be removed completely for ease of portability).

We have them on active demonstration in store, so please come by and have a listen.

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

Bluesound Node 2 Hi-Res Music Streamer Featuring Master Quality Authenticated Playback

Feeling bluesy or kind of blue or any type of music genre for that matter? Then that nodes well, because we may have the tonic you're after...read on.

Turn your Hi-Fi into an intelligent 21st century all singing all dancing triple threat*. Bluesound is now on sale and available for demonstration in Manchester and we couldn't be happier. *Broadway speak for someone who is multi talented.

Here we take a look at the Node 2 streamer. With all the usual connections you would expect from a mid to high end streamer, optical, coaxial, analogue audio out, subwoofer out too. And of course a digital and analogue input.  With a 1GHz ARM cortex processor as its brain, the speed of Bluesound never ceased to impress, loading album art, playlists and Hi-Res media to multiple devices is flawless. Having plenty of inputs and outputs means there really are no limitations to the Node2's capabilities.  Stemming from a partnership with NAD, Bluesound has evidently taken on board application advice from NAD, who have been in the audio business since 1972.

Hi-Res audio in all your rooms simultaneously is Bluesounds unique selling point, and MQA is one of the options available via Tidal. MQA Tidal streaming is simple and rewarding. The Bluesound app is speedy and intuitive, you are free to edit and manage playlists on the fly, whilst browsing MQA selections. Being able to easily demonstrate back to back red-book 16bit 44.1KHz, to 24 bit up to 192KHz, tracks felt more immersive and dynamic. Roll-off and reverb from snares, claps and vocals seemed to hang on just a moment longer compared to that of CD, sounding far more natural and almost painting the picture of the room in which they were recorded in your mind.

In regards to the app, there are really no complaints from us. In fact we all agree that it is very evident that a lot has been invested into the development of it.  Locating our files from our NAS with ease, as well as other album suggestions on Tidal in the same window offered trouble free and seamless streaming. Combined with a little emoticon indicating the resolution of the file type currently playing, this kept us informed of the tracks we were playing in real time without having to open the 'Track Info' page. This made demonstrating CD vs MQA quality simple and eye opening too! 

Overall though, we were impressed with how the Bluesound makes the most from its software, and in this digital age of iPhones and tablets, applications and Airplay, it is easy to forget about the hardware side of things. Bluesound breaks down this barrier between software and hardware with a solution so simple and innovative it is almost charming. Being able to code your Bluesound to work with any IR remote for example, the ability to assign functions on your TV remote to control the volume of your BlueSound,  Pause, Play, Power off and on, let's say someone calls you while you are listening to music through the BlueSound but have the TV on in the background, you use the TV remote to pause the the music, while you take the call. This, simply put, is a lovely feature. Hats off to  Bluesound.

We have a healthy selection of Bluesound streaming products in Manchester, from the range of all in one wireless speakers like the Pulse 2 and Pulse Mini, to the amplified version of the Node2 the PowerNode 2 integrated amplifier and also the Vault 2 which lets you rip your CD's and store your music on the 2TB music server.

Feel free to pop in and ask Simon, Munir, Mike, Dave and Haden to get rid of your blues...

Bluesound Hi-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Cheltenham, Manchester, Online, Portsmouth