The Blades Perform at the Bay Supported by Project and Audio-T

A classic vinyl evening on a fine summer's evening at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay proved to be a great success. When applying for tickets for the event, guests were asked to name their favourite classic album and the popular choice was Peter Gabriel's "So". On arrival a registration form was completed and was subsequently entered into a free prize draw for a pair of KEF Q100s.

Here we see Alex and colleague from KEF unwrapping the Blades, while Duncan from Henley Designs carefully sets up the Project Signature turntable.

The cartridge fitted to the turntable was the Ortofon MC Anna. Continuing a tradition, Ortofon dedicates this new flagship cartridge to the opera singer Anna Netrebko, a virtuoso whose performance displays a formidable technical arsenal of endless versatility. With the dedication of the MC Anna, Ortofon once again emphasizes the company’s unchanging commitment and devotion to the music and to the purest delivery of recorded sound. Much like Anna Netrebko, Ortofon aspires to provide the ultimate musical experience through a mixture of innovation and technical expertise, combined with inspiration that goes beyond mere thought to reveal true inner emotion.

Ready to perform. The Project Signature turntable placed on an Atacama bamboo rack, along with the Project Phono Box RS and Electrocampaniet pre-amp and Nemo mono blocks. The Blades were connected to the power amps using the new Chord Signature Reference speaker cable. The balanced interconnect used between the phono stage and pre-amp was the Chord Indigo Tuned Array.

The evening started with a presentation by Alex and a short film about the history of the Blades.

Peter Gabriel was played in its entirety in the first half and after a short break we settled down to Side 2 of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" The evening came to a close with the prize draw.

Lucky prize winner Cai Strachan receiving his pair of KEF Q100 from store manager Hefin Jones.

Special thanks must go to Alex Foxon of KEF, Duncan Quemby of Henley Designs and the staff at the Norwegian Church for their kind hospitality.