A first step into Hi-Fi - A conversation with a customer…

/ Audio T Swansea/

A young gentleman by the name of Aled popped in to see us a short while ago at the behest of one of Swansea’s great audio institutions - Derrick’s Music. Our young hero has been collecting vinyl for some time, but was suffering with a sub-optimal record replay system and had asked the inimitable Chris at Derrick’s for advice:

“You need to have a chat with the lads in Audio T. Tell them I sent you and take a couple of records 😉” (Diolch Chris – Mae’r siec yn y post! - That’ll be Welsh for “The cheque’s in the post!”)

And what follows is an account of that fateful day…

Armed with a box of records and a cup of tea in hand, we trot upstairs to our demonstration suite to test the Rega Planar 1 and 2 turntables, a Rega iO amplifier and a pair of Acoustic Energy AE100² speakers…

An alumnium record case with many vinyls in it.

“i’ve brought a couple of records” - We love it when customers bring along their own collections

the rega planar 2 turntable

I span the Planar 1 and played Aled’s copy of Wet Leg’s ‘Chaise Longue’ – all familiar, boppy teenage fun “Yeah – that sounds great!” he said. I then swapped over to the Planar 2… “Haha! Wow! How is that even possible? There’s just so much more…drama. And the drums are really solid now. Can we...err...play a track from the Blondshell album next? I’m going to see her in a couple of weeks.”

“How is it possible?”

“Well” I said, “Let me see, the Planar 2 has a stiffer plinth; proper Rega one-piece, fully adjustable, cast aluminium tonearm rather than the bonded two-piece on the Planar 1, and a glass rather than resin platter. It all means that the cartridge can track more accurately in the groove which gives us more information and it has much less noise going into it. Same cartridge - but it’s supported more effectively. And yes, of course we can.”

I hadn’t heard Blondshell on vinyl before. Ms Teitelbaum’s atmospheric vocal on the track “Veronica Mars” is presented in a very pleasant, sweeping, open soundscape before the contrasting, dense, lo-fi crunchy guitar effects condenses the soundstage in front of us.

So, in the interest of transparency, I swap the turntable back to the Planar 1. The opening vocal soundscape is still enjoyable, albeit less convincing, but it’s the lack of weight and the congestion and thinness of the grunge guitar FX which disappoints; “Oh no! That doesn’t sound right at all. Ewww - what’s going on there?”

Back to the Rega Planar 2 and…

“Oh much better – that sounds right now. I don’t think I’ll be having the Planar 1. It’s great value and everything, but I couldn’t go back to it, not after hearing the Planar 2. Are there ummm…any different speakers I should listen to? These are really nice, but for maybe a little bit more there errr…might be something even nicer…?”

A quick trip down to the shop floor and five minutes later we’re listening to Bowers & Wilkins 607 S2s Anniversary speakers. “Oh it’s crazy how much more I can hear in there. How much better can it get Ade?”

Actual footage of Ade’s facial expression during this conversation 😅

“Oh OK. Right. Realistically, am I selling myself a little bit short here then?”

the rega planar 3

“Well, one of Rega’s favourite turntables, the one they really seem to love despite not being the top of the range, is the Planar 3…”

“It’s the Volkswagen Golf of the range, the most bang for your buck and one with a large upgrade potential. You can start with a modest cartridge like the Audio Technica VM510CB and it’ll flatten that Planar 2. And, when the urge grabs you, you can upgrade to the Neo power supply which will give you a big improvement, then you can really go to town on the cartridge.”

the rega Planar 6 6 WITH NEO POWER SUPPLY

“OK that’s cool - so what about the amp?”

“Well, as you heard, the Rega IO is amazing value at £420*. The next Rega amp is the Brio which is usually £700. However, Rega were about to release a replacement when they found a load more Brio parts that they didn’t know they had, so they’re currently doing the Brio for £549! That is silly cheap for an award winning amp of that performance, but once they’re all gone, that’s it.”

the rega brio amplifier

“Can I have a listen - have we got time?” asked Aled.

“Aye, no trouble whatsoever, it won’t take long, but you did ask to audition them, so remember that it’s not my fault when you can’t live without them. I did warn you.”

“Err…OK Ade.” I think Aled might look a touch unconvinced.

After I spin a couple of records, Aled decides on the white Rega Planar 3 turntable that comes without a cartridge as standard and accompany it with the Audio Technica VM510CB cartridge, a Rega Brio amplifier and Bowers & Wilkins 607 S2 Anniversary speakers.

Deposit taken and a day later I receive some photos of the room via email. It’s a touch smaller than I expected, but it’ll be just fine. A few days later, Aled appears with a big grin and three new albums in-hand; “I’m moving my room around and I’m going to need somewhere to put the speakers and will the turntable be OK on the cabinet in the photo?”

So I advise, “Bowers make dedicated stands for your 607s called STAV24s and if you find that the cabinet is causing problems there’s an isolation platform called the zaZen available from a nice Canadian company called IsoAcoustic for your turntable.”

“Have you got them here?” he rapidly asks. To which I reply, “It’s your lucky day sir!”

“I’d better take them with me”. I’m beginning to like this man’s style!

About a week went by and Aled’s turntable arrived in-store along with the speakers. I got to work fitting the blue Audio Technica VM510CB cartridge. It does look rather snazzy on that gloss white Planar 3.

job done, tea and jaffa cakes discreetly out of shot.

The install

Once Aled had returned from a gigging trip to the Big Smoke, we arranged a morning to install the system.

It’s a small space, hence the compact speakers, so I set them up for an intimate, small-venue feel. It’s an aural aesthetic that Aled prefers.

an intimate venue…

The much-feared resonant cabinet had been moved to the rear of the room and replaced with a rigid table, (complete with beer fridge underneath), for the turntable and amp. Keen to not waste even a minute, the IsoAcoustic Zazen plinth was already in place and Aled had built and levelled the STAV24 stands. Good man.

bjork sounded great. note the rare autographed blondshell album. sometimes if you ask nicely…

After a few minutes tweaking the speakers position, we still had too much upper/mid bass. The 607s are a rear-ported model and using the supplied port bungs, we calmed the bass response down effectively. We could hear more than just the one note, but it still wasn’t quite right. Fortunately the Bowers & Wilkins bungs are two-stage, meaning that the centre of the bung can be filled or removed. Deploying the supplied reflex port bungs in their 1/2 size format (like a big foam Polo mint) calmed the bass down to give us a credible couple of octaves that we couldn’t hear before. The soundstage is quite near-field and it’s like the artist is speaking directly to you. The $64,000 question though…is Aled happy?

i do indeed aled. cheers!

“That’s brilliant Ade, it sounds fantastic and I’m so happy I came to see you. Someone said you like red wine, so I’d like to give you this to say thank you. I hope you like Rioja…”

Postscript: A few days later, we received an email:

“Hi Ade,

Thank you so much for installing my system, I love it and it’s changed my music world for good 😊 

I am glad you enjoyed the Rioja 

Thanks again

Aled”

Thanks for reading

Ade, Andy & Nic – Audio T Swansea

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