Riffs and Revolutions: A Very Different Kind of Vinyl Listening Event!

As many of you know, Matt from Audio T Cardiff is a keen musician. Recently he hosted a vinyl event in Pontypridd, one of our home counties, alongside the fantastic team at A Strings guitar shop and with sponsorship from Rega. The event took place on Saturday, 28th September. If you were lucky enough to attend, you’ll know what a fantastic day it was—but if you missed out, here’s an account of what went down."

Over the years, our branches have traditionally hosted in-store events that have been highly successful, giving us the chance to showcase and demonstrate our featured brands at their best. These events have always been a real pleasure. But how do we reach a wider, more diverse, and perhaps younger audience, you may ask?

Personally, I wholeheartedly believe that music fans and musicians alike deserve access to a great-sounding hi-fi. Am I right? Of course, I am! Everyone should have a hi-fi that truly engages them—making you smile, even shed a tear, but most importantly, gets your feet tapping. Some of us even know that special piece of music that inspires us to pick up a guitar and master that riff or solo. (Thank you, Eddie Van Halen.)

As many of you know, I’ve previously organised Audio T Cardiff vinyl events outside the store at MEC Coffee, which were fantastic. This time, though, I thought it was time for something a little different.

Time for a little time travel! No, it doesn't involve a DeLorean.

When I talk about time travel, I’m really talking about this event. As most of you know, before my days with Audio T, I worked at a local guitar shop in Cardiff for 17 years. Being a guitarist, I started thinking about organising an event that combines my three biggest passions: music, hi-fi, and, of course, guitars. Musicians are often overlooked when it comes to hi-fi, which got me wondering—how can we bridge the gap between musicians and audiophiles?

Reflecting on my childhood, I feel lucky to have experienced music in such quality, thanks to my dad’s studio days. Everyone deserves access to great hi-fi, and I wanted to show that you don’t need to spend over £10,000 to enjoy a high-quality system, especially for vinyl playback—my favourite way to listen. How could I best demonstrate this? That’s when it hit me—I should reach out to my favourite guitar shop, A Strings.

In the hi-fi world, everyone knows everyone, and I’ve known the guys at A Strings, Andrew and Adam, for years as both friends and a customer (keeping my guitar addiction alive). I asked if they’d like to co-host an event with us in their store, and they were thrilled to say yes. We set the date, and both the A Strings team and I couldn’t have been more excited!

How about a little history about A Strings?

A Strings was founded in Cardiff back in 2006 by Andrew Morgan, originally specialising in guitar strings and accessories. Stocking over 1,000 varieties of strings—ranging from the popular to the obscure—they quickly built a loyal customer base, with many of their original customers still returning to this day. Over time, they expanded to stock a range of leading guitar brands, including Fender, Gretsch, and Gibson.

Fast-forward to the present, and A Strings is now located at 66 Broadway, Treforest, Pontypridd, where they’ve been for the past 15 years. In fact, they celebrated their 15th anniversary at this location on the day of the event.

An interesting fact about A Strings: they have supplied strings and gear to legendary musicians such as Brian May of Queen, Eric Clapton, the Manic Street Preachers, Motörhead, Killing Joke, and Mark Knopfler, to name just a few.

Reaching out to the turntable kings – Rega, that is.

With a good idea of the system I wanted to bring to the event—mainly Rega equipment—I reached out to our fantastic Rega representative, Rob Noble, about promoting the event on their website as well as ours and A Strings’. I also enquired about the possibility of a turntable giveaway, and Rega went above and beyond by generously donating a Rega Planar 1 Eco deck for the event’s prize draw.

Rega Planar 2 with nd3 cartridge

Rega’s God of amplification.

With everything in full swing—the advertising sorted and nearly everything ready to rock—I received an email from Rega’s amplification guru, Mr Terry Bateman, which was a real honour. Terry and I discussed how unique this event was compared to typical hi-fi events and how it bridges the gap between audiophiles and musicians. We also talked about amp design, especially the renowned Rega Brio, which Terry designed and voiced much like a guitar amplifier. It’s known for that rich analogue class AB warmth, reminiscent of solid-state guitar amps.

Terry shared his experiences before joining Rega, when he worked as an amp repairman for guitar amplification, focusing on brands like Fender, Marshall, and Vox. Like me, Terry has roots in the guitar industry and has even worked with notable musicians, including Robin Trower (if you haven’t heard Bridge of Sighs, give it a listen), The Hamsters, and many others. After our chat about amps, music, and classic rock, Terry said he would come along to the event. It’s a true privilege to have someone of his stature attending—as I said at the start, an amp legend!

What equipment did I bring to the event, I hear you ask?

Starting with the sources:

On the amplification front:

On the speaker front:

Cabling: Black Rhodium Intro speaker cables and interconnects.

Hi-Fi rack and stands:

On the vinyl cleaning side of things:

And now the fun really begins.

With the system set up and ready to go in what I can only call ‘guitar heaven,’ we were all set to rock. I spoke with many people about their records, collections, and equipment, and we even did several A-B tests, playing records before and after they’d been cleaned. One rare gem was Andrew’s original pressing of Queen II, and we played March of the Black Queen. Hearing the difference post-cleaning was incredible—the improvement was, as they say, night and day.

We also put the Rega system through its paces; to say it sounded fantastic doesn’t quite do it justice. The system truly demonstrated that you can build a great hi-fi setup without breaking the bank. The event itself had an amazing atmosphere, with rock tracks from every genre filling the space. Chatting with new faces about hi-fi, music, and guitars (my three favourite subjects), spending the afternoon with Andrew and the fantastic team at A Strings, meeting their customers, and having Terry from Rega there made for an absolute joy—a perfect afternoon of rock & roll and hi-fi.

And we have a winner!

A week had passed since the fantastic event at A Strings, and it was time to announce the lucky winner of a Rega turntable! I headed back to A Strings to reveal the winner on Fear’s Friday update. Yes, I did this live, and it went well—it was an honour to be part of their regular Friday video. So, who’s the winner? Drum roll, please... congratulations to Kris Morris!

Kris came by our store to collect his brilliant new Rega Planar 1 Eco deck. While he was here, I took him through a few amplification and speaker options to help him get set up and ready to enjoy his new system.

Are there more events like this on the way, you ask?

The short answer is a big, resounding yes! The event had such a fantastic vibe that it’s definitely worth doing again. In fact, I’ve spoken with Andrew and the team, and they’re keen to host another event with us at Audio T in the near future—so watch this space!

Thank you

A huge thank you once again to Andrew, Adam, and the team at A Strings for co-hosting the event with us, and to Terry and his lovely wife for attending—it was a real honour to have them there. Most importantly, a big thank you to everyone who came to the event; it was a genuine pleasure to meet you all, and I hope to see you again soon!

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog.

Matt - Audio T Cardiff

Matt and the A String Team


SUMIKO Has Landed at Audio T Southampton

Here at Audio T Southampton, we like to think we have a pretty good knowledge of the brands available in the Hi-Fi market, but once in a very rare while, we’re caught off guard and get introduced to something completely new…

We first came across SUMIKO here in the Southampton store when a customer walked through the door and asked if we could supply them with one of their cartridges. We were initially a bit taken aback as we had not heard of SUMIKO before, but boy are we glad we do now.

We were intrigued by this ellusive brand and ordered in three products from their range - Two moving magnet and one moving coil.

I went out to a customers house with the Blue Point No3 Moving Coil model in hand to put it up against his current cartridge on his Michell Gyrodec. It’s safe to say that the SUMIKO blew his cartridge away! I was amazed at how much detail and depth it had in comparison. It changed the whole soundstage of his Gyrodec. It sounded much more open and you could hear every note cleanly. We tried a few different albums from Elvis and The Beach Boys to classics like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon and Dire Straight's’ Brothers In Arms.

I left the customer with a new cartridge and huge smile on his face, and in all honesty, I couldn’t hide my large grin either.

I have since tried different SUMIKO cartridges on a few different turntables in store, and each time I am amazed at the way it breathes new life into each one!

A brief history of SUMIKO

For over 40 years, SUMIKO have provided an array of phono pick-up cartridges to discerning audio enthusiasts around the world. Boasting a portfolio of products that touches all price points and technologies.

David Fletcher with “the arm”

SUMIKO was founded in 1972 in Japan by three people, notably of which was American theoretical physicist David Fletcher. Before he co-founded SUMIKO he used to work for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, working on various different research projects. Unfortunately David Fletcher passed away early into 2021 at the age of 81.

Fun Fact: SUMIKO was named after one of the founders' wives.

MDC 800 Tonearm and Talisman A Cartridge

In the early days of SUMIKO they used to provide two services; the first being the import side of the business with introducing new and different brands to North America, ranging from Koetsu, Grace and many more. The other aspect of SUMIKO company is what they are primarily known for these days; that being, their spectacular cartridges, starting with the Talisman MC cartridges of which there were four: A, B, S and the Virtuoso. Another one of their founding products was the MDC 800 Tonearm, appropriately nicknamed "The Arm".

The RAINIER MM and Palo Santos MC Cartridges

Nowadays SUMIKO focus on their range of cartridges, with them now producing two different ranges, from the Oyster Series featuring the Rainier MM cartridges, all the way to the phenomenal Reference Series and the stunning Palo Santos Presentation Moving Coil Cartridge.

It really is a travesty that SUMIKO is not as well known here in the UK as they deserve to be. Superb quality at a lower price than a lot of their competitors. For us it was a no brainer to start stocking these and absolutely sing their praises.

If you’re interested in hearing one of these great cartridges or want to know more about their range please don't hesitate to give us a call and arrange a demonstration.

Thanks for Reading

Wayne - Audio T Southampton.

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to Contact Us.

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SUMIKO can be found at the following Audio T stores