Michell My Belle! Customer Upgrades His Gyro Turntable With Michell Techno Tonearm

Christmas arrives a little early for one of our customers as he has treated himself to a new tone arm on his Michell Gyro turntable. He had an ageing Rega RB300 previously installed on the turntable that was starting to become troublesome. With our advice the customer chose the obvious choice, the Michell Techno A tonearm in black to match the existing finish of the turntable.

Michell Gyro with new Techno A arm fitted

At the same time we have also removed the old acrylic plinth and lid giving the deck a much slicker look and feel. This was achieved by adding the Michell Gyro Spyder kit as shown below. The old deck is dismantled and the feet are removed from the plinth and threaded on to the new Spyder.

Michell Gyro Spyder kit

Techno A arm unboxing

New arm mounting plate

The old arm mounting plate needs to be replaced as it is the single mounting point plate. The new mounting plate is seen fitted in place above. The new three point mount all ready for the new tone arm.

Tonearm mount from top

Techno A arm fitted

Next we need to fit the cartridge to the tonearm. Our customer decided to go for the Rega Ania MC cartridge as shown below.

Rega ANIA MC cartridge during fitting

Rega ANIA MC cartridge

Now we need to adjust the height of the tonearm to make sure the vertical tracking angle is correct for the cartridge installed. This is achieved by the clever Michell thread at the mounting of the arm. In this case no adjustment was needed so the three mounting screws can tightened to fix the tonearm in place.

Tonearm height adjustment

Michell Techno A arm Scallop counter weights

Two different weight scallops are supplied depending on the weight of your cartridge. In this case the larger of the two has been used.

Scallop counter weight in place

Checking tracking force

Above we are checking the tracking weight using Project Measure IT stylus balance gage.

Ready for the first play

Cue up ready……”drop the needle on the record”

Michell HR power supply + Nytech CDP122

Above is the is older Michell HR power supply (this has now been replaced with a more modern looking box and case work) alongside the Nytech CDP122, our weapon of choice at the moment when it comes to supplying moving magnet or moving coil setups.

Final pic of the completed setup

Thanks to Steve for his permission to blog about his latest audio upgrade. In the pic above we have the front of his home cinema setup. The classic Pioneer plasma, Arcam AVR550, REL S3, Oppo UDP-203 & the now discontinued Bowers & Wilkins 683S2 teamed with the HTM61S2 center speaker. He finishes off his surround system with two B&W M1 speakers on the rear and B&W CCM665 in the ceiling for Dolby Atmos, creating a very impressive 5.1.2 system. Michell Techno A arm and Rega ANIA MC cartridge is available from all branches of Audio T.

Michell Engineering turntables are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Cardiff, Manchester, Southampton, Swansea

Thanks for reading: Hefin, Nick (blogger) and Kerrin Audio T Cardiff.

Film Night Featuring Home Cinema System From Arcam PMC And Chord Co Cables

Hot on the heels of our Naim Uniti roadshow we are delighted to announce that we will be hosting another exciting event at The White Horse Hotel, Romsey on Thursday 9th November.

We are very proud that our store is designated a Centre of Cinematic Excellence by Arcam. 

This will be a unique opportunity to experience a truly high end Cinema system featuring Arcam's awesome amplification.

powering a potent PMC theatre speaker package.

The system will be fully wired with The Chord Company cables...

with 4K HDR picture provided by the stunning new Sony VPL-VW760ES 4K SXRD projector...

We plan to make the most of the splendid, spacious venue of The Stables at The White Horse Hotel and run a full length feature film to showcase just how totally immersive the experience of a top notch Home Cinema system can be.  

We can't promise ice cream and popcorn but there will be an intermission for refreshments from the hotel bar and plenty of opportunity to chat to us or company representatives.

Special offers will be available exclusively at the film event as well as a prize draw to win an Arcam rPlay worth £399. (No purchase necessary).

Arcam rPlay worth £399 in our free to enter prize draw.

If you are planning a home cinema it's an ideal opportunity to get technical advice about screens, projectors, speaker and cable choice, set up and positioning plus Arcam's AV solutions and DIRAC room calibration, as experts from Arcam, PMC, Chord and Sony all plan to be there.

Doors open at 7.30pm on Thursday 9th November. 

A limited number of free tickets available, so to be sure to reserve your place click here.

We very much look forward to seeing you there,

Alan and John

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

Arcam And KEF Stereo And Home Cinema Weekend Coming Soon!

Join us on Friday 4th & Saturday 5th November as we put Arcam & KEF HiFi / AV systems through its paces.

In our HiFi room will we be running through the A29, A39 & A49 amplifiers & using the CDS27 as our source.

Which will be accompanied by a range of truly wonderful KEF loudspeakers including Blades!

In our AV room we will be using the KEF R series to create a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos configuration.

Which will be driven by Arcam's fantastic AV amp range. The UDP411, SoloMusic, AVR550 & AVR850 will be used on rotation over the 2 days.

We welcome anyone to come along to enjoy these amazing systems on Friday 4th & Saturday 5th November. Bring your favourites along with you, whether it's Music or Movies, and discover just how good these systems really are.

There will be exclusive offers on the day and snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Both Arcam & KEF Reps will be attending on the Friday to ask any questions you may have on their products.

Many thanks

Simon, John, Claire & Mahmood.

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

KEF Hi-Fi products are available from these stores: 
Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Portsmouth, Preston, Southampton, 
Swansea, Swindon