Dynaudio, Marantz and Bluesound take over Audio T Oxford

/ Audio T Oxford/

Sadly, due to the Omicron variant, there will be no Bristol Hi-Fi show this year. Instead, Audio T will be running a series of branch based shows hosting some of our favourite brands.

Here at Audio T Oxford, we will have offerings from Marantz, Dynaudio and Bluesound. These will be shown in our demonstration room and on the shop floor; over both the 25th and 26th February.

What you can expect here in Oxford

Firstly, one lucky visitor will receive an amazing prize of a Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless speaker, worth £699! So how you do you win? Simply come along and join us! We’ll also have a host of exclusive promotions and discounts on almost all products in store.

Demonstration room


Marantz flagship SACD player, and arguably the best one box CD player money can buy; the SA10.

Marantz Model 30 amplifier. This gorgeous integrated amplifier sits near the summit of what Marantz can offer.

Dynaudio Contour 30i speakers. Reassuringly expensive and absolutely fabulous sounding loudspeakers, that are of a manageable size for most UK rooms.

Shop floor

Marantz SACD 30 SACD player: Using trickle down technology from Marantz’s flagship SA10. This state of the art SACD player also allows for streaming connectivity.

Following on, from the luxurious Model 30; we will have the first public viewing of the Marantz Model 40n streaming amplifier. This brand new, just attach speakers amplifier has all the connectivity that you could possibly wish for, including multiple streaming sources, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, ARC and a moving magnet phono stage.

Dynaudio Contour 20i speakers. Everything that you could possibly hope to expect from a premium loudspeaker, in a compact box.

Also on the shop floor, we will have the versatile range of streaming products from Bluesound:

Bluesound streaming products are easy to use, have a great App, but most importantly, sound fantastic!


Bluesound Node streamer.
Bluesound Powernode streaming amplifier.
Bluesound Vault 2i ripper/ streamer.
Dynaudio Emit 10 speakers

Be sure to Contact us to book your FREE appointment. We look forward to seeing you in store.

Thank you for reading.

Andrew and Jon - Audio T Oxford. 

Be sure to keep up with all that is going on at Audio T Oxford by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

From Italy Sonus Faber to Fine Sounds UK - Sonetto I Speakers

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A few months back we wrote a blog to introduce the new Sonus Faber ranges, distributed by Fine Sounds UK. This month we thought we would delve a little deeper into Sonus Faber, and take a closer look at the the Sonetto I bookshelf speakers.

Sonus Faber Sonetto1 (white)

Hand-sewn leather top

The Sonus Faber Sonetto 1 is a very pretty loudspeaker with some some fantastic finishes available to compliment your home décor. Gloss Black, Wenge, Wood or Satin White as featured here are the available finishes. These slick cabinet colours are teamed with a hand-sewn leather top, a designed feature filtered down form the Olympica range.

All of the Sonetto range incorporates the Lute shaped cabinet that is not only pleasing to the eye but sonically important. This shape ensures that there are no parallel surfaces in the internal construction, offering perfect control over the internal resonances.

Lute shape cabinet

Bespoke Accessories

Sonetto stand

To complete the stylish look of the Sonetto I, Sonus Faber have created a bespoke pair of Sonetto Stands, manufactured from extruded aluminium to give it the rigidity needed for the performance expected from such a standmount loudspeaker. A nice touch to give piece of mind is the bolt on system for the top plate to the base of the speaker. The Soft velour on the base of the speaker and the top of the stand give a perfect seat for placement before bolting down. A nice extra is the cut out in the back of the stand upright for cable management.

Performance

Now let’s take a look at the sonic performance of the Sonetto I. Sonus Faber talk of the "voice" of its loudspeaker ranges and this voice is provided by the combination of cabinet construction, silk dome tweeter and natural fibre midwoofer and the front reflex port.

The silk dome tweeter is constructed with D.A.D (damped apex dome) technology and the mid-woofer with its natural fibre air dried diaphragm delivers high end performance at an affordable price. This technology has filtered down from their flagship Reference and Olympica ranges to achieve such high sonic presentation.

Tweeter

Tweeter

Midwoofer

If asked, we would describe the Sonetto range as incredibly smooth without lacking punch or detail. The bass is defined, tight and tuneful and the treble is smooth, sweet and not fatiguing. The midrange offers detail in vocals that other loudspeakers at this price struggle to achieve. I think I could put my feet up and listen to these speakers all day and I wouldn’t get tired.

We have found the Sonetto I easy to place in most rooms. If space is tight it is surprising how well they perform close to the wall due to the shape of cabinet and the front mounted bass reflex port .

The System

For the purpose of this demonstration we used a system consisting of -

Made in Italy

Demo tracks we've enjoyed on the Sonetto 1 include

  • Pearl Jam - Yield - Vinyl

  • Jessie Ware - Mirage (Don't Stop) - Tidal Streaming

  • Little Simz - Point and Kill - Qobuz Hi-Res Audio

Pearl Jam’s , Yield, is an album recorded in the 90s and when played on vinyl can be a little on the loose side in the bass, but the Sonetto I has no problem in controlling this and offers an immersive experience. Jessie Ware - Mirage offers a disco style with some pace. The vocal reproduction on these speakers is superb, along with the presence and timing of the modulated rhythm guitar. If you are looking to improve your stereo hi-fi or expand on your home cinema the Sonus Faber Sonetto I is a must to audition and are exceptional contenders in their price range.

Thanks for reading.

Nick, Kerrin & Matt - Audio T Cardiff

Keep up to date with everything going on at Audio T Cardiff by following us on Facebook and Instagram

Sonus faber can be found at the following Audio-T stores

Experience an Evening of HI-Res Audio with Simple Audio and Spendor.

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Come and join us on Wednesday 22nd October for an evening of high quality audio at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay.

Simple Audio and Spendor will be there along with Audio-T to demonstrate a very easy way of streaming music from an external storage device or computer or with Spotify and Qobuz. Also with internet radio built in, the world is your oyster.

Spendor with be showcasing the Splendid D7 and D1 along with ????? demonstrating how good these new Simple Audio Roomplayers really are. Easy to use with the i-device or Android app these players will give you access to high quality audio without breaking the bank!

So come along and join us for a great musical evening. A competition will be run on the night and one lucky winner will walk away with a pair of Simple Audio speakers worth £399. There will also be an opportunity for you to purchase the Roomplayers at a very special price on the evening saving £200 off each Roomplayer. 

 

Sony 4K TV and Hi-Resolution Audio Event

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This successful event took place on the 28th to the 30th of November. Many of our customers were amazed at the image quality of the 4K screen and the amazing sound quality produced by the high resolution audio players.

4K TV

Sony KD55X9005 4K TV


Exceptional picture quality on 4K souces and Blu-Ray discs. The TV also offers amazing sound quality from the built in magnetic fluid loudspeakers developed by NASA.

Sony STR-DA5800ES


The Sony STR-DA5800ES offer a true home cinema experience. The unit offers te following features:

9 x 145W power output

HDMI 9 in / 3 out

4K upscaling and pass through

Hi-Resolution playback up to 192kHz / 24 Bit

Hi-Resolution Audio

Hi-Resolution audio generally refers to a format that is capable of exceeding the sampling/Bit rates of CD (44.1kHz/16Bit). An Example of this is WAV files which are capable of 96kHz/24Bit. This offers a level of performance far exceeding that capable of CD.

Products that will be availble for demonstration will Be:

Sony HAP-S1


This is a high resolution audio player. It is not a streamer - each time music is downloaded to the HAP-S1 it is backed up onto its own hard drive. Therefore music play back is instantaneous as there is no need to wait for the network to stream the tracks. This also makes the unit stand alone as once the files are transfered to the HAP-S1 there is no need to have the PC, etc, on.

The HAP-S1 includes a high quality 40W amplifier, built in D/A convertor and a 500GB HDD. (This is expandable via the USB port on the rear of the product).

Sony HAP-Z1ES


The HAP-Z1ES is similar to the HAP-S1. However as this is an ES product that establishes itself as the highest quality audio player made by Sony. The HAP-S1ES has all of the benefits of the HAP-S1 with the following differences:

There is no amplifier in the HAPZ1ES. Due to the quality obtained a seperate high qualty amplifier is recommended.

The HAPz1ES includes a unique DSD remastering engine. This enables standard music files such as MP3, AAC & WAV to be converted to DSD files.

A very high quality DAC is integated within the unit. This uses FIR filters taht are ideal for the conversion of DSD files.

The unit has a 1Tb HDD that is expandable via the rear USB port.

Exceptional built quality renown in the Sony ES range.

TA-A1ES


This is an analogue two channel stereo amplifier designed to partner the HAP-Z1ES. It is the first two channel amplifier designed by Sony since the EA777ES 14 years ago. The amplifier is an 80W push pull design and offers multiple analogue inputs and a balanced input.

UDA-1S


The UDA-1S is a high quality DAC designed to except digital inputs from a variaety of sources including CD Players, Computers, Smart phones, etc. It is capable of decoding signals up to 192kHz 32 Bit.

It has a built in 23W analogue amplifier so it can be connected directly to a high quality pair of loudspeakers.

SS-HA1 Loudspeakers


Designed to compliment the Sony High resolution products such as the HAP-S1 and the UDA-1. The speakers incorporate WD super tweeters designed to reproduce the exceptional sound of hi-resolution audio.

We look forward to seeing you at the end of November.