HiFi Lounge - Latest News and Chat for HiFi and Headphones!

[Vipers]

Wilson Sabrina Listening Update, 1st Impressions!

Hi All,

I just wanted to update this as I had my first serious listen to the Sabrina’s once we closed the doors Saturday evening and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them ever since, sad I know :-)

Basically for the listening session I used a Chord DAVE, Aurender N10 Server paired with a Bryston BP26 Pre and 7B Cubed Mono Block power amps and Atlas Mavros Interconnects and Chord Sarum USB. Now to be honest what I have been struggling to comprehend is how such a small speaker can warrant a nearly £20k price tag but within the first few seconds of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ I knew they were going to be something special.

As everyone knows it is hard to describe audio in words as it is how it effects you emotionally that really can get the pulse racing but firstly the Sabrina really doesn’t sound like a small speaker as it gives a very big and wide soundstage with superb detail and seperation, but for me it was their speed and agility along with their attack that just amazed me, it is such a solid sound, yes they have a very tight and controlled bottom end but it is their transient attack that I found extremely addictive as I went through track after track and in the end I kept turning the volume up and end up hunting out tracks from Rammstein, NIN, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, yes these are a speaker that definitely rock, they do the subtler stuff also but their speed and attack just bought out my inner rocker :-)

So to sum up I can now see what all the amazing reviews that Wilson Audio Speakers get are all about, and what is amazing is that these are only their ‘entry level’ speaker, said in the loosest term of course :-) I really can’t begin to imagine how good the others in the range are, I actually have a pair of Yvette’s sitting in our store room waiting for our new showrooms to be finished, I think I may have to get them un-boxed before then somehow :-)

Yesterday I went to see the David Bowie Musical ‘Lazarus’ which was amazing so tonight I can’t wait to give my favourite Bowie album ‘Scary Monster’s’ an airing on the Sabrina’s which should be pretty special :-)

Anyway I’ll shut up now but needless to say I have been a little impressed with the Sabrina’s so if you feel you’d like to have a listen anytime please feel free to get in touch.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/wilson-audio-sabrina-loudspeakers

Thanks,

Paul.

[Vipers]

New Bryston BCD-3 CD Player Now On Demo!

Hi There,

I have to admit that I am becoming quite excited about CD Playback again which has surprised me as I was quite keen to go over to streaming and wave goodbye to CD once and for all, a couple of years ago I really thought CD was dead and Vinyl and Streaming was all anyone needed now but just recently there has been quite a few excellent CD players released and there has definitely been more interest in CD players from our customers so it is great to now add the new Bryston BCD-3 to our list of CD players on demo.

I was a huge fan of Bryston’s previous CD Player, the BCD-1, when I found it was to be discontinued a few years ago I made sure I got one of the last ones from Bryston for use at home so when Bryston announced that they were going to enter the CD market again with the BCD-3 I ordered one straight away.

Basically from what I understand is that the BCD-3 uses Bryston’s excellent BDA-3 DAC at its heart for decoding partnered with a professional grade Red Book CD Transport and Bryston’s excellent discrete analog circuitry to give a CD player that will get the best from CD at a not too silly price of £3699 which to be fair would probably be the last CD Player you will ever need.

The only slight quirk is that it doesn’t come with a remote control but Bryston are doing a deal on their BR2 remote which normally retails for £500, basically if you buy one at the same time as the BCD-3 they will offer it at £220, alternatively you could always use a learning remote.

Anyway other than that it offers balanced and RCA analog outputs as well as SPDIF and AES digital outputs to go into another DAC and can even be put on the network and controlled via an tablet app.

So if you have got loads of CD’s and would like an upgrade please feel free to get in touch to give the Bryston BCD-3 a demo.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/bryston-bcd-3-cd-player

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

dCS Join HiFi Lounge’s Portfolio!

Hi All,

When looking for a select few new brands to add to our portfolio for our new demo rooms dCS sprung to mind straight away, I have been reading for years how dCS have been pushing the boundaries of what is possible from digital so I was really keen to have a listen, they have been working in the digital domain for over 25 years now constantly improving and refining the digital experience and needless to say once I had listened I was keen to add them to our portfolio.

dCS, or Data Conversion System to give them their full name, are based just up the road in Swavesey, Cambridgeshire and started some 25 years ago manufacturing highend DAC’s and ADC’s for the telecommunication industry and for the military where precision and reliability were key considerations, a few years later dCS moved into making DAC’s and ADC’s for the recording industry where they where massively popular and hugely respected then as a natural progression they moved into domestic home hifi where they have won countless awards and always receive glowing reviews.

For now we have started with the dCS Rossini Player and clock for demo but hope to add a full Vivaldi system at some point, but at nearly £80,000 that is going to have to wait a little bit, so for those who don’t know the dCS range, firstly what is the Rossini? Well really is could be described as the ultimate all in one source as basically it is a CD Player, a Streamer, a DAC, a Pre-Amp, an Upsampler and World Clock, I think that is everything, so in theory you just need to add a quality amplifier and speakers and you have one of the best digital solutions on offer today. 

Just un-boxing the Rossini you realise that you are dealing with quality through and through here, it is an absolute work of art when you see it, the case work really is a think of beauty, I had a days training last week when Rav from dCS came in and spent a day going through what dCS are all about, it really was fascinating, their attention to detail must be second to none, dCS products like the Rossini or Vivaldi components take around 10 days to built each box then undergoes scrupulous testing to make sure everything is 100% perfect before leaving their factory.

dCS are best known for their patented Ring DAC technology, this is no ordinary DAC bought of the shelf but is a DAC that has been refined over 25 years by dCS engineers to give you a detailed but very natural and engrossing sound that really does just sound very natural.

Finally we have got the matching Rossini clock on demo, to be honest this was my first experience of a clock and I really didn’t know what to expect and what the point was to be honest but oh my god once the clock is connected to the Rossini the difference is not subtle, don’t get me wrong the Rossini sounds amazing without the clock but once this is added there is another level of focus and timing with better seperation and a much larger soundstage which makes me wonder why other manufacturer’s don’t go down the separate clock route.

It goes without saying that this is all app controlled with a very well thought out and intuitive app but it is also ROON compatible, this is my first taste of ROON and I have to say it is pretty awesome, basically it brings all your music together into one app, whether you stream form a NAS or use Tidal you see it all as one big meta data rich library, it really is a feast for the eyes.

So if Rossini is so good, then what does the Vivaldi system add for nearly 4 times the cost? Well it is most probably the best digital from end in the world, whereas the Rossini is an all in one the Vivaldi separates this over 4 boxes to apparently really lift the performance to another level, can’t wait to find out for myself to be honest.

So to wrap up, if you want to experience dCS then please feel free to get in touch to arrange a demo, as I said we have the Rossini and Clock here but if Vivaldi interests you we can borrow that from dCS at any time, that is until we get our own system that is :-)

Please see the product range below and a few un-boxing photo’s.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/dcs

Rossini Player Un-Boxing

Rossini Clock Un-Boxing

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Arcam AV860 Now Installed In Full Arcam 5.1.4 Atmos Setup!

Hi All,

This is just a quickie to say that on Thursday we installed the new Arcam AV860 Processor in to our cinema setup, once we have the new showrooms opened then the upstairs demo room many of you will know will be mainly used as our cinema room so we decided to kit it out in style with a full Arcam rig with the new AV860 processor at its heart, I can see one of these ending up at home to be honest, as I have had the AV888 and AV950 that proceeded it and with the AV860 having Dirac on board then I don’t think I can resist :-)

So for our main cinema setup we now have an Arcam FMJ P349 driving the front 3 speakers and a FMJ P49 driving the rears with a FMJ P429 driving the 4 Atmos speakers as well as the AV860 controlling it all, so a pretty potent system to be honest that really does sound epic, and once again Dirac proves it’s worth.

If you’d like to experience this rig at anytime please feel free to get in touch to arrrange a demo.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/arcam-av-860-processor

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Focal Utopia Headphones with Nordost Heimdall II Cable Thoughts!

Hi All,

This week I bought the Nordost Heimdall II cable for the Focal Utopia headphones, more for myself to be honest as an experiment but I thought I would just scribble down my thoughts for other Utopia owners who may find it useful.

Basically as many of you will know I love listening on headphones and have been enjoying the Stax SR-009′s for a few years now, like many though once the new Focal Utopia headphones were released I found myself using them more and more as my headphone of choice, but, and this is only a but because I was coming from SR-009′s, I just wished the Utopia’s were a little more open in their signature, I never expected to be able to achieve that sweet top end of the SR-009′s but then the Utopia’s bass weight and mid range really do take some beating so if I could just get a bit more from them then I could see myself going over to the Utopia’s full time.

In the past we have had great results swapping stock cables that come with headphones for the Nordost Heimdall II cable, but it does seem to work better on some headphones than others, for example in my opinion it transforms the Audeze LCD-3 into a much better headphone but didn’t really seem to make much difference on the Sennheiser HD800S’s, so I was hoping that adding the Heimdall II to the Utopia’s would give the same gains as you get with the LCD-3′s.

So last night I hooked up an Aurender into Chord’s DAVE which fed my favourite headphone amp, the Trilogy 933, then lined up a few of my favourite demo tracks and quite excitedly started listening to see how the Heimdall II effected the Utopia’s with everything crossed hoping for the result I wanted, I spent around 10 mins with the stock cable then swapped to the Heimdall II.

Starting with Massive Attacks Teardrop as usual as the opening minute really is an excellent demo piece, the fist thing I noticed was the better definition and attack on the bass notes, everything seemed to start and stop more precisely, this was a good start, then as the track grew you could definitely hear better seperation between all the notes, Teardrop is quite a busy song so this really was quite apparent and then when Elizabeth Frazer’s vocal comes in it really was crystal clear.

So this really was a good start so I went back to the stock cable and admittedly it still sounded great but I just didn’t feel quite so involved with the music then after 15 minutes I went back to the Heimdall II and to sound quite cliched it really did sound like a Veil had been lifted, for me the Heimdall II really does make the Utopia a far more enjoyable listen, it definitely give better clarity, separation and attack but the word that kept coming to mind to some it all up is that it just gives better definition, whereas the the stock cable is probably a little more forgiving and warmer in it’s presentation which I guess I could see some preferring.

So if you are a Utopia user and would like a more open sound with better definition then I would most definitely recommend trying the Heimdall II, I just couldn’t use them now with the stock cable knowing what an improvement it brings as for me using the Heimdall II really unleashes the performance of the Utopia and really shows what they are capable of, it is almost as if Focal went with the safe option with their stock cable.

For my final SR-009 v Utopia shootout I listened to Lorde’s Royals and yes the 009′s gave a wider soundstage with a beautiful airy and open top end but about 1 minute from the end there is a great driving bass segment and the Utopia’s with Heimdall had so much depth that the difference was quite shocking, so for me I still think there is a case for owning both the SR-009′s and Utopia’s if the budget could take it but for an all rounder then the Utopia with Heimdall II really is tough to beat.

Needless to say I will be buying another Heimdall II for demo for the shop as the one I currently have will be staying at home :-) so if you do fancy coming in to try it on the Utopia’s anytime please feel free.

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/focal-headphones/focal-utopia-headphones

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/nordost/nordost-heimdall-2-headphone-cable

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

We’re Expanding - HiFi Lounge Upgrade, 2 New Showrooms Opening Soon!

Hi All,

Many of you already know this but in true HiFi style we are upgrading :-) Well we are opening 2 more showrooms to be exact so I thought I would start a blog that I will update regularly with progress reports and pictures.

We are now in our 5th year, not quite sure where that time has gone to be honest but firstly Wendy and myself would like to thank everyone for your support over that time, it really has flown by and has been great fun. Looking back I would say We have tried to grow HiFi Lounge organically during that time adding brands that we think will fit in well with our portfolio with not too much crossover so over the last 4.5 years I feel we have grown steadily. A couple of years ago we took on another building and started Highend Headphones which is Wendy’s domain and has become a very popular part of HiFi Lounge, and then a couple of months ago the 2 stables that link HiFi Lounge and Highend Headphones came up for rent so it was decision time, now for the last 12 months HiFi Lounge has really been running out of space so we thought we would go for it and make a substantial re-investment in pushing HiFi Lounge forward again and signed the lease on the new buildings and started to think on what we would do with the new space.

So the master plan is 2 knock a few walls about to link HiFi Lounge and Highend Headphones to create one big space with several demo rooms offering HiFi and Headphones at many different price points, hopefully offering something for most people who are interested in quality music playback.

So the good news is that work started seriously a couple of weeks ago with the police monitored alarm and security camera’s going in which it could be argued is the most important part being how isolated we are, then all being well the builders are starting next week which could cause a little disruption as they have got to knock through into HiFi Lounge’s downstairs demo room to create a door into one of the new demo rooms + another one through to Wendy’s but then at least once that is done it will feel like real progress has been made. Then finally they have to got to put up a partition walls in each demo room.

In theory this should take a couple of weeks, then it is just a matter of installing appropriate electronics and networking, then making good and decorating, getting the carpet down and then start kitting out the new rooms, bizarrely enough it is the new sofa’s which could let the whole process down as they are going to take around 12 weeks to come in. Funny really as when the units came up I thought yes we’ll go for that but it isn’t until you get stuck in that you realise how much work and cost is involved into getting them converted for use as HiFi demo rooms, it will be well worth the effort though in the end, well hopefully :-)

So what are we going to use these new showrooms for? Well the first one that is going to lead off from HiFi Lounge is going to be a dedicated Naim room, we have most of the Naim range on permanent demo so it will be nice to have it all set up in one dedicated space. The 2nd new room is the cause for most of the investment as we have decided to dip our toe into the higher end of audio by bringing on brands such as Audio Research, dCS and Wilson Audio so that will be our Highend Room, so really looking forward to getting that up and running :-)

Needless to say we will announce plans for Open days once we have a better idea on how the work is going but we plan to hold 2 launch events hopefully around April time, one for the Naim room where Naim are going to bring along a Statement which we will hook up to a pair of PMC MB2 XBD’s or BB5′s and we will do another event to launch the highend room shortly after.

So that is the master plan for 2017, I will try to update this regularly with progress reports and pictures as the rooms start to take shape but here are a couple to get it all started.

External Views - From HiFi Lounge

The 2 New Stables To Be Coverted

From Highend Headphones

Internal - The Naim Lounge

The Highend Audio Lounge

Let The Work Commence With The Security Going In Fisrt!

Hopefully things will progress pretty quickly now.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

 

We're really On Our Way Now - Expansion Update 1!Hi All,

Well it was certainly a big week this week, after what seems like ages of waiting work really started in earnest with the builders coming in to start knocking through the walls and building the partition walls.

Obviously when you start knocking around a really old building you don’t really know what you are going to find but other than the adjoining wall between HiFi Lounge and the new Naim Showroom being extremely thick which took far longer to break through than the builders expected and the fact that our downstairs demo room is a foot lower than the new Naim Showroom meaning some kind of steps are going to have to be put in place, but other than that everything went really smoothly and it really feels like we are making progress now :-)

Please find a few pictures below of the progress so far, next week the partition walls should be up then there will be a small break whilst the doors are made. -

Time to find out how thick the walls are where the door is going!

Here we go!

It’s quite a drop from here into HFL

Time to knock through to Highend Headphones!

MMMM, Thought it would be a good idea to support the ceiling, wouldn’t want the MB2′s coming through the floor know half the wall is missing :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

 

[Vipers]

PMC Launch AVM Into The UK, Soon to be at HFL!

Hi All,

Just got back from an interesting day at PMC Speakers HQ just over the road in Biggleswade as they announced plans to launch and distribute German electronics brand AVM into the UK marketplace. Now I read a lot of HiFi mags but I must admit I had never heard of AVM until today which after spending a day with the the guys from AVM and PMC I find this quite astonishing as worldwide they are a huge brand, especially in their home country of Germany, where they are pretty much one of the largest HiFi manufacturer’s, they really reminded me of a German version of our Naim Audio.

There are quite a few similarity’s to PMC, they are family owned and of a similar size of employees and are around 30 years old, a little older than PMC but share many of the same work ethics and especially strive towards accurate and neutral sounding products but still engage musically.

So it may seem strange to some that PMC have chosen to distribute AVM alongside their long time relationship with Bryston, this was my first thought but in reality both companies offer very different products for different solutions. I won’t go into too much detail here but the first thing you realise when you get up close and personal with AVM’s equipment is how well built and sturdy it is, I don’t know how the Germans do it but they really do push the boundaries on fit and finish and the overall feel of a product. After speaking to Udo Besser who is the owner of AVM he was very keen to mention also that their equipment is designed to be modular so once DAC or Streamer technology moves on then it is a very simple job of unplugging one small board and inserting a new board with the latest spec, I don’t know that many HiFi companies that offer that level of flexibility to be honest.

Now AVM do offer quite an extensive range of HiFi components covering most bases but PMC and AVM are quite aware that the best way forward is to build the brand slowly and steadily in the UK so they are starting by offering 4 key products that are AVM’s best sellers, basically to start with there are going to be 3 different levels of all in ones and a MM/ MC phono stage.

I will go into more depth at a later date but basically there will be the Inspiration Phono Stage at £699, the Inspiration CS 2.2 Streamer / CD Receiver all in one at £3995, then the Evolution CS 5.2 Streamer / CD Receiver all in one at £5750 and finally the Ovation CS 8.2 which is a Valve Streamer / CD Receiver all in one priced at £11,695.

As you can see AVM and PMC are starting with 3 all in one units that progressively offer more performance and refinement with the top of the line Ovation CS 8.2 bringing Valves to the pre-amp stage as well as 500 Watts Per Channel, streaming, CD Playback, DSD Dac’s + Tidal and Qobuz etc + more so this really in a highend all in one that will drive pretty much any speaker.

We listened to all 3 products + a media player into an integrated amp and it was clear to hear the performance increases through the range but the starter Inspiration CS 2.2 really did drive the PMC Twenty5.26′s with ease giving a lovely open and spacious sound with bags of detail and complemented the PMC speakers extremely well.

So that is the big news of the day and for us being such big PMC fans it was a really interesting one and to me it looks like PMC have found a brilliant untapped partner with AVM in the UK which I am still struggling to see why they haven’t been seen in the UK before but if PMC are behind AVM then I am really looking forward to getting the 4 products into HFL shortly to put them through their paces.

The big AVM / PMC launch is going to be at the Bristol HiFi Show this year in a couple of weeks but all being well we’ll have our demo stock before then. 

If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch and please find a link to AVM’s website below -

http://www.avm-audio.com/

The 4 UK Launch Products -

Inspiration Phono Stage at £699

http://www.avm-audio.com/products/inspiration/inspiration-p-12.html

Inspiration CS 2.2 Streamer / CD Receiver all in one at £3995

http://www.avm-audio.com/products/inspiration/inspiration-cs-22.html

Evolution CS 5.2 Streamer / CD Receiver all in one at £5750

http://www.avm-audio.com/products/evolution/evolution-cs-52.html

Ovation CS 8.2 which is a Valve Streamer / CD Receiver all in one priced at £11,695

http://www.avm-audio.com/products/ovation/ovation-cs-62-cs-82.html

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

dCS Network Bridge Now On Demo!

Hi There,

I just wanted to write a quick blog to say that we now have the dCS Network bridge on demo, personally I have been looking forward to this one as it has the potential to be the perfect device to link your digital music collection to your favourite DAC or digital amp, especially as it is Roon Ready.

So in a nutshell the dCS Network Bridge is a very powerful piece of hardware that links to your network and will see the data on your NAS and using the dCS app or Roon can then be passed onto a DAC of some kind, you can also attached a USB Hard Drive to access your music + it has streaming service like Tidal and Spotify built in and is AirPlay compatible.

One the hardware front it has a powerful FPGA chip at it’s heart and can even have a clock attached like with the Rossini and Vivaldi to reduce jitter and help timing, having seen how effective this is with our demo Rossini this is actually a great feature. It will also play all files up to 24 / 384 as well as DSD 64 and 128 in native or DOP and can also down sample for older Dacs.

What really excites me about the Bridge is that it is ROON ready, now I know a lot of my customers have been using ROON for some time now but I have just started using it when we got our dCS Rossini and I have to say that there is no going back now, basically it is an extremely powerful piece of software that brings all your digital music together into one very metadata rich interface so whether using Tidal, Quboz or Upnp for a Nas you can see it all in one place with links to similar artists, lyrics, a radio station that will play similar music once your playlist has finished, I could go one but once you have experienced Roon everything else does seem quite lacking, and for a life time subscription for around £400 it really is worth every penny.

When I get a chance I am quite keen to compare the dCS Network Bridge against the Aurender X100L, one of my favourite sources, as they are similarly priced but considering dCS used to distribute Aurender they know what they need to beat on the sound quality front so that should be very interesting, but inevitably it is a different solution how to access your digital music Library but one that looks to tick all the boxes.

If this sounds of any interest please feel free to get in touch to arrange a demo or even a home demo if that would be more useful.

Please find some un-boxing pics below and a link to the Network Bridge on our website -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/dcs-network-bridge

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Audio Research Now At HiFi Lounge!

Hi All,

As part of our expansion plans I am really pleased to announce that we have now added Audio Research to our portfolio and along with dCS and Wilson Audio this now completes our line up of new Highend Brands that will hopefully add another string to HiFi Lounge’s bow :-)

In reality Audio Research really do not need any introduction as they are one of the most respected, established and oldest manufacturers of Audio Components trading today and are credited by many as the founders of the ‘Highend Audio’ world that we now enjoy. They were founded in 1970 by William Z. Johnson and are located in Minnesota, USA and are known best for their preference of the use of Vacuum Tubes for their Class A amplifier designs.

More importantly though Audio Research is all about making HiFi that their owners will really enjoy and be proud to own, they only bring new equipment to market when there are true advances in technology and produce some of the most musically engaging products available that constantly get glowing reviews worldwide. Audio Research really do sum up everything that is great about Highend Audio offering beautifully made products that push the boundaries but they always put the music first and foremost so it really is an honour to add their products to our lineup.

We have decided to jump in at the top of the tree with Audio Research by putting their Reference line on demo so for now we have the Reference 75SE power amp, Reference CD9 CD Player  / DAC and Reference 6 Pre-amp. The Audio Research lineup is pretty straightforward nowadays with 3 clear lines, the new Foundation series which is the entry lever for AR,then there is the mid level G Series and then the Reference lineup, once our bank balance has recovered a little from buying all this new kit I will look to bring on the Foundation Series Pre / Power and the G Series integrated GSi75.

I have spent that last few hours un-boxing our new AR demo kit and installing all the Valves, its a tough life :-) so below are a few pictures, probably too many to be honest, then once I get to 5.30pm tonight I will be having a good listen, I have been reading reviews about AR for years with it always being described as the most natural and realistic sounding HiFi there is so I really can’t wait to find this out for myself.

Obviously it goes without saying if Audio Research is something you’d like to demo at any time please come in for a listen, I really can’t wait until our new Highend Audio Showroom is complete in a couple of months so that we can put our AR demo kit in pride of place :-)

http://hifilounge.co.uk/audio-research

Another tough day at the office :-)

Reference 6 Pre-Amplifier Un-boxing

Reference CD9 CD Player / DAC Un-Boxing

Reference 75 SE Power Amplifier Un-boxing

Time to Install The Valves into the Ref 75 SE.

Next the Ref 6

I forgot to take Pics for the CD9, Doh!

Time to get it all hooked up -

Phew, well I think that is enough pictures for anyone :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Expansion Update - Up Go The Walls!

Hi All,

Another big week for the new showrooms as the partition walls went up to make the rooms a little smaller, over the next month it should really all come together quite nicely as next week we finally knock through from HiFi Lounge right through to Highend Headphones and have all the doors installed.

Also next week the electricians are coming in to install unswitched power sockets with 10mm cabling on it’s own circuit + ethernet points, the following week both units will be decorated from top to bottom then finally the carpets are going down mid March and hopefully then the Sofa’s arrive and we can then start filling the rooms with kit :-)

The most nerve racking part of this whole process is what are the rooms going to sound like when complete as at the moment obviously everything is very echoey and with the glass along one side I feel it may be a little challenging so I am expecting that some acoustic treatment will be required as in reality it really doesn’t matter what the rooms look like as it is all about the sound quality and this is something we can’t test until the rooms are completed unfortunately so fingers crossed :-)

Anyway please find below a few more pics of the partition walls going up in each room, these have been filled with acoustic insulation so they really are very ‘dead’ when knocked which is obviously very important.

Regards,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Rega Launch Red Planar 2 and 3 + Ania MC Cartridge!

Hi All,

At the Bristol HiFi Show this weekend Rega announced red versions of the excellent Planar 2 and Planer 3 turntables and I have to say that they look gorgeous, also look closely to the Planar 3 and see if you can notice anything else a little different, I had to take a double take as I could see the cartridge didn’t look like an Elys2 that would normally come with a Planar 3 and actually looked more like Rega’s top end Apheta 2 design, well it turns out it is a new cartridge called the Ania which is a Moving Coil design and will retail for £498 and should be the perfect partner for the Planar 3 and RP6, there will also be a cheaper MC phono stage coming shortly from Rega called the Fono MC for £248 to match the Ania, I can see these being very popular indeed as we seem to get more and more demand for turntables as the months go on which is really great to see.

Please see some pictures below of the new finish, needless to say we will have these on demo asap, the red versions of the TT’s will be available sometime on April so if you’d like to place a pre-order please get in touch -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega

Rega Planar 2

Rega Planar 3

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

We're In :-)

Hi Everyone,

So yesterday was the day I had been waiting for for what seems like forever, the builders finally knocked through from HiFi Lounge’s downstairs demo room into the new showrooms so it really feels like all systems go now.

They are back next week to knock through from the new showrooms to Highend Headphones and finish hanging doors etc and they will be done, I have to say they have done an awesome job and couldn’t recommend the guys anymore highly.

On Monday the electricians are in to fit the power and ethernet sockets and the decorating starts on Wednesday, the end really feels like it is in sight now :-)

Please see a few pictures below of the big moment yesterday, I would imagine it was this exciting when they built the channel tunnel, obviously that was far more straight forward :-)

The View into the new Showrooms!

Back Into HFL!

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Video Walkthrough from HiFi Lounge to Highend Headphones!

Hi All,

Thought I’d try something different for a change and do a small video as on Thursday we finally broke through into Highend Headphones so no more cold walks outside and through the car park to go from HFL to HH so please see below for the internal walk through from HFL to HH.

I must admit it isn’t the best quality video, for the next one I won’t swing the camera around so much and will try and keep my hand steadier but it will give you the idea :-)

I would actually like to do some more video’s in the future but the trouble is being stuck on a farm it means our internet is painfully slow so it took me 8 hours to upload this video but I think we may be getting satellite internet soon so hopefully that will be a little quicker.

Anyway onto the video with my rubbish commentary :-)

Also we put our first piece of HiFi into one of the new rooms on Wednesday to see if the ARC Ref 75 would sit on the Quadraspire X Reference OK, luckily it just fits :-)

So the following week is going to be full on finishing off the electrics and decorating as the carpet is being fitted the following week as we found out also that the new sofa’s are being delivered the same week, it is almost as if we had planned this to perfection as it is all coming along quite nicely but in reality we have just bumbled through it all :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Join Us @ Head-Fi Meet 2nd April in Milton Keynes!

Hi all,

Just wanted to give everyone a headsup that we are sponsoring a Head-Fi meet in Milton Keynes on 2nd April, we will be taking a long a selection of amp and headphones for people to try but the great thing about these meets is that fellow enthusiasts bring their headphone rigs along for others to listen to so I am personally looking forward to see and hear what some guys bring along.

10% Off

We will be offering 10% off any headphone products purchased at the show so hope to see you there.

More details below -

UK Head-Fi Meet 2017

Date - Sunday, April 2nd

Time - 10:00 - 17:00 (approx)

If people are bringing gear then they can arrive from 09:00 to set up.

Venue:

Holiday Inn Milton Keynes East

London Road

Newport Pagnell

MK16 0JA

Head-Fi Discussion thread with all the details:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/816392/2017-uk-head-fi-meet-april-2nd-milton-keynes

Thanks,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Naim Lounge Launch Event April 22nd Hear The Naim Statement With PMC BB5 SE’s!

Hi All,

Well with the fitting out of the new showrooms really gathering pace now I feel confident enough to announce the launch event for our new Naim Lounge on April 22nd, no going back now :-)

Basically the plan is to hook up the Naim Statement with a pair of PMC BB5 SE’s speakers to create a very special system indeed that will most definitely test the acoustics of the new rooms but if we do our job properly should sound spectacular.

We will have representatives from both Naim Audio and PMC Speakers on hand to help run the day and answer any questions you may have as well as refreshments throughout the day.

Hear the new Uniti Range!

I think it is fair to say that the Naim Statement may be a bit on the expensive side for a lot of people so I am really pleased to announce that we will also have the new Naim Uniti Range on display and will be showcasing it in one of our other demo rooms so all being well you will be able to hear the Uniti Atom, Star and Nova hooked up to the new PMC Twenty5 Series speakers, this will be one of the first listenings outside of Audio Shows so I can see this being equally as popular as the Statement room to be honest.

So please put April 22nd in you calendar and feel free to come along to help us celebrate a new chapter in HiFi Lounge’s journey with the launch of our new Naim Lounge and get a chance to hear one of the best HiFi Setups available today.

The day will start from 9am and will go one until late so look forward to seeing you on April 22nd. Hopefully the so called ‘Highend Room’ will also finished so you’ll be able to look round this but we will be doing a different launch event for this shortly after.

If you are thinking of coming along please just fire me over a quick e-mail so we can get a rough idea on numbers to - paul@hifilounge.co.uk

If you fancy ordering a Statement and a pair of PMC BB5 SE’s anytime you can find a couple of links below for prices :-)

Naim Statement

http://hifilounge.co.uk/naim-statement

PMC BB5 SE Speakers

http://hifilounge.co.uk/pmc-bb5-se-speakers

Video Walkthrough from HiFi Lounge to Highend Headphones!

To try something different I did a walkthrough video last week once it was possible to walk internally between HiFi Lounge and Highend Headphones so if you’d like a look please click on the below link, I must apologise in advance for the poor quality, Steven Spielberg I am not :-)

http://bit.ly/2nPt25C

Many Thanks,

Regards,

[Vipers]

Chord Hugo II Hands On!

Hi All,

Just thought I’d upload a quick video of Chord’s hotly anticipated Hugo II which is due in around 2-3 weeks time, I managed to borrow one from Chord for this weekends Head-Fi event that we are sponsoring in Milton Keynes but I will have it here for most of next week if anyone did want to come in for a quick listen, just let me know.

https://youtu.be/2itSAFDXPvk

Look forward to seeing everyone at the Head-Fi Event, more info below -

http://bit.ly/2n36mC4

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Piega TMicro 60 AMT Speakers Now On Demo!

Hi All,

Well Piega have done it again, for the 2nd time the Piega rep has bought a pair of speakers in that I just can’t resist, in all honesty the last thing I need in here is more speakers but everytime Piega bring something new in I just can’t believe how good they are, especially for the money, so I end up buying a pair, I am so weak.

Obviously there is a lot of choice when it comes to speakers but the TMicro really does offer something different, firstly they are very slim, very difficult for anyone not to like their styling I would say, secondly they use a ribbon tweeter giving a very natural and open sound, thirdly the cabinets are made from aluminium and when it comes to price I am still not sure how Piega do it but they are only £1499 for the aluminium finish or £1599 for black or white.

So they really do offer a very stylish lifestyle look but also don’t compromise on sound quality, needless to say they can be a little limited at the bottom end as due to the cabinet width the driver are quite small but I have put a small REL T-Zero with them and once matched well it is a great partnership giving a sound for under £1900 that I would say is unbeatable.

Anyway we have them on demo if you’d like to come and have a listen anytime, I know you’ll be impressed as I was :-)

http://hifilounge.co.uk/piega-tmicro-60-speakers

Thanks,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Naim Statement In The Building + Expansion Update!

Hi All,

It was a big day yesterday as Naim delivered and installed the Statement so that it will be nicely warmed up ahead of our Naim Lounge launch event in a weeks time, it has been constantly on since arriving but I haven’t hooked anything up to it yet, in fact I still haven’t played any music yet in the new rooms, but that is the plan for today, to hook up our NDS/555 to the Statement with a pair of Sopra No2′s to see how it sounds, all very exciting :-)

It has been a while since I have updated how the new rooms are coming along, well they have been a hive of activity for weeks now but the end really is in sight, in reality we could probably have done with a couple more weeks as they won’t be 100% finished but will be very close, this coming week should hopefully see it all come together. For now we have decided to focus on the new Naim room and we can finish off the Highend Room shortly after, so on Tuesday all the acoustic treatment will be arriving from Artnovion who are based in Portugal, looking forward to receiving this as it should look pretty cool and really help the rooms to sound excellent, to be fair though when the carpet’s went down the sound improved dramatically to a point where they actually sound pretty good so I can only imagine how good it will all sound once the treatment is in place. Then on Wednesday all the Naim Art is arriving which will really make the room look amazing as at the moment it is just a blank canvas and finally next week all the Quadraspire racking will be arriving for the Highend Room and we have the glass etcher coming in to hopefully get the sign writing done for the glass doors, phew next week is looking busy.

I think the main parts that won’t be ready are the new blinds for Naim room and we are talking with Vescom regarding acoustic curtains to help with all the glass but it looks like they will be ready just after the event, so next week looks like a week of finishing decorating, hanging wall art and acoustic panels and just adding the finishing touches, oh yes and there will be the small point of PMC delivering the speakers for the launch event :-)

I have to say it has been much more work than I originally anticipated, when the barns came up between HFL and HH I thought simply ‘Yes we’ll take them on’ and thought nothing more but in reality it was a lot of work but I always knew it would be worth it in the end so now I can’t wait for the launch event on April 22nd.

We have had an amazing response with people registering for the launch event and luckily as these new rooms are a fair bit bigger than our other showrooms we’ll be able to fit quite a few people in at a time to listen to the Statement and I have just checked the weather and it is looking like it will be dry so we can open up the gardens.

Anyway, back to work, time to hook up the NDS/555 to the Statement to see how it all sounds, don’t think I’ll be going home much over Easter :-)

Hope to see you at the launch event on April 22nd, if you haven’t yet registered please just fire an e-mail over to me at paul@hifilounge.co.uk, thanks.

Don’t forget Naim are donating a Muso Qb for a raffle so if you come along you could be walking home with that at the end of the day, can’t be bad :-)

Please find a few pictures below of the Statement install.

Regards,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Now We're Rocking!

Hi All,

So it has been full steam ahead trying to get everything ready for the Launch event on Saturday of our new showrooms but I just wanted to do a quick post as PMC have just installed the awesome BB5 SE’s which on the end of the Naim Statement are sounding pretty dams good I have to say, which is a relief as I was really worried how the rooms would sound, especially with the BB5′s in there with those huge 15″ bass drivers but in all honesty it is sounding really good, you just can’t beat a big pair of PMC’s :-)

The acoustic treatment arrived yesterday which is being installed at the moment so hopefully by Saturday our new Naim Lounge will really be singing, anyway here are a couple of pictures to whet your appetite :-)

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

A Big Thanks To Everyone Who Attended Our Naim Lounge Launch!

Hi All,

Both Wendy and myself just wanted to send out a big thanks to everyone who attended the launch of our new Naim Lounge on Saturday and made the day such a big success, we reckon we had between 120-150 people through the doors which is just incredible, at one point people had to queue to get into the new room and apparently there were traffic jams outside as people tried to find somewhere to park, so thanks again for everyone’s support, it really is very much appreciated.

Also I’d like to thank Chelsea, Mike, Dan and Phil from Naim for their support and help on the day as well as Tom from PMC who had the place rocking with some of his top tunes :-)

I have to say that the Statement sounded epic on the PMC BB5 SE’s with many people commenting also on how good the Rega RP10 sounded through the system, personally I was really impressed with the Atom on the PMC Twenty5.23′s, that really is a great system for under £5000, I really don’t know how Naim can make the Atom for the RRP of £1800, it is seriously good, finally the Nova on the PMC Twenty5.24′s also got a lot of positive comments with many saying it was there favourite setup of the day, either way it was hard to fault any of these systems.

Also Congratulations to Charles Macdonald for wining the Muso Qb draw, couldn’t have gone to a better customer :-)

As mentioned before we will have the Statement and BB5 SE’s here for another couple of weeks so if you couldn’t make it in on Saturday but would still like a listen please feel free to come in.

So now that the Naim Lounge is well and truly launched it is time to turn our attention to finishing of our Highend Lounge, basically it is just a case of getting the room treatment in place as this made a huge difference to the Naim Lounge, then we will organise a launch event for that where we will be focusing on dCS, Audio Research and Wilson Audio so please keep your eye out for that open day coming soon.

So once again many thanks for everyones support, it really is very much appreciated, please find a few pics below, unfortunately we were too busy to take many.

Mike From Naim doing the Muso Qb Prize Draw

Thanks to John Dawson for the below whacky pics.

Regards,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Naim Mu-so Qb Winner Announced!

Hi All,

Just wanted to say Congratulations to Charles Macdonald who won the Naim Mu-so Qb draw from last weekend’s Naim Lounge launch event, thanks also to Naim for donating the Qb for the draw :-)

Cue cheesy picture below, well done Charlie, couldn’t have gone to a better customer :-) 

Now time to start planning the launch event for the Highend Room, I wonder if I can convince dCS to give away a Vivaldi system :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

 

 

[Vipers]

Wilson Audio Yvette’s Finally Unleashed!

Hi All,

Unbelievably I have had the Wilson Audio Yvette Speakers here since Christmas but they have been stored away mainly due to their weight, as at around 80KG’s each speaker there was no way we could lift them to our upstairs demo rooms so I have had to wait patiently knowing that we would soon have 2 new showrooms on the ground floor, this was not easy as I have really fallen for the Wilson Sabrina’s so have been really keen to hear what the next model up brings to the party.

Anyway last week we finally uncrated the Yvette’s, they are definitely the most well packed speaker I have ever unboxed coming in heavy wooden shipping crates, it was actually a really easy process as they are already on castors so they just wheel straight out. Interestingly Wilson’s come with a plastic wrap on them when new to protect the paint finish, this can be a bit of a challenge peeling off but is very effective at doing it’s job.

Unfortunately the wait is not over just yet as our new Highend Room is still waiting for the Artnovion room treatment to arrive from Portugal and at the moment the room sounds quite shocking so I can’t try them out in there and we still have the awesome PMC BB5′s in the Naim Lounge on the Statement but the BB5′s and Statement are only here for a week or so more then I can finally get to hear the Yvette’s, always nice to have something to look forward to especially as I am really going to miss the Statement/BB5 setup. To start with I will try them on our Naim 500 system which I am expecting to be a pretty special combination.

Please find a link below to the Yvette’s on our website and a few un-boxing pics, it was actually easier to wheel the speakers outside to get to the new showrooms hence the weird outdoor pictures, don’t worry we weren’t trying to get arty :-)

http://hifilounge.co.uk/wilson-audio-yvette-loudspeakers

Unwrapped showing the Desert Silver Finish

Cheers,
Paul.

[Bibs]

Now that's some serious packaging! 

[Vipers]

Yeah, mental isn't it, got to find somewhere to store it now.