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

[Vipers]

A quick clue to the answer to our competition to win some passenger laps in our Radical SR1 -

Question - What year was HiFi Lounge Formed?

Clue - It is the same year the classic 'Gangnam Style' was released

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

New Sennheiser HD820 and Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back Headphones Now On Demo!

Hi All,

So like buses we have has 2 new closed back headphones arrive this week which are at different price points but both promise to be very popular indeed.

Sennheiser HD820 - The New Closed Back Reference!

Firstly we have the much anticipated new Sennheiser HD820 Closed Back headphones, you could argue that Sennheiser started the current headphone market we know today with the launch of the HD800′s a few years ago and to be fair they are still a true reference headphone and it looks like Sennheiser have only gone and done it agin with the HD820 in creating a Closed Back headphone that really is pretty special.

In fact I would go as far as to say this is the first closed back headphone that doesn’t sound like a Closed back so even if you are not looking for a closed back you should still consider these.

For me where the HD800′s won was in their imaging and soundstaging which even today is still unrivalled, the good news is that Sennheiser have managed to keep this with the 820′s but also where the 800′s were criticised for lack of bass, well this really isn’t a problem with the 820′s, the bass is epic, the good news is that also there is definition in the bass, it isn’t just a bloated bass but has a real texture to it and being an 800 you still get the insight and detail so you could argue that these really could lay claim to being pretty much the perfect headphone which is amazing bearing it is a closed back which have always been considered the poor brother to an open back.

As you can tell I quite like these so if you are in the market for some new headphones, whether open or closed then I would definitely put the HD820′s on the list.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/sennheiser-hd820-cloased-back-headphones

Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back Headphones

At more competitive price point we have the new Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back headphones also now on demo and for their price they are equally as impressive especially in the mid band where Planars always seem to major. Again these have a very powerful bottom end, not quite with the resolution of the 820′s but still very impressive, what with the LCD-2 Classic and these I do wonder how Audeze make them for the money as they really are beautifully built.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/audeze-lcd-2-closed-back

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Time For A HFL Van Upgrade!

Hi All,

So 6 years in it is time for some new HFL wheels, now I must stress that this change was bought on solely by necessity and not because I thought the new van looked cool

In all seriousness though as the business has grown my good old Ford Connect was struggling to cope as the speakers have got bigger and transportation space was a real issue, especially with Martin Logan speakers which are bigger than most.

Farewell My Old Friend!

I have to say I felt a bit sad when my trusty old Connect was trailered away as we started our partnership just before starting HFL with no idea what lay in store but over the 6 years it never let me down once and in the end we covered over 75,000 miles together delivering and installing HiFi all over the country, it really was a great partner.

Well Hello There!

Once the new van was delivered though I soon got over my feelings of loss

I had it in the back of my mind that I needed a bigger van for some time but didn’t really know what I wanted, well that was until I was in the paddock at Silverstone and a Ford Transit Custom MS-RT drove past, needless to say the rest is history, basically a Transit Custom is given to Fords Rally team who dismantle it, fit sports suspension, body kit, new wheels and interior, tickle the engine a little then give it back.

The coolest thing is on the option list there is something called a MaxHaust, have to say it is one of the coolest audio gadgets I have ever played with, if you are ever in HFL just ask for a demo

As I said at the beginning, this van was solely bought as a workhorse, nothing else 😉

Delivery Day!

Let’s get some stickers on it!

Right, I’m off to play with my exhaust

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Wilson Audio Sasha 2 Speakers Now on Demo!

Hi All,

Just a quickie to say that I am really pleased to have the Wilson Audio Sasha 2 speakers on demo, I’m not going to go on for a change but I just want to say that they are incredible, the whole speaker is brilliant but I have to say in particular the mid range is absolutely captivating, I guess this is helped as this is the first Wilson in their range with the separate head which contains the tweeter and mid driver so helps with isolation but also gives you the ability to alter the angle of the head for the best time alignment for your seating position.

It’s been a long while since I have listened to a new speaker this much, I think I am addicted, the trouble is they just make me wonder how much better the next model is, the Alexia, time to start saving

We have these on demo in our Naim room on our 500 system at the moment so if you fancy coming in for a listen anytime please feel free.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/wilson-audio-sasha-series-2-speakers

On with the un-packing pictures which certainly isn’t a 5 minute job, oh yes before anyone says anything I’m still tweaking the position then I will take them of their castors  -

Obviously I’m working really hard taking all the important pictures whilst Wendy has all the fun

Sabrina’s looking on with interest

Now they are starting to get a bit of a inferiority complex

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

dCS Announce The Bartók DAC / Streamer / Headphone Amplifier!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick headsup that dCS have just announced a new product called Bartok that almost looks too good be true, basically it is a Dac based on their legendary Ring Dac technology, it is also a streamer supporting up to DSD 128, supports Tidal and MQA and also has an optional headphone section that can drive any headphone in either balanced or 6.3mm termination + you can add the new Rossini CD / SACD Transport + the external clock if you want to get the ultimate performance form the Bartok, as I said this really is quite a special product, especially at the price which in standard Dac mode comes in at £9,999 and with the headphone section £11,999, OK so not cheap but for the performance and features on offer you could almost call it a bargain 🙂

We have ordered our demo model so look forward to having a good listen soon.

Please find more info below and a few pictures -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/dcs-Bartok-dac

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

 

One more week to enter!

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who has entered our competition so far for passenger laps in our Radical SR1, it really has been a great response, shame everyone can’t come.

 

The original plan was to hold the draw today but as entries are still coming in I have decided to let it run for another week so the draw will now be held next Friday 31st, 1 week before the big day so please feel free to check back here then and it goes without saying that we will notify the lucky winner personally.

 

More information below if you haven't already seen the competition -

 

http://bit.ly/2vRwF0F

 

Thanks again,

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

[Vipers]

Naim NDX 2 Now On Demo!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quickie to say that the much anticipated Naim NDX 2 Network Player is now one demo, well I only un-boxed it a couple of hours ago so it is going to need some running in but already it is sounding really good.

This is due to be the popular streamer in the new range as it is much more affordable than the brilliant ND555 as the NDX 2 is priced at £4999 and can be run with it’s own internal power supply unlike the ND555, saying that I have tried our demo model quickly naked then added a XPS and the step up really isn’t subtle so I can see a lot of NDX 2′s ending up with an XPS or even a 555PS at some point.

If you have an NDX then I would say the new NDX 2 is definitely worth looking at as this new range really is a big step up in not just features but also sound quality, if you’d like to come in for a listen anytime please feel free.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/naim-ndx-2-network-player

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

And The Winner Is........

Hi All,

So we finally just got round to making the draw for one lucky person to win 5 laps around Donington Park in our Radical SR1 on my 50th Birthday, September 7th, firstly I’d like to thank everyone who entered, shame everyone couldn’t come along really.

We recruited Wendy’s Mum to make the draw, and the lucky winner is, cue drum roll - Mark Roughley

Well done Mark, look forward to seeing you at Donington on Friday, the weather is looking good so there will be plenty of grip for some nice fast laps

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

HFL Closed Till 18th September for Holiday!

Hi All,

Just a quick heads-up really to say that we will be closed until the 18th September for a holiday to celebrate my 50th birthday, here’s hoping life begins at 50

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

McIntosh MC275 Valve Amp Now On Demo, Happy Days 🙂

Hi Everyone,

So I must admit this demo product is a bit of an indulgence on my part as I have always promised myself that one day I will put a McIntosh MC275 on demo as for me it is such a beautiful looking classic amp, it is almost the amplifier version of a classic car as it was first introduced in 1961 and is now on it’s 6th iteration, amps really don’t get anymore iconic than this, so I am really pleased to say that at long last we now have the McIntosh MC275 on permanent demo.

Please find more info below and a few un-boxing pictures, if you’d like a demo anytime please let me know beforehand as it could be out on a home demo at the time, I won’t say whose home it might be though 😉

http://hifilounge.co.uk/mcintosh-mc275-amplifier

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

A Radical Day Out At Donington For Our Competition Winners

Hi Everyone,

A bit late with this one as it was a couple of weeks ago but just back from our hols so just got round to posting, just wanted to say thanks to our competition winners for coming along to Donington Park for 5 laps each round the full GP track, there were a lot of smiles once everyone got out the car, I think everyone was blown away by the braking power and cornering speed.

Thanks also to Tom for taking everyone round and for Darren at UPE Motorsport for helping run the day that went off without a hitch, well till the end of the day when the diff failed but at least everyone’s passenger laps were completed by then so it was good timing to be honest, also thanks to Ollie Read for taking the excellent photo’s of the day.

Finally thanks to Chord Electronics and PMC Speakers for helping support the day and great to meet the guys and girls from our new sponsors Hifi Pig, hopefully we can do it again next year

Please find a few pictures below from the day -

Playtime Over 😞

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Introducing the New Pioneer 4K Blu Ray Players, OPPO Who 😉

Hi Everyone,

So I was worried when OPPO pulled out of the market that we had lost the truly universal disc spinners but I needn’t have worried as Pioneer have stepped forward with 2 new models which look to fill the void and hopefully even improve on what OPPO achieved.

I have always loved Pioneer’s highend disc spinners, I remember when the BDP-LX-91 was released, long before HFL, I was at the front of the queue for one of those at home so I am really excited by these 2 new players, it is almost like we have gone full circle.

There will be 2 players in the range, the UDP-LX500 at £999 and the Reference UDP-LX800 which is the one I am most excited by, you can read more below about each model -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/pioneer-udp-lx500

http://hifilounge.co.uk/Pioneer-UDP-LX800

Both will be on demo shortly at HFL so if you’d like anymore information please feel free to get in touch.

Please find a few more pictures of the UDP-LX800 below -

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Stax SR-009S Earspeakers Now On Demo, The Wait Is Over!

Hi Everyone,

Well Christmas really has come early for me this year, as a Stax SR-009 user myself when Stax announced the new and supposedly improved SR-009S a few months ago I must admit I got a little excited, well the wait is finally over as our demo pair have just arrived, this will be a short blog as I can’t wait to compare these to the SR-009′s, it will be fascinating to see how Stax have improved what many consider to be the best headphone in the world.

Now then what energiser do I use? the Stax T8000 or the Trilogy H1, decision, decisions

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/stax/stax-sr-009s-electrostatic-earspeakers

Here’s a few unboxing pictures -

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Stax SR-009S 1st Listening Impressions, So SR-009 or SR-009S?

Hi Everyone,

So I was here last night till 10pm listening to the new Stax SR-009S’s, to be honest I could have stayed a lot longer but I got hungry

So the million dollar question, how do they compare to the Mighty SR-009? well firstly the new SR-009S’s are definitely a SR-009 Earspeaker if that makes sense, I had heard that the S was going to be a bit smoother and I thought it may be closer to the SR-007 but I am happy to say that you get all the detail, insight and separation that I love with the 009 so the S is basically a different flavour of 009, but is it better?

Well after lots of back and forth with both Earspeakers and also using the Stax T8000 and Trilogy H1 Energisers what I found was that the SR-009S is definitely more refined at the very top end and luckily not at the expense of any detail, also the overall presentation is definitely slightly fuller which is very noticeable with vocals, they just have a bit more texture and warmth making them sound more natural, when you go back to the SR-009 they sound a tad thinner, as for bass weight, there is a little more but nothing like the SR-L700’s but it is noticeable, but for me as the overall balance is a little weightier which really helps with the transients, you can hear everything stop and start better which seems to give more definition and separation which in turn seems to make the music flow better and more rhythmic, you just seem to get into the music a little more, well I did last night, once I put Radiohead on I just couldn’t take the SR-009S’s off

So if you’ve got SR-009’s should you upgrade to the SR-009S? Difficult really as these improvements are definitely noticeable, personally I would have to change now I know I prefer the SR-009S and will be listening to these going forward but all I can say really is that if you have SR-009’s I would definitely recommend coming in to spend a few hours with the SR-009S’s and see what you think as the improvements are there it is just if you think the cost to change is worth the step up you are getting.

Good job though Stax, for me you have just made the best headphones in the world even better which really is an amazing achievement.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/stax

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Donington Race Weekend Report!

Hi Everyone,

So a couple of weeks ago we raced at Donington Park, I have to say that is one of my favourite tracks so far, we actually had 3 days there so 2 days of testing which we shared with taking our competition winners out in the car and then qualy and race day, I went in to the event determined to throw caution to the wind and to try and make some real progress which I feel I did at the end of the 2 days of testing then we got to race day where it all went horribly wrong.

Basically the weather was pretty mixed, when full wet on the Thursday I tip toed round without any mistakes but on race day for Qualy we had a damp drying track which was interesting trying to find the grip but in the end I got pole in both races in my ‘Fangio’ Class which I was happy with, but that was the last time I was happy with anything for the rest of the weekend as for the first race we went out on dry tyres and the rain really started to come down and I actually spun 3 times on my out lap, more a lack of skill than anything to be honest, doh, that really took being a novice to a new level, once I settled into the groove though times weren’t too bad but the damage had been done but at least we finished the race which quite a few didn’t, then for race 2 I went out on wets as it had been raining a fair bit and although it had stopped I thought the track would be damp but in the end it was really dry so I made a bad choice there.

It was such a shame as I really felt we were going to have a good race day but in the end it was a real weekend of ups and downs, we found more speed in the dry but was rubbish in the wet and in this country racing in the wet is a skill that needs mastering, more experience learned I guess.

So there is only one race weekend left now, Brand Hatch in November, really can’t believe it is nearly all over, it is all still to play for though in the Fangio Trophy as we are 2nd just 9 points of the lead, here’s hoping for a dry race day

Fastest Lap of the Weekend which I was reasonably happy with -

A few pictures from the event.

Ah yeah and it fell on my 50th Birthday so maybe all the cake slowed me down

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Pioneer UDP-LX500 4K Blu Ray Player Now On Demo!

Hi Everyone,

This is just a quick heads up to say that we now have new Pioneer UDP-LX500 4K Blu Player on demo for anyone that would like to come and have a look, I got it up and running last night and had a quick look and it all worked as expected and gave a superb picture, not had time to test against the OPPO but as we can’t get those anymore for anyone that is looking to get  a new 4K player I would say these new Pioneers are a great option, they are certainly really well built and I have always loved Pioneers styling.

Really looking forward to getting my hands on the Audiophile version, the UDP-LX800 which is due later this month, quite a good time for home cinema at the moment as we have new projectors due from Sony soon and also JVC have finally entered the true 4K Projector market which actually upscales to 8K with their E-Shift technology so that will be interesting to compare against the Sony PJ’s which have been leading the way for some time now.

Anyway back to the Pioneer UDP-LX500

http://hifilounge.co.uk/pioneer-udp-lx500

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Chord Electronics Open Day With Special Guest Rob Watts - October 27th!

Hi Everyone,

I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular open day as Chord Electronics have got some great new products launching at the moment but we are also going to have Rob Watts on hand to run a couple of presentations and will also be floating around for the day to answer any questions you may have, for those who don’t know Rob, I can’t imagine there are many to be honest, well basically he is the designer behind Chord’s award winning Dac’s and Scalers, it could be argued that he is the guy pushing digital forward at the moment so it will be an amazing opportunity to hear from the man himself the work involved in creating these amazing Dac’s and what the magic is that really makes them so universally acclaimed and loved by so many, we will also have other representatives from Chord here to help run the day.

What’s on Demo?

So the idea for the day is that in our upstairs demo room we will be running Hugo TT 2, M Scaler and TToby, in the Naim room we will have Dave / Blu 2 feeding our Naim 500 System into the new PMC Fenestria Speakers to show that Chord’s Dac’s will work in any system then in the Highend Room we will have a full Chord Setup running with Dave at the heart again into a pair of Wilsons and finally in the Headphone part we will be showing if Hugo 2, Mojo and Poly and hopefully we can get another Hugo TT 2 to feed a Highend Stax System, it’s certainly going to be a busy day

Please see below for the full Chord Electronics range on our website -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/chord-electronics

Vinyl For Sale

To add a bit of variety to the day we will have Chris here, that many of you will now know, with his vinyl for sale, this is always very popular and will bound to be as busy as ever.

So there will be plenty to keep everyone entertained for the day and it is a great opportunity to hear the new Hugo TT2, M Scaler and Etude Amp along with other Chord goodies in a variety of different systems.

RSVP

Bearing in mind how popular Chord are and that we will have Rob Watts here I am expecting this open day to be one of our busiest so if you are planning to come along can you please send me a quick e-mail to the below so we know how many people to expect, thanks.

paul@hifilounge.co.uk

Many thanks and look forward to seeing everyone on October 27th for what promises to be a fun, and with Rob Watts here, a very educational day.

Regards,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Rega Announce the new Planar 8 Turntable!

Hi Everyone,

Some good news for all the vinyl lovers out there, Rega have just announced their new Planar 8 turntable which improves in every way over the previous RP8 which was one of our most popular turntable so this new Planar 8 is bound to be a big success.

There are a raft of improvements which you can read on our website in the link below but the main visual difference with the Planar 8 is that it doesn’t now come with the outer plinth which was only really there so that the lid could be used and it alwasy sounded better when this was removed, so now it comes as it’s bare skeletal design which in my opinion looks much better and you now get a lift on and off lid which is a very good idea.

I have ordered our demo model with the Apheta 2 cartridge fitted so as soon as it is with us I will upload some pictures.

Please find a link below and a few pictures from Rega -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-planar-8-turntable

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Introducing the New Devialet Reactor, The Best Things Really Do Come In Small Packages!

Hi Everyone,

So Devialet are always pushing the boundaries and todays announcement of the new Devialet Reactor is no different, think of this as a smaller Phantom but with all the same qualities that made the Phantom so popular but in a package that is 4 times smaller, it really does have to be seen and heard to really understand how impressive the new Reactor is.

I heard it a couple of months ago and was pretty gobsmacked to be honest, when you first see it you can’t help but think, ah that is cute, especially when standing next to it’s bigger brother but then you start playing some music and it really is hard to comprehend how such a big, powerful and full sound is coming from something so small, the Phantom is really impressive but the Reactor is almost more so due to the quality of the sound from such a small package, don’t get me wrong the Phantom still sounds better but when you think the Reactor starts at £990 then it really hits home how impressive this little wireless bluetooth speaker is that like Phantom can be run singular or in a stereo pair or even in a multi speaker setup through the house.

There are 2 in the Reactor range which will be added to our website very soon, please see below -

 

• Phantom REACTOR 600 • 95 dB SPL - 600W 
• Phantom REACTOR 600 • 95 dB SPL - 600W 
• Phantom REACTOR 600 • 95 dB SPL - 600W 

   

• Phantom REACTOR 900 • 98 db SPL - 900W

Devialet are using the saying “Unreasonable Sound’ to promote the Reactor and I think that really does sum it up perfectly, we will have both models on demo shortly so please feel free to get in touch to discuss in more detail.

Please find a video and some pictures below -

Cheers,
Paul.

 

[Vipers]

Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 Now On Demo!

Hi Everyone,

I know there has been a lot of people looking forward to the Hugo TT 2 so it is great news that we now have our demo one in store and up and running, I run a Hugo TT at home so really looking forward to trying the TT 2 myself as I can see one ending up in my system asap.

The M Scaler is due any day now also, again really looking forward to trying this as although I know how well it works with the Blu 2 and Dave it really be really interesting to try it paired with the Hugo TT 2 as it makes such a neat solution.

Trade In

So far we have had a lot of people upgrade from their Hugo TT to to TT 2, if this may be of any interest please feel free to get in touch to discuss the options.

Chord Open Day - October 27th

Finally don’t forget our Chord Electronics open day on October 27th where Rob Watts himself will be on hand to discuss the all things DAC’s and Scalers, we have had a lot of people register so far so as I though it is going to be a very popular day More info below -

http://bit.ly/2zSYY20

Right, I have just hooked up the Hugo TT 2 to the Stax T8000 / SR-009S system so time to go and have a good listen.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/chord-hugo-tt-2

Playtime, I can see this being a late night at the office

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

The New PMC Finestria Speakers Now On Demo - Utterly Incredible!

Hi Everyone,

A lot of you already know that HiFi Lounge forming is directly connected to PMC, for those who don’t know the story basically myself and Wendy attended a PMC open day around 10 years ago where we heard the mighty BB5 XBD’s, we were so blown away we bought a pair of MB2i’s for home, as we couldn’t fit the BB5’s in our living room, I absolutely loved those speakers and that moment inspired us to sell our house and to attempt to become a HiFi dealer and to set up HFL, so bearing that in mind I am so honoured to now have the first pair of PMC’s epic new Fenestria Speakers on Demo in the UK and one of the first in the world, it really does feel like we have come full circle from that first experience of PMC all those years ago.

These have now been installed with the help of PMC and although they are a pretty big and heavy speaker they actually come in several smaller boxes which makes handling and installing them not too difficult at all really, good thinking PMC, you will be able to see from the pictures below.

So most importantly how do they sound? well funnily enough until we installed them I hadn’t even seen or heard a pair but my faith in PMC didn’t let me down, I stayed here till 10pm last night listening to a real variety of music from the Carpenters, Bowie, Yello, Muse through to Rammstein and all I can really say is that PMC have created a truly incredible speaker that reveals so much and really pulls you into the music, the mid range which sits in it’s own “nest’ to give it the best performance possible is like nothing I have heard before, vocal’s just hover in mid air in front of you with such a lifelike presentation and the depths the bass go to really did test our demo room which was pretty awesome

There are an amazing amount of firsts in these speakers that I won’t go into now, I’ll let PMC cover those in our open day hopefully next month but the most important aspect for me is that I really didn’t want to go home last night as I just wanted to listen to my entire music collection again so I just wanted to say a huge congratulations to everyone at PMC involved in developing the Fenestria, it may have taken 5 years but the end result is completely captivating.

At £45,000 they are certainly not going to be for everyone but if you could consider a pair of Fenestria’s I urge you to just come along and have a listen as I am sure once you have fallen under their spell you will be figuring out which organ to sell to have a pair in your life, I can see I will certainly be having many late nights here from now on, sorry Wendy.

We will be announcing details of our Fenestria open day shortly so please watch this space, please see below for a selection of pictures of the installation of the Fenestria into our Naim room, I did get quite carried away so there are quite a few, sorry

http://hifilounge.co.uk/pmc-fact-fenestria-speakers

Serious Packaging!

Decided to unbox them at PMC as easier to transport out of the crates.

They made it safely all the 2 miles from PMC HQ!

Goodies Box!

Now this is what you call a crossover which sits in the Fenestria’s base!

The top part twists and locks into to place with the help of this template!

Thanks to Tom and Keith from PMC for helping with the install.

Starting to look like a speaker now.

Here is the ‘Nest’ which holds the Mid and Treble Units, beautiful piece of Engineering in itself.

Tom and Keith Carefully installing the Nest section.

Next up is to attach the Planar Wings, what a gorgeous finish.

There we go, one Fenestria installed, do it all over again and we can have a listen.

Ta Dah, here is the other one, actually not too difficult to assemble at all, definitely a 2 person job though.

Fine Tuned by Peter Thomas himself, how cool is that :)

I’m busy running these in daily now so if your are passing and would like a listen please feel free to pop in anytime.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

Fenestria Update, 1 week later!

Hi All,

A week in and a lot of listening hours later I thought I would just do a little follow up to my thoughts on the PMC Fenestria’s, the good news is that they are still amazing, more so now that they are starting to run in and free up, to get a different flavour of them as I have been running them on our Naim 500 System,  I installed a pair of Bryston 7B3 600 watt Mono Blocks fed by Chord Electronics Dave with Blu II and the top of the range Melco, it definitely is a very different sound to Naim and I can see people preferring one or the other as both are excellent, all it has made me wonder though is what would a Naim Statement or a pair of Bryston 28B3 sound like on the Fenestria’s

As they have run in the sound is becoming more open and the depths the bass go down to now is really incredible, I have to say I have become totally addicted to these speakers, I know it is the biggest cliche in the book but I really am hearing things in recordings I have not heard before, the other evening I had to re-wind 2 tracks to listen to parts of them again to make sure what I heard was in the recording and not outside and it was the speakers revealing more information, incredible. Another thing I would say these speakers excel at is playing poor recordings well, it is easy for a speaker to shine with a well recoded track but unfortunately recordings vary massively but somehow even below par recordings are very listenable on the Fenestria so not sure how PMC achieved this with such a revealing speaker, good job guys.

There is one major problem though, Wendy has become a Fenestria widow, as once my day finishes in the shop I go into our Naim room for a quick listen and I then get the classic case of ‘Just one more song’ syndrome and before I know it I check the time and it is 10pm and I have to pull myself away as I need food and sleep, it is great though as it hasn’t been since I had my original MB2′s that I have experienced this, OK duly part to the last 6 years getting this place up and running but it really is great that the Fenestria has re-ignited my passion to actually stop and listen to music again, thanks PMC

If you are passing please feel free to pop in for a listen anytime, well to be fair if you do come in I won’t let you leave until you have had a quick listen

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

New Sony VPL-VW570ES Projector Now On Demo!

Hi Everyone,

This is just a quick heads-up that we now have the new Sony VPL-VW570ES native 4K projector on demo, priced at £7999 this sits below the brilliant VW760ES Laser projector which we also have on permanent demo.

For me Sony stole the march on JVC for projection over the last few years but at long last JVC have upped their game and now offer a range of Native 4K projectors to compete directly with Sony so as soon as available I will be putting the JVC DLA-N7 on demo which competes with the VW570ES so it will be fascinating to see how they compare, watch this space

Please find both new ranges from Sony and JVC below -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/sony-4k-projectors

http://hifilounge.co.uk/jvc-projectors

If you love your films please feel free to pop in anytime to see how good a home projection system can look in our fully equipped Atmos demo room, you won’t need to go to the cinema ever again

Cheers,
Paul.

[Vipers]

Fyne Audio Speakers Now On Demo!

Hi Everyone,

So I think it is fair to say that I do like my speakers as we do have a fair collection of different brands here at HFL but if I am totally honest I have never found a brand that I feel happy to offer our customer’s at the cheaper end of the spectrum as really we don’t really get going to around the £2000 mark which I have always known is a bit steep for a lot of people but if we are going to bring a brand on at HFL then I really do have to believe in it myself.

Enter Fyne Audio whose speakers start at £179 unbelievably, well funnily enough when I was contacted to see if I fancied a listen to one of this new brands speakers I wasn’t overly enthused as I thought we had enough speaker brands and I really needed another one like a hole in the head but I had heard good things about them through the grapevine so my appetite was wetted a little but in all honesty in my mind I was ready to politely decline bringing on another speaker brand, well that was until I heard them

I was with a customer so Dave, the Fyne Audio representative, set up a pair of the brands F501 small floorstanders priced at £1199 with the Rega Elex-R amp using a BlueSound Node 2 into a Chord Qutest, once ready I sat down thinking of excuses to decline bringing on Fyne Audio but then from the first couple of minutes of Bozz Scaggs ‘Thanks To You’ I knew we had something interesting here, in the end I sat there for an hour trying song after song and they never failed to impress, I just kept shaking my head in disbelief that this was a £1199 speaker, how they do it for the money I have no idea as they are really well made, have some really interesting technology in but most importantly are very musical.

It is pretty easy to get blown away with a mega bucks speaker but I would say that it is arguably more impressive for a speaker to really impress at this level so needless to say that I signed on the dotted line there and then and before I knew it we had another speaker brand on our portfolio but the great news is that we now really can cater for most music lovers regardless of budget as we can now put a system together for under £1000 which was impossible before Fyne Audio came on board.

Fyne Audio are a Scottish based company made up of several people who have over 200 years of experience in the HiFi game between them so they certainly know their stuff, other exciting Fyne news is that they are starting with their F300 entry level Series but also have plans for a F1 Series which goes up to £24,999 with other ranges in between so although they are a new company I would say they are definitely a company to keep an eye on as they have got off to a cracking start and have already won a few awards so I can’t wait to hear some of their higher end models.

Please find the Fyne Audio range of products announced so far below, at the moment we have the F501 on demo with the F500 and F502 to follow shortly so if you’d like a listen please feel free to get in touch to arrange a demo -

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

Cheers,

Paul.

[Vipers]

How To Drive Speakers With The Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 DAC + Open Day Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I want to thank everyone that came to our Chord Electronics open day on Saturday, I would say it was one of our best yet with a brilliant turn out and getting a chance to sit and listen to one of Rob Watts presentations was incredible, feel really honoured that he made the time to visit HiFi Lounge really especially as we are such fans of his work, to be fair the presentations were quite technical but everyone that attended had nothing but praise for what Rob had to say and most of us actually understood a fair chunk of it which is even more incredible

A couple of things that I took away from spending some time with Rob was that all his years of work on his products is quite simply all about getting that emotional connection with the music, also he is a big classical listener and uses mostly classical music to listen to and test his products which I found interesting as obviously they work brilliantly across all genres, and finally what I found interesting was that Rob is extremely happy with how the new M Scaler turned out, apparently when he started development he had no idea how much of a game changer it would be and how much performance it unlocks from his already brilliant Dac’s, funnily enough he likes it so much he takes it on planes when travelling the world with a portable power supply to use as his portable system, brilliant

He was adamant though that the addition of the M Scaler to a system is a real game changing product and as I know it well what with using it in our demo Blu 2 for a few months I have to agree 100% as did a lot of people who attended the open day. A question I get asked a lot is what is better, a DAVE or Hugo TT2 and M Scaler as both are similar prices, Rob didn’t hesitate when asked this as he would want the M Scaler every time so would go with the later but obviously the ultimate is DAVE with the M Scaler.

So thanks again to everyone that came along and made it such a great day, thanks also to Maurice from Chord for his help and Chris and Dawn for bringing along a great selection of vinyl for sale which proved as popular as ever.

Please find a few pictures from the day below -

It really was standing room only for Rob’s presentations, the room got a lot busier than this and we had to close the doors as the room was really rammed.

How To Drive Speakers From the Hugo TT 2

For todays lesson we are going to discuss how to drive speakers directly from the new and brilliant Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 yes that is right, you can drive speakers directly from a DAC, this is a new one on me so I just thought I would mention it just incase not everyone knew as this makes a very simple system if you just want to stay digital.

So basically all you need is a Hugo TT 2, a digital source, speakers and cables, to test this I got Atlas Cables to make up speaker cables with XLR at one end and a Banana at the other as the below then I just hooked up the new Melco N100 server to the TT2 and made sure to set the TT2 to amp mode so not to blow the speakers, then set the TT 2 to high gain to get more volume, I then hooked up a pair of PMC Twenty5.24′s and we were ready to test, not really knowing what to expect, well all I can say is amazing as I was able to play the 25.24′s really loud with volume to spare so it is definitely an option to consider if you want a highend but compact system which on the face of it will drive quite a variety of speakers, again another innovative design from Chord and even better you can also put the M Scaler on it to take it to another level

If you’d ever like to try this as a system please feel free to get in touch to arrange a demo.

http://hifilounge.co.uk/chord-electronics

Cheers,
Paul.