One of the more positive aspects of Facebook is that it flags up posts you’ve made five, ten or whatever years ago. The other day it reminded us at that it’s ten years since we started some tentative indoor demolition in our recently acquired church in Trimley. The initial step was to dismantle the Altar.

We spotted that St Cecilia’s Church was on the market hard on the heels of spending a lot of money on a survey of a crumbling listed building in Stowmarket. The issues that put us off the Stowmarket site were considerable and, with hindsight, pretty damned obvious. The relatively crisp and modern property in Trimley was a far simpler affair with a structure that was easy for us to assess. We didn’t even bother with the survey! On top of that, St Cecilia’s has it’s own car park.

We made an offer at the full asking price only to discover that we were far from alone in wanting it. The sale ended up going to sealed bids and the nail-biting wait for a decision was followed by the fun and games of proving to the Council that Trimley didn’t really need Saint Cecilia’s as a public building and that it could become a HiFi shop.

Then came the job of getting the building suitably updated. Our opening day was May 4th 2017 and business has been on a gentle upward trajectory ever since. Mind you, courtesy of world events, April and May this year did see something of a levelling off.

Historically, we had been holding our irregular Audio Show East events at Trinity Park. The wooden lining and high central apex reminded us of that fine venue and we’ve increasingly tended to put on smaller but more frequent events in Trimley.

The most memorable one was in March 2025 when Dynaudio made it possible for us to offer an evening with ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris. Bearing in mind how ill Bob is at the moment and that he’s stepped away from broadcasting, we really would like to register our thanks and admiration. He really is a thoroughly fine chap and his first hand anecdotes were a joy to hear.

We had him on site from mid afternoon for Dynaudio to take photographs and to film an interview that was merged with reaction shots from the audience later on. For those who’ve managed to miss it, the final version is on Youtube.  So that we could announce him and have him enter the ‘arena’ on cue, he was bundled away in the back demo room from whence he emerged clutching some records that he had spotted. He might not have a ‘stage voice’ but he proved that, if you’re interesting enough, people will simply focus and listen intently.

Get well soon, Bob, you’re a National Treasure.

Anyway, enough reminiscing, time for the promised drizzle of news . . .

Chord’s new Quartet M Scaler breaks cover

Chord’s new two box Quartet is the incredibly long-awaited ‘next level’ digital scaler above the widely appreciated M Scaler. Could we hear what it does? Yes, we most certainly could.

It inhabits this strange place in the world where it can be both exceedingly subtle and transformative at the same time. It does what the M Scaler does, but quite a lot better. We used an Innuos Stream 3 as a source into our trusty Dave DAC, running this through our Naim Statement pre/power and Dynaudio Confidence 60’s.

Our preference was to use a high end Audiomica USB cable between the Stream 3 and Quartet with twin coaxial feeds running from Quartet to Dave.

Spacial cues were much improved, there was a sense of there being quite a lot more information coming through too, but it was the improved realism given to voices and instruments  that really stood out. I’m embarrassed to have played it but ‘Keith Don’t Go’ has never sounded this good before. 🙂

Negatives? That £25k asking price made us want to consider this just a little more deeply before plunging in! It’s hard to know how many, indeed if any, of our Chord Dave owning customers would be willing to push the upgrade investment that far.

For those who can stomach the cost, there is no question that it achieves greatness.

Poor Russell Kauffman has been through the mill over the past few years. Along with several other manufacturers, he was greatly affected when his UK cabinet maker suddenly decided not to build for other loudspeaker companies. Add in some serious illness, now thankfully behind him, the fact that his second cabinet maker promptly went bust and you can imagine the levels of stress he’s been under.

Still getting his cabinets manufactured in Sussex, he is now part of the team that are running the new cabinet making business. We’ve just received our first samples from the new regime and are pleased to report that quality really is top tier.

For now, we are sticking to the Red 50 stand-mount and Red 120 floor-standing models. It’s not just the (excellent) finish and build quality. Sonically, they are a fair way ahead too. If you read this link you’ll get a good idea of his thinking.

New Dynaudio Confidence i

Shown at the recent Vienna High End show, Dynaudio have released details of their forthcoming ‘i’ version of the Confidence series. Despite them looking remarkably similar to before, the changes will run quite deep.

From the top, there is a revised Esotar 3i tweeter and re-profiled waveguides. The new tweeter uses a new type of ferrofluid, something they’ve chosen not to use in the past. It goes rather lower in the frequency spectrum and can handle a lot more power.

The bass / mid drivers receive some adjustments in line with their new requirements and the cross-over is a fundamental re-design, one that Dynaudio are patenting. All capacitors are sourced from Duelund and Dynaudio are assisting this small Danish manufacturer reach the capacity to make their products in the anticipated numbers.

Finishes are simplified to Space (black gloss), Ruby (high gloss red stained veneer) and Blonde natural pale wood with a limed appearance. Apparently the veneer is actually Apricot wood.

These new models will arrive over the end of this year and into the start of next. Bearing in mind that Confidence prices have been static since launch, a sizeable increase is anticipated.

Super dooper CD replay

Our recent Accuphase open day proved one useful thing. The new DP-570S might be a step up on the old 570 but it still does not challenge the DP-770. The upshot is that we have the odd used DP-570 to sell, such as the one above. Click on the image to read more.

Going, going . . .

Sad to report that Mick has decided to take early retirement and is leaving us. We knew he was rather frustrated with his role and a heart to heart conversation reached a surprise conclusion.

We wish him a long and happy retirement and thanks for all he has done. We remain in touch and everything remains perfectly amicable, in case you’re wondering.

. . . and finally

Super marketeers Vertere Acoustics shot a Facebook / Instagram reel here yesterday. Click the above image to see it.