May the fourth : we had our day

Astonishingly, a significant number of souls came along. Admittedly we maxed out on bookings for the morning but were a little less full in the afternoon. With no sales agenda, this was just an opportunity to meet up with friends / customers and for them to chat with other like minded individuals. It seemed to go really well and would have run well into the evening had we not started tidying up, using the vacuum cleaner, switching lights off, you know, giving the usual subtle hints!

With hindsight, we should have called it the seven year itch event. On that basis, the next one will be in 2031 🙂

Thanks to all who came along. It really was great to see the place busy and full of chatter. We even played some music too.

Massive congratulations to Ipswich and all who support them on the cracking result that now sees them back in the Premier league.

New from ARCAM

With three new integrated amplifiers, a sensibly priced CD player and a fairly well featured music streamer, the whole range is extremely competitive in terms of sound quality and sits at the top of the tree for the various price points. The streamer will, we are assured, receive some software updates but even as it stands it’s more a little clunky than terminally unusable.

It handles locally saved music in all the usual formats from your favoured server / storer, Tidal and Spotify Connect and Qobuz too. Unusually there is also access to Amazon music.

The amplifiers have in-built DACs, an excellent moving magnet phono stage and bluetooth audio inputs and outputs. This is a feature we’ve only seen on the seriously budget WiiM amplifier and it means that your Focal Bathys headphones can connect directly for proper wireless listening.

Fun fact: the Arcam amps sound better driving the new concrete Rega Aya loudspeakers than Rega’s own electronics do.

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As a follow-up to the now sold out Heritage stand-mount loudspeaker, there is another limited edition ‘retro’ design, this time visually similar to the Contour 1.8 from around 20 years ago. Called Contour Legacy, these should start to become available around September / October this year. Price is going to be £10200 and by all accounts they are both agreeably compact and sound utterly stunning with masses of Confidence grade content.

Orders can be placed. We’ve pitched in for a reasonable number of them but, with the production run restricted to a bafflingly small 1000 pairs against 2500 last time, these are unlikely to hang around for long.

Top right there is the familiar sight of the Confidence 20 stand-mount but this is the 20A fully active with the electronics tucked away in the pillar stand. We look forward to having a play with these once they are available. Pricing is in the region of £20k / pair.

Bottom right is “The Bookshelf”, a joint project between Dynaudio, Keiji Ashizawa Design of Tokyo and Karimoku of Japan. The collaboration explores the aesthetic relationship Denmark has with Japan (you might know it as ‘Japandi’ design, from ‘Japan’ + ‘Scandi’). Both countries share traditions in soft minimalism, respect for honest materials and care when it comes to hand-crafted pieces.

These utilise the Confidence 20 drivers in a cabinet made from Japanese oak that’s been sourced sustainably from the beautiful Hokkaido prefecture in the north of the country. The wood is dried and prepared for between three and six months at Karimoku’s facility near Nagoya, before being carefully cut, constructed and finished at the company’s factory in Gifu. The design is tactile and organic (just try to resist running your fingers along the bevelled ridge surrounding the top and sides), and the optional stand has been created to make the whole ensemble sit right at home in a high-end minimalist living-room. I bet you can spot cut and paste a mile off!

These appear to break quite a few cardinal design rules and only a very small quantity is expected to hit the shelves every year. Price? Well, let’s just say if you have to ask . . .

Finally, gloomy shot bottom left, Contour 20 Black Edition is a super-premium version of the award winning Contour 20i. Its tweeter has been upgraded from the already-stellar Esotar 2i to a full-on Esotar 3, also found in the Heritage Collection and the top-of-the-tree Confidence range. It has improved motor and spider designs, and its crossover has been given a full makeover.

Everything from resistors and capacitors to internal cabling and even wire coils has been given a boost. Contour 20 Black Edition will be available in a mirror-like Black High Gloss finish, which nicely complements the black anodised baffle and the new black powder-coated tweeter front-plate and mid/bass-driver basket. Arrival looks like being late summer but we have a pair ordered.

Naim bundle offer

We have the combo on demonstration, so why not come and audition!

The body resembles the current Rega Moving coil models. ND5 and ND7 are to follow but we should have example of ND3 next week. It will be available as a factory fitted option on both Planar 2 and Planar 3 in due course.

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