Products

Grandezza Reference Tone-arm

Manufactured to the highest standards in Switzerland, this tone-arm has several unique features setting it aside from many other, perhaps more famous, tone-arms. The gimbal bearings utilise jewel rubies resulting in one of the most free tone arms we have encountered. The anti-skate mechanism is based on magnets and is therefore non- mechanical in its operation. Without such additional friction, the free nature of the bearings is uninhibited in operation resulting in its superb tracking abilities. The arm and its mountings are manufactured from a mixture of cast bronze, ebony and stainless steel. Not only do these materials possess low resonances in themselves, they are assembled in such a way that unwanted vibrations from the cartridge are quickly removed down clear energy paths and dumped into the turntable chassis. The internal wiring is DaVinci own proprietary manufacture featuring ultra pure copper and a polymer compound insulation. The result is a tone-arm which allows the cartridge to track to its best abilities extracting the finest details and, because of its own low colourations, does not alter the nature of the recording. One of the best, and most neutral, tone-arms we have come across in many years.

Products on Demonstration

10 and 12 inch arms from £5995.00

All come with DaVinci mount. Stainless steel SME mounting plate available to order. Rhodium plated versions to order.

For mounting a 10 inch arm on an SME Model 10 or Model 20 a special bronze adapter is required at a cost of £250.00

Mounting plates for other turntables by quotation.

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

DaVinciAudio Laboratories website    Return to top of page

Nottingham Analogue is British company manufacturing a wide range of turntables, all built to last. The company offers lifetime guarantees on all its components. Their combination of carefully chosen, different materials, results in a unique method of damping excess energy. A natural tonal balance and good timing is the result. Their tonearms are constructed as a carbon/aluminium composite and all have undamped uni-pivot bearings. For those that prefer gimbal bearings, an adaptor to fit SME tonearms is available to order.We have found the Spacedeck and the Hyperspace to be the most popular although others from their range can be obtained to order.

Products on Demonstration

Spacedeck with 9" Ace Space Arm £1730 (pictured)

Ace Spacedeck with 9" Ace Space arm £1910

Heavy Duty Upgrade Platter kits from £450

SME tonearm adaptors to order.

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

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SME have been manufacturing exemplary tonearms for many years. More recently, they have manufactured three turntables acknowledged to be amongst the best in the world at their respective price points. Very sophisticated designs, not necessarily apparent on first appearance, which channel all the unwanted vibrational energy away from the cartridge. This results in a very low noise floor producing a very quiet background to the music, enabling low level detail to be more easily perceived. Incredibly neutral in tone, very accurate in imaging within a large soundstage, these turntables just do not get in the way of the music.

All of our demonstration turntables now have the new improved power supplies.

Products on Demonstration

Model 10 £3037.47 (pictured top)

Model 20/2 £4832.78 (pictured bottom)

Model 30/2 £13373.82

Tonearms

Series M2-9 £717.33

Series IV silver £1464.79

Series V black £2136.74

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

SME Ltd website    Return to top of page

This respected Swiss company has been making cartridges for many years and also supplies parts to other cartridge companies. Their sound is very natural, slightly warm tonal balance with a large soundstage. Cartridge loading requirements are 500 ohms or higher and they are comfortable into 47kOhms.

Products on Demonstration

ACE medium output 0.8mV £435

Glider medium output 0.8mV £675

Reference output 0.35mV £1075

Ruby Open Air output 0.35mV £1550

LP with ebony body output 0.28mV £1950 (pictured)

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

Benz-Micro website    Return to top of page

A well established Japanese manufacturer (assembled and tested by Yoshinori Mishima) and sound engineered by Jonathan Carr. Excellent transparency and all are capable of large soundstages. A neutral to warm tonal balance with good bass response. Cartridge loading optimally around 1000 Ohms but comfortable into higher or lower values.

We now have on permanent demonstration the new Skala cartridge (pictured) - probably the best Lyra sound we have heard.

"The Skala combined the tonal neutrality, musical flow and smoothness of the ZYK with the Helikon's tonal neutrality and transient precision." Michael Fremer, Stereophile March 2007

Products on Demonstration

Dorian output 0.55mV £595

Argo i output 0.45mV £895

Helikon output 0.5mV £1295

Helikon SL output 0.22mV £1449

Skala output 0.5mV £1995

Mono version of certain models available ; please call for prices.

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

Lyra website    Return to top of page

This Japanese company makes cartridges which are amongst the most musical we know. They are very transparent allowing fine detail to be resolved with ease. A large soundstage, particularly front to back, and accurate focus of images. Tonally very accurate, with no exaggerated sense of scale so that instruments are reproduced at their “correct” size. Optimal loading 100 Ohms.

Products on Demonstration

Axia output 0.36 £1185

Phoenix output 0.40mV £1785

Orpheus output 0.48mV £3335 (pictured)

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

Transfiguration web site    Return to top of page

A good phono cable will complete the important connection between two of the most important parts of a high quality vinyl replay system – the cartridge and the phono pre-amplifier. It is essential to get this part right as the investment made in the cartridge, particularly the sound-stage and tonal balance, will have been wasted.

We have chosen three cables that offer particularly good value for money and these are available for home evaluation. There are others at higher prices that we could recommend if the budget permits; please call for more information if this is of interest.

Products on Demonstration

Cardas Golden Presence - DIN/RCA – 1.25m £480.00 (pictured top)
Furutech Reference AG-12 - DIN/RCA – 1.2m £435.00 (pictured middle)
MIT Studio Phono - DIN/RCA – 1.0m £539.00 (pictured bottom)

VPS Phono Pre-amplifier

The long awaited, separate phono pre-amplifier from Nagra is finally here. And superb it is too. From the very first track of your favourite LP, it is immediately apparent just how musical it is. Based on the highly regarded design in their PLP pre-amplifier, this valve phono stage is extremely transparent, produces very large sound-stages, precise imaging and is tonally extremely correct. Smooth, liquid sound with no hint of grain and none of the usual bloom that can colour other valve based designs. Most importantly for a valve based deisgn, it is very quiet. The VPS will also enable discerning audiophiles the opportunity to have a little of the famous Nagra sound within other quality vinyl replay systems. The company is well known for its philosophy of ignoring any compromise on quality.

Powered by a separate, 12 volt DC supply, it has very low background noise levels which allow the finest details to be resolved.

External switching allows two differnt gain settings. Load impedance (for MC cartridges) and capacitance alterations (for MM cartridges) are easily done by plug-in minature boards to suit cartridge loading and tone-arm cable requirements. Internal switching allows the selection of two RIAA curves; one for 1950s produced LPs and one for 1970s onwards LPs.

Build quality is to the usual, very high Nagra standard and is in a similar size chassis to their pre-amplifiers and CD players. There are factory options to allow for two separate inputs for those who have two tone-arms with two different cartridges. Separate modules are available to allow for these additonal inputs boards to be retro-fitted by the dealer or the user.

Products on Demonstration

Nagra VPS phono pre-amplifier with single MC/MM input £4250 (pictured)

Additional MC phono input £1150

Additional MM phono input £425

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

These prices reflect the value of the pound. These may change according to currency fluctuations.

Nagra website    Return to top of page

A new British company, who are thinking outside the box, offering a different design philosophy to those in the more commonly available alternatives. The designer, James Henriot is a musician and has a recording engineering background, has come up with an excellent sounding phono stage. It also extends the RIAA correction up to 35kHz where many modern moving coil cartridges can resolve information. This results in an increased soundstage, very accurate imaging and excellent resolution of detail.

We have both the whestTWO and the PS.30R phono stages on permanent demonstration. This whestTWO is a small chassis item with sperate power supply wherese the PS.30R is a single, full size chassis, with six options on cartridge loading. An early audition is highly recommended.

We are now demonstrating the superb PS.30RDT. A remarkable upgrade over the PS.30R offering a wonderful sound for the asking price.

Products on Demonstration

WhestTWO £750 including all cables (pictured top)

Whest PS.30R £1799 including all cables (pictured bottom)

Whest PS.30RDT £2799

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

Whest Audio website    Return to top of page

Record Weight

This device may look like many others but the effect on the sound of the turntable is very different. This record weight will fit over the spindle of almost all turntables and is to be used in place of those supplied with clamps. It places the Harmonic Resolution System (HRS) proprietary polymer compound in intimate contact with the LP over the label area. This polymer compound absorbs the vibrational energy generated by the stylus reading the LP groove or the structure borne energy that is transmitted through the chassis and from the platter bearing. Removing these resonances, the sound from the LP is far more natural, less distorted especially at the higher frequencies, and much more transparent. Soundstages become deeper because the finest details that resolve the space of the recording venue are more apparent and image focus is more precise. Our customers say that once they play their vinyl systems with this record weight, they cannot listen to their LPs without using it.
Please note this is not a threaded clamp so it will not flatten a warped record. However, even when used with warped LPs the sonic benefit is still apparent.

We have trial samples available for home evaluation. Please phone for details.

Products on Demonstration

ADL Analogue Disc weight £190 (pictured) NEW LOWER PRICE

Other products could be available. Please ring for details.

Harmonic Resolution Systems website    Return to top of page

This company offers excellent service and advice for customers requiring new audiophile LPs. Mainly suppliers of good rock and the better end of popular music but also some jazz and classical. Contact Paul Hawkins at Diverse Vinyl on 01633 259661.

Diverse Vinyl website    Return to top of page

For an excellent source of second-hand classical LPs and realistic prices visit Spiral Classics. Sophia Singer's listing is very easy to navigate and her grading system is excellent and accurate. She is also very knowledgeable and helpful with enquiries. Buy with confidence.

Spiral Classics website    Return to top of page