Most of you are already aware of how dedicated to Tom Evans Audio Design (TEAD) products we are. In fact, it's no small coincidence that both myself and Doug have TEAD Eikos CD players.

It's also well known that the Groove family of phono stages are pretty much the measuring posts for the ultimate playback of the black stuff.

Many of you will not however, be aware of just how phenomenal the Vibe pre-amplifier is. It would also seem that almost no-one, including the Australian reviewers of their best read high end magazine "Hub" were prepared for the measurement they would get when they tested the Vibe on site. They were, to put it mildly, suitably impressed with figures that no other product at any price had ever come close to. So good were these in fact, that they had to invent a new way of testing things like channel balance and signal to noise ratios, because the Vibe was so quite that their own measuring equipment made more noise than the item they were testing.

For the full review press "here"

For the test sheet along with their astonishing findings, press below to get the PDF of their results.

If ever you wanted the finest pre-amp that money could buy, then book an appointment with us to try this incredible piece of kit.






Tom-Evans-The-Vibe-Datasheet

Synthesis, always one of our very favourite Hi-Fi brands, has just begun shipping a new CD player and Integrated Amplifier. The Magnum Amplifiers are transistor and come in 50 and 100 watt guises, and we are pleased to welcome the Magnus CD Player.

They both look very classy when we first took them out of the boxes, the front in particular has a graceful curve across its length, and the wood finish is nicely understated. On the back of the CD is the usual fare, a pair of gold plated single ended phono sockets for left and right audio, a single gold plated coaxial digital socket and finally an IEC socket for mains. The amplifier has four gold plated se line inputs plus a record out and also, rather unexpectedly, a pre out. Even more unexpected is a front 3.5mm jack input for an iPod or other MP3 widget. We're pretty impressed with these inputs not to mention the Remote control volume, which is used from the same remote that works the CD Player. The volume itself is a large dial which feels very nicely weighted when you turn it. The inputs are selected by a small row of push buttons. All in all a well finished product.

The remote is the standard Synthesis system remote, which is also unexpected given this systems lower than usual price.

Plugged in for the first time the first thing of note is the display. It features an extremely attractive blue background with large, easily readable figures (a frequently complaint of ours is that you can't read a display unless your right on top of it - and no, I don't need glasses.....well all right, I do, but that's not the point).

The next thing that we notice is that when you turn on the CD the display reads "heating". This only last for 30 seconds but it's enough to send us scurrying for the hand book to check and, yes, unbelievably it's got a valve output buffer stage.

Now we're really excited. We set it up into our system with it's matching Magnum 100 watt amplifier and Synthesis Debut speakers and try the first track - naturally I've got to try my Mindy Smith album "One moment more". Anyone who's been in the shop in the last four years will know it's one of my absolute favourites.

Vocals are well presented, it's also beautifully detailed with an airy open feel. There's also a real smoothness about it - I don't mean a boring laid back presentation, but a fluid sound. We switch discs to the rather more busy sound of 10CC's "How Dare You". There's lots of space here, the first track on this album has a great deal of different things going on, and they are nicely placed with no struggle to differentiate between the various pieces. When the bass comes in it's reasonably full and controlled, not what you would refer to as bone crunching, but we're not in that price category here so that's certainly no complaint. Finally we try our Telarc disc of the Fantastic Stokowski. In particular we play Bach's "Little Fugue" in G minor. At three minutes and forty Eight seconds it's around three minutes of beautiful violins followed by the best forty eight seconds of growling rumbling kettle drums. The Synthesis manages it with aplomb.

Quite frankly at a thousand pounds each we would be struggling to find anything wrong with this dynamic duo, except they are not a thousand pounds each. They are in fact less than thirteen hundred pounds for the pair. Which seems to us to be outrageously good value.

Only time will tell, but it looks like Synthesis has taken the fight straight back to the Chinese and beaten them at their own game.

Long may they continue.

We're trying out a new Valve integrated amplifier from Ayon Audio at the moment from Scandinavia. Perhaps not the first place that springs to mind as an audiophile capital of the World, but the Worlds an ever changing place as you know.

It certainly looks good with it's chrome transformer covers and fine brushed aluminium shell.

It also sound very nice indeed. Rather unusually it has a switch to enable you to choose between Pentode or Triode operation mode. It also has tappings on the back for four or eight ohm speakers to enable you to suit it to your speakers better.

It even comes with a nice remote control. It's in the window at the moment, so if your passing by, pop over and look in at it.

After just a pultry 30 years in production the near legendary Sugden pure class 'A' A21a integrated amplifier has been upgraded.

Now converts to what is without a doubt one of the Hi-Fi industries best kept audio secrets might look on in shock and horror. "Don't fix something that ain't broke" I hear them cry.

Well, as that great book by the genius Douglas Adams said - "Don't panic".

They have retained that which we hold so dear about the original A21a, but they have given it a stylish new look, more power and better handling of lower impedance speakers. Oh and also, and I'm almost frightened to tell you this incase it puts some people into shock but, well......... they've given it a remote control volume! There, I've said it.

Pure class 'A' has always been something that Sugden has excelled at and the new A21a is just what you would expect from a company with such a wealth of knowledge in this area.

Listening to our latest demonstration unit we are glad to report that none of the old charm has been compromised. However, expect greater dynamics with better bass handling, especially when things are getting busier. Also with the improved current drive you have a much bigger choice of matching speakers.

Check out the new spec Here.

Few people will have heard much until recently about the LSA group. But they have certainly hit the ground running. Their integrated amplifier comes in three different specifications, but even the standard model offers a real grip on sound quality. We've already sold several and they have only been with us a short time. Great dynamics and revealing soundstage are just a few of this brutes attributes. Fancy a try - there's one here ready for you to hear. Just one word of warning, you'll need to give us a hand to lift it into the dem room as it weighs a ton!