21 years of Sonneteer 2015 also marked the revival in Vinyl record sales. We had (have) been making the Sonneteer Sedley phono stage and its USB sibling for quite a while now, but it was apt that it too was getting a little more attention. The Alabaster got a Polish 5star from HiFi Choice and […]
Marking our 20th Birthday the Mark Four Orton is our first aesthetic upgrade of the amplifier and is how it stands today(2017). We had also made some tweaks under the lid, which some lucky users will have enjoyed in the last few Mark three versions made as we were phasing out production of the older
A short while ago via our various social media accounts we ‘put out’ a teaser from our Heart beat project showing a pre-amp of sorts. Hopefully it spoke for itself. For those, like me, who have a typical social media attention span, I have repeated it below.
But first, a new one. There is one small red herring. I will leave you to work it out.
It’s about control: Heart beat teaser, The Amps Read More »
When CD first came about alongside the hails of crackle free and clarity you could also hear the moans of how the sound is just too bright or too harsh. Often this was due to the poor process of the transfer from an analogue master to a digital medium or simply poor early day digital mastering which was often more forgiven when played through analogue media such as vinyl and tape.
Tearing it all apart: Reference recordings Read More »
It was a few years back on a beautiful sunny weekend in Guildford. Amongst 24 thousand people we, my partner Vicky and I ( pre-children), were enjoying the full three days of Guilfest, our local summer music festival. That year probably had one of the best line ups ever with the likes of Simple Minds,
Reference listening: Mosley Shoals on a Sonneteer. Read More »
We all live or die in business by our reputation. Here at Sonneteer we are certainly no different. We are human and will always have the odd off day. We all know the day when sleep didn’t visit us much the night before and breakfast was left behind as the kids chased us out of the door. So staring into a large cup of black coffee the best remedy is to dig out some of the responses and comments we have had over the years from our customers and the odd reviewer. The Sonneteer evangelists, as they may be called, always remind us why we really do all of the Sonneteer things we do.
The Evangelists: Part 1 Read More »
It was about 20 years or so ago and I was sitting in front of a brand new hifi system my Girlfriends’ flat mate had just bought. He was a young man, in his mid twenties, working in the City of London and was earning beyond what normal graduates would be earning at that age. I, on the other hand was working for toffee, writing editorial and reviews at Hi-Fi World magazine. The hifi system in question had as its centre piece an amplifier from a well know brand of the time that by chance I had just written a review of. My tactless younger self sat down with the chap and said to him that he should have spoken to me first and that his ears would be hurting after less than a hour of listening even at low levels of volume. A few days later the flat mate got in touch to tell me I was right. Some attribute this phenomenon to what they call Listener Fatigue though I am not so sure.
Ear Ache: Listener fatigue and other mythology.Part 1. Read More »
“Right away I sensed there was something special happening.” “probably the most musical gear I’ve had come through my music room in recent memory.” “…stroke of genius” “enjoying the music – as it should be!” “The build, fit and finish is exceptional revealing layers of detail I’d not tuned into before.” “absolutely musical and organic
We do, they talk: The Evangelists Part 2. Read More »
Trevor Horn’s Video as we all know now, did not kill the radio star. If anything radio has grown much stronger since. In the same vein digitised music has yet to do away with all analogue forms and Vinyl has been spinning its virtues louder than most. So much so that the last decade has
Vinylise: Magazine edition. Read More »
The beating heart of any sound system is the amplifier. Its invention is attributed to the coming of the first triode[1. http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html][2. http://www.ehow.com/about_4899502_history-audio-amplifier.html][3. http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/physics/transistor/history/] valve at the turn of the twentieth century to make the first AM radios. Since, the audio amplifier has unassumingly featured in all electronics’ products that are sound making while the
The audio amplifier and other format sauce. Read More »