Newsletter March 2005

NEWSLETTER

3^rd March 2005

Dear hi fi enthusiast

You have been sent this newsletter because you have subscribed, or purchased product, or made an enquiry to www.decibelhifi.com.au . If you do not wish to be on our newsletter mailing list, please reply to this email with the subject REMOVE and we will do so immediately.

In This Issue

Recent Additions to the website

Record cleaning service or hire

Garrott Brothers price rise

The Loud Speaker Kit clearance

Boston Audio Mat 1

Jordan news

Klegg home theatre system

Best sellers list

RECENT ADDITIONS

Inexpensive inner sleeves

Shure stylus force gauge

Graham Slee Gram Amp 1

Solid wood enclosure kits for Jordan drivers

Boston Audio Mat 1

Klegg home theatre system

RECORD CLEANING MACHINE HIRE

We have had a number of enquiries about whether there is anyone in Australia providing a service to clean LPs using a record cleaning machine. If any of our readers knows of such a service we would be very pleased to find out about it so we can inform everyone via this newsletter and the website.

As an alternative, we are considering making a MOTH Record Cleaning Machine available for hire. If anyone is interested in hiring a record cleaning machine for a month for $100 plus freight please send me an email. They are fairly large and heavy so for interstate customers the freight could be about $30 each way. There would also be the cost of the consumables but as there would be no limit on how many records you could clean during the hire it might be an attractive proposition for people with large collections.

GARROTT BROTHERS
We have been advised that the Garrott Brothers range of cartridges, styli, and retipping and repair services has risen. This is the first increase since February 2002 and is effective immediately. The rise is not uniform across the range and is mainly due to labour costs in their production. We have adjusted our prices accordingly but several of the more expensive models have not changed. One effect is that the Optim S2 (which hasn’t changed) becomes more attractive relative to the popular P77 (up 10%). Pricing for the retipping and repair services have also risen about 10%.

The new ex GST prices are (with old pricing in brackets):

Cartridges: K-2 $225 ($180), K-3 $270 ($227), P-77 $350 ($317), Optim S2 $500 ($500), Optim FGS $900 ($900).

Styli: K-2 $180 ($180), K-3 $225 ($227), P-77 $300 ($250), Optim S2 $250 ($350), Optim FGS $500.
With the Optim models the styli are not user replaceable so the price is for an exchange cartridge.

As a special offer to newsletter readers we will supply all Garrott cartridges and styli at the old prices during March ONLY. You will need to mention this offer in the instructions section of your order so that we apply the old pricing.

Even with the new pricing we still believe the Garrott cartridges offer good value for money, but if you have been thinking of buying one NOW is the time to act to beat the price rise.

THE LOUD SPEAKER KIT CLEARANCE

We have decided to discontinue our distribution of The Loud Speaker Kit product line. The main reason for this is our desire to concentrate on the Jordan drivers and enclosure kits, as we are the exclusive Australian distributor. Plus we also have some new models in the pipeline.

All remaining stock of TLSK products is being sold off at discounted prices. There are kits still available for models M5, F5, TL6, and C6, and demo units of M5, M6, C5, TL6, and S100. The availability is published on the website and is updated each day.

If you have been thinking about assembling a pair of speaker kits this is an opportunity to save at least 20%, and if you buy one of the demo models the assembly has already been done for you. The price is the same for kits or demo units, but there’s strictly limited stock left.

BOSTON AUDIO Mat 1

One of our customers brought this product to our attention a few weeks ago, and after reading up on it we immediately contacted the manufacturer to secure the Australian and New Zealand distribution.

Mark Baker of Origin Live has this to say about the Mat 1 "The mat adds the same benefit for all our turntables. This benefit being an increased focus and clarity throughout the audio spectrum, particularly on vocals." That’s a pretty significant endorsement from a man who is at the forefront of turntable design and manufacture. There are links to other reviews on our website and the Boston Audio website.

The Mat 1 is a turntable mat made from pure graphite and is suitable for almost all turntables. In particular owners of Linn, Rega and Thorens turntables should give it serious consideration as a very simple way to upgrade the performance of their units. You’ll find it in the Turntable Upgrades category on our website. http://www.decibelhifi.com.au/category22_1.htm

For a White Paper on how it works go to http://www.boston-audio.com/products3.html . And for some fascinating pictures of the manufacturing process go to http://www.boston-audio.com/products2.html .

The first shipment will be here anyday and we will test it out and provide a review as soon as possible. As with many other products on our website it is sold with a 30 day moneyback guarantee.

EJ JORDAN NEWS

The JX92S drivers have become very popular worldwide to the extent that there have been delays in supply recently. We ran out of stock in mid February but will be receiving another shipment next week.

The new JX53 driver is not yet being manufactured in sufficient quantities for worldwide release. We have a pair on their way to us and will report on our evaluation of their performance over the next few weeks. If you would like to order a pair we should be able to supply on about a months leadtime but we do not expect to be carrying stock for several months. We will be offering kits for individual drivers plus the linear array as described on the Jordan website. Specifications for the new model are on the Decibel website.

Ted Jordan has discontinued his bass drivers due to manufacturing difficulties. At this stage they are not likely to become available again. They have sourced a specially modified amplified subwoofer from MJ Acoustics for use with the JX92S and JX53 drivers but as it is not available in kit form the price in Australian dollars is higher than we would like. We have started testing a new powered subwoofer kit to match up with the Jordan drivers and will add it to the website over the next few weeks.

We now have 3 enclosure kits for the JX92S – a 3 litre cube, 8 litre bookshelf size, and the Transmission Line floor stander. As well as MDF kits the TL and 8L are available in solid timber.

The timber we have chosen for the standard kits is Tasmanian Oak (also know as Victorian Ash). It is a light coloured hardwood timber with exactly the same density as Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) and can be varnished or stained to a variety of colours. We can also supply the kits in other timbers such as Jarrah, River Red Gum, Blackwood, or Rosewood. Price for these specially ordered kits will be about 20% higher. If you would like to get an idea of the appearance of the solid timber take this link http://www.dgi.com.au/images/timber-tasmanian-oak-l.jpg .

KLEGG HOME THEATRE SYSTEMS

Many people don’t want to see their lounge dominated by large speakers in a home cinema setup. So there are numerous systems on the market which have small speakers on stands or mounted on walls or sitting on top of other furniture. And some of them look great. But most don’t sound very good, being thin in the midrange and boomy bass, especially at the high sound levels experienced in modern movies.

Klegg Audio was born out of the cutting edge technology of satellite communications. In the 1980s a company called SNG Services developed the first Modular Portable Satellite News Gathering Earth-Station. SNG were asked to consult on the acoustic performance of an innovative new speaker design. The concept was called Human Acoustic Technology (HAT) and initial testing of the 'egg' speaker proved so successful that was clear this innovative concept had immense versatility as well as performance.

Home Theatre was becoming popular but most consumers thought they needed large floorstanding speakers, so it was decided that a new company would be formed dedicated to innovative audio excellence from discrete but beautiful satellite speakers using technology gleaned from years of satellite research. The name of the company would reflect the company's debut product and that of its designer: the 'Kenneth Lam Egg', or KLEGG for short.

The Klegg M6-5.01 was launched in the Autumn of 2001 in London and was immediately recognised as a groundbreaking product. For the first time an audio company had taken the sub / sat concept and applied it in a contemporary form but managed to achieve exceptional sound quality. The Klegg M6-5.01 was undisputedly one of the world's smallest and most effective home theatre systems available.

Klegg continued to develop the M6 and soon after released the M6 501P decoder allowing instant home theatre by simply adding any dvd player. In 2003 the more powerful M8 501 was released featuring the same zinc alloy satellite enclosure material that had become synonymous with Klegg. Like the M6, the M8 turned heads wherever it was seen and quickly established Klegg as a true design innovator in the audio world.

At Decibel we have installed and evaluated this Klegg system and can confirm that it offers outstanding sound quality “out of the box”. We think it probably outperforms anything on the market under $3500. We are therefore prepared to offer this system to our customers on a 14 day moneyback trial basis.

BEST SELLERS over the last 4 months

Disc Doctor kits

AM carbon fibre brushes

Vibrapods

Ortofon stylus gauge

Turntable Basics Alignment Tool

Jordan JX92S drivers

SS2.9 speaker stands

All the best with your hi fi’ing

Brian Maddern

brian@decibelhifi.com.au

Unit 1, 201 Evans Road, Salisbury, Queensland, 4107, Australia

PO Box 536, Sunnybank, Qld 4109

Phone: 61 (0) 7 3272 7660 Fax 3216 6284

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