Zu + Music = FUN!

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Finally got the Zu Omen & Omen Def in today. Somewhat unscathed! These are BIG speakers. Big physically and huge in sound! They match up great with everything I’ve thrown at them. They’re super easy to set up and drive seeing they’re 98db! The Mission speaker cables and interconnects are on the way as is a replacement driver for the Defs. One driver must’ve been damaged in transit.. but the boxes are fine. whew.. Zu already have a matched pair on the way. Great customer service in case you were wondering.

The first thing I put on the Omens was Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery’s The Dynamic Duo. Powered up the Leben CS600 integrated and Rega P9. WOW! A huge sound with full frequency range. Bass that you can feel in your sternum. These things scream house party! They can also play softly without losing that punch. Come hear ’em! They’re really FUN!

Tri, Tri again…

Running a Hi-Fi shop is trickier than you might think. There’s a lot of crap out there so it’s my responsibility to find the best gear at reasonable prices. I’d love to stock $20,000 CD players…if they sold. My product lines are about value, sound quality and serviceability. Sometimes I fuck up. The product may be great, but the distribution may suck or there ends up being zero support if it breaks. If I’m not excited about it, I won’t demo it. I only carry lines that I would actually have in my own home. Tubes? Even harder! Most affordable tube gear is “Chi-Fi”. I tried, but at the end of the day I’m just not sold. The majority are cheaply made fire hazards that support a suicidal, slave labor force. Folks, I gotta sleep at night!

So, I just dumped the Chi-Fi behemoth and picked up a excellent and affordable line called Triode (or Tri for short). They have a great line of amps that will play nicely with the speakers I carry. They are point to point hand wired in Japan by the designer himself. I’m getting in the 45 watt TRV-35se EL34 push pull integrated amp (pictured at $2000) and the TRX-PM84 ($2600) a 15 watt integrated with headphone, MM phono, and DAC! The 300B amps look sweet. Stay Tuned!

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New Rega Brio-R integrated!!!

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Rega UK has just introduced a revised Brio. I’ve been selling various incarnations of the Brio for many years. I’ve always said it was the “best deal in Hi-Fi amps”. Now it’s even better! The Brio-R will have a remote control and is in a space saving, half box chassis matching the new DAC ($995). There have been numerous upgrades as well. I’ve put my order in and should have one sometime in May. The new Brio-R will be around $895. Pair it with the RS-1 ($695) or RS-3 ($1195) speakers and a RP-1 turntable ($445) and you have a killer Rega system for just a bit over $2,000! Synergy is the simplest way to audio ecstasy! Now taking orders!

On the floor…

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I just had the Head-Fi meet yesterday and met Brad Avenson. Brad designs lots of cool gear. most of it Pro Studio stuff like mics and mixing desks. He brought by his headphone amp and I was pretty amazed. Designed and built right here in Austin! He was quite kind to leave one, so come hear it!