Sweet Home Audio LLC
Since 1997
(Formerly, St. Cecilia Sound Gallery)
1581 Main Street Dunedin, FL 34698
(727) 446-2505
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Sweet Home Audio Newsletter November 1, 2009
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE NEWS Musings about Music ElectrocompanietPrelude Series New from Music Hall More LP's Re-send, Please Consignment STORE STANDARDS Store Hours How Consignment Works SALE ITEMS UPDATED List of Used, Demo & Consignment Gear
In our October Newsletter, I spoke a bit about the purpose of music in our lives. I had come across an article written by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music at Boston Conservatory. This article was actually part of an address Paulnack had given to the in-coming Freshman class at the Boston Conservatory. I found his points to be profound and I was inspired to do a little more research into the subject. Get a load of this: doing a Google Search on why music is important came up with over three hundred million sites (301,000,000, to be precise). It seems there is quite a bit of agreement out there that music is, indeed, important. And lot of people have lots to say on the subject.
One site I found was published by someone in the Madison, WI public school system. The question was asked of 7th and 8th grade students, "Why is music important in your life and to the world as a whole?". Here is a sampling of the responses: "Music lifts up your soul and releases it." - K.D. "Music is what moves everyone and without it, life would be pointless." - D.D. "Music is important because it can describe people, places, movies, or animals that words can't. Without music, the world would have a hard time understanding other things." - B.P. "Music is important because it allows people to be creative and it offers more life to people." - K.B. "Music is the highlight of my day! After a rough day, I like to listen to music to lift my spirits." - M.W. "Life without music would be boring." - A.Z. "Music puts the life and excitement into the world. Music is a part of my everyday life... Without music, I wouldn't be who I am today." - S.P. "Music, without it, there would be silence, less joy and darker times." - B.S.
Without music, there would be darker times. I could not agree more. Consistent among the responses from these young folks is an awareness that music communicates something to them. They're aware of the impact that music has upon our emotions and spirit. I find music to be transcendent (Merriam-Webster: transcendent - "Beyond the universe or material existence; universally applicable or significant"). Music elevates one's emotional tone level, allowing us to expand beyond the strictures of our daily struggles and thus enabling us to confront life and living with renewed vigor. Sounds like therapy. Well, in a real sense, I think it is. Anything that helps to decompress us from life's pressures and problems is therapeutic indeed. Needless to say, music fills many purposes in our lives. All of them quite personal, I think. I'd love to hear from you on this subject. Make my day and shoot me an email telling me why you consider music to be important to you and the world as a whole. I'll publish your responses (no names, just initials). Really, send me your thoughts whatever they may be. Send your email to: brian@sweethomeaudio.com.
When music really matters...
HIGH-performance audio ► The PRELUDE Line ◄ We have a ton of Electrocompaniet (EC) gear in the shop right now. I've been playing different EC units for the past several weeks and I'm constantly finding myself pulled into the listening room to sit down with this oh-so-very-musical gear and spend time with old favorites like I had never heard them before. I am so impressed with this stuff! The build quality is right up there with the very best I've ever seen. These Norwegian beauties really do deliver music that you want to listen to. I'll be featuring different EC products over the coming months. This month, I want to talk about the entry-level EC gear. The Prelude line offers two integrated amps, a CD player, a floorstanding speaker system and a bookshelf speaker system. This is just the beginning. EC is developing several more products to add to this very affordable high-performance Prelude lineup. As you might expect, when the EC gear arrived, I spent the early weeks listening to their top-of-the-line Classic Line products. I've been a "tube guy" for many years now and musicality means everything to me. You know, if it ain't got that swing... Well, this EC gear has it in spades. I'm not new to Electrocompaniet so I expected the Classic Line to sound fabulous. No disappointment there. What really surprised me was when I finally got around to hooking up the entry-level Prelude products. The Prelude PL-1 integrated amp playing the the PC-1 CD player and PSF-1 loudspeakers simply took my breath away (seriously!). They're not in the same league as the Classic Line EC products, but at a fraction of their cost, these Prelude units deliver a HUGE portion of what their stellar siblings bring to the music. Here are some details from Electrocompaniet about the Prelude PSF-1 floorstanding loudspeaker ($2,990 for the pair):
The Electrocompaniet PSF 1 loudspeaker is a 2 and 1/2 way floor standing bass reflex construction, with double 6,5 inch woofers and a 1 inch tweeter. The cabinet is made of MDF with
double sandwich side panels and four internal strutting's to ensure minimum
resonances. Total thickness of the side panels is Technical specification:
These speakers are heavy. And beautiful. And they sound
wonderful!
Match these with the PL-1 ($2,490) or PL-2 ($3,250) Prelude integrated amps and the Prelude PC-1 CD player ($2,499) and you're in for a real treat. I know, I've been enjoying his combination for the past few days. Sweet!!
The Electrocompaniet PI-1 and PI-2 are our new fully balanced entry-level stereo integrated amplifiers. In the development of these amplifiers the focus has been to maintain the operating principles and sound quality of the classic line amplifiers, and at the same time reduce manufacturing costs. To achieve this we have utilized modern surface mount technology (SMT) and optimized the amplifiers for our modern SMT production line. The result is modern looking high performance amplifiers with superb control and dynamics.
The newly developed
protection circuitry protects the PI-1 and PI-2
against high temperature, DC offset and short
circuit at the output. This protec Both the PI-1 and PI-2 features the same digital volume control as used in the EC4.8/EC4.9 preamplifiers. The bright and clear VFD-display is readable from the listing position and shows the input source and volume setting. Both amplifiers have two fully balanced (XLR) inputs and two single ended (RCA) inputs. Volume and input sources can easily be navigated via the four navigator buttons on the front panel, or from the remote control. The PI-2 is equipped with a oversized linear power supply with a 400VA toroidal transformer and a capacitor storage bank of 80.000 uF. This month only: buy a complete Prelude system (integrated amp, CD player and loudspeakers) and get a VERY special system price. Call for details (727) 446-2505 or email me at brian@sweethomeaudio.com. Next month we'll highlight and feature the ECI-3 and ECI-5 integrated amps in the EC Classic Line and the fabulous ECC-1 CD Player. Stay tuned!
Affordable and oh-so sweet!
Okay, the Music Hall DAC 25.2 has actually been available for some months now. So technically it's not "new." It was new to me, though, when I heard it for the first time a few days ago. The Music Hall regional sales manager brought one over for us to check out. I hooked it up to our Escient MX-111 music server and the difference was nearly jaw-dropping. Highs were sweeter, smoother and more natural. The midrange became not just more natural, but more musical in general with a sense a presence that kept me in the chair listening long after I should have gotten busy talking to customers. The bass was simply more "there," as it should be. Now, this is notable improvement over an already very good sounding Escient music server! At just $595 for this tubed USB DAC 25.2, this is one of the true bargains in high-end audio and a very easy recommendation. It has four digital inputs switchable from the front panel! Plug in your computer, your CD player, your MP3 player or other digital audio source and expect to be impressed. DAC 25.2  each string strum and piano accompaniment felt extracted and placed in just the right spot. It was simply amazing to hear pieces of songs we've never heard before even though they were from the same file.
The Music Hall 25.2 is still probably one of the best things we've seen done for digital playback in our systems since the introduction of the CD player in 1984. Anthony Nguyen, Apartment Therapy
Now here really is a new product from the leader in affordable high-end gear. The PH 25.2 is a tube hybrid headphone amplifier/pre-amp. It has two buffered headphone outputs, two inputs, a tube pre-amp section, a solid state amp with pre-amp outputs. Marrying a gorgeous sounding tube pre-amp with a high performance solid state amplifier has been a technique for achieving unequaled sound quality in high-end component audio since the advent of the transistor. This one is hand assembled using the highest quality parts available. You can use it as a simple stand-alone headphone amp or plug it into another amp to drive you loudspeakers. Either way, you're going to like this one! And get this, it's only $399. H 25.2 
Bellari MT502  Bellari brings the Bling
Bellari has just released the MT502 moving coil step-up transformer. Its a brilliant piece of work. Fully passive, this moving coil step up transformer allows you to play a low output moving coil cartridge using a moving magnet phono preamp. The transformers are hand wound and their covers are 24 karat gold plated. It has two impedance settings (a/b which are 50/100 Ohms) and a ground lift.
It mates perfectly with the VP130 and VP530 phono preamps, but dont limit your use of it to Bellari products. Ive been getting great results at home mating it with our Music Hall PA1.2, and I have field tested it with a wide range of hi-end MM phono preamps and have always been dramatically impressed by its performance. It is beautifully designed and built entirely in the USA. Its a real recession buster at $499 retail. And hey, if times get tough, you can always melt down those gorgeous transformer covers.
Sweet Home Audio The Home of Beautiful Sound Call or email TODAY (727) 446-2505
Yes! We just added hundreds of used LPs to the music bins. These LPs are here on consignment from one of our European audiophile customers. Come in and explore; your search for hard-to-find items, surprises and other goodies just might be over. Remember too that our CD music bins hold hundreds of quality used CD's, a very nice eclectic collection of music. We guarantee you'll find something you like. Come in and pick up some great music at super low prices!
During much of September our email accounts were down. Yeah, it was every computer user's nightmare. We did our usual best, however, and used workarounds while the debug process ran its course. We suspect there might be a few emails that fell through the cracks. If there are any unanswered emails, we want to find them! If you sent us an email, but we did not respond, please accept our sincere apologies! AND please re-send your email. We would very much appreciate if you did. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation! [Our email is working just fine now.]
The Price is Right
Sell your old gear on consignment and turn it into cashmoney for you to spend. If you are in the market for home audio or home video gear and you're on a budget, buy from our Consignment Department. We've got quality used A/V products on consignment at very attractive prices. Consignment makes sense. Buying or sellingeither way you save. Every month we add new items to the consignment list (see it at the end of this newsletter). We even have music on consignmentCD's and now LP's.
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How Consignment Works
At consignment businesses, consignment fees typically run as high as 50% and 60%. But we've kept ours at 40% for years. CONSIGNMENT OPTION 1
Full-service consignment, which means we display,
advertise, present and demonstrate your gear, just as we do our own new gear.
We handle any customer inquiries (send them pictures, specs and other relevant
information) and find a buyer; we process the payment and deliver the gear to
the buyer; we handle after-purchase questions and issues and mail you a check
for the net proceeds from the sale.
For full-service consignment, Consignment Option 1,
the fee is 40%. CONSIGNMENT OPTION 2 Consignment Level 2 is the same as Level 1, but you keep the gear until its sold. We advertise and promote your gear, handle customer inquiries (send them pictures, specs and other relevant information), find a buyer and handle the sale. But once its sold, you deliver the item to the buyer yourself. We send you a check for your net proceeds from the sale. For Consignment Option 2, the fee is 25%. Increase Your Proceeds by 10%: This is simple. If you leave your proceeds from the sale on account with us to apply to your own product purchases here at Sweet Home Audio, we reduce our consignment fee by 10%. IMPORTANT NOTE: When we sell a used item, we do our very best to represent the product exactly as it is. This is very important! One of our most critical operating principles is that "we deliver what we promise." This is not just a slogan for us but the way we actually operate. When we have the used item here in our store, we can verify the operational status and physical condition of the products. When we don't, we try to get pictures and other information about the items so that we gain confidence that the product is as stated. In these cases, we also delay payment until the buying customer has received the item and verified that it truly is as promised. Existing agreements: Needless to say (but here it is anyway!), all current consignments that we now have will continue under whatever agreement was made at the time of the consignment. The above Consignment Levels apply to all new consignments. Of course, our policy to deliver what we promise applies to everything we do. To the very many of you who place your used AV gear with us to sell and to the very many of you who look to us for quality used AV products, we give you a very hearty THANK YOU! Now it is easier than ever to turn your old gear into cash! Call (727) 446-2505 today!
Call (727) 446-2505
STORE HOURS Six and sometimes seven days a week, we are here. Our official schedule:
Monday thru Friday10:30 AM to 5:30 PM Saturday10:30 AM to 3:30 PM Sunday by Appointment
Thank you for reading our newsletter and visiting our web site. Call us at (727) 446-2505 if you have any questions. If you can, come in and check out our shop. You'll be glad you did. ~ Brian & Peggy Rovinsky
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Copyright © 2023 Sweet Home AudioLast modified: December 16, 2023
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tion
has no negative influence on the sound quality what
so ever. We have even removed the relay at the
output to reduce the number of contact points
between the amplifier and the loudspeakers.
Here, at the home of beautiful sound, we make it easy.
