Hot Summer Sale In Progress!

Here are some of the items on sale! As always E-mail us if you want to get hi-res pics of the actual items listed

AUDIO AERO PRESTIGE CD PLAYER - DEMO - $7,495. Awesome DAC, CD/SACD player, preamp... this unit does it all. $14K+++ retail... demo is 1.5 years old... latest SE version with LATEST/current transport mech inside. Great sounding piece for only $7,495. Comes with box and manual and warranty.

AUDIO AERO CAPITOLE MK1 - USED - $995!!! - No box or manual and the transport does not work! BUT - this player has two coax digital inputs which work perfectly fine and this player ($4,200 retail when new and LOW Blue Book is at $2,000) as a DAC is a really good sounding piece for less than thousand bucks. The transports in these player are fragile due to the way the control board is mounted (they would crack) and not worth fixing IMHO... especially when there are any number of good sources out there these days. Cosmetically in VG condition... tubes are fine (replaces a couple years ago by me - player has seen little use since then becuase of transport issues).

HARBETH MONITOR 30 - DEMO - $2,250. USED - Low hours demo sold to local customer who traded them back in several months later to buy something different (customer is a regular gear changer.... never keeps anything long). One speaker has a lightly dinged corner (strictly cosmetic - not done by customer, but done by UPS when they were originally shipped to us). Retail around $5k - yours for $2,250

JPS LABS DIGITAL AC - NEW- $175. New old stock as JPS has made some small revisions and just released the Digital AC-X. Retail new was over $350... great cord for CD players, dacs etc (see very nice review by Art Dudley in Stereophile) - yours for $175 (only one available!)

REGA CASH FOR DIGITAL CLUNKERS PROGRAM EXTENDED THROUGH THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2010!!! GET A GREAT DEAL ON A NEW REGA APOLLO, AND SATURN CD PLAYERS! SEE NEWS/BLOG PAGE FOR DETAILS! - UPDATE: REGA HAS EXTENDED THIS PROMOTION THROUGH UNTIL THE END OF AUGUST 2010!

REGA RESEARCH RS-5 SPEAKERS - NATUTRAL CHERRY - DEMO WITH FULL WARRANTEE. Great compact floor standing 3 ways that work well in any music and HT/Music system. The Rega RS-5 speakers retail new $1,595, yours for $895!!!. Can e-mail high res pics if you want to see the actual pair - they are in excellent condition with all original factory packaging.

REGA RESEARCH P2/P3/P5 tables! - DEMO - CALL/E-MAIL for price - Nice deals on great tables! Rega P5 (Cherry surround) has a Elys2 on it with less than 100 hours. The P3/24 is a gloss White Color Plinth model with Elys2 cartridge on it (less than 100 hours) and the P2 has a Bias on it (probably less than 50 hours on this table). If you don't want the cartridge or some other cart, just let us know and we can work up a price with a nice new Dyna, Clearaudio, Benz or Rega cart on the table for you!

REGA SATURN CD PLAYER SILVER - DEMO - $1,395! Demo Rega Saturn in excellent condition with less than 200 hours of use. Comes with box, manual, and full warranty! Retail new $2,395 - yours for only $1,395

GRADO SR325is HEADPHONE - DEMO - Less than 10 hours! Mint condition. Retail $295 - yours for only $175

RUNNING SPRINGS AUDIO DUKE POWER CONDITIONER - DEMO WITH FULL WARRANTEE - $995. Two outlet 20A power conditioner in excellent condition. Comes with 20A Running Springs Mongoose (Cardas Golden Ref) 5ft power cord. Slightly older version (no pretty carbon fiber faceplate like on the newer units) with original box and manual - about 2 years old. Retail new was $2,300 - yours for only $995!!! If you wish to see pics, please e-mail and we will get them to you via e-mail!

EQUI=TECH SON OF Q JR BALANCED POWER LINE CONDITIONER - USED - $450. Entry level Equi=Tech balanced power line conditioner. No fancy faceplate on the Son of Q jr, but its 1,000W capacity makes it a great unit for smaller budget HiFi systems, or it is also great for front end gear in a larger system (i.e. one with large power amp(s)). This is a 3 year old single owner used unit in excellent condition with original factory packaging and manual. Retail new $1,200 (normally sell for $1k new), this unit is a great deal for only $450!!!

AUDIENCE AU24 2.0m RCA INTERCONNECT - NEW (OPEN BOX) - $450. New, never used in original factory box with all documentation - old stock. Retail new is $1,031 - yours for $450!!!

SONOS BU80 BUNDLE - DEMO - $495 One of the earlier bundles that Sonos made which consists of TWO of Sonos's ZP-80 Zone Players (older version of the current ZP-90... same exact functionality as the current ZP-90 just in a slightly larger case) and the 100 Series Controller AND optional charging cradle will be included. I also have ONE additional ZP-80 available which I can package with this bundle at extra cost. Units are all in excellent condition an will come with all original factory packaging and documentation. This bundle originally retailed for $1,000 - Yours for only $495

Signature Sound Hi-End Audio on FaceBook!

Yep, we have gone and done it now! Our FaceBook page is updated a number of times each week with various sale items, specials, interesting links, various news, music recommendations etc, etc. Check out our FaceBook page and become a Fan (er, now "Like" is the terminology being used by FB) of Signature Sound High-End Audio! Also, the page is open for the public to view, so even if you are not on FaceBook (like Stan Marsh - lol), you can check it out!

Audio Aero Update

Just a note here about French Hi-End digital gear company Audio Aero. I've received some calls over the last year concerned since they have seemingly dissapeared... what did disappear was their US/Canadian Distributor Globe Audio Marketing. Audio Aero is not quite helping things as they are not the great with returning... correspondence (e-mails) from US dealers (i.e. me) and some customer inquires too. I have spoken directly with several distributors in other countries for Audio Aero and have verified that they are actively in biz and making/selling gear and just being a bit "French" when it comes to communications. I have made arrangements with their UK distributor so we can obtain product if customers want it... in fact I have available a couple of distributor demo Prima Ref CD players available from this source at this time. These are terrific sounding tube buffered output stage units which are available for HALF of thier retail price!

JPS Labs Improves the Digital AC!

We have long been fans here of the JPS Labs Digital AC power cord. For its modest retail price ($399) it really delivers a very nice improvement in performance on CD, players, DACs, and (from some recent reports I've read) audio PCs! Even folks like Art Dudley at Stereophile have had some very nice things to say about this power cord. Here is what Joe Skubinski (President of JPS Labs and their cable designer/researcher) had to say about the new revised Digital AC-X:

"I'm excited to say we've updated the world's most unique and oldest model AC cord (since 1998), and it's a simple name change to The Digital AC-X' , the 'X' for the number 10 in 2010. About a year ago the filter networks were redesigned with the latest generation passive components capable of handling even higher offending frequencies now and in the future. The cords still provide over 40 db of noise absorption, and sonically have a bit more clarity than the older models. If you or your customers have purchased Digital AC's within the last year or so, they already contain the upgrade and we're now calling it something, with the promise of higher performance going forward as sampling frequencies and speeds continue to increase."

As you can guess, the price has remained unchanged as well, keeping this power cord a excellent value for you digital audio folks out there!

March (Hi-Fi) Madness

Time marches on and spring is making its way into the Syracuse New York area were many folks are preoccupied with Syracuse University's Organgmen and their progress in the NCAA national tournament. In the HiFi world though, some things have been marching on as well..

• Merlin Music Systems has announced new versions of both the VSM and TSM models. Though these changes have been incorporated in all Merlins made during the past year, the cumulative results of these improvements was great enough that Merlin though they new version designations were necessary to distinguish models made with these improvements. What are those changes??? Improvements to the cabinets of both the VSM and TSM in cabinet material and baffle construction have been made. More details about the VSM and TSM MMi and MXr versions can be found here on the Merlin website news page. Most importantly, these changes required no change (increase) to the prices of all Merlin TSM and VSM models and the newer cabinets (which are all hand built in house by Merlin Music Systems) do sound better. If you also scroll a little bit down that Merlin news page, there is some good info on the Merlin Master BAM and Master RC Networks which are now available option. You can find retail pricing on all this new Merlin stuff on thier Retail Price webpage.
  
• Cardas Audio has some interesting new stuff. A HDMI 1.4 Spec cable is now available starting at $106 for a 1m cable that supports the latest computer, audio, and video HDMI specs. There is also a Clear USB cable available now available for you computer audio nuts out there which starts from $118 for a 0.5m cable. As always, please call or e-mail for specific pricing for various lengths or with any other Cardas questions.

February 2010 News & Ramblings

Between the holidays and a fairly busy December and January, things have seemed to quieted down some once again so I have the spare time to put some thought into a blog posting. I have nothing to report from 2010 CES in January because, well... I didn't go! First one I have not attended in well over 10 years, but I sure has heck did not miss the PITA of travelling and getting the usual Vegas crud (cold, sickness etc) while out there. I had a great time at RMAF (Rocky Mountain Audio Fest) last October and saw the gear and people I needed to see back then, so given the cost of going to CES (for both me and Merlin Music Systems who I go with and help with their exhibit) it made perfect sense not to go this year and save some extra cash. Friends in the trade tell me that quality of traffic was good, but attendance overall was down significantly at the 2010 CES this year. From reading about show reports and talking to friends as well, it looks like I did not miss much in regards of new/different stuff too see/hear.

Anyway, moving on to what is happening, here is a summary of current news, specials and promotional offers that are going on:

• Rega's "Cash for Digital Clunkers" program has been proven to be pretty successful and they are extending it until the end of March. If you have not heard about it, it is great trade in program that accepts old or new, cheap or fancy, working or not, old CD AND DVD players towards a substantial trade in credit towards a new Rega Apollo or Rega Saturn CD player (for details see our Rega Cash for digital Clunkers blog entry). Some folks have been asking me if this means the Rega Saturn or Apollo are about to be discontinued and/or replaced with new models. I keep asking this question of Rega and our US Rega Distributor and the answer is NO.
• We have some Sonos digital music system gear (demo - discontinued stuff), all in excellent condition with boxes, manuals, and warranty available. A great way to get into a really nice digital music system for a very reasonable price. See our Demo and Used Gear page for details.
• Dave Belles @ Power Modules, has a great new tube preamp, solid state power amp combo available. Dave has done some smart engineering using the old Belles 150A Reference amp and 21A & 28A Reference preamps as a baseline to come out with new products which provide equivalent/better performance for less! The new 22A Preamp and 150A Reference V2 Power Amplifier are both great sounding and hundreds of dollars less than the previous versions at $2,400 retail for each product. We have the preamp/power amp combo on display and have been enjoying it very much. Like all of David Belles's gear, it has really good tonality along with good resolution, dynamics etc which make his products such a wonderful value. Purchase both the 22A Ref and the 150A Ref V2 together, and receive a special package price! (please call or e-mail for details).
• We are now carrying and showing the Musical Surrounding Phono Preamplifier's (Phonomena II, Nova Phonomena, and SuperNova II). We are especially enamored with the Nova Phonomena which offers loads of gain and loading settings, and a battery based power supply design all for $1,000. Along with this is terrific sound quality and a very quiet phono preamp for only $1,000.

Some other thoughts about the current trends in Hi-End audio. While the trend to computer based digital audio systems continues and will continue to grow over the next decade, I'm excited that the sales of vinyl playback related products (tables, cartridges, phono preamps etc) has continued to see steady growth and shows no signs of slowing down! What appears to be happening is that many audiophiles who never sold off or gave away their vinyl and have had it stowed away, are at the point in their lives where the kids are gown up (or grown up enough) that they feel they are able to safely have and live with a turntable set-up. They are pulling out their old records and often buying good basic turntable set-ups (like Rega P2's or used Planar 3's etc) to start playing their old vinyl again. Often, this gets these folks excited about and enjoying their old LPs once again. Next thing you know they are often start buying new or used vinyl and also upgrading their good basic TT set-ups to gear that's better and wind up enjoying vinyl (LP) playback even more. Its pretty much to the point now where I sell more turntables each than CD players on a annual basis now.

Having said that, I do closely monitor and listen too what is happening in the computer based digital audio area. Thanks to good friends in the trade as well (like Gordon Rankin at Wavelength Audio), form time to time I get to try some the USB dac technology that is out there and hear how good this stuff is getting. I have about 1,000 CD's archived to hard disc, a couple of iPods (mostly used for listening to tunes in the car and while taking my walks), and have even bought a Wadia iTransport... all this in part of a effort to evaluate trends and keep abreast of what is happening here. There is loads of potential here and things or just starting to get about as simple to use as the one box high end CD player and the performance of some of the USB and Firewire DAC's I have heard is quite exceptional. The one concern I have is that the complexity factor still needs to come down some and designers are still learning things about certain aspects of PC based digital audio (i.e. effects of computing power, drivers, cables, upsampling SW, memory vs disk based playback, and even the sound of USB cables). This can make things a bit daunting for some folks (i.e. those who are not very computer savvy) who would get frustrated with some of the "tweaking" involved to get the best out of a PC based digital audio system. In my opinion, to a significant degree, many audiophiles are spoiled with the modern day high end audio CD player... plug it in and you are pretty much ready to go. About all the tweaks necessary to get the best out of it are limited to selecting a good power cord, maybe some cones/footers, and you are good to go. PC based digital audio systems offer some very cool benefits though which includes the ability to organize and playback your music however you like... I find being able to select and generate playlists of various types/kinds of music allows a certain enjoyment that you can't get with sticking a single disc in a player and playing one disc at a time (that is unless you like to create/burn your own "mix" discs!). The ability to have your whole music collection easily able to manipulate and play at your fingertips with a few clicks of a mouse makes these systems very attractive. Then there is also the potential of being able to acquire and play back high res music with these systems as well. Its going to be an interesting decade!

Rega Cash for Digital Clunkers Trade in Program!

I'm sure you have heard of and possibly even taken advantage of the US Govt's Cash for Clunkers car trade in program, well the folks at Rega US Distributor Sound Organisation have taken this as inspiration for their own Cash for Clunker Program! OK, here's the deal:

1. Bring in your (one) old CD OR DVD player (working OR not) for trade and...


2. Your get a (one) Rega Apollo for 15% off MSRP OR a (one) Rega Saturn for 25% off MSRP!!!

On a Rega Apollo CD player that is a $995 retail, you save $150 and on a Rega Saturn CD player that is $2,395 retail, you save $600!!!! This is a terrific savings on two really nice sounding CD players (personally, I think the Saturn is a killer deal with 25% discount!). What are we going to do with the old players???? The ones that don't work will be recycled appropriately, and the working units will be donated to a local charity. As always, please feel free to call (315-622-4137) or e-mail to ask questions or order! As a additional special promotion here, I am extending this offer to the two (2) remaining new Apollo 35th Anniversary Edition CD players we have left in stock! I will offer a 20% off MSRP on the two Apollo AE CD players we have left when you trade in your digital clunker towards the purchase of one! This program is good from NOW (October 2009) to the end of December 2009!!!