Hi Fi System – Rayleigh

A truly musical Hi Fi system, combining a beautiful Turntable and Best-of-British built electronics with a statuesque pair of floor standing Focal speakers. A system that sounds as impressive as it looks.

The client initially enquired about purchasing a home cinema system to put in his conservatory, but upon discussion it quickly became clear his priority was to get the best from his music collection so we suggested a dedicated stereo system to provide performance without compromise.

We recommended a Sugden system for its wonderful robust Class A musicality. Based in West Yorkshire, Sugden have been producing class leading amplifiers for over 50 years now, still all hand built on their premises by a specialist team.

Starting with an integrated amp, we showed the client the improvement in performance as you progress through the range until we reached the Sapphire series – a reference level Pre-Amp with on-board DAC and a 40 watt High Current Class A amplifier. A Masterclass CD player and Phono Stage were added to complete the system. Although Initially looking at Focal Electra speakers, the customer was instantly smitten with the Focal Sopra 3 floorstander once he saw their impressive scale and finish. Despite their muscular appearance, the Sopra has a sweet openness, thanks to its Beryllium Tweeter, combined with a rich natural defined bass.

An Origin Live Sovereign Turntable tops off the system. Hand built in Southampton and at over 35 kilos, this is no lightweight in terms of mass or performance! Fitted with an Illustrious Tonearm and Dynavector cartridge, this deck really extracts every last piece of information out of the vinyl groove – so much so that it sounds like the performer is in the room with you!

The system is fine tuned with Entreq and Tellurium cables to ensure every last musical note is carried through to the speakers without loss. The importance of using good quality cables is often overlooked when building a system. At this level the difference is instantly audible.

This truly is a system that defines audiophile performance without sacrificing musicality. The customer is so delighted he has invested in another (smaller!) system for