Like with anything in life, running a business is a balancing act between ‘The Wants’, ‘The Needs’ and ‘The Musts’. 

Valve amplifiers have been on ‘the Wants-list’ for quite some time. The thing with ‘Wants’ is that you have to time them carefully. After all, you don’t want to compromise ‘The Musts’ and ‘The Needs’. I mean, do that and the business will go bust pretty quickly. 

So, these valve amplifiers that have been on our Wants list? Timing was (finally!) right to get serious about them. Slowly but steadily we have been expanding the audiophile Hi-fi side of Rapallo and you can’t do that with a straight face without having some decent valve amplifiers in your offerings.

So, what’s the big deal with valve amplifiers? 

After some umming and arring you have decided to join the ever growing group of people that is giving vinyl a renewed place in their home. No longer is it solely appealing to the audiophile elite that is willing to fork out many thousands of dollars for a high-end set-up. To more and more people, there is appeal in casually having a turntable alongside their audio streamer, both used in very different situations, both providing pleasure in audio. 

But once you start your research, you bump into options and decisions, you weren’t even aware you were going to face. One of them is the choice of a MM versus a MC phono cartridge. 

Although the outcome for both is the same (creating audio from a records groves), both designs are very different and so are their characteristics. Time for us to have a dig into the world of phono cartridges. 

Just a few months ago, Perreaux announced that they had changed ownership. After fronting Perreaux for 20 years Martin handed the company over to Edwin Nieman. 

So when  a couple of weeks ago, we posted a review for the Perreaux 255i on Facebook, there was a fair bit of response from several long-term Perreaux customers. There was a clear curiosity about what the new ownership would mean for Perreaux. 

While we at Rapallo had met Edwin in person shortly after the take-over, we thought it was time we had a chat with the new man behind Perreaux and get him to introduce himself to our Rapallo customer base. 

About a week ago, I got a message from Rapallo’s Ben: ‘We’ve got these earphones in. I have never felt so close to music before. Voices feel so real and intimate, like the singers are standing right in front of you or singing softly into your ear. It’s quite an emotional experience. I can only call it ‘silky smooth’. I ’m saving up for these.’

He was talking about the Beyerdynamic Xelentos. 

Now, it’s not unusual for one of the Rapallo guys to fall absolutely in love with one of our products. Usually, one of them goes head over heels and the other two nod in agreement, but the ‘I want’ is usually reserved to just the one of them. Which is not that hard to understand considering their differences in ages (young adult vs middle aged), passion (audiophile vs musician vs home theatre fanatic vs a combination of any of the previously mentioned) and personality (well… we won’t go there :-)). But when it come to the love for this pair of in ears…

With CEDIA 2018 now finished, we are getting bombarded with new products. Just a couple of days ago, both JVC and Sony caused some stir in the world of AV with their newly announced home theatre projectors. If keeping up with all the new and improved AV products is doing your head in, you’re not alone. The question to ask is, is it really necessary to forever update your AV system? Are we really talking about an improvement, or are we just buying into the next marketing trick?

The life cycle of electronics is extremely short these days. Do you need to upgrade? The answer to that question is sometimes ‘yes’, sometimes ‘it depends’, but more often than you would be led to believe it’s ‘no’. 

I speak from first-hand experience when I say that a multi room audio is awesome. It wasn’t until I ( under slight pressure from my better half) ended up with a 4 zone multi-room audio system in our own house that I actually got to appreciate it. But just like I did, a lot of people still consider it a luxury. I tell you: it is not! Some things are a waste of money, some things you only appreciate once you get to experience them. This is one of those.
Say ‘multi room audio system’ and people think ‘Sonos’. And while that is definitely a valid and popular option, there is so much more to the topic. See, a multi room audio system can be, but doesn’t have to be wireless to start with. Multi room audio systems are quite a wide topic that can be completely tailored to your own wishes, needs and budget. It can be as sophisticated or as simple as you want it to be.

Chances are pretty good that an AV receiver is amongst the audio visual items present at your home. Said AV receiver these days is packed with advanced technology and features that all carry some abbreviated letter name of some sort. Many of us will have to admit, half of the time that fancy letterword may as well be mumbo jumbo. You can relax, it’s not you.:-)
But when it’s time to upgrade and with every supplier screaming how they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, how do you make any sense out of that? I mean confusion reigns, no?

During our time as AV supplier and custom AV integrator, we’ve seen several home-owners placed in difficult situations because of incorrect pre-wiring by either themselves or a contractor.
We have a few tips lined up that will save you time and money in the future, and allow you to have a better finished product. Most of them come from personal experience, but we’ve been gathering a few excellent ideas from forums as well.

The 1^st of September is approaching fast and we have been very busy prepping for our Rapallo Launch Event. You see, mid-June we moved to our new location in 11A Allens Road and we thought it was about time we would have a little celebration with our customers. I hope you’re coming!

For our customers that aren’t Auckland based and won’t be able to make it all the way out for our Launch Event, don’t despair. We love you just as much, so keep reading. We didn’t forget about you. 

And there sure is plenty to be excited about.

When we were working on last week’s blog about how budget speakers have really raised the benchmark in recent years, we kind of got carried away and started talking about what our set-up would look like in the unlikely event of winning the big lottery ticket. 

Silly exercise, you may say. But I have an uncle who did it; and if he can do it, so can we! On top of that, it’s the stuff dreams are made of and what’s even better: it’s fun! It sure put a smile on our faces. 

The whole thing kind of went from ’I would like some fancy speakers’ to entire house renovations with all the whistles and bells. 

So what crazy splash-outs did we come up with?