Digital versus analogue….or Bart vs DeanoAt Rapallo, Deano and Bart represent 2 different (very subjective) views of the audiophile spectrum: Deano is all about vinyl, analogue, vintage, and stereo. Bart, on the other hand, is a firm believer in digital, CD, SACD, DSD, Dolby surround and DTS:X neural. The rest of the Rapallo team is amused by their passionate discussions about the subject. It seemed like a good topic to investigate and research a bit further, and here are our findings. Some are quite revolutionary, even Bart had to admit….

One of the products that flies out of the Rapallo doors on a daily basis is the wireless remote control extender. 

It means you can enjoy your music AND change the volume without running back into the lounge and while you’re listening to music in the room next door. Even better: you don’t have to install a wall-plate volume control. 

We regularly get emails and phone calls from customers who are not quite sure how to install the product or even think it is faulty. While we are more than happy to help you out, we thought it might be much better to save you the time and simply show you what to do.

Rapallo’s Ben is on a budget… still. He may be no longer a student, but a full-fledged Rapallo employee… but until further notice, he remains on a budget when it comes to the purchase of his AV gear. And like so many audiophiles that have to work with limited funds, he is a big fan of Topping DACs and amplifiers.  

Topping released their new DX7 DAC and balanced headphone amplifier at the end of last year,  and as soon as it landed in the Rapallo quarters, it went on a trip home with Ben for some vigorous testing. 

When it comes to  wireless speakers, there’s a pretty simple way of looking at it, we think: wired speakers offer better sound, and wireless speakers tend to be more convenient.Of course, that’s a very broad statement and there are exceptions to that rule. And yes, wireless speakers are getting better. But there’s no going around that wires are better at transmitting sound than Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth for that matter).

But there is the convenience factor…

Here’s a story: some friends of Rapallo’s were building a new home. It was to tick some bucket list things; like a dedicated home theatre room and an awesome view. But when they were telling us about their plans, they weren’t really allowing for multi-room speakers for background music. They were thinking it didn’t really matter and that a pair of cheap wireless speakers would do the trick just as well. 

We went on a mission to convince them that some well placed in-ceiling speakers in their kitchen, living area, office, bedroom and bathroom would do so much better. We drew them a plan and they reluctantly agreed. 

Fast forward two years  and our Rapallo friends have been swinging through the day with their in ceiling speakers: ‘It’s the best advice we received, we use these in-ceiling speakers all the time. I don’t know how we put up with bad sound for so long.’

We’ve mentioned earlier that we are very excited about the amount of affordable speakers that do an amazing job considering their price tag. A modest budget no longer means you have to put up with bad sound.

If that is you, one of the options that is on the table is the ELAC Debut speakers (and soon the updated 2.0 Debuts), but also the Emotiva Airmotiv speaker series. 

Rapallo recently started a YouTube Channel  discussing new AV products, new AV Technology and some AV how to tips. 

One of the first topics the Rapallo guys decided to discuss is the Emotiva Airmotiv speakers unboxing and specs. 

When Rapallo moved to our Polaris Place location a few years ago, it was a first step in the transition from being an online store towards becoming a hybrid shop. We added a demo room and started inviting customers to come and see us, check out AV products,  and engage in a conversation about what we can do to help them achieve their AV goals.

Our design and installation services significantly increased in demand and we started looking at home automation as part of the solutions that we can offer our clients.

And Rapallo kept growing. We are now a busy AV shop. And it’s fair to say that we now have seriously outgrown our Polaris Place offices. 

Just this morning, a Munich High End article announcing new MQA hardware and software partners as well as the use of the format for CDs tumbled into our mailbox. Coincidence has it that we had a conversation with one of our Rapallo customers on the very same topic just yesterday.

We took it as a clear sign it’s time to write a blog on the topic and explain what the big hooh-hah is about. 

There are a few certainties in life when it comes to AV installations. One of them is that most people find it a bit daunting to mount their new flat-screen television on a wall. Not only do we know because of the amount of times we have people ask to do it for them, but also because an old(er) blog on the topic is one of our most popular blogs… ever. We do understand the appeal, though. I mean, just compare these two photos and tell me you prefer the second set-up.:-)Time to update that old blog, we say!

If you’ve figured out what wrong with the weather, make sure to let us know, because we sure have been puzzled about the on-and-off-weather last week. While it is a great excuse to get out of garden weeding and lawn mowing, we did enjoy some chronic binge-watching in our home theatre. Yes, that’s where you can find us, whenever some switch-off time is in place…. If we have your drooling, we have you exactly where we want you. But is it achievable to have a high performing set-up that you can be seriously proud of if you have a very modest budget? We say it can be done and we’ll show you how. We put together a 5.1 full home theatre set-up that is excellent value for money. We’ve recommended variations of this set-up (everybody’s situation is different) to several of our customers on many occasions and so far every single one has landed a very happy customer email in our inbox. (We love getting those, so keep them coming!)