Time For A New Stereo System!

Description

So you want to update your music system… but where do you start? Your stereo has served you well — you’ve enjoyed good times together — thirty years on, it’s like an old friend. But the friendship is stretching. Electronics typically only last thirty years, and that’s where yours is at… It’s time to find a new friend.

Well, here’s where to start. These days music seems to be played on disposable, plastic ‘bluetooth’ speakers. A quick Google search, and they’re all that seem to be on offer. And, we both know, you can’t enjoy music on a plastic speaker like you used to with your old mate stereo in the living room.

Fear not! You can still buy decent hi-fi! A credible electronics manufacturer: Rotel. Credible speaker manufacturers: Monitor Audio. Decent wiring: Van den Hul. All sound familiar? Of course! These brands were about when you last shopped for a system. But, guess what? Modern hi-fi equipment is designed to stream music. And it’s still designed to last for thirty years (it might even last more!) And it’s designed to deliver the most musical performance that your budget and space allow. But, guess what else? It costs about the same, in 2024 dollars, as your last system cost you back in 1994!

Rotel A11Mk2 is the heart of your new system. At just over 7cm high, this slip of a thing is full of components with proper audiophile cred. Where it differs from your old amp’ is it doesn’t have a radio built-in. That’s for cost consciousness as well as for sound quality. And it doesn’t have a facility for two pairs of speakers, again pragmatism. But you can still connect a turntable and headphones. And it does have a Texas Instruments 24bit/384kHz DAC: that is a state-of-the-art DAC(!), and that’s what will convert your streamed music from Spotify (or, better still, Tidal or Qobuz) or even your ABC Radio Listen app through proper timber Audiophile speakers. Wonder why A11′ has a DAC but no built-in streaming? Well, it’s because streamer technology constantly evolves. Streamers are emerging as a consumable item that typically lasts five years before they’re simply ‘out of date,’ so it makes sense not to build that into a device that should last as long as an A11Mk2. WiiM is a cutting-edge disposable plastic streamer that’s cheap as chips and disappears behind your Rotel system delivering digital audio from your phone or TV directly to your A11MK2. Does it sound cheap? No! Of course not, it sounds like a Texas Instruments 24bit/384kHz DAC: brilliant!

Rotel CD11Mk2 plays CDs: Given that CD technology is forty years old, there’s not much to report here, except that the tech in CD11Mk2 was in $20,000 CD players thirty years ago! When you deal in 44,100 ones-and-zeroes a second, thirty years is a mighty long time! And trickle-down digital audio tech’ has come a long way.

Rotel T11 is a digital radio with FM. In Geelong, that means that all of the Melbourne stations are on one band, whether they are AM or FM stations, and are all received without hiss or fuzz. Local stations are still catered on the FM band.

Last but not least: Monitor Audio Silver 50 7G speakers are the most popular speaker from the leading speaker manufacturer today. Half the size of a sheet of copy paper, Silver 50 delivers deeper bass than most old speakers regardless of size. And it’s astonishingly clear! Sound seems to ‘jump’ out of the speaker boxes into the room. Silver 50s draw comments from everyone who hears them here in the store. Monitor Audio makes Silver 50 in five different finishes so there’s sure to be one that compliments your décor.

Rotel gear comes in silver or black finishes. Monitor Audio Silver series’ comes in polished gloss-black, satin-white, natural ash, walnut and black oak timber finishes. You get 6m Van den Hul speaker wire with nice gold fittings. And, don’t need a radio? Don’t worry, the system is modular. The same system costs $600 less without the T11 tuner. Come in and have a listen. Maybe make a new friend…