P&A Audio, Crosby
Paid my first visit to a real hi-fi shop yesterday, P&A Audio in Crosby. Ostensibly to audition a Pro-ject Headbox S but also to listen to what quality hi-fi sounds like. Was attended to by Alan, who couldn't have been more helpful, attentive and willing to help/assist in any way possible. It did help that his eyes lit up when he saw my choice of music (Eldorado, ELO) and subsequently had no problem getting him to play it on a quality system in their demo room! From memory there was definitely a Rega Elicit involved, a Rega Apollo/Saturn/Planet CD player, Rega DAC, playing through Monitor Audio PL100 connected by what appeared to be cables from Liverpool docks! Alan's conservative estimate was £10k - blew me away and makes me appreciate just what can be achieved. And the Headbox S is a revelation in my own system as well, so all-in-all a good day!
Many thanks to Alan, who also gave me some sound advice on upgrade options (DAC, mains cables etc) - I'll definitely be back!
Hear hear! I'll definitely be going back - think TCI Baby Constrictor was the next suggested upgrade - hopefully they'll have a loan service as I don't think it's something I'll be realistically be able to audition in-store!
The headphone amp has made a marked improvement even straight out of the box - bass is clearer and more pronounced (the closest comparison I can make is that it's like the bass you 'feel' at a live concert). What it'll be like once run-in I can only imagine!
Interesting write-up, particularly as I saw your thread about trying the headphone amp (something I've never owned).
I hope your tale encourages more people to listen to top systems, because so many silly threads here about digits are digits, or DACs are all the same, or cables make no difference, are simply down to lack of experience, in my opinion.
And all hail our independent dealers!
Hi-Fi: Krell KAV-300cd, Michell TecnoDec/RB250/Grado Prestige Black1, KAV-300i amp, Transparent balanced interconnects and bi-wire to Sonus faber Concerto grand piano speakers, Nakamichi ZX-7 cassette deck, Logitech Squeezebox Touch, Hitachi FT-5500 and Sony S570ES tuners, BCD Engineering stand, RA Powerlink, Chord powerchord, Grado SR60i cans.
AV: Sony Bravia KDL-32EX503 telly, BDP-S370 player with QED HDMI. Currently unused: Denon AVR-1705, DVD-1710, KEF KHT1005.2