Music has power. Power to create or change a mood – it can pick you up when you’re feeling blue and help you relax when life stresses you out. The way we listen to music today is significantly different to how it was a decade ago. It’s such an individual experience, from favourite songs to what we hear and what audio equipment we prefer to use to hear it on.
We recently caught up with Morgan Coady, our audio expert friend and National Sales Manager from Synergy Audio Visual, who shared insights into the music experience and advice on how to you can enjoy your favourite tracks at home.
Vinyl
There’s been a huge resurgence in vinyl over the past decade, with a lot of music lovers becoming well and truly infatuated with the cool come-back of the old-school LP record. ARIA reported that vinyl sales in Australia grew 70% in 2016 and 19% in 2017, the 6th and 7th consecutive years of growth. So, we want to know: are people just collecting old records or are they actually listening as well?
“We’ve seen a boom in turntable sales over the past few years, higher than they were in the 90s when the turntable was the status quo for listening to music. What’s interesting is that these purchases are coming from younger people aged around 19-21 years. However, more often than not, they assume that they just need to purchase a turntable and that’s all they need for vinyl listening. We want people to have the best vinyl experience in the comfort of their own home.
What they need for a complete vinyl set up is a turntable, pre-amplifier and powered speakers. To make this easy, we’ve packaged the Rega Planar 2 Turntable with the Rega Fono Mini A2D Pre- Amp and Ruark Audio MR1 Bluetooth Speakers. We’re also introducing the new Rega Planar 1 PLUS turntable soon, which has a pre-amp built in, so all you need to do is plug into your powered speakers and you’re good to go.”
Streaming
Who doesn’t stream? It’s the most common way we listen to our music, whether we’re at home or out and about. There’s so many platforms available, from Apple Music and Spotify to Tidal and YouTube. ARIA reported that 2017 was the first year that revenue from music streaming services accounted for over half (54%) of the overall market, so suffice to say, we’re a streaming generation. We asked our friend at Synergy Audio Visual, how can we make the most of our streaming services at home?
“You want to find a system that compliments the way you listen to your music at home. If you have a small apartment, you don’t entertain all that much but enjoy your streaming service and perhaps listen to the radio from time-to-time, you’d be looking at investing in a Bluetooth speaker for room filling audio. The Ruark Audio R1 is a retro-looking Bluetooth speaker and digital radio in one and is the perfect bedside or coffee table system. It has a few accessories that makes it portable, like the BackPack battery that powers the R1 for up to 12 hours.
You can step it up within the Ruark family and go for something a bit bigger like the R2 Stereo or R4 Music System. If your place is larger, you can combine your TV set and music with the Ruark Audio R7, a retro looking radiogram that has some of the best tech under the hood. Spotify Connect is built-in so streaming from your smart device is easier than ever and you can mount your TV to this unit to make the R7 your home entertainment set up.”
“If you’d like to take it one step further and create an audio system throughout your home, a network speaker would be the way. As the name suggests, these systems connect to your home Wi-Fi and you stream from your device via your network rather than Bluetooth. The ELAC Discovery Z3 is a neat system that streams through Apple AirPlay, Spotify Connect and also Bluetooth, which is great if your Wi-Fi is down. The big differences with a network speaker versus a Bluetooth speaker is better sound, longer range and reduced audio drop-outs. Systems like ELAC work together in what is called an ‘ecosystem’ so you can connect multiple ELAC network speakers together and create multi-room audio – play the same or different music in different rooms of the house.”
Home Theatre
If you hate the tinny audio that comes out of your TV speakers, you don’t need to suffer in anymore! These days, it’s actually affordable to get a quality home entertainment system or soundbar, that will make an enormous difference and is super easy to set up yourself.
“Systems like the Cambridge Audio TVB2 Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer come in at just $650, which is a great price from a renowned audio brand like Cambridge Audio. You want to find a soundbar system that connects to your TV via a range of different inputs. This is important because you may have an old TV set that you love but it just needs an audio upgrade, at which point you add a soundbar. The Cambridge TVB2 system connects via Bluetooth, NFC, optical, auxiliary and HDMI and it’s intelligent. The wireless subwoofer is code matched to the bar, so it starts up and powers down automatically with the soundbar. If you’re not interested in a soundbar, you could opt for floor standing speakers, which would make a big impact during your next Neflix binge. Take the ELAC Debut F5 Floorstanding Loudspeaker. It has custom-made components, meaning the sound is clean and clear because it’s made from lightweight, weather-resistant aramid fibre. This is most important in terms of sound dispersion. With these components, sound is controlled, meaning you can sit anywhere in the room and you’ll experience amazing sound, great for complex movie and music soundtracks.”
Music is an integral part of our lives and pairing it with the right equipment means you’ll be on track to enjoying life to the fullest. Check out Synergy Audio Visual on Facebook, Instagram and their website.
www.synergyaudio.com
by Arrnott Olssen
Editor Rogue Homme
