Blog #1
From small acorns......
Hello!
​
Welcome to the very first blog from "My Audionote journey", correctly titled I would say as I physically own just the bag of records pictured below. Nothing else, except a few CDs and musical memories from decades back when I was an Audio Note (UK) retailer and an intention for that situation to change!
This is indeed a small acorn, this is all I have, no turntable, amplifer, cables or loudspeakers, just one tatty carrier bag with several decades old records and a few dozen CDs - ​October 2025
I remember these records when I was growing up, played on a Sharp music centre, unfortunately they've not seen any action since the late 1970's, a situation I aim to remedy as there's some absolutely excellent titles here which deserve a second chance.
Now down to the listening room, as you can see it's far from ideal! Quite a lot of houses will have just this situation, child has grown up and moved out then the room gets used as a junk room (and cat bedroom) rather quickly. The room is 16 feet (4.87 metres) long and 8 feet (2.43 metres) and has a sloping roof and the shape of the old chimney breast on one wall.
I'm not discouraged however, once the room is clear and repainted in light colours it will look much bigger and has plenty of electrical points and carpet. I was also considering putting shelves in the recesses of the chimney breast for books and a few ornaments which will help with the sound quality. From my experience installing many audio systems into clients houses, this irregular shaped room can sound very good as opposed to a very reflective square box.
I have superimposed my chosen speakers onto their desired resting place firing down the length of the room.
​
AN K speakers with no rear ports should be perfect for this size of room, I am very familiar with the sound of the AN K as an ex retailer and the range of glorious wood finishes is the added cherry on top. (I will go further into my chosen system in Blog #2).
Very loved cat Tilly in place in "her" bedroom, soon to be warmed by valve amplification
My experience with Audio Note
It would seem many people my age (late 50's) have a financial boost at this point in life, whether it be retirement, investments maturing or other means.
​
Most people also have hobbies/interests and these hobbies are therefore the happy beneficiaries of the financial boost, whether it be car, motorbike, golf, racing bike or all of the above.
​
I decided that the bag of underused records should be given a new lease of life and remembering my time as an Audio Note retailer and the staggering sound quality I used to experience I visited Sound & Vision in Bristol, UK in February 2025 in order to visit the Audio Note room and reaquaint myself with the "Audio Note experience."
.jpg)
Wonderful system in the Audio Note room based round the level 4 MEISHU KONZERTMEISTER 300b amplifier and new AN-E Ltd field coil loudspeaker.
Sound and Vision, Bristol 2025
That led me to reminiscing about my time as an audio retailer from 1994-2001, the last 3 years as an Audio Note dealer, and how much time has moved on and the product line changed and improved.
There were however a few products that stuck in my mind that I enjoyed immensely, I have tried to find pictures of the appropriate age:
.jpg)
Above is the CD2 which we had playing permanently and sounded sublime
The formidable ANKORU monoblocks which were loaned by Audio Note to the shop for a musical evening we were hosting for our customers. They were the stars of the show as we had never heard any amplifier ever that had the drive, current and presence of these. They filled the entire 2000 square foot shop with ease driving the An J Spx speakers , I have never forgotten what they are capable of. I remember the customers laughing, clapping in disbelief at what they were listening to.
My favourite speakers of all time, Audio Note loaned us these An J Spx in the same fabulous finish you see above. This particular pair of speakers were extremely well run in and had an uncanny ease and ability to sound like they were not there. They started an stopped on a dime and sounded excellent with both the OTO and MEISHU we had on permanent demonstration.
My favourite Cd player, the CD 3, running into a MEISHU and An J Spx was heaven.
The classic OTO amplifer with EL34 valves. If I recall, it came in 2 flavours, Push-pull at level 1 and Single ended (SE) at level 2 in both phono and line. I bought one for myself as I was so impressed and it was definitely our best selling Audio Note product outside cabling. Now of course in 2025 there are 2 further improved versions above the OTO SE, the OTO Signature and the OTO Silver Signature, neither of which I've heard but undoubtably would be a substantial improvement in both component quality and ongoing product improvement over the last 25 years.
I remember installing an OTO SE into a clients front room driving a pair of AN J of some variety that he had just purchased. It was an old house with a gorgeous bay window overlooking the Bristol channel. Just when we were talking while I was setting everything up, I knew it would be good, the way our voices were sounding. The J's sat either side of the bay window well toed in and we sat and listened spellbound, even cold, not run in, it was absolutely jaw dropping and he was soooo happy. It was one of those installs when you leave saying to yourself, my god what a lucky man, he will be listening to music non stop! Does he want a lodger, I'll sit and enjoy it with him too. What it sounded like when well burned in, heaven only knows.
The fabulous MEISHU 300b single ended triode level 3 integrated amplifer. This is was the next level up from the Oto integrated and made my favourite An J Spx speakers sound even better. We used to have the Cd3/MEISHU/An J Spx on permanent demonstration in the main body of the shop. It was an open plan shop so the whole room was filled with this glorious sound for customers when they walked in.
I put a large really comfy 4 seater sofa in front of this system and there was nearly always a few customers sat there soaking this experience up.
One of my other landmark listening experiences came with this system, it was close to the end of a busy day, the system was nice and warm, there were no customers in, I'd been on my feet all day so I put on some Queen, sat in the comfy sofa and I've never forgotten the proper spine tingling experience of Freddie Mercury singing just for me, his brilliant voice hanging in the air. Truly epic.
What's in blog #2?
In the next blog I plan to get onto the system itself, the components I have chosen and why.
I look forward to seeing you then!
Richard