8th January 2008

"No, I'm Brian and so is my wife!"

Why Everybody Makes The Best Phono Preamp, Headphone Amp, Microwave, etc...

Just like Brian in the film "Life of Brian" by Monty Python, we've given up shouting. Everywhere you look you'll see someone shouting "we're best", and claims of "holographic sound" or it's the "best phono preamp ever made". Then there's the reviewers who say it's the best "widget" I've ever heard - month in, month out - and you don't know if they really mean it or they're just helping their pals get more sales. It seems the entire industry has been driven to desperation that their must be only a handful of customers left?

4th December 2007

Counterfeit Graham Slee Products?

Our friends from around the world keep us abreast of the news, and the news is that counterfeiting is rife in the far east. We've heard of our competitors products being counterfeited, but now it's our turn - small eastern workshops are now making short runs of our products too!

But is "hijacking" anything new? It doesn't seem so. The giant NEC Corporation of Japan has already had its entire business counterfeited as reported in the New York Times (click link for more info)

So if you're in the market for a great sounding Graham Slee product, be watchful! Only genuine Graham Slee products bearing our brand name, are hand-crafted by us alone, and fully tested in the way we-only-know, right here in Yorkshire, England.

Only trust our own appointed dealers and distributors, and reject counterfeited products - their only guarantee will be in letting you down with second-rate sound, and will probably break down well before their bogus warranty "expires"!

And if you're in China and are worried about obtaining the genuine article, don't worry! Provided you call upon our Chinese Distributor: Beijing Anrun East Technology Co., Ltd. Website: www.av-2000.com or www.headphonechina.com - they will ensure you receive a genuine Graham Slee product.

24 November 2007

There are a growing number of rebellious music listeners.

It seems (to them and me) that nearly all of hi-fi or audio in general is steering at full lock and at break-neck acceleration toward eye-candy looks at the expense of the music as well as reliability.

It begs the question "What is audio equipment for"? To look at? Or to listen with?

Take it from me; it is dead-easy to make an audio circuit. The "trick" isn't in styling, it's in making it sound great.

If you're new to Graham Slee you may not realise the difference our products make to the music, but do your research and you'll find we have a rebellious history where we threw the old styling devil out the window to concentrate on the all-important music.

It's not that we build our award-winning musicality into old tin cans - just that we don't spend your money on adornments on the outside or the inside. You won't find "designer statements" on our circuit boards, just honest components that do deliver - and designs who's sound leads our customers to respond with "it sounds out of this world"!

But aren't we too expensive? You must be joking! With prices starting around 300 USD / 150 GBP, if that's expensive the world just ended!

And yes, we bring our version of the high-end (supposed to mean good music...) out in absolutely everything we make, why? Because we are leading the audio rebellion!

Everybody I talk to regarding our products wants assurance that the music comes first. Somehow we've been last on the list while they've tried the "big-name" similarly priced alternatives (and have often bought high-end "potential"), only to be disheartened by the electronic sound cloned by the "band-wagon", time and time again.

Some decide that valves/tubes are the only solution, and don't consider Graham Slee, even with our enviable reputation for the very real music reproduction our products deliver. In fact, our products have been compared over and over with valve gear, and have been found to sound very similar indeed - with at least one correspondent saying they sound more valve-like than valves! The great advantage of our products being the sound doesn't deteriorate as the valves burn-out!

But, the vast majority of people who audition a Graham Slee buy it! And after nearly ten years of making our high-performance audio products, the word is now spreading as friends and acquaintances tell each other about our fantastic sound!

We have won awards and have been ranked highest by several hi-fi publications, but unfortunately, so have others that don't have the Graham Slee "magic". That only serves to confuse the hi-fi buyer.

If I was asked to describe our sound I could not sum it up in one catchy advertising phrase, and I don't think you'd "buy-the-spin". The sound our products are getting quite famous for is the result of over 35 years of listening AND working on solutions. I spent my youth (and still occasionally do now) going to public performances from city hall size concerts to those held in local venues, as well as working in disco where I tried to emulate the big-live-sound with reproduced music off vinyl. My expectations of good sound are probably more like yours than you'd think, and much nearer than that of an inexperienced post-graduate designing for a big company.

I concentrate mainly on vinyl reproduction because I know that even in the grooves of a commercially produced album; there is bags of realism just waiting to be reproduced properly. If the music is big and architectural, that's how it should sound when reproduced. If the music is simple and subtle then that's how it should be reproduced also. That can't be done by tricks, and "bling" components can't do it either! No matter how many times the others try to ram it down your throat.

Music can only be reproduced realistically if you understand the music, and you don't have to be a musician for that, in fact it helps not to be, otherwise the designer would be obviously biased toward a particular favourite genre or even an instrument! This possibly explains why some musician-engineer's products sound good with some music and not others.

Musical expression knows no bounds, and it is the boundary that Graham Slee have pushed away through its own particular implementation of wide-band techniques, that makes the window big and open for the music to be set free. It may not suit the "high-end" listener used to a contrived sound that blatantly isn't music, but we are finding it suits the much larger majority of human beings in all walks of life.

My only wish would be to have started this long ago, and not to have waited so long before making my designs available. Many of the products we do today were prototypes in the 70's and 80's, and they are still advanced today. Even though "under the bonnet", our circuits may look very similar to others, it is the particular implementation and choice of devices that makes the difference.

We make our incredibly musical products at a number of price points, but each design is refined as far as it is possible, to do the absolute best it can. There will obviously be differences between the highest and lowest priced, but these are only linked to the level of component quality that can be afforded. But every single product irrespective of price has been given the same level of attention and extreme number of critical listening hours, which ensures every customer is given the very best musical reproduction performance possible at the price, and often way beyond.

Graham Slee