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For two months till end of April, we are offering a special for Audiolab products – buy an Audiolab amplifier, preamp, poweramp, tuner or CD player from our eSHOP and get a 10% rebate towards the purchase of any Chord cables. Say if you buy an 8000SE for $950, you get $95 rebate on any Chord cables – say for a pair of Chord Cobra interconnects which sells for $180 a pair and you pay only $85 ($180 - $95)!

Or if you plan to build a system, buy two or more units of Audiolab (say an integrated amplifier and a CD player), you can take 15% off the normal retail price! Do take note – this offer is only valid for purchases off the eSHOP, not available at the retail shops. For Singapore orders, you can pay by COD with free delivery. For others, you can arrange to pay by TT, respective shipping charges will apply.

Audiophiles with iPODs

A better way is to tap the digital signal off the iPOD via Bluetooth (version A2DP) via the Exposure EXP03. Yes, wirelessly. Huh? iPOD with wireless? True, till date no iPOD comes with wireless or Bluetooth. So we need to have the iPOD ‘enabled’ with Bluetooth connectivity. Your iPOD sits in the supplied sleeve, which comes with both the docking connector and Bluetooth transmitter built-in. Voila, instant Bluetooth connectivity!

The EXP03 comes with a compact docking base, which connects to your amplifier via normal RCA cables. The supplied Bluetooth sleeve can be recharged in the dock together with your iPOD. BTW since it uses Bluetooth, it also means any Bluetooth device conforming to the A2DP specifications can also work – your mobile phone for instance. Bluetooth means you can carry your device with you and continue playing – as long as it is within the transmitter’s range. If you have an iPOD (Classic, Video, 2^nd gen Nano) you can squeeze more performance through the Exposure’s new EXP03.

HDMI cable carries BOTH the audio and the video signal, the importance of this must not be under-estimated – A HDMI cable that performs well as a video signal carrier may not necessarily be one that perform equally as well for the audio signal. With the HDMI Active, we believe we struck the ideal balance – clean undistorted video signal with superb sound quality that matches the best digital audio cables.

The HDMI Active followed the tried and trusted formula – OFC conductors with silver plating, extensive shielding to minimize crosstalk between the conductors carrying the video signal vs the audio signal, double outer foil with braid all serves to all but eliminate the possibility of both external interference and the signals in the conductors from interfering with each other. Finally, the ‘Active’ designation – this cable incorporates a high frequency filter, this filter reduces the intra/inter channel skew between the four pairs of TDMS signals. Ah, you might say, won’t the filter reduces the cable’s bandwidth and throughput? The HDMI Active has a measured bandwidth of 340 MHz and a throughput of 10.2 Gbps! Cable lengths up to 20m shows no deterioration. In Chord’s tests using Denon, Arcam, Yamaha and Playstation 3 Blu-ray and DVD players, all aspects of the picture and sound were improved by using the HDMI Active cable.

Quote: “When compared to the Chord HDMI Silver plus 1.3, the Chord Active produced a more detailed, dynamic and crucially musically coherent sound. The improvement in performance was such that in tests participants consistently chose a 15 metre Chord Active HDMI cable over a similarly priced 1 metre cable. In factory and field audio testing, both two channel and multi-channel systems were used.”

The HDMI Active is capable in excess of 1080P resolutions and frame rates making it future-proof for even higher resolutions including Deep Colour with 48-bit colour depths. The cable comes with colour coded HDMI connectors – the black connector goes to the source component eg the DVD or Blu-ray player. The high frequency filter is streamline molded onto the cable for easy pulling of the cable in custom installations. Available in various lengths from 1.5m to 20m.

The Chord HDMI Active is now available in our eSHOP and selected Chord dealers.

If the formula works, why change it? This is a good question that can be applied to the tenth generation of Wharfedale’s uber affordable Diamond series loudspeakers. The Diamond 10.1 in particular was selected by What HiFi - Sound n Vision magazine as its ‘Product of the Year 2009’ in the best loudspeaker between GBP150 – GBP300 category against stiff competition. The speaker is but just one model in the Diamond range – if you like to put together a two-channel system or a 7.1 Home Cinema system – the Diamond 10 series have a broad selection of models to suit you room and budget!

See what the experts have to say about this product:
 

“It’s an expansive, well-focused and above all musical presentation of great precision and control, the Diamond 10.1s entering and exiting notes with confidence.

Dynamics are of the ‘bounding’ variety, bass extension is impressive; as is its bass tonality. Throughout, it’s the transparency and insight that sets the Wharfedales apart.”

The Diamond 10.1 and the other fine models in the Wharfedale range is available in our eSHOP or authorized Wharfedale dealers.