Satori HiFi

08/10/2026

Certainly one of the prettiest cartridges I've installed. the Aidas Tru-Stone Gold Web is a work of art to look at and something even more special to listen to.

Using gold-plated copper winding, a double dampening system, a AlNiCo5 magnet system, a Namiki adamant boron composite cantilever with Micro Ridge stylus and the Tru-Stone body.

This is a cartridge packed full of technology, but you forget all about that as soon as the stylus hits the vinyl and beautifully natural and transparent music envelops you.

Many happy hours to come for this listener.

16/09/2026

29/07/2026

Six weeks after heading to the High End show in Vienna I’m back at Stansted on my way to visit Entreq in Sweden. I’ve been talking about doing this trip for a while now and after meeting Per Olof in Vienna, who founded Entreq in 1999 and has remained the chief designer since then, the time was finally right. Myself along with Fraser and Glen from AIRT, the distributor, and Paul Soor who writes for Hi-fi Plus boarded a 7am flight to Copenhagen…

Read the full blog now. Link in bio

21/07/2026

Last week I visited in Sweden, I’ve been wanting to visit for a while and with their new ERS and Corepoint technology it was the perfect time.

A full write up coming soon.

17/06/2026

You can now read my High End Vienna 2026 report.

https://satorihifi.substack.com/p/high-end-vienna-2026

You can also click the link in bio, select Satori HiFi links and choose News & Blogs

17/06/2026

My Vienna High End show report is now available to read

https://satorihifi.substack.com/p/high-end-vienna-2026

You can click the link in the bio, select ‘Satori HiFi Links’ and it’s under News & Blogs.

08/06/2026

High End Vienna 2026 is now in the books and as we all take some time to reflect my take away was that the move from Munich to Vienna was a success. The Vienna International Centre worked really well as a venue, it was spacious so felt less congested when moving around, especially on the public days. It was very easy to get to and, after a couple of days working out where to go, simple to find the room you were looking for.

You would have seen plenty of pictures and videos by now and I don’t want to repeat what everyone else is saying so I’ll explain what I’m listening for at a HiFi show, especially one of this size.

I want to hear emotion, I want a system to engage with me to pull me in and make me stay in that seat for one more song rather than feeling like I’ve ticked a box by hearing it and now on to the next. I was resolution and detail but not at the expense enjoyment, give me rhythm over clinical replay.

I want to focus in on the timing of the speakers, is there any timing smear? is it a window into the music or is something holding them back. What amplification have they been paired with? is there signal grounding, mechanical isolation? What cartridge is being used with the turntable and much more.

These shows are incredible learning opportunities because of what’s available to listen to but also who you can talk with. I spoke in-depth with Joakim Juhl about his Oephi speakers, I did the same with Michael Vamos and Peter Mezek of Audio Skies and Pear Audio respectively.

As always the rooms that stick in the memory the longest are simply the ones you enjoy the most, often there’s no need to quantify it any further than that.

Congratulations to the high end society, we all know a show like this doesn’t happen by accident and from my perspective everything went perfectly. The pressure is on to make 2027 even better!

Enjoy a few photos of some standout rooms.

27/05/2026

This time next week I’ll be in Vienna for High End 2026, my 6th show overall but first as Satori HiFi.

It’s going to be an important show and I’m already pretty solid meeting with new and old faces. I’ll finally be able to meet with some pivotal people behind the brands I’m working with who have entrusted me to represent their products.

I’ll be meeting up with a few customers too, no doubt talking endlessly about our highlights of the show and recommendations over a few beers and a Wiener Schnitzel.

If you’ll be there let me know so we can meet up. I’ll also be posting lots of stories here to give you a glimpse of what the show is like as we explore this new venue together.

I’ve added a few photos of previous years to give you a taster of what to expect.

13/05/2026

Recently we’ve done three home demonstrations of the HiFi Stay Centum IX resonator which all came to the same conclusion, a purchase.

For two of demos we put the Centum on a server, one an Antipodes and the other a 432 Evo, both are high level resolving products that benefited greatly from the Centum simply placed on top.

The Antipodes system gained a fuller low end, impressive on stand mount speakers. With the 432 system the notes hung in the air longer and an increased sense of spaciousness and openness was apparent.

The third home demo was on a full Naim system, this time the Centum went a NAC 252 pre amplifier and wow what an improvement this presented. Vocals were vivid and present with more body and realism. It helped to taper slightly the edginess that Naim can have but without losing anything.

Three different systems, one familiar outcome.

In all three systems we’re talking about a tangible improvement for under 1% of the cost of the system.

This is the Satori way of introducing Silence Inside

15/04/2026

A customer install of the Oephi Immanence 2

A large true ribbon tweeter, Purifi woofer and point to point wired crossovers, what does it all mean? well when you sit and listen to this speaker it’s a bit of a recalibration of what’s possible at this size and budget. At £8,495 we’re nowhere near the price of a super standmount but performance-wise there’s not much to separate these from their much more expensive counterparts.

Everything about the music coming out of these speakers belies their size. The first thing you notice is the scale of the soundstage; huge headroom and depth allows the music to image beautifully within the space. The speed and transparency means music comes through with no timing issues, from large orchestras to intimate acoustic sets everything is delivered exactly as it should be.

Of course they’ll never go as deep as much larger cabinets or floor standers but that’s where the 2.5 version comes into play. This aside, detail and clarity is as good as you’ll hear anywhere let alone just comparing it to similarly priced alternatives.

This speaker is less compromising than other Oephi models with regards to placement, the partnering equipment and cables so this needs to be taken into account. However, with a little knowhow on our part, once we get it right, the speakers just connect with you on an emotional level and have a habit of making most others sound broken.