Friday 28 January 2011

Awesome Power

Every now and again we get a product that is just so incredibly good at its job, you just smile.

The AER Compact 60 Acoustic Amplifier is a mere 10" x 13" x 19" and weighs just 8kg (approximately) yet it produces 60 watts of pure undistorted power through two channels. It is a seriously powerful piece of kit in a tiny box. It's just unbelievable that such a tiny box can produce so much powerful undistorted sound.

It's ideal for acoustic guitarists, in fact any acoustic instrument will work well with it, as will digital drum kits. There are digital effects on board in case you want to play around with the sound, and it comes with a specially designed carrying case. Yes, a sixty watt amplifier combo that you can sling over one shoulder!

It's hand-built in Germany, so don't expect it to be cheap, but the sheer quality -- stunning!

Sunday 16 January 2011

Phone Trauma

Many thanks for the messages of sympathy and support.

We've almost got it sorted out now - but we're still finding odd things that have been affected. Voicemail to the workshop doesn't seem to work at the moment, and for a few days we weren't able to recredit the franking machine because it needs to (automatically) call a premium number to perform the transaction. We'd put a block on all premium line calls as soon as we found out what was going on, not imagining for one minute that regular activity would be affected. The result was that we had to queue up at the Post Office every day to get the internet and mail orders sent off. It was like going back to the stone age. How does the Post Office get away with making so many people waste so much time queueing? Answers on a postcard.....

Now comes the row about who pays for the three days of phone calls to premium numbers. I'm just relieved we weren't hit as badly as one victim, who was apparently taken for £18000 !

Wednesday 5 January 2011

VAT Rise Non-News

The good news this January is that printed music and books are completely unaffected by the rise in VAT - because they've always been Zero-rated for VAT. It always surprises me how few of the general public realise that. There isn't VAT on fresh food either.

Lots of our products are not increasing in price- in particular Naxos CDs - still great value at £5-99. Inevitably a few of our suppliers have taken the opportunity to issue new price lists, incorporating the new VAT rate, but on the whole the effect on our prices will be barely noticeable. Not really surprising, as the amount of the increase is only one forty-seventh of the original price. Perhaps it's not such a big deal after all.....