Secret Chord Analogue offers two unique experiences to help you get more from the music you love.
Amp Camp is where you build your own tube amp under our guidance and supervision - success is guaranteed!
Book a stay at our analogue cabin and enjoy a mountains experience together with outstanding tube hifi - one of our complete systems.
Both provide the perfect excuse for a trip to the Blue Mountains.
Even better - combine them!
What you'll find on this page
Amp Camp
Building your own amp is immensely satisfying. But perhaps there are niggling doubts about tackling one on your own?
Amp Camp is Secret Chord Analogue’s answer, supervised workshops where you build your own high-end tube amplifier under the guidance of our expert technicians for a guaranteed result.
Analogue Cabin
Falls Lodge is our highly regarded ‘analogue cabin’ in Australia’s picturesque Blue Mountains. It’s safe to say you’ll struggle to find a holiday rental property with a better sound system than ours.
Testimonials
The Full Monty at Analogue Cabin
I discovered Falls Lodge when planning a trip to the Blue Mountains. I chose it as it looked great and had fireplaces (a must for the Blue Mountains in the winter). There was mention of a Tube Sound System and a turntable, so I reached out to the host and asked "Are you pure analogue? Can I bring my vinyl?". Stephen answered yes to both - and sent me details about Fall Lodge, the audio system, and his record cleaning products. It was the latter than intrigued me most at the time. I had bought a lot of second hand records, and they all needed a good cleaning. I was skeptical of the claims Stephen made - there's plenty of snake oil in "record cleaning", but he agreed to clean some of my records as a "try before you buy".
Suffice to say that nothing disappointed: the sound system - Elekit amps and Stephen's custom built speakers, were outstanding. There was a noticeable difference in my cleaned records, and I took home a bottle of his Restore! to get my vinyl collection to the best condition.
I was also intrigued by the DIY approach to building my own tube amp, and decided I really should take the plunge - the amp and speakers at Falls Lodge sounded amazing - there are no words: Top notch hi-fi just has to be experienced. So agreed to an "amp camp" - as I wanted supervision and proper equipment; I also had a set of speakers built by Stephen. Why buy from a conglomerate when you can support a local Artisan?
COVID ruined my chance to build the Amplifier. Stephen did that and delivered it and my speakers - which was welcome during the Lockdown. I eventually attended a second amp camp to build the pre-amplifier which completed my system (although with such good quality gear, I ended up upgrading my turntable, my headphones, and I got a proper DAC to get the most of my digital files).
The journey completed with a final trifecta: I returned to Falls Lodge for another stay to upgrade the output transformers in my Amplifier - as these are DIY, they are fully serviceable so you can swap out parts for better ones. I also had the opportunity to hear Stephen's upgraded turntable and phono stage - along with those magnificent speakers of his. It is something special on a cold winter's night spinning your vinyl with an open fire and your favourite tipple on a system that ought to cost 10 times as much!