Chas Sandford’s Secret Studio is one Nashville’s hidden music gems, tucked away on 50 acres of farmland at the end of a three-quarter mile-long driveway on the city’s outskirts.
As a hit songwriter and publisher, Sandford is the recipient of 12 ASCAP ‘Most Performed Songs’ awards and his songs have also been recorded by assorted artists including Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Brooks & Dunn, Alison Krauss, Rick Springfield and Sammy Hagar. As a producer, he’s worked with Roger Daltrey, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan among others. Recently, he expanded his studio to include Dolby Atmos.
‘In reviewing the specific requirements for our installation, LEA Professional amps checked all of the boxes perfectly,’ he says. ‘It was a breeze setting them up, we basically set them up once and forgot it. Once the system was tuned, I was floored by how great it sounded. The system performs flawlessly and sounds fabulous.’
Sandford’s quest to enjoy music at its highest level took him to Namm, where he served on a panel for Creating Your Own Atmos Studio. The panel was headed by PAD Group (Professional Audio Design) President Dave Malekpour, whom Sandford recruited to worked on his own the studio using pre-existing gear including Augspurger monitors.
‘Sandford wanted to use his existing isolation rack, which had limited space available,’ Malekpour says. ‘We chose LEA amps primarily because of the Dante connectivity and the ability to fit into one rack space with four channels of great specifications and super low noise. An added benefit was that the amplifiers themselves don’t make a lot of noise or generate a lot of heat – they were really efficient and effective in this installation.’
Malekpour installed a combination of multiple Connect Series 702D and 704Ds in the studio to power the PMC loudspeakers. Both 1U-high amplifiers are well-suited to installations requiring high flexibility, making them the perfect choice for Secret Sound. With 96kHz-capable Dante and AES67 connectivity options, the IoT-enabled two-channel 702D and the four-channel 704D provide 700W/per channel, support Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel, and feature Smart Power Bridge technology. With three ways to connect, the studio can engage the built-in Wi-Fi access point, connect to the building’s Wi-Fi, or connect to the local area network via Cat5 or Cat6.
The Connect Series delivers an industry-first professional amplifier family to feature cloud connectivity, allowing A/V teams to remotely control and monitor the amplifiers.
‘Amplifiers have a big impact on how the speakers perform, how the low end is delivered, and the naturalness of it,’ Malekpour says. ‘And the LEA amps are a great product, literally Dante-enabled little powerhouses. I think I’ll use them again probably every chance I get.’
