Home sweet home!
Again I'd like to thank Rodney for being such a gracious host. Nice guys tend to have other great folks around them. Having met Holli's wife, kids and brother, Rodney is no exception.
If I were to make a gear list of Rodney's room and system, simple is not a word that would come to mind. We have the same loudspeakers (Rodney has the later and greater sub amp) and we know the "9s" are not grampa's loudspeakers. His integrated amp, last built in 2008 by one of my favorite audio electronics designers, Kevin Hayes is likewise one of my favorite, if not my all time favorite integrated the Vac Phi Beta 110. It is a two box affair that uses a bank of 6sn7s for input and driver and KT88s in UL for power duties. Another complex extremely well engineered and finished piece of work that does not evoke the word simple.
Rodney is very private about his life as I am (neither of us have facebook!
) so I will not be sharing details about where he lives and what he does. The only clue I will give is that he and now active Violet are in the exact profession and even the exact specialization. I will spill the beans on his music collection that I wish I had the time to listen to in its entirety. He's got eclectic tastes ranging from Ambient to Blues to Classical and if there were genres that ended with Zs he probably have those too. Now we get to his front end which is anchored by a Kaleidescape server. Kaleidiscape you say? Yes it is best known as a movie server but that would be wrong. It is a MEDIA server and works great with his 16/44 collection feeding his Theta DAC. Rodney said that he was an LP guy too but given his line of work and his goal of just being able to decompress after a long days work sans the rituals, he's taken the route he did. I can totally get behind that because albeit the gear list is complex, using and listening to his system with a front end that has a UI that makes my SONOS and Apple interfaces feel like I'm playing with cave paintings from some cave in France was waaaaaaay trippy!!!!!!!
Let's talk about the room. I've been in this hobby for a long, long time and I've been an industry participant for a few years now. Some of you know that I am a certified acoustician as well. It doesn't take me very long to know if I'm in a good room or not. If I walk into a room while having a continuing conversation with someone, it takes all of a few sentences for me to know if a room has any HF or midband problems. As far as Rodney's room goes I knew by the time he said "Take a seat Jack" that I would be in for a treat. By serendipity, Rodney has very high ceilings. Every acousticians dreams. By the looks of it it was greater than 12 feet. The finish and lighting is warm and inviting having the palette of sands and clays. His ducted HVAC was very quiet and his seating very comfortable. I sat for over three hours and my back was none the worse for wear. This is a room you could stay in for hours on end. I stayed for 3.5 as stated and could easily have broken Rodney's personal 6+ hour non-stop record if I had had the time. I think Rodney didn't just succeed in creating a decompression chamber, he achieved more than that by creating a rejuvenation chamber. I'd been in town for three days prior abusing my liver with my in-laws and I walked out of there feeling that I was completely reset.
When you see pics of my room, you don't see the clutter that's purposely hidden from view. Extra cables, all sorts of small tools and measuring devices, empty jewel cases, spikes, balls and cups, manuals, LPs strewn around. If you did, you'd know that I do take a bit of an OC route to enjoying the music. It's not that I am a chronic tinkerer but I DO love getting my hands dirty experimenting on stuff and I admit that for me, this is part of the fun. Audiophile Sudoku. In this respect, Rodney's approach is the complete opposite. The room and system which can be operated with an index finger and a thumb reflects the owner's almost zen like personality. There is definitely beauty in simplicity.
On to the music! This of course is the highlight. I don't know what Rodney was expecting me to pull up but I did see his grin when I immediately dived into Pop and R&B even going into Sarah M's Angel as remixed by Blank & Jones with a trip-hop bed. I didn't get into this hobby to listen to audiophile approved stuff and clearly when I got my hands on his iPad, neither did this guy! It was great fun exchanging stories about the artists and the recordings even some gossip about them from time to time. How he should check out Bruno Mars' new album because it sounds like Rod Temperton wrote it for Mr. Mars. Timely since I was set to watch the Cirque Michael Jackson tribute ONE at the Mandalay Bay the next day. Rodney even introduced me to some Snoop Dogg that WOW! was recorded and mixed exceptionally well. It sounded so good that for a moment I wanted to light up a joint. To think I don't smoke pot at all!!!!!! I did want to run his system through its paces however so I did pull up stuff like SRV's Tin Pan Alley to gauge the eye popper factor, some Beethoven for the makes you wanna weep factor, some standards for the time machine factor and so on and so forth. Flying colors all around with great tonality, texture and timbre, great dynamics and a wide deep stage without the holes I too often come across. Alas the hours and minutes flew and it was time for me to go.
Best of the best part is I finally met a guy that I feel I have been friends with (like many of you here at AC) in person. Thanks again Rodney. I will visit you again! I hope that someday, I'll get the chance to host you too!
