Thursday afternoon I was helping Dennis Murphy move all his heavy speakers from his home to the hotel for CAF. I got to meet Frank while we were doing that. I've heard good things about him from Dennis, so I was interested in meeting him.
The AVA gear we unloaded were two Synergy 450 amps (one was a spare), a Fet Valve 600R amp, a Fet Valve Hybrid preamp, another prototype tube preamp, a Fet Valve Hybrid DAC, and a switch box that allows rapid A-B comparison of speakers, preamps, or amps. As you can imagine, it took a while to get everything arranged and wired up. The speakers we used were Dennis's Philharmonic 3, and the new Philharmonic Slim
http://philharmonicaudio.com/. There were two other speakers we carried in but didn't wire up that day.
We got to switch back and forth between the Fet Valve Hybrid and the new prototype preamps. I kept my mouth shut, but I was glad to hear Dennis and Frank say they couldn't hear any differences. Neither could I.
While doing this, the right channel on one of the 450 amps quit. Dennis had brought tools, and Frank quickly found the source - a loose solder connection - and quickly soldered it. While watching, I got a brief lecture about the advantages of multiple regulated power supplies in the Synergy amps.
I stayed and had dinner with Frank to continue talking with him, and can say I'm new fan
. I had a great time learning just how he goes about doing listening tests of the new designs he makes. I am impressed.
Frank, thanks for dinner and the entertainment.
Richard
