[Spirit]

So I am in Danny's GR Research room listening to his OB7's making musical magic powered by an
insanely great Dodd Tube package.
I am sitting right smack in the sweet spot and Danny is playing a few cuts from my own CD that I brought
with me-the Burmester II sampler- and I am in audio heaven.  Amazing sound and I just don't want to leave.
In walks this man and sits down next to me on my left and he is listening to the system with a big smile
on his face while tapping his foot to the rhythm.
"how are you doing?" I ask him "How do you like the show?"
"Great" he answers. 
"Where are you from? I ask
"Jersey and you?"
"I flew in from Toronto for the weekend." I answer.
"Wow you must be quite a fan!" he says
"Well you know how us audio nuts can be; look at you you came in from New Jersey! BTW do you have a
nice system at home?" I ask
"Yeah, you could say that.  I am a big vinyl fan.  I have a turntable at home that worth about
a hundred grand, although I didn't pay anything near that."
"Whoa! I don't have a house worth that kind of dough!" I answer.
I think to myself, the guy's got some money, come to think of it, look at the nice jacket and pants
he's got on.  And look at me in my old jeans and baseball cap.
After the song ends, he pulls out his own CD from hsi beautiful soft leather case and asks Danny to play
it, if he wouldn't mind.
Danny pushes play and you can hear that the start of the CD is from an original recording session
because you can hear the Sound engineer saying "testing, testing" and all of sudden you hear Peggy Lee
singing Fever as if she was standing right in front of me.  Following that song we hear an original
studio recording of Paul McCartney with the same phenomonal clarity.
I turn to my new friend and I say: "Where did you get that?"
"Oh, I am really sorry, I can't tell you that." He says.
"Yeah, well you better tell me or I am sending my cousin Rocco to your house in Jersey". I threaten.
"It won't do you any good, I won't tell him either." He chuckles.
At this point, Danny leans over to me and says to me that perhaps the gentleman would like to sit it
the sweet spot that my pants were glued to, so that he could hear his selections in the ideal spot.
Shoot, I forgot that I was probalby being rude, so I quickly get up and switch places with the gentleman.
After a few more amazing tunes, I finally get up and shake my new friend's hand and wish a safe trip
home and remind him that Rocco will be there when he gets back!! Corny laughing all around.
As I am walking out the room, I also shake Danny's hand and thank him for a great demo. 
Danny thanks me for coming and leans over to me and whispers to me: "Do you know who that man is
that you were talking too?"
"No, who?" I respond.
"Have you heard of Michael Fremer from Stereophle, that's him".
It instantly dawned on me that Danny must have been hoping that I would have got up my chair 15
minutes earlier so that he could really demo for Mr Fremer.  After all, a good word from Micahel Fremer
in his Show review is like money in the bank.  And here I am threatening him with a fictitious thug named
Rocco.
Anyways, Danny if you read this, thank you for being such a gentleman, and I hope that you will get
the positive review from Mr Fremer that you so richly deserve.
You certainly have my glowing praise for a room well done!
And Mr. Fremer - I still need to know who's master tapes you stole!

[2bigears]

great story,did not sound like he was to worried about Rocco????

[MaxCast]

Spirit, Rocco just called.  He is outside Mike's house and wondering what he should do.  What should I tell him?   
Cool story.  Good thing you didn't start bashing the rags. 

[Spirit]

Spirit, Rocco just called.  He is outside Mike's house and wondering what he should do.  What should I tell him?   
Cool story.  Good thing you didn't start bashing the rags. 

No, the rags he was weraing were really elegant.
But I told him the 'phile sucks!

[Brad]

That was probably a CD Fremer recorded from his vinyl setup.....using his Alesis hard drive recorder that was modded by Chris Hoff at BPT.

He talked a little about it during his turntable setup session.

[BobM]

It's always funny when a pristine, absolutely beautiful piece of music (and recording) gets played. At a show or at home. It makes me wish everything sounded that good. But it usually sounds great on just about any decent system. Transparent, musical, engaging, and a joy to hear.

How can a reviewer truly judge a system using a recording that 99% of us will never have, or even experience? I think there's also value in judging a system against a fair to poor recording. If it hides the warts, then it's changing the sound and sweetening things, but it could be very musical and engaging. If it shows the flaws in fine detail then it's truly a transparent system, but not necessarily musical and enjoying.

Balance in all things, grasshopper. 

Enjoy,
Bob

[Danny Richie]

I could see that you guys were having quite the conversation up there in the front row but didn't realize what was being said. Michael certainly was a friendly guy. I could see the two of you chuckling to one another.

Actually I was pretty content with where you guys were setting and treated him just as I would anyone else. It was after his 4th CD that it appeared he was really liking what he was hearing and I figured that since it was his music selections he might want to take a turn in the sweat spot.

Anyways, Danny if you read this, thank you for being such a gentleman, and I hope that you will get
the positive review from Mr Fremer that you so richly deserve.

I am just as hopeful that you enjoyed your time in my room.

[BradJudy]

...he might want to take a turn in the sweat spot.

The sweat spot?  That doesn't sound pleasant at all. 

[Spirit]

...he might want to take a turn in the sweat spot.

The sweat spot?  That doesn't sound pleasant at all. 

Now that is a true Freudian slip.
Sitting in Danny's Sweet spot really did make me Sweat!
Truthfully, I really do sweat when I am excited ....(take your mind out of the gutter)....
by sweet sound!

[Danny Richie]

That is a funny typo. 

[TomS]

I had an interesting (funny?) encounter in the dealer's room with Vandy Quatro's and Ayre's new monos.  It was just a few minutes before closing time Saturday night and they were apparently anxious to leave so not particularly friendly when I wandered in.  As the 2 guys wrapped up I sat down for one last track because I really wanted to hear this combo just once before I left.    I had the sweet spot chair all to myself and there was still just one big guy (i.e. my size) sitting a couple of feet away on my left rear flank.  I explained I have owned 2's, 2c's, 2ci's, 2ce's, 3A's, and had at one time considered 5A's (used of course) but was a little intimidated by the setup demands (and price even on resale).  I then listened to a couple of musically non-memorable tracks they played.  The Quatro's imaged beautifully, but at least on this music, didn't seem particularly dynamic and the combo truly didn't wow me considering the cost and pedigree.  The sales guy asked me what I thought and I believe my response was very luke warm to the effect of "it's ok", but I'd like to hear one more track.  He put on a Beatles cut and promptly walked away and left me with the big guy who politely and patiently began to engage me with more questions... He honestly didn't seem as interested to leave with them and would rather chat.  "so what did you end up buying instead of the 5A's?". "Merlins"  "why did you buy thoooose?" and the dialog continued.  It got more interesting as I asked if it was really that difficult for an owner to set up 5A's, Quatro's properly himself.  He proceeded to extol the virtues of well trained dealers like Joe Blow here (who wanted me to leave) and I just listened and nodded my head.  I said that high end dealers for the most part don't exist in the middle of nowhere where I am, so that wasn't a great option, thus the direct purchase of Merlin's and superb internet support I receive whenever I ask.  He said something to the effect that he chose to spend his time supporting his dealer network rather than hang out on audio chat groups.  That, of course, caused me to immediately wheel around to look at his name badge - yes, none other than Richard Vandersteen himself.  I felt compelled to remove both feet/shoes from my mouth, but he was nonetheless very gracious.  The annoyed sales guy then swooped him up for a dinner on the town and away they went.  What a hoot.

Tom

[zybar]

Great story Tom.

I'll let you know how hard or easy it is to setup the Vandy 5A's in a few weeks when they are at my house.   

George

[TomS]

Mr V described a ritual that was clearly very well defined, but he seemed to want to impress me with the notion that only a competent dealer could do it 

That should be sweet with the Moscode.  I might have to come hear that on one of my trips out to Raynham.

[John Casler]

Great story Tom.

I'll let you know how hard or easy it is to setup the Vandy 5A's in a few weeks when they are at my house.   

George

George,

Just a hint, for what it's worth.  I found the 5A's an excellent speaker, but, do be prepared to have an adjustable height listening chair.

With Richards phase coherancy, and driver alignment, if you are too high or low, the speaker may not sound as good as it can.

So not only does it have a "left to right" sweet spot, it also has an "up and down" position that can maximize the sonic potential.

That is due to the need to be a certain distance from each of the drivers, for them to blend and create the phase coherancy.

Look forward to your comments on tuning (and listening to) them.

[zybar]

Thanks John.

I have spent a lot of hours listening and helping my friend tune his 5A's so I am well prepared for the setup.

If I can handle a VMPS setup, anything else isn't too bad.   aa

George

[Charles Calkins]

George:
 I'm a plug it in and play it kind of a guy. Since I had the pleasure of meeting you and all the rest of the great guys at the RMAF my interest in audio has resurfaced.
 Enough of that B.S.
 Is there some kind of device available that would help me get my speakers set up correctly?

                                        Cheers
                                        Charlie

[zybar]

George:
 I'm a plug it in and play it kind of a guy. Since I had the pleasure of meeting you and all the rest of the great guys at the RMAF my interest in audio has resurfaced.
 Enough of that B.S.
 Is there some kind of device available that would help me get my speakers set up correctly?

                                        Cheers
                                        Charlie

Charlie,

There are many devices and processes out there to help you setup your speakers in a better fashion.

How much money, time, and effort are you willing to put into it? 

You can spend thousands on devices such as the TacT 2.2x preamp/dac that will allow you to measure your room/speaker interaction and make changes and adjustments, or you can get freeware, slap it on a laptop, and with a simple mike measure your room/speaker interaction and make changes to your listening position and speaker placement. 

Of course there are tons of options in between.   

The best place to start is to use a Radio Shack meter and some simple 1/12 octave test tones to see how your current setup is.  Work on getting as smooth an in-room response as possible by changing speaker and listener positions.  Avoid being in the middle of your room (up/down, left/right, front/back).

Shoot me a PM with your number and we can discuss this further.

George

[Doublej]

The question I have is how much is a good review from Stereophile worth in terms of sales? How much is it worth if you the item is in the A or B category of recommend components? Does anyone have a sense of this?

[gooberdude]

I'll bet Stereophile does!   I'm a prop mgr, and get solicited by mags all the time
to advertise the property in their ads.  They have gobs of statistics about how their mag can benefit the bldg.  No doubt its commonplace in the marketing industry...  Though ad space & reviews are difft - they be in the same magazine.

Hey Charlie - don't discount a simple room acoustics treatment.  MG audio & Eighth Nerve
have systems that are plug & play.  Perfect for someone getting back into this hobby, if you haven't addressed those issues before.

[John Casler]

Thanks John.

I have spent a lot of hours listening and helping my friend tune his 5A's so I am well prepared for the setup.

If I can handle a VMPS setup, anything else isn't too bad.   aa

George

Hi George,

Didn't mean to "imply" that tuning and positioning were "bad" or problematic.  Obviously I "like" being able to achieve sonic preferences through adjustments of a system/room.

I didn't know you had lots of experience with the 5A's in that regard, and I know some have a tendency to discount them as being "high shy".

I found out through some listening experiences, that, that perceived "shyness", can be the result of less than precision listening height, leading to incoherent driver phase relationships in the vertical plane.