Tres Amigos Meet Again-A Brief But Wonderful Interlude In New Jersey

Barry · Jul 4, 2016

What a great trip and write up. Marty, I'm sure your system sounds wonderful. I must say the view from the back yard is sublime.

Not sure what's in the Pipedreams, but if you ever get restless and want to experiment some more read this:

http://jeffsplace.me/wordpress/?p=5464

I tried it on my Magneplanars some years back and it was sonically transformative.

Enjoy!

Kingsrule · Jul 5, 2016

marty said:
Goldmund Studio to ASR Phono: Shunyata Venom cables, custom terminated RCA to XLR
ASR phono to VTL 7.5 III: Cardas Clear XLR Balanced
Meitner DX2 to VTL 7.5 III MIT SHD rev 2 XLR balanced
VTL 7.5 III to JL CR-1 MIT Oracle MA-X rev 2 XLR balanced
JL CR-1 to Spectral RMA 400, MIT SHD rev 2 XLR balanced
JL CR-1 to Gotham v2: Nordost Valhalla XLR balanced

Spectral RMA 400 to Pipedreams Towers, MIT Matrix 90 Rev 1

Thanks Marty

ddk · Jul 10, 2016

Visit to Marty’s!

I only met Marty not so long ago when he visited Utah and during that brief time I found that beyond our passion for music & audio we're hindered spirits sharing many other interests and ever since then I’ve been looking forward to getting together again. My recent NY trip provided the opportunity to visit Marty in his lair!

Purpose of the visit was first and foremost to meet Marty again and 2nd was his listening room that I heard so much about from Steve. Driving up to Marty’s beautiful mansion you realize that this is no ordinary Lair naturally raising one’s already high expectations of the “Room” even higher; and you’re not going to be disappointed

! The “Room” is lavish by any standard decorated with great art and some amazing photography, nice discovery for me. The “Room” isn’t designed as a man cave or solitary system room but for spending time with family and friends which is the same as my approach to the listening space. At one end there’s a baby grand in front a curved wall of glass looking outside at the beautiful grounds (look at Steve's picts above) the system is on the opposite side well hidden from sight in tasteful custom cabinets. The only thing visible are the speakers which easily disappear in Marty’s 35’ x 25’ listening room. The glass area is covered with heavy curtains changing the character of the room as you close them. We started the session with digital but soon switched over analog which we listened to for the rest of the evening

. Seeing and hearing purpose built listening rooms like Marty’s and Mike L’s is always a treat, different from converted existing spaces like Steve’s or mine which is only a managed space without any treatment. At the other end of the spectrum is a friend’s listening room in a typical Manhattan apartment where we just installed his Siemens theater horns with incredible results. But Marty’s room offers something that IMO is impossible to recreate in smaller or lesser spaces and that’s large scale orchestral music. Marty has spent a lot of time sorting out the spacial placement of instruments in his system which pays off when listening to a big orchestra. I have to say that there’s no substitute for a large well designed room 14’ ceilings with Marty as the grand wizard. I want to take the opportunity to thank Marty & Lisa for their hospitality and a really good time!

david

Steve Williams · Jul 10, 2016

Glad you had a great time. I've yet to hear a room better than Martys when it comes to large orchestrals
BTW David my room was built from the ground up

microstrip · Jul 10, 2016

ddk said:
(...) I have to say that there’s no substitute for a large well designed room 14’ ceilings with Marty as the grand wizard. (...)

Long ago I had a large room with solid wood floors over a 3' air cavity and 13' ceilings and I really miss it!

microstrip · Jul 10, 2016

ddk said:
(...) At the other end of the spectrum is a friend’s listening room in a typical Manhattan apartment where we just installed his Siemens theater horns with incredible results.(...)

David,
Can we have a more detailed description of such system?

ddk · Jul 10, 2016

Steve Williams said:
Glad you had a great time. I've yet to hear a room better than Martys when it comes to large orchestrals
BTW David my room was built from the ground up

Reading about your room was what first brought me to this site Steve but you converted an existing space inside your house limited by the main structure compared to Marty's and Mike L's rooms that were ground up projects. I know Mike's was also an existing structure but given the dimensions he wasn't limited.

david

ddk · Jul 10, 2016

microstrip said:
David,
Can we have a more detailed description of such system?

It's a wonderful natural sounding musical system, Micro Seiki SX-8000 MKII, Lamm LP2.1, Lamm LL1, Lamm ML2.2. The speakers which I'm very proud of are custom made from vintage TAD bass horn cabinets and Siemens 6 KI L303 compression drivers with matching horns. The limiting factor with Siemens Klangfilm speakers has always been size, typically a 6'x8' or larger baffle size is needed. I've seen other attempts by others trying to mate these wonderful horns with other bass sections with very mixed results due to quality of the woofer and/or bass cabinets. In this case the TAD bass horn and driver are almost as good and as fast as the Siemens bass driver eliminating the need for large baffles. These custom speakers sound almost identical to the Bionor and ASFAIK the only pair made this way, best of all they can fit any room.

david

bonzo75 · Jul 10, 2016

Are there any pics of this room?

ddk · Jul 10, 2016

bonzo75 said:
Are there any pics of this room?

The owner is a private person it's his choice to post them if he wishes.
david

rblnr · Jul 11, 2016

Hey guys, if you're ever looking for a fourth amigo to join in the listening, give me a buzz next time around. I live close and actually have the spiritual successors to Marty's Pipedreams.

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Tres Amigos Meet Again-A Brief But Wonderful Interlude In New Jersey

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