I posted this on Facebook a few minutes ago...
Andy Singer
Forgive me as it has taken me a while to get my thoughts together about the terrible news that Andy Singer had passed. I first met Andy Singer in 1989 when I moved to New York to work at Shearson Lehman Hutton. I had an Adcom system and these terrible Polk SDS-2B speakers that kept blowing their tweeters. Eventually I moved up to Aragon electronics, the better Nelson Pass-designed Adcom preamp, and Magnepan IIIas from Lyric. I soon realized I needed better cables and some footers and wound-up walking into the then new Union Square store and seeing
Steve Guttenberg and started buying accessories. As I found that the Chesky CDs sounded so great on my system, I soon became a fan and over time bought every single one from the wall of CDs that Andy had. Steve also smartly suggested that CD quality wasn’t all that great at the time and that I should consider getting a turntable. I stupidly ignored his advice until much later in life. Eventually Steve invited me to see
David Chesky perform his New York Chorinhos album on piano near the front window of the store. It was a terrific performance and Steve introduced me to David Chesky who then invited me to see Clark Terry perform at the Village Gate. That led to working on Chesky recording sessions and meeting
Bob Katz and
Jeremy R. Kipnis. Later, after working three years of 90+ hour weeks on Wall Street, I decided to take a summer off and decompress. Andy and I got to talking about a business problem he had where he was having trouble paying his salespeople accurately and on-time. I explained how I could partially automate the sales commission payouts via Microsoft Excel and before I knew it, I was working for him. I also helped this Australian character named Kim manage the inventory room. Kim would regale us with stories about how kind Phil Collins was as Kim was his bodyguard and he and his wife would regularly dine with Phil and his wife. Those early 90s summers in New York were fascinating on several fronts. I learned a lot about investment banking, the high-end audio business, and music production.
It's safe to say that without Andy, I would not have met Steve Guttenberg or
Michael Trei or David Chesky. Andy could be grumpy at times, but he always treated me well and oddly it felt like I was part of the whole crazy but fun New York audiophile family. Andy and I kept in touch and would have some long calls at times and he would share very intelligent opinions about the audio business, how it could be improved and expanded, and offered suggestions on how I could get better sound at home. He was a passionate believer in the brands he carried. It really sucks that Andy is gone and I will greatly miss him. He played an outsized role in the audio business, and I am sure he created many thousands of audiophiles.
Rest in peace my friend
