Tres Amigos Visit The Pacific Northwest For A Weekend Of Listening Bliss
- Thread starter Steve Williams
- Start date
Three Boy’s Audio Weekend In Greater Seattle
As I sat on a plane flying home to NJ from Seattle yesterday, no doubt Steve Williams and Marty Wax are each writing their takes on the three days we spent together in the audio candy store that was assembled for our benefit during the 48 hours after we arrived in Seattle on Thursday night. Not surprisingly, as the psychiatrist of the group, I expected that we would have three totally different experiences because we are distinctly different people at different points in our lives, AND because we had different expectations and needs going into this trip.
Steve, the WBF founder, will no doubt have a historic take on what we jointly experienced because his fund of knowledge in that arena is vast and involves each of the people we visited. Marty will clearly have the most scientific perspective, because he is a scientist and the king of late night audio OCD and audio measurement. My take will be a bit more like the National Geographic Channel, with a bit of technology, audio reminiscing about historic events and a large dose of experiential comments. My reason for going on this trip was quite different than Steve’s and Marty’s because I have much less aspiration than both Marty and Steve to improve my system. My main goal was to get a mental recharge after a long and somewhat difficult East Coast winter, the death of a dog and some ongoing medical problems.
I’ve been to Seattle on a number of occasions. I even went to the world’s fair in the 60’s. But as my plane flew just north of Mt. Rainier with the red glow of the setting sun on it Thursday, I knew that somehow this trip was going to be different than what I originally thought. What I could not have imagined was just how different it would be, not only from previous trips to Seattle, but from just about every previous audio outing I have been on. It turns out it would be different because it would impact my life beyond audio.
The Backstory
As all good NGC shows begin, a bit of history about the why and how of this trip. The three of us have consumed large doses of Shunyata Kool-Aid, each being fully equipped with Shunyata PC’s from the Sigma, Alpha and Anaconda phases of life. We all have Triton’s and Typhons are would not give them up. We communicate directly with Caelin Gabriel, Shunyata’s founder and designer. Sooner or later we were destined for a day-long factory visit, but wanted to try to link it to some other audio visits in the Seattle area.
The need for a break from the routine of daily life, at least for Marty and me, combined with an unveiling party at Genesis for their latest version of their very limited edition Dragon speaker before it was shipped to the Philippines, and some key home visits arranged by Steve with other WBF members, coalesced to make this the “must go” weekend. As the member from NGC, naturally I was also the photographer and will try to show some relevant images from each stop.
The Trip
While the trip started at Shunyata on Bainbridge Island, a ferry ride west from Seattle, the rest was a bit like what my girlfriend Ginny calls “a need to go shopping”, only in this case the shopping was for audio and life experiences and not actual products.
Our trip itinerary was an all day Shunyata factory tour and ongoing discussions and playing with their team on Friday and a visit to Caelin’s log “cabin”. That night we went to the Genesis Dragon bon voyage part, hosted by Gary Koe. On Saturday, we went to Puget Sound Studios to visit Bruce Brown and hear his equipment and view his studios and “secret room”.
We then went to Ki’s house to marvel at his fascination with tape machines and master tapes. What we did not expect was that the main learning point that Ki would emphasize repeatedly through his values and actions that experiencing the music is truly what things should be about and not branding and how much something costs. While Ki is brilliant and unassuming he drove this message home in ways that could never have been anticipated, bringing a huge breath of fresh air into the whole experience and reminding us that CES and many dealers have become a sad representation of what audio is allegedly about.
Mike Lavigne showed up at Ki’s house to add some energy to the process and to facilitate the transition to the main listening event of the trip, hours experiencing his outrageous personal system and his incredibly gracious hospitality.
More on each of these stops and some picts as this story unfolds!!!
Shunyata Factory Tour, Caelin’s Log Cabin And The Boys Just Playing Around
On Friday we left Seattle on the Washington State Ferry fairly early and headed west to Bainbridge Island. The weather was glorious with a clear view of Mt. Rainier, Seattle and the Olympic mountain range. We were met at the ferry terminal by Richard, jack of trades at Shunyata, who was one of my first contacts several years ago after meeting Caelin at CES. During my first call to Shunyata, Richard spent 2 hours on the phone with me and helped me better understand their products and philosophy, which led to my first of many Shunyata purchases, including buying a Triton, numerious PC’s and some signal cables, both analog and digital. Not surprisingly, the rest of the day at Shunyata offered the same “take as much time as you need” interaction with everyone, especially Caelin, who became more kid-like as the visit progressed.
For a person who is curious to a fault and loved as a kid to go to his father’s research labs and be wowed by the unknown and some demonstrations of what is possible, the day at Shunyata was a total flashback to my fond childhood memories. Thank you Caelin!!!! For me it was the best part of the day and an homage to my deceased father.
Shunyata’s offices are both physically beautiful and “Mr. Wizzard central”. Caelin first shared his core philosophy as we filled our stomachs with wonderful baked goods and fruit. My take is that he believes that everything, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is relevant, and that the more one tends to details, the better the end result. Even the wire to each socket in his listening room is exactly the same length so there will not be propagation differences. While he showed us many analytical devices that are used for R&D and production, it is clear that the end goal is insuring personal involvement and enjoyment.
I was particularly impressed by the range of tools that they use and projects they undertake. There are bins of hundreds of prototypes of various products. I could not help but smirk when he demonstrated that they use a Flir infra red camera to look at components while in use to determine where there may be heat build up to help ease the path to those pesky electrons on their way to our speakers. I was also struck by how interested they are in vibration as a form of wasted and disruptive energy, and their efforts to minimize energy loss in any way possible, especially physically and electrically.
As an owner of many Shunyata products that do wonderful things for my system in ways that I just do not understand, but have no doubt are real, it was great seeing their innards, especially the fabled NIC’s. The only conclusion I could come away with is that Caelin is right—the really simple things make a difference and should not be ignored.
Caelin then took us to his log cabin home (don’t let the name fool you—It is beautiful), only surpassed by its setting overlooking the Olympic mountain range. There we listened to his personal system which you can see in the following picture, but you cannot hear how wonderful the highs were from his Ayon SET amp and a wonderful ribbon tweeter in his Wave 40 speakers.
From my personal experience during the past several years with Shunyata products, I know that the more simple Shunyata improvements you employ, the better the end listening experience. Amongst the most puzzling of these improvements is the Typhon, which many, including me, have written about on the WBF. It’s contents are solely two specially designed NIC (noise isolation chambers) sealed in a metal chassis. But, it does something special that is hard to describe and varies with each application. While I feel privileged to be able to afford a single Typhon ($6k) with my Triton and various Shunyata PC’s, only at Shunyata could we play with their current listening system (Vivid G3’s driven by a Luxman amp and Puccini CD player) using a single Typhon, two Typhon’s, three Typhon’s and then four Typhon’s (talk about the kids in the electronic toy shop). I was about to say all that was missing was candy and cookies, but then fresh backed chocolate chip cookies and candy showed up to add to our experiential pleasure.
The G3’s have an amazing tweeter and uncanny midrange to midbass transition which for me were my reference during these “Typhi” comparisons. As the psychiatrist of the group, I would say that the cumulative “functional age” of all of us was somewhere around 20 years for 5 people, including Caelin.
Clearly adding Typhi changed the sound with each addition, but for me the best combination was with either two or three. Sadly, since I want a new Triton V2, I will have to settle for my single Typhon, but do not shed a tear for me because my system has never sounded so good!!!!
This is only a small snippet of what happened during our day at Shunyata, but needless to say, this is a special company that if you have not yet explored its products, then you have not been to the candy store and left with a big belly grin.
Go to the next post since I just exceeded the memory limit.
As I sat on a plane flying home to NJ from Seattle yesterday, no doubt Steve Williams and Marty Wax are each writing their takes on the three days we spent together in the audio candy store that was assembled for our benefit during the 48 hours after we arrived in Seattle on Thursday night. Not surprisingly, as the psychiatrist of the group, I expected that we would have three totally different experiences because we are distinctly different people at different points in our lives, AND because we had different expectations and needs going into this trip.
Steve, the WBF founder, will no doubt have a historic take on what we jointly experienced because his fund of knowledge in that arena is vast and involves each of the people we visited. Marty will clearly have the most scientific perspective, because he is a scientist and the king of late night audio OCD and audio measurement. My take will be a bit more like the National Geographic Channel, with a bit of technology, audio reminiscing about historic events and a large dose of experiential comments. My reason for going on this trip was quite different than Steve’s and Marty’s because I have much less aspiration than both Marty and Steve to improve my system. My main goal was to get a mental recharge after a long and somewhat difficult East Coast winter, the death of a dog and some ongoing medical problems.
I’ve been to Seattle on a number of occasions. I even went to the world’s fair in the 60’s. But as my plane flew just north of Mt. Rainier with the red glow of the setting sun on it Thursday, I knew that somehow this trip was going to be different than what I originally thought. What I could not have imagined was just how different it would be, not only from previous trips to Seattle, but from just about every previous audio outing I have been on. It turns out it would be different because it would impact my life beyond audio.
The Backstory
As all good NGC shows begin, a bit of history about the why and how of this trip. The three of us have consumed large doses of Shunyata Kool-Aid, each being fully equipped with Shunyata PC’s from the Sigma, Alpha and Anaconda phases of life. We all have Triton’s and Typhons are would not give them up. We communicate directly with Caelin Gabriel, Shunyata’s founder and designer. Sooner or later we were destined for a day-long factory visit, but wanted to try to link it to some other audio visits in the Seattle area.
The need for a break from the routine of daily life, at least for Marty and me, combined with an unveiling party at Genesis for their latest version of their very limited edition Dragon speaker before it was shipped to the Philippines, and some key home visits arranged by Steve with other WBF members, coalesced to make this the “must go” weekend. As the member from NGC, naturally I was also the photographer and will try to show some relevant images from each stop.
The Trip
While the trip started at Shunyata on Bainbridge Island, a ferry ride west from Seattle, the rest was a bit like what my girlfriend Ginny calls “a need to go shopping”, only in this case the shopping was for audio and life experiences and not actual products.
Our trip itinerary was an all day Shunyata factory tour and ongoing discussions and playing with their team on Friday and a visit to Caelin’s log “cabin”. That night we went to the Genesis Dragon bon voyage part, hosted by Gary Koe. On Saturday, we went to Puget Sound Studios to visit Bruce Brown and hear his equipment and view his studios and “secret room”.
We then went to Ki’s house to marvel at his fascination with tape machines and master tapes. What we did not expect was that the main learning point that Ki would emphasize repeatedly through his values and actions that experiencing the music is truly what things should be about and not branding and how much something costs. While Ki is brilliant and unassuming he drove this message home in ways that could never have been anticipated, bringing a huge breath of fresh air into the whole experience and reminding us that CES and many dealers have become a sad representation of what audio is allegedly about.
Mike Lavigne showed up at Ki’s house to add some energy to the process and to facilitate the transition to the main listening event of the trip, hours experiencing his outrageous personal system and his incredibly gracious hospitality.
More on each of these stops and some picts as this story unfolds!!!
Shunyata Factory Tour, Caelin’s Log Cabin And The Boys Just Playing Around
On Friday we left Seattle on the Washington State Ferry fairly early and headed west to Bainbridge Island. The weather was glorious with a clear view of Mt. Rainier, Seattle and the Olympic mountain range. We were met at the ferry terminal by Richard, jack of trades at Shunyata, who was one of my first contacts several years ago after meeting Caelin at CES. During my first call to Shunyata, Richard spent 2 hours on the phone with me and helped me better understand their products and philosophy, which led to my first of many Shunyata purchases, including buying a Triton, numerious PC’s and some signal cables, both analog and digital. Not surprisingly, the rest of the day at Shunyata offered the same “take as much time as you need” interaction with everyone, especially Caelin, who became more kid-like as the visit progressed.
For a person who is curious to a fault and loved as a kid to go to his father’s research labs and be wowed by the unknown and some demonstrations of what is possible, the day at Shunyata was a total flashback to my fond childhood memories. Thank you Caelin!!!! For me it was the best part of the day and an homage to my deceased father.
Shunyata’s offices are both physically beautiful and “Mr. Wizzard central”. Caelin first shared his core philosophy as we filled our stomachs with wonderful baked goods and fruit. My take is that he believes that everything, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is relevant, and that the more one tends to details, the better the end result. Even the wire to each socket in his listening room is exactly the same length so there will not be propagation differences. While he showed us many analytical devices that are used for R&D and production, it is clear that the end goal is insuring personal involvement and enjoyment.
I was particularly impressed by the range of tools that they use and projects they undertake. There are bins of hundreds of prototypes of various products. I could not help but smirk when he demonstrated that they use a Flir infra red camera to look at components while in use to determine where there may be heat build up to help ease the path to those pesky electrons on their way to our speakers. I was also struck by how interested they are in vibration as a form of wasted and disruptive energy, and their efforts to minimize energy loss in any way possible, especially physically and electrically.
As an owner of many Shunyata products that do wonderful things for my system in ways that I just do not understand, but have no doubt are real, it was great seeing their innards, especially the fabled NIC’s. The only conclusion I could come away with is that Caelin is right—the really simple things make a difference and should not be ignored.
Caelin then took us to his log cabin home (don’t let the name fool you—It is beautiful), only surpassed by its setting overlooking the Olympic mountain range. There we listened to his personal system which you can see in the following picture, but you cannot hear how wonderful the highs were from his Ayon SET amp and a wonderful ribbon tweeter in his Wave 40 speakers.
From my personal experience during the past several years with Shunyata products, I know that the more simple Shunyata improvements you employ, the better the end listening experience. Amongst the most puzzling of these improvements is the Typhon, which many, including me, have written about on the WBF. It’s contents are solely two specially designed NIC (noise isolation chambers) sealed in a metal chassis. But, it does something special that is hard to describe and varies with each application. While I feel privileged to be able to afford a single Typhon ($6k) with my Triton and various Shunyata PC’s, only at Shunyata could we play with their current listening system (Vivid G3’s driven by a Luxman amp and Puccini CD player) using a single Typhon, two Typhon’s, three Typhon’s and then four Typhon’s (talk about the kids in the electronic toy shop). I was about to say all that was missing was candy and cookies, but then fresh backed chocolate chip cookies and candy showed up to add to our experiential pleasure.
The G3’s have an amazing tweeter and uncanny midrange to midbass transition which for me were my reference during these “Typhi” comparisons. As the psychiatrist of the group, I would say that the cumulative “functional age” of all of us was somewhere around 20 years for 5 people, including Caelin.
Clearly adding Typhi changed the sound with each addition, but for me the best combination was with either two or three. Sadly, since I want a new Triton V2, I will have to settle for my single Typhon, but do not shed a tear for me because my system has never sounded so good!!!!
This is only a small snippet of what happened during our day at Shunyata, but needless to say, this is a special company that if you have not yet explored its products, then you have not been to the candy store and left with a big belly grin.
Go to the next post since I just exceeded the memory limit.
Genesis Dragon Party
While the top of the Genesis speaker line is their 1.2, several times a year they build a special version called the Dragon. Its materials are somewhat different and improved, including special driver selection, wiring and even gold plated screws for driver mounting! The system is huge dwarfing any human and needs 180 square feet of floor space just to house the associated electronics. While a warehouse is not the best listening environment, it was clear that this speaker is a force to be reckoned with. It was also where we had our first experience with one of Ki’s many modified Studers.
Gary and his family were very gracious hosts and served a wonderful dinner.
While the top of the Genesis speaker line is their 1.2, several times a year they build a special version called the Dragon. Its materials are somewhat different and improved, including special driver selection, wiring and even gold plated screws for driver mounting! The system is huge dwarfing any human and needs 180 square feet of floor space just to house the associated electronics. While a warehouse is not the best listening environment, it was clear that this speaker is a force to be reckoned with. It was also where we had our first experience with one of Ki’s many modified Studers.
Gary and his family were very gracious hosts and served a wonderful dinner.
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The above three photos are from Puget Sound Studios
Puget Sound Studio
We started Saturday morning with some Seattle coffee and muffins and then went west to Bruce Brown’s Puget Sound Studio set up in his basement. When building his house he obtained a variance to have a 12 foot tall basement so he could build his studio in the basement space.
All of consoles were custom built for Bruce and absolutely stunning. This visit was as much about technology as it was listening to one of my favorite speakers, the Wilson Alexia powered by Pass monoblocks. Bruce was incredibly gracious as he tried to explain the technical basics of mastering to a psychiatrist (talk about polar opposite perspectives). After several passes, I think I got it and will be very happy to leave the technical stuff to Bruce.
One of the true surprises occurred when Bruce pulled away some of his acoustical treatment behind his left speaker to reveal the entrance to a secret room, otherwise known as a wine cellar. Like the studio, it too was beautiful.
Puget Sound Studio
We started Saturday morning with some Seattle coffee and muffins and then went west to Bruce Brown’s Puget Sound Studio set up in his basement. When building his house he obtained a variance to have a 12 foot tall basement so he could build his studio in the basement space.
All of consoles were custom built for Bruce and absolutely stunning. This visit was as much about technology as it was listening to one of my favorite speakers, the Wilson Alexia powered by Pass monoblocks. Bruce was incredibly gracious as he tried to explain the technical basics of mastering to a psychiatrist (talk about polar opposite perspectives). After several passes, I think I got it and will be very happy to leave the technical stuff to Bruce.
One of the true surprises occurred when Bruce pulled away some of his acoustical treatment behind his left speaker to reveal the entrance to a secret room, otherwise known as a wine cellar. Like the studio, it too was beautiful.
Ki’s House
The next trip was to the home of Ki. More important than his home and his systems is his attitude. Ki is a nuclear physicist who is totally unimpressed with the BS of modern day audio. While some of independent souls have our own drummer, Kui has his own professional tape machines. Rumor has it that he has somewhere around 75-80 of them, but he tried to dodge the actual number by saying he is curious and a collector. Although there were Nagra’s everywhere, I counted 3 in one room, there were also Studor’s anywhere there was enough floor space to store one. I never saw an Ampex, but he did admit that he had an ENTIRE garage full of deck that were being stored during some home renevations.
Before taking us to his main listening room equipped with a full MBL system with Radialstrahler 101’s and dual 9011 MBL stereo amps for vertical biamping, not to mention at least five of his collection of professional tape machines, almost all heavily modified by Ki (remember the nuclear physicist part), he took use to his home theater room which contained a pair of Maggie 20.1’s, a preamp mother board sitting on a Tuperware container lid after he took away the “unnecessary” components and one of his many Nagra’s equipped with some unknown master tape that Marty is quite sure is a lost master tape from a very well known big band from the 60’s to 70’s.
Everything was connected with the most unassuming cabling you could imagine (stuff you would not think up to Radio Shack standards) and it sounded great and better than most people’s high end systems. Ki mentioned that the wire might be a bit special since he used it for probes when looking into components for nuclear reactions and he repurposed it when it became too old for his insuring a reactor to be safe!
It was wonderful to have such good sound without all of the pomp and circumstance, not to mention BS, that is all too common in high end audio today. Needless to say the sound was spectacular despite the Tuperware preamp and “Radio Shack” cables.
Then we went upstairs to the main room which was not set up because the equipment had just been put back into the room the previous night following recarpeting and nothing was connected. The sound upstairs was also wonderful (so much for letting cables settle in)!!
Although there were Nagra’s everywhere, I counted 3 in one room, there were also Studor’s anywhere there was enough floor space to store one. Next to one of the Studer’s was a Tuperware container with at least 8 Studor head blocks so that Ki could use his scope to insure that the when playing back or duping a tape, he was using the same head design that the tape was recorded with.
However, what was more important and impressive was the amount of tapes Ki has. While he did not tell us the exact number, probably because he does not know the actual count, let’s just say the count is in the many hundred’s.
“Jazz At The Pawnshop” has been a favorite of mine for years and something that Marty and I have used for decades to judge system articulation (the sound of silverware hitting drinking glasses as waiter’s served). Somehow that piece came up in discussion and Ki said “I have several copies including the original master. Would you like to hear it?” We could not say yes fast enough. The adage that master tapes are superior to vinyl, which are superior to digital, could not have been demonstrated more dramatically than hearing this master.
Thank you Ki for sharing your attitude, experience and software. It is so refreshing.
The next trip was to the home of Ki. More important than his home and his systems is his attitude. Ki is a nuclear physicist who is totally unimpressed with the BS of modern day audio. While some of independent souls have our own drummer, Kui has his own professional tape machines. Rumor has it that he has somewhere around 75-80 of them, but he tried to dodge the actual number by saying he is curious and a collector. Although there were Nagra’s everywhere, I counted 3 in one room, there were also Studor’s anywhere there was enough floor space to store one. I never saw an Ampex, but he did admit that he had an ENTIRE garage full of deck that were being stored during some home renevations.
Before taking us to his main listening room equipped with a full MBL system with Radialstrahler 101’s and dual 9011 MBL stereo amps for vertical biamping, not to mention at least five of his collection of professional tape machines, almost all heavily modified by Ki (remember the nuclear physicist part), he took use to his home theater room which contained a pair of Maggie 20.1’s, a preamp mother board sitting on a Tuperware container lid after he took away the “unnecessary” components and one of his many Nagra’s equipped with some unknown master tape that Marty is quite sure is a lost master tape from a very well known big band from the 60’s to 70’s.
Everything was connected with the most unassuming cabling you could imagine (stuff you would not think up to Radio Shack standards) and it sounded great and better than most people’s high end systems. Ki mentioned that the wire might be a bit special since he used it for probes when looking into components for nuclear reactions and he repurposed it when it became too old for his insuring a reactor to be safe!
It was wonderful to have such good sound without all of the pomp and circumstance, not to mention BS, that is all too common in high end audio today. Needless to say the sound was spectacular despite the Tuperware preamp and “Radio Shack” cables.
Then we went upstairs to the main room which was not set up because the equipment had just been put back into the room the previous night following recarpeting and nothing was connected. The sound upstairs was also wonderful (so much for letting cables settle in)!!
Although there were Nagra’s everywhere, I counted 3 in one room, there were also Studor’s anywhere there was enough floor space to store one. Next to one of the Studer’s was a Tuperware container with at least 8 Studor head blocks so that Ki could use his scope to insure that the when playing back or duping a tape, he was using the same head design that the tape was recorded with.
However, what was more important and impressive was the amount of tapes Ki has. While he did not tell us the exact number, probably because he does not know the actual count, let’s just say the count is in the many hundred’s.
“Jazz At The Pawnshop” has been a favorite of mine for years and something that Marty and I have used for decades to judge system articulation (the sound of silverware hitting drinking glasses as waiter’s served). Somehow that piece came up in discussion and Ki said “I have several copies including the original master. Would you like to hear it?” We could not say yes fast enough. The adage that master tapes are superior to vinyl, which are superior to digital, could not have been demonstrated more dramatically than hearing this master.
Thank you Ki for sharing your attitude, experience and software. It is so refreshing.
Mike Lavigne’s Audio Nirvana
I do not know how to explain a visit to Mike Lavigne’s listening room other than to call it Audio Nirvana. It is beautiful in its physical concept and execution. From the outside it looks like a barn, because it was. However, where horses once ate hay now lives one of the most impressive sound systems probably ever created. When you walk into the corridor around the room so that there is a room within a room, you immediately sense Mike’s sense of aesthetic with instruments hanging beautifully on the wall and a wonderful collection of whiskey’s and Scotch equally beautifully arranged.
Then you enter “The Room” and have no choice but to be speechless because the Evolution Acoustic MM Seven speakers are so imposing, not to mention the design of the room, the Wave Kinetics NVS Reference Turntable with two Durand Tonearms including the $70k Saphire holding the amazing Orotfon MC Anna cartridge sitting on a state of the art stabilization platform as is the darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp with two phono sections. Oh yeah, there was a Playback Designs player in there somewhere. Then you turn your head to the other side of the room and see two Studer professional recording consoles flanking an EMT turntable.
The actual listening started with digital material via disc and from a server. It was quite impressive, if not awe inspiring. Then we moved to vinyl and began with the classic Dafos drum album. While I have heard this record many times over the years, I have never heard it like I did on Mike’s system. It literally blew me out of the chair and blew me away with regard to what is possible via audio.
After listening to a number of records that were amazing beyond anything I thought possible, Mike pulled out the ace in the hole, the master tapes played through his Ki modified Studer. I will leave the sound description to Marty who will no doubt be able to describe it better than me. However, I have to say I have never heard midrange and voice like I heard on Mike’s system. Even Jon Iverson’s fabled Force Field speakers, which both Marty I were able to hear in the 70’s were exceeded by Mike’s system.
In Conclusion
Ironically, my take away from this weekend is more life based than audio based. For a while after hearing Shunyata’s, Gary’s, Bruces’, Mike’s and Ki’s systems I wanted to replace a number of my system’s components. Then as I resumed my daily life, I realized that my personal happiness is what is most important.
Everything matters if one wants to be happy and for me, audio is merely one of many paths to happiness.
I do not know how to explain a visit to Mike Lavigne’s listening room other than to call it Audio Nirvana. It is beautiful in its physical concept and execution. From the outside it looks like a barn, because it was. However, where horses once ate hay now lives one of the most impressive sound systems probably ever created. When you walk into the corridor around the room so that there is a room within a room, you immediately sense Mike’s sense of aesthetic with instruments hanging beautifully on the wall and a wonderful collection of whiskey’s and Scotch equally beautifully arranged.
Then you enter “The Room” and have no choice but to be speechless because the Evolution Acoustic MM Seven speakers are so imposing, not to mention the design of the room, the Wave Kinetics NVS Reference Turntable with two Durand Tonearms including the $70k Saphire holding the amazing Orotfon MC Anna cartridge sitting on a state of the art stabilization platform as is the darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp with two phono sections. Oh yeah, there was a Playback Designs player in there somewhere. Then you turn your head to the other side of the room and see two Studer professional recording consoles flanking an EMT turntable.
The actual listening started with digital material via disc and from a server. It was quite impressive, if not awe inspiring. Then we moved to vinyl and began with the classic Dafos drum album. While I have heard this record many times over the years, I have never heard it like I did on Mike’s system. It literally blew me out of the chair and blew me away with regard to what is possible via audio.
After listening to a number of records that were amazing beyond anything I thought possible, Mike pulled out the ace in the hole, the master tapes played through his Ki modified Studer. I will leave the sound description to Marty who will no doubt be able to describe it better than me. However, I have to say I have never heard midrange and voice like I heard on Mike’s system. Even Jon Iverson’s fabled Force Field speakers, which both Marty I were able to hear in the 70’s were exceeded by Mike’s system.
In Conclusion
Ironically, my take away from this weekend is more life based than audio based. For a while after hearing Shunyata’s, Gary’s, Bruces’, Mike’s and Ki’s systems I wanted to replace a number of my system’s components. Then as I resumed my daily life, I realized that my personal happiness is what is most important.
Everything matters if one wants to be happy and for me, audio is merely one of many paths to happiness.
Thank you Russ Absolutely superb account again from the boys!--Incidentally as an ex Waterski Professional the Mobius is waterski jump trick of a ramp backflip plus a 360 deg turn--I skied with at the time the only dude to complete it --Bruce Neville
Anyway sorry for that digression!
I was interested to read your account of comparison to the Iverson Force Fields
In the late 70's i spent time helping John in the orange County Workshop--his father Ray was dying of Cancer at the time but was a part of the team inspite of his terminal illness--you probably knew of his involvement with the AWAC/StarWars projects however there was much clandestine activity that
was evident and highly classified which was never made public--The rumor was Ray's illness was attributed to part of the program he was involved in.
The Force Fields--or Neutron Density Bombarders as we called them were unique in nearly all conventional transducer ways--you know as you would've seen them-hell the most inefficient things on the planet!--needed Bridged a75s' to get them going--we never had any flying bugs in the room either -ha!
Heaven forbid the speakers were a mini Chernobyl--I slept in the same room with them--and I'm still standing--well just anyway ha!
Ah but to relate to you summation of the sound--I haven't heard Mike's wonderful system but I have heard all the components at shows and in private homes--re the MM7's --for scale no way would the FF's compete same with dynamics/attack/huge SPL--nope not even close
BUT--the shear nuances and layering and pristine sonics at near field --nothing I have experienced in my over 58years as a HiFi Buff has bettered the listening sensation of music from those transducers--if they had been perfected for Domestic use they would have been revolutionary even today--my honest opinion
In your listening session--John must have played you Morning has Broken and Over my Head--think back--have you ever heard the Choir behind Cats Voice float around the room like that on any other system?--I haven't frankly--memerising! Did you do the ear cup trick?--J's fav! he'd ask listeners hold their hands over their ears
and ask them what they heard-- the sound apparent to the listener was no difference with ears naked--go figure--ha!
We all know that genius has flaws--and JI was no different--his products were groundbreaking at the time-the A75 Amp and the lesser EK1- Pre the latter doomed to fall by the wayside in Singapore venture--the man himself victim of fate who really knows--I would really love to know the truth
As they say never let the facts ruin a good story
RIP my friend JI
BruceB
J made me two A75s after I left to go with my Snell AIII's--he upgraded the Flat pack Transistors to Motorolas --greatly improved the reliability of the Amps
Anyway sorry for that digression!
I was interested to read your account of comparison to the Iverson Force FieldsIn the late 70's i spent time helping John in the orange County Workshop--his father Ray was dying of Cancer at the time but was a part of the team inspite of his terminal illness--you probably knew of his involvement with the AWAC/StarWars projects however there was much clandestine activity that
was evident and highly classified which was never made public--The rumor was Ray's illness was attributed to part of the program he was involved in.
The Force Fields--or Neutron Density Bombarders as we called them were unique in nearly all conventional transducer ways--you know as you would've seen them-hell the most inefficient things on the planet!--needed Bridged a75s' to get them going--we never had any flying bugs in the room either -ha!
Heaven forbid the speakers were a mini Chernobyl
--I slept in the same room with them--and I'm still standing--well just anyway ha!Ah but to relate to you summation of the sound--I haven't heard Mike's wonderful system but I have heard all the components at shows and in private homes--re the MM7's --for scale no way would the FF's compete same with dynamics/attack/huge SPL--nope not even close
BUT--the shear nuances and layering and pristine sonics at near field --nothing I have experienced in my over 58years as a HiFi Buff has bettered the listening sensation of music from those transducers--if they had been perfected for Domestic use they would have been revolutionary even today--my honest opinion
In your listening session--John must have played you Morning has Broken and Over my Head--think back--have you ever heard the Choir behind Cats Voice float around the room like that on any other system?--I haven't frankly--memerising! Did you do the ear cup trick?--J's fav! he'd ask listeners hold their hands over their ears
and ask them what they heard-- the sound apparent to the listener was no difference with ears naked--go figure--ha!
We all know that genius has flaws--and JI was no different--his products were groundbreaking at the time-the A75 Amp and the lesser EK1- Pre the latter doomed to fall by the wayside in Singapore venture--the man himself victim of fate who really knows--I would really love to know the truth
As they say never let the facts ruin a good story
RIP my friend JI
BruceB
J made me two A75s after I left to go with my Snell AIII's--he upgraded the Flat pack Transistors to Motorolas --greatly improved the reliability of the Amps
Bruce,
Thanks for all of the supplemental information about Iverson and the Force Fields. Yes he did do the trick with the hands over my ears and there was no change. I still remember listening to some cuts as if it was yesterday. Ken Kreisel gave me a test pressing of a record he cut when he was modifying his Neuman lathe called Grandpa Sings that I listened to through the FF's. There was a cut where his Grandfather was singing in an ice rink accompanied by the rink organ playing in the background. His voice, the organ and the ambience of the space were simply incredible, if not beyond believable.
I did have some fall out from the experience in that I developed a receptive aphasia that lasted for about 3 days that was quite troubling and have no idea if there have been any long-term impacts, although some, including me would think that there might be some vague residua.
One last picture from Shunyata.
Thanks for all of the supplemental information about Iverson and the Force Fields. Yes he did do the trick with the hands over my ears and there was no change. I still remember listening to some cuts as if it was yesterday. Ken Kreisel gave me a test pressing of a record he cut when he was modifying his Neuman lathe called Grandpa Sings that I listened to through the FF's. There was a cut where his Grandfather was singing in an ice rink accompanied by the rink organ playing in the background. His voice, the organ and the ambience of the space were simply incredible, if not beyond believable.
I did have some fall out from the experience in that I developed a receptive aphasia that lasted for about 3 days that was quite troubling and have no idea if there have been any long-term impacts, although some, including me would think that there might be some vague residua.
One last picture from Shunyata.
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Russ, that was an incredible write-up. You guys make us almost feel like we were there. It was very joyful and informative to read.
Thanks so much for taking the time to document your visit in such an eloquent way.
Thanks so much for taking the time to document your visit in such an eloquent way.
Steve and Russ, thank you for sharing.
Your description and write ups certainly brings us closer to the experience you felt, as I am reading the thread over and over again.
I cant wait to read Marty's version too.
There is something in this hobby that certainly brings life long memories when you make trips such as these.
Best,
Neville
Your description and write ups certainly brings us closer to the experience you felt, as I am reading the thread over and over again.
I cant wait to read Marty's version too.
There is something in this hobby that certainly brings life long memories when you make trips such as these.
Best,
Neville
Nothing like an all boy's trip to turn the clock back eh?
Aside from the audio porn, I really enjoyed the looks on your faces. Just totally chill and steady.
Steve, Mike you guys look a lot healthier now than in pics from years past. Good on you!
Bruce, you and I look like we'd be in the same weight division.
Aside from the audio porn, I really enjoyed the looks on your faces. Just totally chill and steady.
Steve, Mike you guys look a lot healthier now than in pics from years past. Good on you!
Bruce, you and I look like we'd be in the same weight division.
Jack
beware as one day the Tres Amigos might just be showing up on your doorstop as we work our way through Manila to hear those magnificent systems that you all have and to hopefully hear the Dragon in their new home
beware as one day the Tres Amigos might just be showing up on your doorstop as we work our way through Manila to hear those magnificent systems that you all have and to hopefully hear the Dragon in their new home
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