Madrona Digital Showroom Grand Opening

[amirm]

Hello everyone. For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, wanted to let you know that we have our belated Grand Opening for our “new” Showroom. For those of you not familiar with Madrona Digital, you can click on my signature to read more.

The ceremonies will go on for two days starting this Friday and going through Saturday (June 3rd and 4th). As I noted elsewhere, we have lots of goodies including a pair of JBL Everest speakers which is the second pair in US on display, powered by Mark Levinson amplification and Berkeley Audio DAC (http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...landed!-JBL-Everest-Speaker&highlight=everest).

There is also our incredible theater designed by Keith Yates, sporting a 17 foot wide screen with dual audio systems (JBL Synthesis Wisdom Audio) and with 20 channels of audio each. The room was designed using computational fluid dynamics (full physical room simulation) and was built from ground up to have superb audio/video.

Music and video servers abound, showing you how to distribute audio/video in each room of the house. Plus architectural products that are totally invisible, yet perform surprisingly well.

Last but not least, all the home automation, lighting, shades and energy management advice and products you could use .

The team is finalizing a few specials and discounts for this special occasion. No, there is no give away for the above $65K JBL speaker . But there will be other discounts to make it worth your while to visit, if the enjoyment of great audio/video doesn't.

I plan to be there on and off so if you are going to stop by, please RSVP and drop me a note if you like to chat with me specifically. Hope to see you there!

RSVP: http://new.evite.com/?utm_source=fa...ite:eid=0091AAQZXGL24ECBUEPAPQBPV5LK7U&gid=fb

Here are some pictures to give a sense of what is there:

 

[JackD201]

Congratulations on to you and your team on your new endeavor Amir. May you all enjoy great success!

 

[Steve Williams]

Kudos Amir

Those rooms look truly elegant

 

[FrantzM]

Amirm

Congrats .. Great Rooms ... Maybe success follow your endeavors ..

 

[garylkoh]

Congrats, Amir. I wish you every success! Would have loved to be there for your grand opening, but I'm heading down to Newport Beach for T.H.E. show.

 

[RBFC]

Great space, buddy. I hope things exceed your expectations!

Lee

 

[audioguy]

Very nice! I'll bet that HT sounds amazing.

 

[repman]

It looks amazing I wish I was in the Northwest. Good luck with the endeavor.

 

[Nyal Mellor]

I will have to stop by - I'm gonna be taking a trip up to Canada this year and will be passing right by!

I really dig the use of the slightly see through fabric used in places. Gives it a really sci-fi look...

 

[amirm]

Thanks a bunch guys!

Feel free to stop by anytime Nyal. Drop me a note and I will show you the place. The trip up to Canada is magnificent.

 

[fishnchips]

The room was designed using computational fluid dynamics (full physical room simulation)

I suspect this is way too complicated to explain here, so just a brief question: did the room turn out with parallel boundaries at right angles? Most people live in a house that preexisted their tenancy, so I wonder if standard, rectangular rooms can be optimized without resorting to impractical solutions like sloping ceilings and/or non-parallel walls.

 

[amirm]

I suspect this is way too complicated to explain here, so just a brief question: did the room turn out with parallel boundaries at right angles? Most people live in a house that preexisted their tenancy, so I wonder if standard, rectangular rooms can be optimized without resorting to impractical solutions like sloping ceilings and/or non-parallel walls.

The room was built post simulations but it was still rectangular. Computer modelling allowed simulation of speakers in many locations to optimize the smoothest response across the seating positions. Same process works for standard rooms that you mention. Indeed, Keith now has a new program where you/us supply the potential places the subs can go and the number and he will simulate all the permutations using CFD and then provide the best recommendations. I hope to work with Keith to put some graphics and animations for how this works. It is pretty cool to watch an animated color mapped room as the frequency sweeps to visually see how bad or good it can be based on location and number of subs.

 

[fishnchips]

Impressive. One more question: the wall-covering material must be acoustically transparent so as to allow the underlying treatments to work properly. It also looks very nice, at least in this resolution. What is it, and is it sturdy enough to hang paintings on?

 

[amirm]

The wall covering looks opaque normally. We have LED lights behind it that are lit in that picture. Not the best picture but shows the normal look:

The fabric is professionally installed and is exceptionally taut. That said, no, it will not hold anything hanging from it. For that, you could go for a look we have with the hardwrood strips going across and hang things from that. Alternatively, the fabric design can accommodate the painting by using solid backing where it will be mounted.

 

[fishnchips]

Thanks, is there a brand name for it?

 

[mullard88]

Congratulations and best wishes.

 

[amirm]

Thanks, is there a brand name for it?

For the fabric? If so, no it is standard Gilford of Main and such.

The fastener is snap-tex: http://www.snaptex.com/

Our installer worked with them from start and does superb work. it is non-trivial to get the fabric to be 100% smooth and this guy does it like there is no tomorrow.

 

[microstrip]

Congratulations Amir.

You should have included this last photo as the first one - I was terrified with the aspect of the room when I looked at the first photo! Remember WAF - I hope you will have many women customers, as well as men that want good sound in a standard looking room.

BTW, could you be more specific about the cloth type?

 

[garylkoh]

Having been there.... I don't think that there are any wives who will object to the look-n-feel of the Madrona showrooms. I think that he's going to be very successful - just my 2cents of course.

Although, a small area with kiddie toys will certainly help when families come in. Keeps the kids occupied while mom & dad browses and Amir closes the deal. I can just imagine a 24-in LCD at "kid level" playing cartoons with a pair of small monitors sitting just off the floor. With the correct treatment, you can have an open area, and it will still maintain quiet. You'll need monitors that play well softly.

 

[RBFC]

One of the big jewelry stores here has a small kids' space like Gary describes. They put a small monitor and a video game set in there, and the kids actually don't want to leave when their parents are done.

Lee