I had the privilege of listening with Peter this Tuesday afternoon. We heard a couple of LPs that have served as references in the past, on the Micro Seiki SX8000-2, the AS 1000 and the AS 2000. Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" and Carla White’s “Mood Swings” each sounded qualitatively more engaging, more believable truly more *palpable* than ever before. Peter is also experimenting with some aspects of his system, but I will leave that to him to describe.
The impression that remains with me, three days later, is that the music was fully scaled to create a Not-Hostile, but convincing takeover by enlisting the entire room as part of the aural experience: that is the way music sounds in a live venue, particularly when there are no intervening electronics between the sound and the listener.
Differences at this level of information retrieval can be increasingly subtle: the AS2000 renders more than the AS1000, though I would feel deeply privileged to have the latter table in my system. And I simply cannot improve upon the description Peter has offered above: his perception and explanation are spot on.
That said, each of us heard things with Peter’s most recent adjustments to the system that we had never heard to this extent, namely the subtlety of Carla White’s phrasing and the interaction between Muddy Waters’ and Buddy Guy’s guitars.
There is a Great Deal going on in a refined, professional musical performance; it’s better still when the event is exceptionally well captured in the grooves. When it’s possible to hear a presentation like that offered by the American Sound 2000, it is a genuine, humbling privilege. It astonishes me that we have yet to retrieve, a century after its creation, all that technology has been able to lay in the grooves of a finely made LP. David Karmeli’s genius in the AS2000 has brought vinyl playback to a pinnacle. I can only DREAM of what his new table will offer. And I can’t wait to hear it….
In the meantime, Peter continues to push the boundaries of musical engagement in a way that aptly compliments the achievement that is the AS2000. Remarkable. Alive. Memorable Listening.