On the "Trayle" to great sound

Elliot G.

Industry Expert
Jul 22, 2010
3,286
2,962
1,360
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
www.bendingwaveusa.com
Well I left my happy home
To see what I could find out
I left my folk and friends
With the aim to clear my mind out
Well I hit the rowdy road
And many kinds I met there
And many stories told me on the way to get there
So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
So much left to know, and I'm on the road to find out Cat Stevens

Stirling Trayle that is!
I wanted to tell what i have recently experienced while traveling to do a client demo. I met Stirling and a change point of airplanes as we came from opposite coasts. I have known him since the early 80’s as we met at Lyric HiFi in NYC. I was working there and he worked for a company in Maine. I know he has done a few things since then and we have talked/met/worked in conjunction with over the last 30 or so years. I was aware that he started his current business a few years back and we have run into each other at quite a few shows where he has been providing professional system set up services to manufacturers. I have enjoyed his work as a listener since his rooms at these shows were always worth listening too and for me i could usually pick out the room he did without knowing he did it if that makes sense. This is a huge compliment since these rooms were always among the best at any of the events. The last year or so we have chatted quite often and he has done some work for my clients and for my company as he has an arrangement with CH Precision to do their M1/M1.1 updates.
We talked a lot about how the experience that we both love and not truly available to all since way to many systems are just not set up to reach close to their potential.
OK background done!
We went to a client in a small town and we arrived late afternoon. After the client picked us up and after having a great authentic mexican food meal we arrived at his home and stepped into his music room.
The room was very nice, comfortable, quite , nicely decorated and looked like an excellent starting point for his big system
I don’t want to get into the gear since this really isn’t my point in writing this.
He was using a large pair of dynamic driver speakers that are extremely well regarded and that I had not experienced before so i was excited and intrigued.
Stirling got to work immediately. From 5 minutes after we arrived until around midnight he was working diligently to get the system singing.
It is hard to explain his process without using words like intense, perfectionist, professional and perhaps truly anal. He starts with one speaker and turns the other towards the side wall so it’s still playing but not directly towards his listening position
He starts playing his selected recordings and is in and out of his seat hundreds yes hundreds of time moving the speaker until he has it exactly where he wants it. In this case this took the better part of i would say 4 hours. When he was happy he then worked on positioning the other speaker to the exact specs of the first speaker on the other chanel.
We listened for a while and he wanted the client to listen so he could hear the progress and understand the process.
We ended day 1
On day two their were some gear changes in the system that made things clearer and much easier to hear. Stirling again started working his method and that process over the next few hours brought the system to new heights. We had gone from small increments to minuscule changes of foot adjustments and speaker toe on. This minuscule small adjustments kept taking the system to greater heights
He is driven like no one i have ever worked with continuously seeking to drive deeper down the rabbit hole in search of the grail.
it is impressive to behold this almost maniacal dedication to reach perfection.
We have had some serious discussions about what audio is missing and we both agree that most spend money and change equipment without really hearing what their system is able to do. I believe one could do much worse than investing in a day or two of his handiwork to find the basis of what your system can do before you make another purchase
I truly believe it is worth every cent. Bravo Stirling you certainly made a believer out of me!
 
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astrotoy

VIP/Donor
May 24, 2010
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SF Bay Area
Very nice story. Stirling is great. He has been my TT/cartridge set up guy for several years. Well worth the cost, especially these days with the prices of TT/arm/cartridge.

Larry
 

kswanson27

Well-Known Member
Nov 21, 2018
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Stirling will be visiting me for a couple of days week after next. It's great to read reports like this--gives me hope he can work his magic with my challenging room and rather modest system.
 

Elliot G.

Industry Expert
Jul 22, 2010
3,286
2,962
1,360
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
www.bendingwaveusa.com
Stirling will be visiting me for a couple of days week after next. It's great to read reports like this--gives me hope he can work his magic with my challenging room and rather modest system.
I would tell you not to fret it will definitely be better, much better when he is done. i HAVE NO DOUBTS
 

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