One Amigo Visits South East Asia and Hears Some Amazing Systems
- Thread starter Steve williams
- Start date
Sam
It was an absolute delight to have met you. Your system is world class and sounded majestic to my ears. I have always loved electrostats and to have heard the stacked Quad 57's was for me an unforgettable experience.
You have every reason to be proud. One can see that you are an ardent audiophile and have been for many years. Unlike the rest of us you continue to own and use everything you have ever bought and to have them so pristine is quite an accomplishment
Sam also took Phil and I for another amazing Chinese food lunch to a local restaurant where once again the food was simply wonderful. A soup that I had never had before was to die for along with a large grouper as well as IIRC a lobster roll
I continue to love all of the food that I sampled over that week and Sam knew the local proprietor so the food was extra special. After lunch we headed back to Sam's for a short listen and that is when he played the Amicis album. I believe it was either track 4 or track 5 of the second album that I thought was so good that I ordered both albums. Sam had wanted us to stay longer but I had thought I was meeting my wife back at Jack's only to find that she and Margie were out shopping and didn't return until much later. I should have known better Sam but there will be a next time I am sure
Thanks you for such a wonderful few hours of music and food. It was great to have finally met you
It was an absolute delight to have met you. Your system is world class and sounded majestic to my ears. I have always loved electrostats and to have heard the stacked Quad 57's was for me an unforgettable experience.
You have every reason to be proud. One can see that you are an ardent audiophile and have been for many years. Unlike the rest of us you continue to own and use everything you have ever bought and to have them so pristine is quite an accomplishment
Sam also took Phil and I for another amazing Chinese food lunch to a local restaurant where once again the food was simply wonderful. A soup that I had never had before was to die for along with a large grouper as well as IIRC a lobster roll
I continue to love all of the food that I sampled over that week and Sam knew the local proprietor so the food was extra special. After lunch we headed back to Sam's for a short listen and that is when he played the Amicis album. I believe it was either track 4 or track 5 of the second album that I thought was so good that I ordered both albums. Sam had wanted us to stay longer but I had thought I was meeting my wife back at Jack's only to find that she and Margie were out shopping and didn't return until much later. I should have known better Sam but there will be a next time I am sure
Thanks you for such a wonderful few hours of music and food. It was great to have finally met you
Dafos' System
I also had the privilege of hosting Jerry at my house 5 years ago while living in Northern California. He is no stranger to the USA as his oldest son attends Villanova. Jerry has been a member of WBF for many years. His system was somewhat new as I recently recall Jerry was using Magico speakers but his present iteration consisted of the Sonus Faber Aida as well as Raidho D 3.1 powered by D'agostina stereo amp. He had the Audio Research Anniversary pre and a Dcs Puccini. His table was an Avid Voltere and a Clear Audio . I have forgotten which arm and cartridge he was playing and I am uncertain of the cables or power conditioner he was using.He used an Audio Research Phono Stage
The speakers were both new and were still going through their burn in. I have never heard the Raidho D3 before and it certainly delivered a very bold mid bass and bottom end. The Aida as always was warm and sweet but could deliver power when needed. Jerry was still trying to figure proper placement for these speakers in his room. The Raidho is quite bold and delivers. I didn't hear any tweeter issues.
Jerry is also a collector I discovered as his sound room has a complete collection of model airplanes of every Cathay Pacific plane that has ever taken to the skies. The collection was ginormous
After our listening session we once again had some very pleasant refeshments by Jerry. Jerry lives in a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood with an incredibly large back yard. You should be very proud Jerry. I t looks like you are enjoying now stereo in a different fashion with two distinctly different speakers in your room which can deliver in a big way. We listened to only vinyl that day.
Here are some photos for perusal........
I also had the privilege of hosting Jerry at my house 5 years ago while living in Northern California. He is no stranger to the USA as his oldest son attends Villanova. Jerry has been a member of WBF for many years. His system was somewhat new as I recently recall Jerry was using Magico speakers but his present iteration consisted of the Sonus Faber Aida as well as Raidho D 3.1 powered by D'agostina stereo amp. He had the Audio Research Anniversary pre and a Dcs Puccini. His table was an Avid Voltere and a Clear Audio . I have forgotten which arm and cartridge he was playing and I am uncertain of the cables or power conditioner he was using.He used an Audio Research Phono Stage
The speakers were both new and were still going through their burn in. I have never heard the Raidho D3 before and it certainly delivered a very bold mid bass and bottom end. The Aida as always was warm and sweet but could deliver power when needed. Jerry was still trying to figure proper placement for these speakers in his room. The Raidho is quite bold and delivers. I didn't hear any tweeter issues.
Jerry is also a collector I discovered as his sound room has a complete collection of model airplanes of every Cathay Pacific plane that has ever taken to the skies. The collection was ginormous
After our listening session we once again had some very pleasant refeshments by Jerry. Jerry lives in a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood with an incredibly large back yard. You should be very proud Jerry. I t looks like you are enjoying now stereo in a different fashion with two distinctly different speakers in your room which can deliver in a big way. We listened to only vinyl that day.
Here are some photos for perusal........
Thank you Jerry for your wonderful hospitality, ongoing great friendship as well as opening your home to us guys for a listen and refreshments
Jim's System
We visited Jim on Tuesday afternoon and what I am about to describe is IMHO the best conceived, planned and brought to fruition system that I have ever heard in my life. I have said that several times before about other systems such as my good friend marty, as well as ddk, Mike Lavigne and brother Jack however Jim's system is so incredible that I saved it for last because I have so many photos and so many thoughts that it is difficult for me to wrap my mind around what I heard. It is the finest, most majestic system I have ever heard and in a room that is so perfectly designed for this system that every audiophile needs to hear Jim's system in order to know what "real" sounds like. It is just like being in the first three rows dead center in the symphony.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jim with Jack when they were in San Francisco several years ago and they found time to visit. We spent the afternoon together that day listening and getting to know one another.Jim is somewhat of a lurker on WBF for no other reason than his life is so busy that he rarely gets time to discuss what he loves most and that is music. I know that when they visited me Jim was fascinated with my Studer RTR. He told me that no one in the Philippines owns a tape recorder because of the heat and humidity. Suffice it to say that the room Jim built is so perfect that the temperature in the sound room does not vary by more than +2 to -2 degrees. As a result I would hazard a guess that Jim is the only audiophile in the Philippines with a tape recorder. In fact he has not one but has 3 perfect in every way Studer A820's each with the heads bypassed to their own individual (3) Doshi tape head pre's. In fact Jim was the first client of Nick Doshi to receive the tape pre with left and right VU meters. for tape calibration. Each A820 has the ability templet either 1/4" or 1/2" tapes. Along the other side of his room are also a perfect ATR Arias as well as a perfect Studer A80 powered by their own VTL preamp and amplifier,
Room dimensions are in a league that I have never seen except in the recent large rooms at the Hong Kong audio show. Jim's room is 14 feet tall x 9 meters wide by 11 meters long (I hope I got it right but Jim will hopefully chime in with any corrections.
Again when the doors close to his sound room you are in a chamber that fluctuates no more than 1-2 degrees up or down on any day. It is that stable. The floor is a gorgeous hardwood with a beautiful centre carpet in a fashion similar to Jack's but in a much larger scale. As Jack told me he had the jazz club whereas brother Jim had the concert hall. Boy was Jack correct. Jim's room is one that mere mortals can only dream of. It is truly unobtanium and on a scale that I will bet no one on this planet has such a similar room. Jim and Jack both used the same acoustician and I could tell. room treatments were in view as in Jack's but blended with the walls and the ceiling as I saw at Jack's.
Suffice it to say that this listening session lasted for 9 hours with an amazing dinner in between in a separate room just outside the listening room. I told Jim that I have never had a listening session that long anywhere including my own system. It was for me a life changing event in this hobby because I have never seen such a room or heard sound as perfect as this in all of my years in this hobby. It was absolutely without equal to anything I have ever heard. Yes we were in the concert hall in the first three rows
A chronicler on the build of Jim's room can be found here. It is worth the read because pictures truly cannot capture the enormity and grandness of this system
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...stem-on-the-planet&p=3530&viewfull=1#post3530
Jim has a dedicated room in the ultimate sense of the word. In his quest to build the room of his dreams Jim bought the lot adjacent to his home and built a single story structure that is larger than most people's houses. It is drop dead gorgeous. I did not know that when you entered the structure you don't enter into the sound room but rathe another very large room where Jim entertains his guests. This was furnished and attired in some of the most beautiful furniture I have ever seen. Nothing was left to the imagination with a full bar and a place to prepare food at the front of the room as well as him and her bathrooms at the front left and right.
Several years ago in his quest for the perfect sound Jim commissioned Albert Von Schweikert to design a one off speaker that would set the standard for all other speakers. The speaker was 3 years in design before it was delivered to Manila. He has the one and only as there will never be another of its kind VR111 which consists of 2 towers per channel. The bass tower has 4 drivers each individually powered by a 1500 watt class D amplifier. Each subwoofer could be individually adjusted in order to allow for shaping and shadowing of the bass. Jack gave us a demonstration of how this could be achieved later in the day. Needless to say it was impressive. Also impressive was that each tower was one piece and not modular like the VR11's and were taller still than the VR 11's which were 8 feet tall and the VR 111's were 9 feet tall.
Each speaker had its own crossover and these were so large that I thought it was another speaker behind the towers when I first saw the room. The crossovers looked like they weighed 100's of pounds each. IIRC the crossover to the towers is at 50 Hz
There were several dozen Shunyata Anaconda power cords for all his components that it must have taken Caelin a month to make them all
Interconnects were top of the line Master Built as were the speaker cables.
Each main tower has 8 mid bass drivers (4 top and 4 bottom) . Each main tower also has 4 midrange drivers and three tweeters (two were soft dome and the third was a ribbon tweeter). There was also a ribbon super tweeter on the back of each main tower.
The interconnects from the side wall came under the floor to the fronton the room into a cyclops with a Shunyata Typhon plugged into the same circuit as the amps which were plugged into the the Cylops again with al Shunyata Anaconda PC's. The midrange and treble were power by a pair of VAC Statement mono blocks whereas the mid bass was powered by a pair of VTL Siegfried's. All the amps were sitting on Critical Mass System Maxxum stands as were the Cyclops and Typhon and crossovers.
To add to this amazing room all front end components were also sitting on CMS racks. I am uncertain if they were Maxxum or Black Diamond shelves. Suffice it to say, I think I counted over 20 CMS shelves. I discovered CMS racks myself at the suggestion of Jack. I am glad that I did as I sit patiently waiting for Joe to deliver my final CMS rack to house all of my front end components. They are truly that good and it was refreshing to see the arsenal of CMS racks that Jim had
We visited Jim on Tuesday afternoon and what I am about to describe is IMHO the best conceived, planned and brought to fruition system that I have ever heard in my life. I have said that several times before about other systems such as my good friend marty, as well as ddk, Mike Lavigne and brother Jack however Jim's system is so incredible that I saved it for last because I have so many photos and so many thoughts that it is difficult for me to wrap my mind around what I heard. It is the finest, most majestic system I have ever heard and in a room that is so perfectly designed for this system that every audiophile needs to hear Jim's system in order to know what "real" sounds like. It is just like being in the first three rows dead center in the symphony.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jim with Jack when they were in San Francisco several years ago and they found time to visit. We spent the afternoon together that day listening and getting to know one another.Jim is somewhat of a lurker on WBF for no other reason than his life is so busy that he rarely gets time to discuss what he loves most and that is music. I know that when they visited me Jim was fascinated with my Studer RTR. He told me that no one in the Philippines owns a tape recorder because of the heat and humidity. Suffice it to say that the room Jim built is so perfect that the temperature in the sound room does not vary by more than +2 to -2 degrees. As a result I would hazard a guess that Jim is the only audiophile in the Philippines with a tape recorder. In fact he has not one but has 3 perfect in every way Studer A820's each with the heads bypassed to their own individual (3) Doshi tape head pre's. In fact Jim was the first client of Nick Doshi to receive the tape pre with left and right VU meters. for tape calibration. Each A820 has the ability templet either 1/4" or 1/2" tapes. Along the other side of his room are also a perfect ATR Arias as well as a perfect Studer A80 powered by their own VTL preamp and amplifier,
Room dimensions are in a league that I have never seen except in the recent large rooms at the Hong Kong audio show. Jim's room is 14 feet tall x 9 meters wide by 11 meters long (I hope I got it right but Jim will hopefully chime in with any corrections.
Again when the doors close to his sound room you are in a chamber that fluctuates no more than 1-2 degrees up or down on any day. It is that stable. The floor is a gorgeous hardwood with a beautiful centre carpet in a fashion similar to Jack's but in a much larger scale. As Jack told me he had the jazz club whereas brother Jim had the concert hall. Boy was Jack correct. Jim's room is one that mere mortals can only dream of. It is truly unobtanium and on a scale that I will bet no one on this planet has such a similar room. Jim and Jack both used the same acoustician and I could tell. room treatments were in view as in Jack's but blended with the walls and the ceiling as I saw at Jack's.
Suffice it to say that this listening session lasted for 9 hours with an amazing dinner in between in a separate room just outside the listening room. I told Jim that I have never had a listening session that long anywhere including my own system. It was for me a life changing event in this hobby because I have never seen such a room or heard sound as perfect as this in all of my years in this hobby. It was absolutely without equal to anything I have ever heard. Yes we were in the concert hall in the first three rows
A chronicler on the build of Jim's room can be found here. It is worth the read because pictures truly cannot capture the enormity and grandness of this system
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...stem-on-the-planet&p=3530&viewfull=1#post3530
Jim has a dedicated room in the ultimate sense of the word. In his quest to build the room of his dreams Jim bought the lot adjacent to his home and built a single story structure that is larger than most people's houses. It is drop dead gorgeous. I did not know that when you entered the structure you don't enter into the sound room but rathe another very large room where Jim entertains his guests. This was furnished and attired in some of the most beautiful furniture I have ever seen. Nothing was left to the imagination with a full bar and a place to prepare food at the front of the room as well as him and her bathrooms at the front left and right.
Several years ago in his quest for the perfect sound Jim commissioned Albert Von Schweikert to design a one off speaker that would set the standard for all other speakers. The speaker was 3 years in design before it was delivered to Manila. He has the one and only as there will never be another of its kind VR111 which consists of 2 towers per channel. The bass tower has 4 drivers each individually powered by a 1500 watt class D amplifier. Each subwoofer could be individually adjusted in order to allow for shaping and shadowing of the bass. Jack gave us a demonstration of how this could be achieved later in the day. Needless to say it was impressive. Also impressive was that each tower was one piece and not modular like the VR11's and were taller still than the VR 11's which were 8 feet tall and the VR 111's were 9 feet tall.
Each speaker had its own crossover and these were so large that I thought it was another speaker behind the towers when I first saw the room. The crossovers looked like they weighed 100's of pounds each. IIRC the crossover to the towers is at 50 Hz
There were several dozen Shunyata Anaconda power cords for all his components that it must have taken Caelin a month to make them all
Interconnects were top of the line Master Built as were the speaker cables.
Each main tower has 8 mid bass drivers (4 top and 4 bottom) . Each main tower also has 4 midrange drivers and three tweeters (two were soft dome and the third was a ribbon tweeter). There was also a ribbon super tweeter on the back of each main tower.
The interconnects from the side wall came under the floor to the fronton the room into a cyclops with a Shunyata Typhon plugged into the same circuit as the amps which were plugged into the the Cylops again with al Shunyata Anaconda PC's. The midrange and treble were power by a pair of VAC Statement mono blocks whereas the mid bass was powered by a pair of VTL Siegfried's. All the amps were sitting on Critical Mass System Maxxum stands as were the Cyclops and Typhon and crossovers.
To add to this amazing room all front end components were also sitting on CMS racks. I am uncertain if they were Maxxum or Black Diamond shelves. Suffice it to say, I think I counted over 20 CMS shelves. I discovered CMS racks myself at the suggestion of Jack. I am glad that I did as I sit patiently waiting for Joe to deliver my final CMS rack to house all of my front end components. They are truly that good and it was refreshing to see the arsenal of CMS racks that Jim had
Jim's Front End Gear
where do I start. First off analog is jim's love yet he possesses an amazing digital front end that I believe is only called into action infrequently. This consists of a fully balanced Lampizator Golden Gate with volume control and 101D tubes with others in order to do some tube rolling. Below his Golden Gate was a Meitner EMM Labs Transport and DAC that looked brand spanking new. Next to the Meitner gear was a Shunyata Triton V2 for front end components as well as another Typhon plugged into the Triton. A VAC Statement preamp with its separate power supply was used as well. Next came Jim's turntables. He only had 2 on display that he was using. This included the TechDas AF1 with a duralumin platter and Durand Talia and Telos arms each with a different cartridge ( I think he had an Opus on his Telos arm and a Dynavector cartridge on the Talia (Correct me if I am wrong Jim). Next to this was a TechDas AF2 with Graham arms. The Phantom Elite arm was playing the Koetsu Jasper which once again lit up my ears in a way I have never experienced. Working down the line were the 3 Studer A820's each with their own Doshi tape pre with VU meters. Jim has both 1/4" and 1/2" head blocks.Jim has an assortment of tonearms and cartridges each mounted and on display nicer than any store in which I have been in. Each arm and cartridge is used for specific music genres.
Jim's library is at the back of his room and goes to the ceiling and he uses a sliding ladder that is seen in many libraries. It was drop dead gorgeous.
The back of Jim's room was like Jack's but on a bigger scale with a table and chairs for people to congregate out of the way of the music
where do I start. First off analog is jim's love yet he possesses an amazing digital front end that I believe is only called into action infrequently. This consists of a fully balanced Lampizator Golden Gate with volume control and 101D tubes with others in order to do some tube rolling. Below his Golden Gate was a Meitner EMM Labs Transport and DAC that looked brand spanking new. Next to the Meitner gear was a Shunyata Triton V2 for front end components as well as another Typhon plugged into the Triton. A VAC Statement preamp with its separate power supply was used as well. Next came Jim's turntables. He only had 2 on display that he was using. This included the TechDas AF1 with a duralumin platter and Durand Talia and Telos arms each with a different cartridge ( I think he had an Opus on his Telos arm and a Dynavector cartridge on the Talia (Correct me if I am wrong Jim). Next to this was a TechDas AF2 with Graham arms. The Phantom Elite arm was playing the Koetsu Jasper which once again lit up my ears in a way I have never experienced. Working down the line were the 3 Studer A820's each with their own Doshi tape pre with VU meters. Jim has both 1/4" and 1/2" head blocks.Jim has an assortment of tonearms and cartridges each mounted and on display nicer than any store in which I have been in. Each arm and cartridge is used for specific music genres.
Jim's library is at the back of his room and goes to the ceiling and he uses a sliding ladder that is seen in many libraries. It was drop dead gorgeous.
The back of Jim's room was like Jack's but on a bigger scale with a table and chairs for people to congregate out of the way of the music
How Did It Sound
as I said I have never had a 9 hour listening session anywhere including my own system where I sat motionless and gob smacked by the sound. Jim's love is classical music and as I said before it is like being dead center in the first three rows of the symphony hall.
I stated last year that David's room (ddk) was the most natural sound I have ever heard. Jim's system takes this many steps further with an absolutely seamless top to bottom end. The bass was perfect and never once cried out to be the center of attraction. In fact nothing in the system drew attention to itself.The music was as perfect and real as I have ever heard. Once again there was complete suspension of disbelief as I was transported from the concert hall to the jazz club to the soloist to small chamber music. Everything was perfect and on a scale so grand that I had to call the entire system unobtainium because such a system with a similar room anywhere in the universe just doesn't exist.
It was good to see Jim relax and at home with everyone. He played whatever we wanted and always had others to suggest. He is busy in his real life beyond busy as I even knew it when I was in the hay day of my medical practice before I retired. In fact Jim's phone was never idle while we were there so I know that the time we spent with him brought a smile to his face as I could see that not only does he love music, his room and sharing it with all of us there but also that he was able to get into the room and listen with a bunch of like minded guys.
We never heard digital only records and tape that day. I would have loved to hear his Golden Gate and Meitner but frankly with all the permutations and combinations he has in his room with which to play as well as the infinite settings on his speakers, he has a room that can change to and play whatever he wants and however he wants. It was a system that for my ears has become my reference as I left there knowing what a system can achieve. There was no stone unturned and no expense minimized. It was a room planned from the ground up in a part of the world dominated by heat and humidity in a room with a temperature variance of only 2 degrees ever. Hence the 5 perfect tape decks.
In spite of the magnificence of such a system I can honestly say that Jim is a humble man who never flaunts anything to anyone. I found in the week that I was there that he was not only humble but proud of his family, his children and wife and with a great respect for his father who I was fortunate also to meet. He never throws things up to anyone and like Jack is never a bragger of his possessions but rather only wanted to share it with his friends and family
The dinner Jim server later that day along with the wine was once again a memorable experience. The kindness and openness of Jim becomes evident from the moment you meet him. I am so lucky to be able to call Jim a dear friend. I returned home to Southern California with fond memories of that day. I cannot imagine that in my lifetime a similar system will ever exist on this planet.
Kudos to you Jim. You are a remarkable human being that I feel fortunate to call my friend.
I have 100's of photos of his room so if some are redundant I apologize as thinly way to capture the room was with a super wide angle lens and I did not have one that day.
as I said I have never had a 9 hour listening session anywhere including my own system where I sat motionless and gob smacked by the sound. Jim's love is classical music and as I said before it is like being dead center in the first three rows of the symphony hall.
I stated last year that David's room (ddk) was the most natural sound I have ever heard. Jim's system takes this many steps further with an absolutely seamless top to bottom end. The bass was perfect and never once cried out to be the center of attraction. In fact nothing in the system drew attention to itself.The music was as perfect and real as I have ever heard. Once again there was complete suspension of disbelief as I was transported from the concert hall to the jazz club to the soloist to small chamber music. Everything was perfect and on a scale so grand that I had to call the entire system unobtainium because such a system with a similar room anywhere in the universe just doesn't exist.
It was good to see Jim relax and at home with everyone. He played whatever we wanted and always had others to suggest. He is busy in his real life beyond busy as I even knew it when I was in the hay day of my medical practice before I retired. In fact Jim's phone was never idle while we were there so I know that the time we spent with him brought a smile to his face as I could see that not only does he love music, his room and sharing it with all of us there but also that he was able to get into the room and listen with a bunch of like minded guys.
We never heard digital only records and tape that day. I would have loved to hear his Golden Gate and Meitner but frankly with all the permutations and combinations he has in his room with which to play as well as the infinite settings on his speakers, he has a room that can change to and play whatever he wants and however he wants. It was a system that for my ears has become my reference as I left there knowing what a system can achieve. There was no stone unturned and no expense minimized. It was a room planned from the ground up in a part of the world dominated by heat and humidity in a room with a temperature variance of only 2 degrees ever. Hence the 5 perfect tape decks.
In spite of the magnificence of such a system I can honestly say that Jim is a humble man who never flaunts anything to anyone. I found in the week that I was there that he was not only humble but proud of his family, his children and wife and with a great respect for his father who I was fortunate also to meet. He never throws things up to anyone and like Jack is never a bragger of his possessions but rather only wanted to share it with his friends and family
The dinner Jim server later that day along with the wine was once again a memorable experience. The kindness and openness of Jim becomes evident from the moment you meet him. I am so lucky to be able to call Jim a dear friend. I returned home to Southern California with fond memories of that day. I cannot imagine that in my lifetime a similar system will ever exist on this planet.
Kudos to you Jim. You are a remarkable human being that I feel fortunate to call my friend.
I have 100's of photos of his room so if some are redundant I apologize as thinly way to capture the room was with a super wide angle lens and I did not have one that day.
Similar threads
