Ron’s New System

[Ron Resnick]

It begins . . .



I am eternally grateful to Jason Lord, proprietor of The Source AV, in Torrance, California, for his nearly infinite patience and grace in storing the four giant Pendragon crates inside his office for the last 5 1/2 years.

Thanks very much to Wayne Strickland and William, Jason’s colleagues, for safely moving the crates into my garage today!

The Source AV represents numerous top brands, including Sonus Faber, Audio Research, Grado and McIntosh, and specializes in both two-channel audio and home theater. Jason also has the largest headphone display and demonstration room in the world.

Jason has a very large retail store with numerous home theater demo rooms and numerous two-channel audio rooms. If you’re anywhere near Southern California you must go check it out!

Jason Lord
The Source AV
3035 Kashiwa St.
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 534-9900

 

[Sampajanna]

Congrats Ron!!

 

[Pokey77]

Been there many times. Mbl has been demonstrated at SourceAV on a number of occasions to very good succes. The Lord bros always put on a great get together.

BTW, congratulations Ron.

 

[Willgolf]

Congrats Ron. Always exciting. What components did you end up with?

 

[PeterA]

Great news Ron.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

ok, let me get this straight. your room is clear and clean, you have power. the speakers are now sitting in the crates in your garage.

why are they not set up in your room? and somehow playing music?

this is like chinese water torture......but possibly/obviously not.....for.....you.

love,

Mike

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, gentlemen.

 

[Ron Resnick]

ok, let me get this straight. your room is clear and clean, you have power. the speakers are now sitting in the crates in your garage.

why are they not set up in your room? and somehow playing music?

this is like chinese water torture......but possibly/obviously not.....for.....you.

love,

Mike

Dear Mike,

A separate moving team is needed to move the crates to the listening room. The large crates weigh 630 pounds, the small crates weigh 300 pounds. There is disagreement on the strategy to move them down the relatively narrow staircase to the living room and listening room level.

And even once the crates are moved to the listening room, I will not be setting up the speakers until Rune Skov from Gryphon Audio in Denmark is on site. presently, Rune is traveling in Asia. When Rune arrives we will need a team to lift the towers out of the crates.

Even after the speakers are un-boxed and erected it will be some time before the turntable arrives. Finally I do not know when the Io will be ready.

So today was just one small, albeit important, step in a still long process.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Congrats Ron. Always exciting. What components did you end up with?

Thank you!

Components decisions were made years ago:

Vintage Audio Specialities AS-2000 turntable
SME 3012R tonearms
ZYX UNIverse Premium and Grado Epoch 3 cartridges
Studer A820
Aesthetix Io Eclipse phono stage
VTL TL-7.5 Series III line stage
VTL Siegfried II

future wanted additions:

Reed 5T tonearm
NAT Magma New SE or Trafomatic Drina amplifiers

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Dear Mike,

A separate moving team is needed to move the crates to the listening room. The large crates weigh 630 pounds, the small crates weigh 300 pounds. There is disagreement on the strategy to move them down the relatively narrow staircase to the living room and listening room level.

And even once the crates are moved to the listening room, I will not be setting up the speakers until Rune Skov from Gryphon Audio in Denmark is on site. presently, Rune is traveling in Asia. When Rune arrives we will need a team to lift the towers out of the crates.

Even after the speakers are un-boxed and erected it will be some time before the turntable arrives. Finally I do not know when the Io will be ready.

So today was just one small, albeit important, step in a still long process.

Ron,

obviously just busting your chops with encouragement. i respect the logistical challenges. my speakers arrived in 14 huge wood crates; about 4000 shipped pounds, and i removed them from the crates in the garage, and rolled the pieces down in to my room, assembled them in room, and had 5 guys to help me tilt the 4 towers up.....so there was not undue stress put on the joints......and i slid them into position.

as your towers are one piece, and long (tall) the logistics are less flexible. my towers weigh 750 pounds each, but break into pieces.

interesting as when i had my 550 pound Kharma Exquisites, i could remove them from the crates (laying down) and set them up by myself (my younger self), although it was easier with two people. but they were much shorter, and i lived in a one level house.

it's still chinese water torture.

 

[bonzo75]

You could put the speaker on a towel or thick blanket, then drag the blanket by two corners. The speakers on top of it will follow.

 

[Ron Resnick]

You could put the speaker on a towel or thick blanket, then drag the blanket by two corners. The speakers on top of it will follow.

Down two flights of stairs?

 

[bonzo75]

Ron,

obviously just busting your chops with encouragement. i respect the logistical challenges. my speakers arrived in 14 huge wood crates; about 4000 shipped pounds, and i removed them from the crates in the garage, and rolled the pieces down in to my room, assembled them in room, and had 5 guys to help me tilt the 4 towers up.....so there was not undue stress put on the joints......and i slid them into position.

as your towers are one piece, and long (tall) the logistics are less flexible. my towers weigh 750 pounds each, but break into pieces.

interesting as when i had my 550 pound Kharma Exquisites, i could remove them from the crates (laying down) and set them up by myself (my younger self), although it was easier with two people. but they were much shorter, and i lived in a one level house.

it's still chinese water torture.

maybe you can try to relive your youth and help to attain karma?

 

[Folsom]

Mike’s a man. Ron’s being a wimp.

The 300 lbs crates could just be dollied down with a few people most likely. The larger ones I am very curious about. I haven’t been to his house. Maybe one of these?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Mike’s a man. Ron’s being a wimp.

The 300 lbs crates could just be dollied down with a few people most likely. The larger ones I am very curious about. I haven’t been to his house. Maybe one of these?

no. stairs, landings and really heavy things are not a good combinations to go commando on. i recall my pickup of my 600 pound Rockport Sirius III turntable from a basement on Mount Tam in Marin in 2002. i was 51 years old then. i drove down from Seattle and my son, who happened to live in SF at the time, met me to assist. it was in a beautiful basement with a view to forever. but only a narrow curving stairway to get to my car.

my son and i got stuck halfway up the stairs carrying the 250 pound plinth. no crate, just the slippery plinth with no handles. it was touch and go for a minute or two. then it was the 180 pound rack. OMG. somehow we survived. i had fire in my belly excited that kept me going. but it was foolish to do it.

and today i'm more concerned about my long term body mechanics than urgency of speaker setup. go with your sense and take your time.

 

[Holli82]

Even after the speakers are un-boxed and erected it will be some time before the turntable arrives.

Mmmmmm....I see an opportunity for digital to sneak into Ron's room

 

[Ron Resnick]

Yes, hatching all in one go occasions a “chicken and the egg” problem. We can’t set up the turntable without speakers, and we don’t know if the speakers are working if we do not have a source.

I have an old $99 Sony CD/SACD/DVD player. But it would be better to have the Lampizator Amber 4 and Innuos Pulse Mini in place. But that, too, seems complicated. Maybe I get I used Aesthetix Romulus CD player and sell it after the streaming is set up?

 

[Folsom]

Streaming scheaming.

 

[ICUToo]

I have an old $99 Sony CD/SACD/DVD player

I double-dare you.

 

[Gregm]

Congratulations Ron
What a wonderful audio experience to look forward to!