Will travel for high-end audio.
 

I have the good fortune of working in a seasonal industry which affords me about 6 months off every year. This down time is usually spent listening to and tweaking my own audio system and wood working.

This year I have decided the only way to determine what my system really needs is to travel and hear other peoples systems. I know most would do so by attending shows and their local dealers but that hasn't proven to yield what I'm looking for. So the next idea was to travel to other AA members homes and listen to their systems. These trips have yielded some good listening sessions and great friendships.

It started last March and again in October, traveling to hear Timobi's great system in Louisiana, 500 mile drive each way. Tim is a super nice guy and let me listen to his mighty Martin Logan CLX speakers. If you haven't ever heard these speakers you really should. And OMG the ClearAudio Innovation!!

Next trip was a short one to visit with gadawg in Texas. This was my first chance to hear the Wilson Sasha II speakers with top flight Levinson gear. George was a gracious host and let me even bring my own dac for comparisons to to Esoteric K01Xs. This was one of those systems that really showed me how badly I need a bigger listening room, you could fit 3 to 4 of my rooms in George's room.

My last trip of the year was a flight to Seattle to spend 5 days hanging out with 2fastdriving aka Marc, For The Love of Music aka Ed, and Antonmb aka Tony. Marc was gracious enough to let me crash at his house for the duration. Both Marc and Ed have Wilson Alexia speakers but completely different electronics. The listening session at Ed's was short but fruitful, it left me once again yearning for a larger listening room. Do to distance and time constraints I wasn't able to hear Tony's system, maybe next time. Over the course of several days Marc and I were able to improve his system with some tweaking of room acoustic placement, making his Alexia's really come alive. After returning home I have gone to work again on my room acoustics to bring out some of the qualities I heard in all of these systems, stage depth and image placement.

I'm sure your asking what I plan to purchase after hearing all of these systems? I had already bought Audio Research gear, same as Marc's, before I went there. But after visiting Tim's, I came home lusting for a ClearAudio Innovation TT. As for speakers the hunt for perfection is still on.

Thanks to all for your friendship and for sharing your great systems with me.

Steve... I’ll leave the light on for you. :ok:

http://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads...09/motel-6.jpg

Steve - the ATL is always open for ya, but remember, with a visit here you also have to be on kid duty with rambunctious 5 and 8 year old girls.! We need a nanny, come on down! :D

- Buck

Fruitful, but we had pizza.

Glad you enjoyed your trip, I believe we all had a good time, great group. Now take Marc’s and my valuables off Craigslist!

Are you sure you want him in your house, he'll be rearranging your acoustic panels in 5 minutes!

Seriously it was good having you over, Steve. We did a lot of listening, I learned lots of new artists and demo tracks. I know I had a lot of fun visiting Ed and having Tony over as well.

Steve didn't mention, but we also spent some time at Definitive in Seattle and Bellevue, listening to multiple systems. We were not very impressed with the Lilium they had, but we were more impressed with the Sasha DAW, Alexia 2, and Alexx. We also came away with a real positive impression of the Linn Klimax DS, which sounded better than the DCS Rossini with clock, to our ears. It was fantastic.

The Alexx was our favorite, though. Sounded great with vinyl on the Clearaudio master innovation and stand and Goldfinger cart. Amplification was all D'Agostino momentum.

We did some interesting tests while steve was here, too. We tested the MicroRendu vs. straight from my music server to the dac (toss up...). We tested cheap wireworlds vs. my TA Reference speaker cables (no contest there, which is good considering the difference in cost!). Finally we tested the merits of different filters, upsampling and clock on/off in my Esoteric front-end. Mostly not many changes between upsampling and filters to his ear, but I still prefer S_DLY2 filter. Clock definitely made a difference at times, other times it was hard to hear much of a difference. Kind of just depended on what we were listening to.

All in all, a fun time. I sure wish I had some AA buddies really close. The closest is Ed, still 40 minutes away or so, and we are both pretty busy and rarely get together. Next up for me is a trip to visit Tony, nearly 3 hours away.

I'm located in San Francisco and would welcome any AA members who might be interested in a visit. SF is my 2nd residence and has a different, evolving system about which I would appreciate feedback. The system listed below is located 2 hours away in the boonies, but shares some attributes.

Here's proof of life. Ed made Steve display a record store find. Haha


https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...0&d=1545196948







Attachment 57490

Will travel for high-end audio.
 

I also very much enjoyed our get-together in Seattle. I’ve been meaning to get to Marc’s place for some time now, and Steve arriving was that little extra push I needed to make the 3 hour drive. Marc has a great system, and getting a chance to meet Ed and listen to his excellent system was the icing on the cake. I enjoyed spending time with Marc, Ed and Steve, and came away with some great music suggestions as well.

Here’s a short video clip of Marc’s system - ignore the iphone sound quality, it’s a an awesome system.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...T54dK-1280.mp4

Here’s Steve listening to Ed’s system.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-3r597kt-L.jpg

And here’s the famous pizza at this great place in South Seattle Ed took us to.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-dqWShss-L.jpg

Very cool thread... that's what it's all about!

Thank you for sharing! :thumbsup:

I'm sorry to state the obvious, but this is part of what separates AA from all of the other audiophile groups. The posters are real people and the passion is genuine. The quality of the conversations here reflects that.

Sounds like you should probably definitely buy an Innovation, then start a phase of life where you obsess about which arms/cartridges/phono stages to pair with it! :D
https://i.imgur.com/7bCQoK8.jpg

Steve is actually setting his up today, I'm jealous! Talk about a gorgeous machine.

+1 A great group of guys!

Nice!! Well I give Steve an F in resisting the audio-junkies' peer pressure, and an A+ in turntable choice. Now...what rack will this be going on, haha?

Thank you for sharing . It is at times like this that I wish I was still living Oregon. Would be great getting together with like minded gents!
Ed

Steve needs to buy that $60,000 rack we saw at RMAF.....then he would really be a baller! :D

- Buck

How awesome and fun!

I'm envious. I live in SE Washington and haven't heard a high end system in about 25 years. Mine is definitely a few notches down from what you've heard, but if you're in the area you are welcome to come and hang.

I will say however, that at my house the food and wine rocks!

- Bob

Bob, let me know if you ever make it to Seattle!

No doubt!

Buck there is no way I’m buying that rack!!!

Mulveling that is one nice setup you have!!! I’m already obsessing over cartridges.

Marc,

Thank you for a super kind offer!!! I will definitely take you up on this. I usually make it over about 5-6 times per year. I'll shoot you a PM the next time a trip comes around.

Thank you!

- Bob

Of course! Looking forward to it.

Bob, where you in the state?

Walla Walla. My wife and I moved here 20 years ago. No traffic, excellent restaurants and world class wine. Also, very little rain! I grew up in the Seattle area and didn't know how tired I was of the rain until we moved here. The weather is so nice I am usually able to clock 7000-10,000 motorcycle miles per year.

- Bob

Awesome! For several years I went to Walla Walla every year to get away and do some wine tasting. I really love it there. I was a club member at Dunhams but my favorite winery there is Adamant. I also like Buty quite a bit.

Bob I only hear good things about there, and never have been. Seattle has changed too much, even for me and I grew up in the city.

Maybe Marc, that may be a good getaway with the girls and do some wine tasting

Steve

You are definitely dedicated to the craft!

You know you’re always welcome to the DFWAC meets!

Maybe that is the seed of a good idea. I know many of the best winemakers in the valley and could probably set up a mini tour that may be able to get you in to wineries that don't do tours.

I also cook. All the stuff you'd find in a nice restaurant but what I really like to do is barbecue. You have to eat my ribs sitting down because if you're standing up, you're knees will buckle.

Maybe in late spring when the weather is nice I could host some sort of event. Maybe wine tour, food and music.

Just a thought.

- Bob

Thanks Joey, I plan to make a few meets, just something seems to come up at the same time, keeping my fingers crossed for next year.

Thanks Ivan, I plan to come up your way sometime for sure.

Buck I'm not much of a baby sitter but I will do what ever I must in order to your system!!

Steve, If you head to Florida to see Master Lou, I'm in the Tampa area.

No vinyl but we share a fondness for ARC and ML.

Feel free to contact me.

Thanks Brad, I will certainly give you a shout if I ever get down that way.

Now that's a rowdy looking bunch! :D

I don't know how I missed this thread!

STEVE! Great thread. It was pretty damn cool for Steve to drive down to my home 2 times last year. Was also special to hear Steve's impressions especially after the first time in March. I only had the CLX and other gear barely a month or so. Wasn't really setup correctly and while it was good...just kind of "ok". But months later after adding room treatments/Nordost Odin power cables/ new DAC etc..made a big difference. And last but NOT least..Steve setup my Clearaudio Innovation TT :)

Those 3 days Steve was here we JAMMED! Ate well too.

Was really cool and Steve's a good friend. Had to cancel my trip up to see him earlier this year but still planning on going.

Would love to travel some this year to other's AA members to hear their gear.

:smoking:

Amazing! I went to law school in Oklahoma City. Sadly, I haven't been back to OK since then. If you find yourself down in New Orleans get with me. I can show you what a small listening room really is. :yes:

Do you ever make it down to New Orleans for anything? I live on the Northshore of the lake. As with Steve above, get with me if you come down sometime. I'd like to introduce you to the president of our audio club as well. We hold irregular meetings in this area, but the group is a pretty nice group of guys.