[mchydro]

Here's the third and final part of my story of my visit to Ivan's. To recap, parts one and two related to the amazing sights and sounds of this legendary home theater room. This last part will talk about what I felt.

My first day of demos was with Ivan's system sans the Gotham sub. He played two channel and multichannel music for me. After a few minutes of easy listening with some jazz, he cranked the system up with some rock, namely, Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Lucky man". It was almost as if an enormous pulse of air pushed up against me. When the bass and drums kicked in, I felt like King Kong was beating on my chest. However, the big ape wasn't the culprit of course, rather it was the fleet of 12" McIntosh drivers being driven by gobs of clean power. Listening to the drum and bass lines of the music was just darn right addictive. Clean bass radiated straight through my viscera at the beat of the music. I felt like I was right on stage with the musicians.

Miraculously, what I did not feel or hear, were any unwanted resonances interacting with the room. Ivan truly created an airtight, concrete bunker, with layers of the finest acoustic room treatments money can buy. Silences were so black that I felt at times like the system had shut off. And when Ivan shuts all of those beautiful blue and green lights off, in what he refers to as theater mode, indeed you can't tell whether it's on or off.

I laughed at the thought of the addition of the JL Audio Gotham G213. If there was ever a system that didn't need more bass, this was it. However, Ivan likes to push the envelope as we all know. After helping him and his son get it in place in the rear of the room, Ivan began to configure it for optimal sound. When he was finished, we listened to some demos again. The G213 is truly a monster. With the Gotham, bass was now even more gripping and prevalent in the room. My chair began to feel like a Sharper Image massage recliner. Now, not only was I hearing and feeling fantastic bass from the front, but also from behind. There was no escaping the downpour of low frequency notes. Pure heaven.

From the drums, the bass, synthesizers, explosions and other movie sound effects, Ivan's amazing theater room delivered like no other. Dynamic range was limitless.

And so there you have it. I'm just a "lucky man" who was fortunate enough to experience the Master's system. Sharing those experiences with all of you has been fun.

Most importantly, thank you Ivan!!!

To be continued...