Aaron, Dennis and Adgene (minicooper @ wiredstate) are all long-time friends and reside in the lovely campus-town/city of Princeton, NJ, famous for the place where Albert Einstein smoked his first joint and when told it was immoral to do so replied, "well, it's all relative..." But seriously, Princeton is a great place to live in especially if you're an academician and manage to finangle a post in the Institute for Advanced Study researching String Theory with Edward Witten.
On the other hand, if your persuasion isn't too nerdy and you're not above having fun audio-wise, then Princeton has the best resource in the New York Tri-state area for buying vinyl records: Princeton Records EXchange (PREX) is the best place to buy vinyl within two hours of New York city, period. There are great bargains to be found in the $1 bins and, in fact, the best records I've bought are between $2-$3.
Visiting PREX isn't just a shopping event, it's a pilgrimage for the vinylphile. Since I'm able to visit only twice a year, at most, I look forward to it with that kind of giggle-sense Einstein must've felt whenever he bummed some chronic.
Okay, let's be honest. How many among us here... umm... have been in a listening session and felt they wanted to leave but couldn't because they just got there?
Well, the first time I was invited to listen to Aaron's system, I had very high expectations. When I got there, I remember Aaron mentioned that he wasn't happy with the hobby anymore and was more taken by mountain-biking. The speakers Aaron were using were modified Maggie 3.6s with an outboard crossover and corner subs. I thought there were certain things they did well, like imaging and tonal balance, but the objectionables were too much for me to suspend disbelief.
I didn't know Aaron well enough then to tell him how I truly felt (because these were just my opinions anyway) but I thought the sound was a bit sterile which, by itself would've still been okay if it didn't also sound a bit metallic. My scrutiny went from the speakers upwards to Aaron's sources and on the way home, I kept bitching to my cousin Manuel about how sources are most important, etc etc.
Good thing is, my being a wee bit evil saved the day because then Manuel and I pulled our excuse-- we have to buy records at PREX before they close. Aha! Now you're gonna wonder, did we think about this excuse before we got to Aaron's place? Hehe, I told you I was somewhat evil.
A few weeks ago, Aaron told me he retired the Maggies--
and he's not even using these Lowthers--
instead this time around Aaron has a pair of Eminent Tech LFT-8s and he had replaced his Sonographe turntable with a Sota he had "lying around".
Oh boy, here we go. One thing that'll tell you if I'm not truly interested in the demo system is if I don't play any of my records/CDs or ruffle around the host's collection to hunt something down. Usually, my trick is to let the owner play something first so that if the system sucks, I can tell the owner to play whatever they felt. That way, I can do the old sliperoo without wondering if I've left any CDs behind.
This time around when Aaron played the first track, I slowly smiled. The sound was, imo, top-to-bottom way better than his previous sound. This was no downsizing move! This was a put-this-mufka-in-his-fuggin-place-and-shut-him-up.
A quick disclaimer-- I'm not against dipoles per se, in fact, I love that open boxless sound. It's when dipoles put you in an "invariant space" that I get distracted. At first this artifact might be exciting because you get a very deep and layered soundstage but if every song you play regardless of genre is presented in this same space, then I feel my one good leg is getting pulled. This is also the reason I had my electrostats "horned" and now that the horns are gone, I can't stand them.
Even though they are dipoles these speakers were different! Maybe they were engineered with asymmetric dispersion between front/back but I thought they had that openness of boxless speakers but could play both rock and classical without that common dipole artifact.
They were also seamless as the cheese and bread in that sandwich you left on top of that Krell. Which is to say, seamless like hell. Not just between the high and mid planars but also between those planars and the boxed woofer. In some ways this is the holy grail of electrostats and, to date, I haven't heard any brand accomplish this.
The speakers were musical. With that cliche I mean that I forget about the gear and listen to the music. We played a lot of tracks but the two that stand out were Stevie Ray Vaughn/Double Trouble playing Tin Pan Alley. The best rendition of a Fender Strat/Twin (could be mistaken here) sound I've ever heard. Those guitar amps "breathe" and these speakers got that right.
The second was Ella and Louis Armstrong, this had Manuel giving me that look as if saying we should go to his car, pick up a couple tire wrenches, knock the three guys topside, then lug the speakers home
The rest of the gear Aaron could perhaps explain better. He uses a passive preamp that allows me to clearly hear the source. In fact, so much so I thought its transparency makes it difficult for me play "demonyo" here. Hmm, so I turned my attention to the cartrige/phono (Rega Elys/Rega phono) combo but even if the modded Toshiba sounded more detailed, the balance of the analog rig was too good to be upset.
Still I couldn't help myself and seeing where Aaron was going suggested he consider Dynavector carts and phono as an upgrade path. Maybe a 20X or better yet, like my friend Michael, a low-output Karat 19A into a Dynavector's P75 enhanced mode.
Below we have the Princeton Pinoydiophiles Mafiosi, L-R: Adgene (minicooper), Dennis (tobats), Aaron, me (Ttommy), Manuel.
Compared to the last time I visited, how does Aaron feel about his system now? As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
The biggest compliment I could give Aaron with his current system isn't in words. A couple hours into the session, I decided not to visit PREX and buy records, instead, we stayed and listened. If you can imagine only buying good bargain records twice a year, then foregoing one of those opportunities to listen to a friend's rig... well, that's how good it was!
Congrats, Aaron!
And thanks for reading!
