Carolina Audiofest Extravaganza

VR3

Rocking in the Carolinas!

VR3

VR3

VR3

Great time today! Was able to hear 3 great rigs and hang with good people!

@treitz3 @TroyD @Reagan @SillyOldSod

Reagan

Great time! Awesome experiences!

pitdogg2

Nice 👍👍

txcoastal1

No praying or dancing vids?

Glad you guys had a nice get together

Need to start handing Tom a custom hat, cap, or beanie
The glare off the dome messes with the pics

treitz3

I love hearing how each of the rigs progress through their journey!







All in all, a wonderful fun filled day. 3 separate rigs, each with their own flavor. Each, exceptional in their own right. LOTS of killer tunes. What a way to spend a nice weather Saturday!

Fellas, it was a pleasure meeting some of you. Trey and Troy, always a pleasure to spend some time with you two....doing what we love to do. Chat about audio and get down to some listening!

Tom

VR3

Sweet Pic of me! 🤣

txcoastal1

VR3 wrote: »

Sweet Pic of me! 🤣

The "Kid" grows up

txcoastal1

3 Beastful setups

Sweeeet!!

gudnoyez

Looks like a good time had by all, nice gear on display.

treitz3

VR3 wrote: »

Sweet Pic of me! 🤣

Dude, that photo is Hermitism worthy!

Tom

VR3

Effn' a cotton

treitz3

Notable quotables from today -

"Sweating like a fat chick writing her first love letter". - TroyD

"He can hear a fish f a r t in the middle of a waterfall". - Trey AKA "Sid the Kid"

Tom

txcoastal1

Lol
Glad they provided you some edgumication

TroyD

Just got back to Charleston.....what a GREAT time!

I’ll post more thoughts in the morning but suffice to say I got a STILL have boner that’s harder than Chinese arithmetic

pitdogg2

Just use the abacus

TroyD

Actually, I can use an abacus....my first tour in Korea, one of my Korean counterparts taught me. Of course that was 20 years ago but it's actually really cool.

I digress.

So, this is a tale of three wildly different but awesome systems and some GREAT guys.

I left Charleston a little after 6am filled with coffee, bitterness and impure thoughts.....had to stop on the way to Tom's 4 times to piss and got to his house a few minutes after 9. Exchanged a few pleasantries and got right down to business.....Tom's system revolving around the Tyler Acoustics speakers was a lesson in resolution and squeezing every last drop of performance from what you've got to work with. Tom is the meticulous, measure to the nearest three places to the right of the decimal point kinda guy....and his rig shows it. Rock solid, laser sharp imaging. Inner detail and decay to the nth degree. What was missing....was the treble glare that seems to accompany high resolution systems. Now, less than perfect recordings are shown up for what they are but they also don't render them unlistenable....but if you've got an armload of cd's from the 1980's, Tom's rig is not for you. Good recordings are rewarded.....I have a one off recording of Amazing Grace recorded in a church downtown. Tom's rig put you in the church....it caught all of the ambient/ spacial cues of the church in a way I've not heard before.

So, after a Krispy Creme donut and some chit chat.....we go to Rick's. Everyone goes to Rick's (Casablanca fans will get that). Where Carl meets the caravan and Rick's friend...and I'm going to cop to being a flake and not remembering his name..but a REALLY nice guy. A little more small talk and up the stairs to Rick's listening room anchored by a pair of tricked out 1.2tl's with a uber tricked out VPI HW-19 turntable. WOW. The only other SDA demo that I was as impressed by is F1Nut's 2.3tl's. I'd REALLY hate to live on the differences there.....but what really got me was the midrange clarity of the 1.2t's and the image height. With the 1.2's I find myself looking up as opposed to forward...not a criticism but just an observation. This rig was uber musical. All smooth edges, top to bottom coherence and that SDA soundstage that we all lust after. Now, Rick has a collection of vinyl that I'd like to sit down and play record after record for days......and that's what's great about Rick's rig is that while it's not a highly resolving system in my mind, it's musical AF and just a joy to listen to. The big Audio Research tube amp and Cary preamp probably play a big part in that. Again, a very well thought out system with VERY complimentary pieces. I just want to know how he got all that gear up the stairs?? Two things NOT in my favor.....Rick is a great guy and the stairs. Other wise, I'd have considered stiff arming him and making a mad dash out the door with that ARC amp.

So, we cap off the day at Trey's place. Now, I don't mean this pejoratively.....but from the street, Trey's house is very unassuming. Small house in an older neighborhood. The inside? It felt like I was walking in to a uber modern, contemporary/luxury pad. Now, I'm gonna cut to the chase because I've been pumped up to listen to his Grand Utopia's for awhile now. I've been lucky enough to listen to a few cost-no-object rigs over the years and always relish the opportunity. Trey's rig is Goldilocks material. It does EVERYTHING extraordinarily well....and I mean EVERYTHING. It's musical. It's got resolution and transparency. Tonal purity. BASS. O-MFING-GEE has it got BASS and it's got an effortlessness in sound that I've never heard. The Bozaks have an effortlessness that I'm drawn too but the GU's are just mind-blowing in the effortless department. You know a system is great when you can play it at aurally traumatizing levels and it just doesn't seem all that loud. No congestion. No muss. No fuss. Frankly, it's a rig that were I to have, I'd have to ask....where could I possibly go from here? In which case the two great tragedies in life rule is invoked.....the first being not achieving your life's ambition but the greater tragedy is to actually achieve it.

So, all that is all swell but none of it is worth a **** in a whirlwind were it not spent hanging out with such a great bunch of guys. Seriously...and we talked a bit about how this forum has engendered such a community. I've made life long, have the passwords to my bank account level friends (If anyone wants to make a deposit, btw)....and I'm a richer person (albeit poorer financially) for it.

Oh, and I have a set of L800's in my garage. Hopefully get them uncrated this week.....and listening to those rigs have got me motivated to actually dial mine in better.

TroyD

BTW, why will vanilla let me post PISS but not (F)(A)(R)(T).

I stand corrected....****. There it is.

Huh.

VR3

I agree with Troy's take on everything. All rigs are different and do many many things well. Was really fun to experience them all back to back in a day!

It is amazing after 20 years on a forum how much you realize it impacts your life. I consider many members here to be a great friend.

Was truly great to have you here and appreciate you coming up!

treitz3

BDT wrote:

I have a one off recording of Amazing Grace recorded in a church downtown. Tom's rig put you in the church....it caught all of the ambient/ spacial cues of the church in a way I've not heard before.

That was an outstanding recording. One I enjoyed immensely. It's rare that one hears a bootleg recording that rivals one from FIM, MFSL and the like.

Tom

VR3

My memorablwe moment of the day was when Tom asked if the infinite baffle subs were on :-p

treitz3

Well now, you did say that you did nothing to the bass/mid network and it was QUITE OBVIOUS that something had changed since my last visit....like, drastically changed and so much more for the better (not like it was a slouch before....just sayin'). I would even venture to say that even your neighbors could tell that something had changed.

So I am sitting there in the sweet spot, listening. You are telling me that you did nothing to the network. There were no new subs in the room but I could easily tell that something had changed and every time I asked you a question about what you did to the network, you just sat there with this devilish smile....so I thought you were trying to pull a fast one on me.

The end result (for everyone else reading this) was outstanding and I even went up to Trey, shook his hand, looked him in the eye and said, "Congratulations...job well done!".

What we didn't know is that he ditched most of his upstream gear (hidden by the panels in the wall) and changed out/reconfigured the whole thing. He took a completely different approach to the setup, took a HUGE gamble.....but that gamble paid off. In spades.

I said it once, I'll say it again. Well done, sir! My hat is off to you. That was a HUGE gamble to make.

Tom

VR3

Thanks Tom

msg

That was a great write-up Troy. Jeez, what do you say to something like this. The words "unique and interesting experience" don't seem to do justice to what you you guys pulled together for the day. Those systems all look to be ultra-refined. Gorgeous, each. Is this all in the Charlotte area? When I first saw the photos, I was wondering if you guys traveled all those systems together to one person's house and set them up in different rooms!

VR3

Tom is in rock Hill. Me and Rick are in Concord

treitz3

These gatherings are expensive! After hearing Trey's new amplifier? I HAD to have it, so I just pulled the trigger on a Musical Fidelity KW750.

Please allow me to digress. I told Trey that this amp has been my dream amplifier some time ago. The little bastage......what does he do? He goes out and buys it. I listen to it yesterday without even knowing it. I knew immediately that I like what I heard and I *knew* that something had drastically changed with the bass/midbass network, even though he swore up and down that he did nothing to it.

I even made the comment that all of the frequencies had a clarity to it and that the spectrum had improved across the field. When he showed me what he had done, I was honestly blown aback.

Here I was looking at my dream amplifier in person! At that very moment, I was sold. I knew I would DEFINITELY be getting one and that the time for wondering what it could do along with the element of procrastination was over. The time was now.

We had some conversations about the amplifier and we both knew that they only come up on the market about once a year, *maybe* twice if you were lucky and constantly scouring the net. They do not come up for sale that often at all. I know, because I have been watching them for the past 4 or 5 years, maybe longer.

So, after the fun with listening to all of the systems, I plopped my big ol' butt down in front of the 'puter last night and hoped for the best. Well, I got extremely lucky. I was able to find one for sale and in what appears to be mint condition. All cables and boxes included. After speaking with the owner of the store that has offered it, I ordered it. We are currently working on the shipping details for pallet/freight and once that is solidified, she will be on the way.

Going from a Musical Fidelity A3cr dual mono amp to a Musical Fidelity KW750? Holy Moly...

Tom

VR3

Woooooooo!!!

Congrats Tom! Super excited to hear it on your system!

TroyD

Good on ya, Tom! Get some!!!

I think that's going to make you a VERY happy guy!

treitz3

TroyD wrote: »

Tom is the meticulous, measure to the nearest three places to the right of the decimal point kinda guy. <snip>

Troy, this comment is spot on. I don't know if you ever ran across this post before. I think I posed it about two years ago (can't remember, getting old).

treitz3 wrote:

What I ended up doing after much discussion online, with nearby professionals and the like, was taking each main speaker and loosely moving them around (Spikes on) until I found the best lower spectrum reproductive efforts (no subs at this point). As soon as I found the best location, I took measurements and found the "best spot" to place each main.....at this point, I was not paying any attention to mid and upper frequencies and this was done by ear, using many different passages of certain low frequency albums.

As soon as the "spot" was found , I measured the front and rear sides of the speakers to within 1/6th of an inch from the side walls. Both speakers were in the same exact position away from the wall. Then I verified the rear two corners of each speaker the same way from the back wall, making sure everything was within 1/16th of an inch. I then made sure that the speakers were perfectly leveled. At that point, I tilted the speakers back to where the direction of the tweeter went to the outside of my ears about 2". I then measured from my chest bone, without moving, the exact measurement from L to R speaker to within 1/16th of an inch, pointing the laser directly above the tweeter.

I kept going back and measuring everything I just mentioned again and again, until all parameters mentioned were within 1/16th of an inch, verified by lasers and a laser tape measure. I have box-type speakers [Tyler Acoustics Lynbrook Sig. Series, 1 piece towers], so I could easily mount the laser(s) along the fronts, sides and anywhere else to take precise measurements. I would mark with tape on the walls where the laser(s) left the speaker and traveled across the room to behind the listening position. Basically, I measured just about every conceivable parameter I could imagine that would alter the distance of any driver to my ears.

That yielded to date, the best imaging and spatial locationality cues I had ever heard from my system....or any system I had heard, truth be told. Ever since then, about every two months, I will go through the same thing, just to make sure one of the speakers did not deviate from the original positions. It took me about a week to dial everything in to perfection. Don't think that this is a "quick" procedure. Just adjusting the tilt knocks off some of the other measurements, for example. I just kept chugging at it until it was done.

Then I added the subs and did the same things with them, then dialed them into the room, then into the mains. Have not messed with it ever since. When I finally went to "test" the system after listening to many albums, I used the newer Isotek ultimate setup disc to confirm what my ears were hearing. The rig passed with flying colors on all test and tune up tracks. The 360 degree test was outstanding and spot on.

From now on, I will just keep tweaking the gear, as the speaker location/setup for me is done and done for good. I feel that there is no need or room for further improvement on that aspect.

The speakers have not moved (except once) from their original set up location ever since I made this post. Other things in the room have changed but the speaker location/tilt have not. We did experiment with something a little different about a year ago to "improve" the room acoustical/frequency readings but it was detrimental to the sound on some genre's of music, so they were put right back where they were and all measurements done once again, and again, and again.

The end result is what you heard yesterday.

BTW, if any of you have the FIM SACD/DSD #029? Slap that bad boy into your SACD player and give the last song a listen. It's called "Canon in D (Pachelbel)". Every time an instrument is played, hit, struck or made music? The spatial locationality cues are laser sharp. It will most definitely give you all aspects of height, depth and staging to a very precise image of being able to pinpoint a laser at exactly where the sound is coming from each time the instrument is struck. Speakers? What speakers?

Yes, it's one of those dreaded, "Audiophile" recordings that has music that you would never really "yearn" to hear but on the flip side, the recording is so clear, clean and precise that it's more than worth it when you go to give it a listen. The next time we do this? I'll have to let each of you sit in the sweet spot and give it a good listen.

Tom