Forty years ago, as I was starting out on my audio journey, I railed against the flashy mainstream audio gear of the day. To me less was more, and I tried to convince my friends that my small, austere British-made audio rig, including what my friends jokingly called my Lynn Swanndek turntable (after the Steelers wide receiver), really did sound much better than their big silvery Japanese stacks loaded up with shiny knobs, switches, and meters. Audio was all about the sound after all, and I wasn't interested in some dazzling visual display that had nothing to do with what I was hearing. I gravitated toward gear that wasn't flashy or fancy looking, feeling that meant that the effort and expense to create it went where it counted most, to the parts that made it sound great.
While I've mellowed a bit over the decades, my basic attitude hasn't changed that much. I have owned a lot of pedestrian-looking but brilliant-sounding hi-fi equipment. Highlights include my Julius Futterman H3aa mono OTL amplifiers, with their unpainted aluminum chassis and Dymo labelmaker stickers printed out by Julius himself to identify the various connections and tube sockets, and my Croft Audio Vitale preamp, with its laughable attempts at bling: gold-plated knobs and a faceplate of roughly finished wood.
First place in the ugly stakes, however, has to go to my Symdex Epsilon loudspeakers (although Herb Reichert's legendary Jamaican-flag-painted refrigerator speakers, which had 15" Altec 416 woofers cut into the main doors and Altec 604 drivers cut into the freezer, may have given them a run for their money). The Symdex was the first speaker created by future Snell and Revel designer Kevin Voecks. When new, these speakers looked a bit like a skinnier Vandersteen Model 2, with fabric-wrapped cabinets and wood end caps, but I modified them to within an inch of their lives, turning them into very likely the ugliest speakers ever created.
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RABBIT HOLES
The best Christmas gift in history was George Bailey being shown what the world would be like without his being born, courtesy of Angel Second Class Clarence, in the classic 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.
REVINYLIZATION
As one of the first live albums to be recorded in the hallowed space that is New York City's Village Vanguard, Sonny Rollins's A Night at the Village Vanguard (recorded November 3, 1957, released in 1958) set the template, proving that recording in the odd, triangular club could not only work but could also produce distinctive, satisfying sound.
AURAL ROBERT
Recording music is complicated, and without the crucial assistance of producers and engineers, a lot of great records-not to mention successful musical careers would not happen.
Linear Tube Audio Aero
This paragraph from Linear Tube Audio's website description of their new Aero DAC sets the tone for the story I'm about to tell.
PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid
Hybrid\" technology-specifically, mixing tubed and solid state in the same amplification device-stirs a deep desire for many enthusiasts.
SPIN DOCTOR
There once was an ugly duckling
BRILLIANT CORNERS
Stereo is the most successful audio gimmick of all time. While dashboard record players, quadraphonic LPs, and MQA have gone the way of Ron Popeil's hair-in-aspray-can infomercials, stereo remains king. And I am guilty of loving it.
Franco Serblin Accordo Goldberg
As founder and chief designer of Sonus Faber, Franco Serblin designed and manufactured many loudspeakers of acclaimed high quality, mainly in box form.
Grimm Audio MU2
For several months, my wife and I had been living in a cozy studio apartment in New York's Financial District while our apartment underwent substantial renovations.'
GoldenEar Technology T66
Loudspeaker company GoldenEar Technology was founded in 2010 by audio industry veteran Sandy Gross¹ after he left Definitive Technology.