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Is there a Northern and Southern California Sound

Hi everyone,
I've been slowly making the rounds of LA stereo shops. Before this I was in the San Francisco bay area.

Ages ago, speakers were divided into two camps: East Coast and West Coast sound.

East coast was Audio Research, Boston Acoustics, KLH, etc. West coast was Altec, JBL.

After listening and thinking about it I am wondering if there is a preference for sound quality in northern Caslifornia vs. Southern california?

I got to hear systems in the north at Magico, Music Lovers and Audio Visions. Here in the South I've heard a couple of places, and I found the sound harder and brighter.

Of course, this is a small sample, and all electronics were different, but I'm wondering, has anyone else heard the same?
erik_squires
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,736 posts
 

Brooks’ son Brian (who ran Brooks Berdan Ltd. as Brooks’ health declined) now has his own shop, Audio Elements, in nearby Pasadena. Audiogon contributor folkfreak (who has had me over at his place in Portland to hear his super-fine system) has been one of his clients for years, at both BBL and AE.

Brooks was my main man, starting way back in the mid-80’s. I started accompanying him to the Vegas CES in the late-90’s. His wife Sheila (who now runs BBL) had me put together a band to play at Brooks’ 50th birthday party, at which he got up on my drumset and played "Wipe Out" with the band. Happiest I ever saw him! His death was a huge loss to the SoCal audiophile community.

yyzsantabarbara
4,732 posts
 
The Brooks Berdan big demo room is excellent acoustically. I had a tremendous demo of the Magic A3 in that room. The guys working there were also rather nice to deal with.
erik_squires OP
16,013 posts
 
The Brooks Berdan big demo room is excellent acoustically. I had a tremendous demo of the Magic A3 in that room. The guys working there were also rather nice to deal with.

Super nice people, and I couldn't stand to listen to the A3's with vocals.

YMMV,

E


yyzsantabarbara
4,732 posts
 
@erik_squires  Interesting take on the A3. I heard them with the Mark Levinson gear and I thought it was rather good. Not the best but for the size and the application I was looking to use them they were the top contender. They have now been surpassed by the Paradigm Persona 3F for this purpose.

Different ears I guess.
erik_squires OP
16,013 posts
 
Different ears I guess.

Most likely. I was really glad to listen to that and the McIntosh stand mounts but since I never buy speakers I didn't want to impose on their time for very long. 
I was there because they were one of the only Anthem dealers in the area who were not exclusively custom installers.

Best,
E


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