Met a great dealer in Milwaukee last week
Visiting WI with family and went to Ultra Fidelis in Wauwatosa, WI. What a great suburb of Milwaukee. My wife used to live here. They have a Vandersteen dealer here and I was able to stop by. Jon Spelt has been in the industry since the mid 70's. He is as good, if not the best, set up person I've ever met. That's saying a lot as I have been blessed to be meet MANY top folks in this wonderful industry.
He's has a small and trusted group of companies he reps. The fact that he has KEF and Vandy, tells me that he has audio for not just one type of customer. I noticed and heard Audio Research, Moon by Simaudio, Audio, Pro-Ject, Vandersteen, Audioquest, AMG, Sonus Faber, REL, Prima Luna, Aurender and more. All price ranges.
Jon's one of the approachable guys in audio. The antithesis of stuffy and snooty as many of us have had to endure over the years. Josh is another of his employees and a great guy. I had a fun conversation with him also. The best part was getting to hear the Vandersteen Kënto's with the Vandy M5-HP mono blocks, Audio Research Ref 6 SE preamp (beast) all with top Audioquest cables, cords etc... What a fun few cuts he played. It was eery as the walls literally were gone. I mentioned set up, but he didn't use much room treatment. The room was open to a larger area as many older shops have. This was real world 101 stuff. He just got the speakers to sound their best and my head wasn't locked into a vise either. Many feel Vandy's as a time and phase correct speaker needs to have a small sweet spot, but I don't' have that in my room and it certainly wasn't like that here.
It was just a fun day for me and much needed. Easy to stay distant and the store was clean. I just felt respected and as a customer who visits many stores to hear gear and share about experiences here and other sites, that's most often NOT the case. Good on you Jon for having such a wonderful store and making my week! Im' sure I'll see you before we head home. Thanks. just wanted to share.
