The Horror
After getting back home from “The Show” in Costa Mesa, California this past weekend, I walked over to my stereo system and turned it on. And silently wept. I had held out a feint hope that my cross-over modified 1.7i Maggies and mighty Parasound A21+, fed from a Prima Luna 300 tube preamplifier could somehow manage a slight shimmer of resemblance to the robust setups I witnessed at the SHOW. Not—- on— your —-life. Not even close. I slumped into my over-stuffed couch and stared long and hard at the thing I created: an anemic concoction of false hopes and wishful thinking. The horror, the truth: entry into serious audiophile listening begins with purchase of speakers that cost the price of the car I had to finance for 4 years, closely followed with the added expense of beefy sophisticated electronics and wiring, not a gaggle of cheap wanna-be plastic and tweeks. I so wanted to belong, but that’s turned out to be just a fever dream I’ve got to wake up from. Maybe one day, if ever I have the nerve to rob a bank, find Jimmy Hoffa, or survive a head-on collision from a sleepy Amazon driver, I might make it. Maybe. Feel free to play the violin with two fingers.
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What I saw and heard from the start was the Gryphon room, off to the right in the lobby. Talk about setting the bar right from the start! Honestly, though the Gryphon’s total package wasn’t really that obscene, (I mean it’s a Tesla, for chrissake. Doesn’t everyone have one of those?), it was still outside my reach. And the sound. Well, to cut down on the hyperbole, it was sound I’d not heard until that day, alerting me to the naked truth: This, this sound, is not what I do at home. Not now. Maybe never. I stumbled out of that room in trembling recognition of how real speakers sound. Then, of course, I heard the Vandersteens and the $57,000 Boenickes. Slam! Bam! And on it went. I was reeling. There were certainly some mighty mouses doing their best to take on these giants, but as good as many of them were, they could not drive the sound of those giants out of my mind. I appreciate @roxy54’s heartfelt encouragement. Rest easy. I won’t jump. It’s just a sad day. |
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- 145 posts total