Ken Fritz article

I doubt Ken had antisocial PD. He had personality features possibly of some other PDs, but there isn't enough here to say more. Having a dysfunctional relationship with his older son is unfortunate, but not enough to make a diagnosis of anything. His son wanting a vintage car his grandfather owned and a vintage turntable as his only bequest is telling of not much, except that it was met with a smallness of spirit by someone who could have afforded to do better. The unsaid part may be bitterness over how unhappy his mother apparently was due to living in a home Ken dominated, but that is speculation. It is hard not to wonder whether he liked things more than people.

He built a big sound system of his own design, choosing a big line array design and using his experience in commercial polymer molding to build it, filling in with extra low-end speakers and driving it with stacks of Krell amplifiers and separate crossovers. The video suggests he enjoyed it even if he realized it wasn't perfect: "you lie to yourself and tell yourself it sounds great."

The grandfather clocks are an oddity, though. They aren't particularly great at timekeeping, they are delicate and cumbersome, and not anyone's idea of modern room accent. These weren't antique clocks which might make an interesting piece in a modern room, they looked like reproduction pieces.

Is anyone else on this forum divorced?  Is that evidence of mental illness?  Ken owned his own business, and maybe that was one reason he didn’t take vacations.   We don’t know if he took his profession as seriously as he did his sound system.  At least 2 of his kids were featured in the article and video, so they apparently got along with him.  A few select quotes from a writer are not enough to make any valid conclusions about someone.  Has anyone else employed their kids to help them with projects, and had their kids remember that is was fun?  We don’t have any information about how many friends he had and what they thought of him.  It’s clear he liked building things, and that was part of his profession.  From what I could see he enjoyed building his room, system and the grandfather clocks.  Maybe doing it himself was more important than the final result.  The article - oddly - made no effort at all to evaluate how good the sound quality was.  Yet it was supposedly an article about creating the best sound system.  It seemed to go off track and focus on flaws in his personal life.  I’m glad no one is writing about me.  But for all of us, no matter what we buy, build or collect, some day we will leave it all behind.

@tcotruvo 

+1

What an incredibly awful article. What was the purpose of doing this article?

I Recall the details of the auction of the system and was horrified. How could his family not enlist the support of the audio community to take great care and do what this man wished to be done.

The deficient and negatively biased article should have at least expanded upon some notable efforts that he made to system going beyond the turntable. He devoted his life to creating something that was truly remarkable and memorable and this article failed to capture the essence of what he tried to do. Tarnishing all he worked for was so inappropriate. Sure there deservedly was a need for attention to focus on his obsessive nature toward building the system and that would’ve been fair. And that would’ve been a nice thing to read about. But frankly I really didn’t enjoy reading the article and all the negativity.

The end of this man’s life was incredibly sad and difficult. Most of us will probably be similarly treated during our final days. Nature is so unfriendly at times.

I have to believe many facets of his system could’ve found their way into the home of someone who is involved in audio. There was so much to appreciate and learn from what this guy did.