Like high end gear? Well come on in! (pics)

[btf1980]

I'm a member of a meetup group called Analog Apartment - A place for people who love records

It's a group of vinyl enthusiasts that meetup to discuss records, visit local record stores, listen to hifi etc Our last meetup event was at the legendary Stereo Exchange in NYC (happens to be my dealer too) - http://stereoexchange.com/

So we listened to some music and perused the gear, talked about music & hifi. It was a great time. I also took some pics between chatting & listening.

The organizer is looking to setup a visit to Grado Labs in Brooklyn. So anyone in the NYC area is free to join our group.

The NYC Analog Apartment Meetup (New York, NY) - Meetup.com

Anyway, here are some pics.

Michell Gyrodec w/ a Rega tonearm





Bel Canto CD2 & Ayre Universal Player


Another Michell turntable


Ayre amplifier. Very dynamic!


Sonus Faber Liuto speakers


Wavelength & Ayre gear


Rel sub - Meridian dock to the side


The room - Ayre, Sonus Faber, Michell, Bel Canto, Wavelength, Richard Gray, Rel, Shunyata etc


Sonus Faber Liutos were incredible


Listening to the Gyrodec


more to come...

[btf1980]

Then we stepped it up and went to these

Totem Wind speakers with Ayre gear...




Ayre turntable - forget the cartridge on it.


The power supply for the turntable was gigantic!!


Ayre player


Monoblocks on pagode stands - Acoustic Research to the right


Sonus Faber Stradivari ($45K) and some Meridian speakers.


Vienna Acoustic - The Music speakers $27k?


Sonus Faber




more...

[btf1980]

Sonus Faber Amati - $30k? Notice the Quad speakers in the back.


Mac attack - McIntosh


Entry level Michell turntable


MC-275 tube McIntosh amp - LUSH!!


Wadia & Audio Research gear on pagodes - I think there is enough $$$ in this room to put someone through law school.


more....

[btf1980]

B&W 805s, Pro-ject rpm5, McIntosh MVP871 and an integrated.




B&W, Vienna Acoustics & Sonus Faber


Acoustic Research tubes






The big daddies. 802D from B&W with a ton of Mac gear. Can you feel the heat?


Mac glow.


802D


Sonus Faber Ellipsas with some mac tubes....



Mac attack


fin.

[Pycroft]

Great pics....


Man that Mcintosh gear is SOOOOOOOO sexy!

[Intamin]

Nice pics! Sounds like a good time

[Sonny]

Very very nice gear. I love the Mac gear too! Wish I still had my Mac amps...

[Johnny Vinyl]

Hey btf,

Great pics and what a great way to spend some time with friends and enthusiasts!.

You seem to have a good way of describing gear, and you know I'm a Totem Acoustic fan...so what did you think of the Winds?

John

[btf1980]

Originally Posted by John72953

Hey btf,

Great pics and what a great way to spend some time with friends and enthusiasts!.

You seem to have a good way of describing gear, and you know I'm a Totem Acoustic fan...so what did you think of the Winds?

John

Hey John,

I had heard the Winds many times, so I knew what to expect. The room that these were in were kind of "live" due to the wood floors, so it was not a fair place to make a judgment. I will talk about when I heard them in a well treated room. They were connected to Acoustic Research amps, an Esoteric SA-50 SACD player and a Clearaudio turntable, I think a magnum. Anyway, the thing that hit me was how enveloping the sound was. Most speakers, by design are somewhat directional. This is not bad per se, but that's just how it is. They sound like they are boxes emanating sound. However, the winds just kind of floated, like the sound enveloped and surrounded you. The only other time I got this kind of feeling was with some MBL speakers I heard a few years ago. The sound was rich, yet dispersed. It's kind of hard to put into words, but it was very enjoyable. It would be great with orchestral or chamber music. Now the price...lol.

[Zman2k2]

All I can say is WOW! The experiences must be fantastic. I'm just in awe of most of the gear in those pictures. You must really enjoy the time spent with your group. If I'm ever back in NYC, maybe I'll meet up with the group and spend just one day with you all. I can't think of anything better.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by btf1980

Hey John,

I had heard the Winds many times, so I knew what to expect. The room that these were in were kind of "live" due to the wood floors, so it was not a fair place to make a judgment. I will talk about when I heard them in a well treated room. They were connected to Acoustic Research amps, an Esoteric SA-50 SACD player and a Clearaudio turntable, I think a magnum. Anyway, the thing that hit me was how enveloping the sound was. Most speakers, by design are somewhat directional. This is not bad per se, but that's just how it is. They sound like they are boxes emanating sound. However, the winds just kind of floated, like the sound enveloped and surrounded you. The only other time I got this kind of feeling was with some MBL speakers I heard a few years ago. The sound was rich, yet dispersed. It's kind of hard to put into words, but it was very enjoyable. It would be great with orchestral or chamber music. Now the price...lol.

Bang on buddy! That's exactly the impression I got when I heard them at my dealer a while back. Totem is known for building speakers that have very wide off-axis dispersion, so this comes as no suprise. Even my Sttaf's have this feel to them, but not of course to the same degree. Voices, especially female ones, and orchestral media truly does shine with them.

Thanks for your thoughts on them! They also come in a fairly bright red btw!. Not that it matters as the price is way out of my league!

John

[rded]

Will somebody wipe the drool off my face???!!! Very nice pictures. I wish there was a club like that here in Chicago...

[Icecoldblue]

wow


I need to clean up the drool now...

[richteer]

Very nice pics! (But I think you wrote Acoustic Research when you meant Audio Research a couple of times...)

I think the big Sonus Faber Strads were what I listened to in Sumiko's room at CES (with an SME 20/12 TT, ARC Reference electronics, and 6 REL Gibraltar subs).

[Pycroft]

Now that I think about it,

If I had all that gear, and sold it all...I could probably pay cash for my house.

[solarrdadd]

wow, that stuff is incredible. i wonder why all the folks who hate high end cables haven't jumped at the chance to say "they wasted money and should have just bought all those cables from monoprice cause they all sound the same!" i bet they won't sound anywhere near as the specialty cables used with this gear. first off, don't get me wrong, i use monoprice cables, got lots of them. i was refering to folks who rant on about how folks are buying "snake oil" and all those other terms. If i could afford this kind of high end gear, and make no mistake, all of this stuff is high end and is all sofa king beautiful, (check out the speaker cables) i would have the same kind of high end cables connected to this gear just like they do. again, not a knock at monoprice, just folks who hate high priced cables. so, who's gonna be the first to tell them they wasted all that money on cables!!! all of that stuff was incredible. Lord, i wish i could listen to music and movies on stuff like that, it must be something special!

i'm sure some of ya are gonna jump on me so, go ahead!

I hope the OP slaps up some more pictures, this stuff is great!

[btf1980]

Originally Posted by richteer

Very nice pics! (But I think you wrote Acoustic Research when you meant Audio Research a couple of times...)

You're right. I meant Audio Research. I have an Acoustic Sounds catalog on my dining table. I typed that out instead. lol

[btf1980]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

wow, that stuff is incredible. i wonder why all the folks who hate high end cables haven't jumped at the chance to say "they wasted money and should have just bought all those cables from monoprice cause they all sound the same!" i bet they won't sound anywhere near as the specialty cables used with this gear. first off, don't get me wrong, i use monoprice cables, got lots of them. i was refering to folks who rant on about how folks are buying "snake oil" and all those other terms. If i could afford this kind of high end gear, and make no mistake, all of this stuff is high end and is all sofa king beautiful, (check out the speaker cables) i would have the same kind of high end cables connected to this gear just like they do. again, not a knock at monoprice, just folks who hate high priced cables. so, who's gonna be the first to tell them they wasted all that money on cables!!! all of that stuff was incredible. Lord, i wish i could listen to music and movies on stuff like that, it must be something special!

i'm sure some of ya are gonna jump on me so, go ahead!

I hope the OP slaps up some more pictures, this stuff is great!

I hate cable talk, but honestly if you are plopping down the kind of money for these type of systems, $2 interconnects are not on the menu suffice to say.

[rded]

Originally Posted by btf1980

I hate cable talk, but honestly if you are plopping down the kind of money for these type of systems, $2 interconnects are not on the menu suffice to say.

Hey Buddy!

I'm so jealous of you. Do you know if there's such a club here in Chicago?

[btf1980]

A few more pics. The cables and power cords were thicker than german sausages. I forget the cabling, but most of the cords were Shunyata.



Shunyata King Cobra power cords connected to an Audio Research tube amp.




Forgot to take pics of the Sooloos, Marantz, Classe and assorted Totems and other B&W ranges.