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I would be remiss if I didn't start off mentioning the person whom I consider both my audio and music mentor: Sid Marks. Outside of maybe Jack English, there's no one I learned more from about reviewing than Sid. Sid's system when I first met him in the early '80s was far beyond anything I owned or had heard at the time and really inspired me in my quest for the Holy Grail. The first time I visited Sid's house, he was driving his Infinity RS1bs (he had just sold his RS1as) with the cj Premier 1 tube amplifier and IIRC (and he had tried many bass amps without success) the Perreaux 2150 on the bass towers. The rest of his system consisted of the Goldmund Studio table//T3 arm, the cj Premier 3 preamplifier and MIT cabling. Over the years, the cartridges rangied from the Spectral to the Accuphase to the Shinon Red (the worst sounding cartridge he tried but I'm still not sure Sam Burstein set the Red up correctly since it was so far up in the back) to the Lyras. (I'm sure I've forgotten a few, maybe a Koetsu???) Over the years, his electronics ranged from Motif to Vendetta Research to Jadis to Krell bass amplifiers, etc. Following the Goldmund, his tables included various VPI tables with an ET-2, then the Air Tangent and then the 12-inch VPI arms. Over the the years, the RS1bs were extensively modded with the biggest change occurring when Sid had Mike Tsecouras, then at Texas Instruments and now President and Chief Technical Officer at Audio Research, build him a totally new xover. Other changes included restuffing the towers, rewiring the speakers, changing the dustcaps, anchoring the midrange panels, new pots, etc. Outside of scale of music, Sid's system just did so many things well including dynamics, resolution, bass and moving air in the nether regions, and most of all, just sounding like music. But most of all good bass, because Sid was and still is a bass freak. He would spend hours moving those bass towers an inch or two and listening to the result.
To be continued.
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I would be remiss if I didn't start off mentioning the person whom I consider both my audio and music mentor: Sid Marks. Outside of maybe Jack English, there's no one I learned more from about reviewing than Sid. Sid's system when I first met him in the early '80s was far beyond anything I owned or had heard at the time and really inspired me in my quest for the Holy Grail. The first time I visited Sid's house, he was driving his Infinity RS1bs (he had just sold his RS1as) with the cj Premier 1 tube amplifier and IIRC (and he had tried many bass amps without success) the Perreaux 2150 on the bass towers. The rest of his system consisted of the Goldmund Studio table//T3 arm, the cj Premier 3 preamplifier and MIT cabling. Over the years, the cartridges rangied from the Spectral to the Accuphase to the Shinon Red (the worst sounding cartridge he tried but I'm still not sure Sam Burstein set the Red up correctly since it was so far up in the back) to the Lyras. (I'm sure I've forgotten a few, maybe a Koetsu???) Over the years, his electronics ranged from Motif to Vendetta Research to Jadis to Krell bass amplifiers, etc. Following the Goldmund, his tables included various VPI tables with an ET-2, then the Air Tangent and then the 12-inch VPI arms. Over the the years, the RS1bs were extensively modded with the biggest change occurring when Sid had Mike Tsecouras, then at Texas Instruments and now President and Chief Technical Officer at Audio Research, build him a totally new xover. Other changes included restuffing the towers, rewiring the speakers, changing the dustcaps, anchoring the midrange panels, new pots, etc. Outside of scale of music, Sid's system just did so many things well including dynamics, resolution, bass and moving air in the nether regions, and most of all, just sounding like music. But most of all good bass, because Sid was and still is a bass freak. He would spend hours moving those bass towers an inch or two and listening to the result.
To be continued.
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