What Was the Best Audio System (s) You Have Heard?

[MylesBAstor]

Your own excluded.

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.

[nc42acc]

Greg Berons MBL system with his UHA R2R as the source. Bar none the best ever for me.

[david k]

Outside of my own and those that I set up and/or sold I have to go with a WE system that I heard over in Japan over at a friend's. IMO he's got THE collection of vintage high end audio in the world and its all in original and mint working condition. The sound was amazing even in the tight and cramped space,













david

[MylesBAstor]

David-what am I looking at in the bottom picture?

What is he driving the WEs with?

[david k]

The speakers were driven with WE electronics, still looking for the images. This was a few years ago when I had no filing system beside iPhoto which sucks!

The table was a Swedish broadcast model, not sure who was the manufacturer but probably by whoever made the motors for Neumann lathes. The bottom picture is the motor and shaft exactly as in Neumann Lathes. Even the platter is a very similar design,



david

David-what am I looking at in the bottom picture?

What is he driving the WEs with?

[microstrip]

(,,,)
The table was a Swedish broadcast model, not sure who was the manufacturer but probably by whoever made the motors for Neumann lathes. The bottom picture is the motor and shaft exactly as in Neumann Lathes. Even the platter is a very similar design,

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david

David,

So, you have heard the famous Lyrec turntable - remarkable! But as far as I remember it was was manufactured in Denmark. Their tape recorders still show for sale from time to time in Nordic countries.

[siddh]

I have been fortunate to have heard some very close-to-the-real-deal audio. My first foray into über high end was at Peter Macgrath's Coconut Grove shop. He had a tricked out room, with Wilson Puppy's/sub driven by some outrageous Mark Levinson amps; front end Mr. Macgrath's own master tapes. He blackened the room and bang. The stage and delicacy and realism was awfully real.
Peter McGowan had a demo with the Genesis One's powered by his electronics in, of all places, the back room of a Best Buy in Chicago. Huge space that sounded all to true.
The Vandy 7's pulled it off, as did my buddy's Avalon/Wadia/CAT based system.
At Axpona 2015, I found the Tidal room stunning. We were in the sweet spot until being tossed, due to the end...of the show.

[david k]

David,

So, you have heard the famous Lyrec turntable - remarkable! But as far as I remember it was was manufactured in Denmark. Their tape recorders still show for sale from time to time in Nordic countries.

Ok, so that's what it is, thanks for the clarification Francisco. This was the only time I've come across a Lyrec, don't know anything about their R2Rs.

david

[MylesBAstor]

I have been fortunate to have heard some very close-to-the-real-deal audio. My first foray into über high end was at Peter Macgrath's Coconut Grove shop. He had a tricked out room, with Wilson Puppy's/sub driven by some outrageous Mark Levinson amps; front end Mr. Macgrath's own master tapes. He blackened the room and bang. The stage and delicacy and realism was awfully real.
Peter McGowan had a demo with the Genesis One's powered by his electronics in, of all places, the back room of a Best Buy in Chicago. Huge space that sounded all to true.
The Vandy 7's pulled it off, as did my buddy's Avalon/Wadia/CAT based system.
At Axpona 2015, I found the Tidal room stunning. We were in the sweet spot until being tossed, due to the end...of the show.

Took him a lot of work to get that sound in that room too!

[MylesBAstor]

Another really impressive system that I heard many years ago was also based around extensively modded Infinity RS1bs. This chap lived in NH and was a friend of AJ Conti, owner and chief designer for Basis turntables.

Bob had a huge room and the rest of his system comprised ARC M100s (one of my fave old ARC amps maybe next to the D250 Servo) on the top end and a cj Premier 1 driving the bottom end. The rest of the system consisted of an ARC SP10 preamplifier, Goldmund table/T3 arm and a Carnegie cartridge and like Sid, all MIT wiring. (he also had one of AJ's first prototype tables so that gives you a hint how long ago this was!) Well, there is no substitute for space and this system was about spaciousness and full range reproduction. When Bob put on some of the old Decca/RCAs recorded at Kingsway Hall, you knew why they eventually built the Kingsway filter. You could hear and feel the Underground passing under the hall during the recording (the only other system that I've heard that had the type of resolution was HP's; when Harry talked about hearing AC noise at CSO, he wasn't kidding! It just depended upon which day you visited HP and who was his set up guy as far as the sound went.) But Bob's system was more than just a toy; his system transported you back to the recording and it really played music, especially for what was out there in those days. Whether it was a Mancini RCA, a Mercury, etc., there was just an ease to the music, a delicacy, resolution, that brought the music to life. (that's why I consider the Infinities a classic speaker design!) And the low end was thunderous! We were lucky enough to spend the weekend with Bob and we were sad when he had to pack up on Sunday and head back to NY!

[1morerecord2clean]

Greg Berons MBL system with his UHA R2R as the source. Bar none the best ever for me.

I'll second that one.

BUT, right up there would be Lloyd Walkers in his house.

I would only nominate in this category based on extended listening sessions.

[Bruce B]

I'd have to say the system Winston Ma had about 5yr. ago. He's always had the Avalon Sentinel's, but the amps and pre he was using at the time was by David Berning. The room had a lot to do with the sound as well.

[Rob]

Best show I've attended (Stereophile, SF Bay Area) also had three of the best systems I've heard...Audible difference brought Infinity IRS V with top of the range ARC, Versa Dynamics 2.0 and the 2-box Spectral digital front end. Same show had the mammoth four piece Martin Logan Statements with ginormous Krell Reference gear. Jason Bloom demoed his magnum opus the Apogee Grands...they don't make shows - or audio systems- like that anymore.

[Steve Lefkowicz]

Not sure it was "the best" I ever heard or not, but one that left the biggest impact on me was in the late 1970s (78 or 79), getting to hear a full Mark Levinson HQD system in a real home installation while I was in college. The sound was clearly the best I had heard at that time, and by a large margin. I wish I could remember what turntable was being used. Unfortunately, the person who owned it felt the records a few of us brought weren't worthy and insisted on playing only from his collection. I got to play about one minute from one of my records (Tarkus, by ELP) and was made to feel like I was wasting everyone's time.
A friend from our old Inland Empire Audio society had built his own version (stacked modified Quads, not sure the tweeter, and his own design woofers, his own design Class A amps, preamp and electronic crossover). It was pretty amazing too.

[jonathanhorwich]

I agree. I owned the Levinson HQD (Hartley/Quad/Decca) system with 6 Levinson ML2 amps and it was stunning. Nothing back then or maybe today beat its midrange tonality. And the Decca super tweeter was no slouch. Only the Hartley subwoofers were clod hoppers. But with great subs (available today) it would kill.

[Mike Lavigne]

"other than mine" .......

at CES 2003 or 2004 there was a quad surround system comprised of a pair of Von Schweikert VR11SE's and a pair of VR9SE's with 4 darTZeel stereo 108's vertically bi-amped for power, and the EMM DAC6, EMM transport and EMM Switchman multi-channel pre for electronics.

I still recall the SACD surround of The Who's 'Tommy' playing the native quad recording 'Pinball Wizard' at warp factor 9. not saying it was the best or most refined, but memorable....yes very!!

unforgettable.