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

[MylesBAstor]

I was at Mark's showrooms, both the one off 5th and the one on Park Ave., his demos always left a lasting impression but sadly were never matched when you heard his systems anywhere else… Maybe it was all him!

david

I was at the 5th Ave. showroom (was that the one on a hotel?) the week it opened. David King, a friend who has worked at Stereo Exchange previously, was the first showroom manager. The sound was horrible. In retrospect, they probably hadn't sorted the sound out yet. They were using those LST speakers, were playing early digital and I couldn't think of one thing I liked about the system. The sound was one amorphous blob and when I mentioned that, one of the salesmen snidely remarked Mark doesn't believe in staging and imaging. But Mark sold a few of those systems around the Metropolitan area. In hindsight, some of the components were better than I thought at the time.

And oh yes, Mark is a good salesman but he wasn't there that day. But Mark did come up to the Westchester Club on one occasion and of course have run into Mark at a couple of shows. I had an interesting run in when he was trying to demo this new digital correction software (a version of the original one him and Dick Burwen put together). I supposedly ID'd the wrong thing at his demo and he of course being a reviewer, gave Mark an opportunity to berate me. Truth be told, I had ID'd a bad edit in the recording where the sound totally changed but Mark of course never heard.

In fact, I think Ki has the Palette with the tape stage and used that in his tape transfers. My tape section is based on that 603 tape module. A year of two ago, had the "new" Cello amps in house for review and they were worlds better than I remembered from the showroom.

I thought Mark had far better sound when he opened Red Rose music next to the Whitney Museum. At least by then, digital had greatly improved and he was playing some SACDs with music he had recorded.

[Rob]

I was at Mark's showrooms, both the one off 5th and the one on Park Ave., his demos always left a lasting impression but sadly were never matched when you heard his systems anywhere else… Maybe it was all him!

david

The Cello store in L.A was like that...they used R2R sources of Mark's recordings for their demos, you couldn't help but be blown away. of course the tapes were unobtainium as far as the customer was concerned but it left a lasting impression as you said.

[david k]

Yes a ML5.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n4348[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n4349[/ATTACH] Lyric Hi-Fi had a Studer deck there for the longest time and on occasion Mike Kay used to pull it out. Very rare occasion.

From what I see there were several (three?) iterations of the ML5 deck? Biggest Levinson deck owner 'myth' never proven? Rumor has it that every purchaser of the ML5 got copies of all of Mark's recordings. But have yet to find anyone with these tapes and every time I've seen one for sale, no dice either.

The King-Cello tape preamplifier that I use is the guts of the ML5.

I was at Mark's showrooms, both the one off 5th and the one on Park Ave., his demos always left a lasting impression but sadly were never matched when you heard his systems anywhere else… Maybe it was all him!

david

[TubeMan]

Thanks for the pictures. Sadly, I was never in a position to prove/disprove that theory! But I can attest to the absolutely mind-blowing sound quality of its recordings! The closest I ever got to that level was a modified Studer/Revox PR-99. My Schoeps and B&K mics went a long way toward providing sweet sound, though! My Tandberg TD20A sounded great, too.

[MylesBAstor]

I heard quite a fine set of Apogee speakers driven by Mark Levinson electronics (back in the 80s when it still was Mark Levinson!), plus the source material was a 30ips master tape played back on a Levinson-modified Studer deck. I think engineer genius Peter McGrath brought the Suder deck to help demo the other gear for the dealer.

Yes a ML5.



Lyric Hi-Fi had a Studer deck there for the longest time and on occasion Mike Kay used to pull it out. Very rare occasion.

From what I see there were several (three?) iterations of the ML5 deck? Biggest Levinson deck owner 'myth' never proven? Rumor has it that every purchaser of the ML5 got copies of all of Mark's recordings. But have yet to find anyone with these tapes and every time I've seen one for sale, no dice either.

The King-Cello tape preamplifier that I use is the guts of the ML5.

[TubeMan]

I heard quite a fine set of Apogee speakers driven by Mark Levinson electronics (back in the 80s when it still was Mark Levinson!), plus the source material was a 30ips master tape played back on a Levinson-modified Studer deck. I think engineer genius Peter McGrath brought the Suder deck to help demo the other gear for the dealer.

[MylesBAstor]

Yes, Dave created them for monitoring at remote locations, the integral carrying handle remained as a reminder. The Mk I -III used completely different driver than the V, It has a light-weight paper pulp SEAS mid-woofer and fabric domed Focal tweeter. The transparency and resolution was electrostatic-like. If you ever get the chance to hear Mk Is do it, very few are out there its probably the rarest of all Wilsons.

I should also add that I didn't use the "Wilson" set-up when I had the W/P in my room. The WASP method was at that time in its infancy but at least in my room, setting up by thirds and going from there was sonically better. I understand the rationale behind the WASP method eg. not having the two speakers interfere with each other but don't necessarily think it's best or only way to properly set the speakers up. But it is nice to see a company like Wilson have a protocol for their dealers to follow--and a brand standard--for Wilson customers. That is what is called total service.

[Rob]

I had the W/P 5--->5.1 on long term loan a long time ago for a survey of SE tube amplifiers that I was carrying out. I think that most people forget the W/P were originally conceived as studio monitor and the Puppies came along later. I think Gavin Fish now with Light Harmonics has serial number 001 and 002.

Yes, Dave created them for monitoring at remote locations, the integral carrying handle remained as a reminder. The Mk I -III used completely different driver than the V, It has a light-weight paper pulp SEAS mid-woofer and fabric domed Focal tweeter. The transparency and resolution was electrostatic-like. If you ever get the chance to hear Mk Is do it, very few are out there its probably the rarest of all Wilsons.

[MylesBAstor]

This was two weeks ago at Winston's place. There are changes in his system other than the speakers.

Ki, did you get to hear the big Audia Flight Strumento No. 8 monoblocks in Winston's system? According to Paul Manos, the Audia Flight importer, the monos are supposedly even better than the stereo amplifier I reviewed. Not to mention the Mk. 2 amplifiers are better yet. I'd imagine they make a nice match for the Avalons. Plus Steve McCormack's preamplifier is no slouch either.

[nc42acc]

Thank you, I must have overlooked his comment.

[Dre_J]

Aha! I know those amplifiers!

They look familiar to me.

[Ki Choi]

As Bruce, mentioned, they are the Avalon Sentinels.

[MylesBAstor]

This was two weeks ago at Winston's place. There are changes in his system other than the speakers.

Aha! I know those amplifiers!

[nc42acc]

What speakers are these if I may ask?

[Ki Choi]

Not to mention nicest gentleman in the world and makes some pretty fine sounding recordings too. It was Winston who finally pushed me over the edge to jump into tape.

Not sure how current this picture is!

This was two weeks ago at Winston's place. There are changes in his system other than the speakers.