Myles Astor's System

[MylesBAstor]

Magico S5s driven by Audia Flight Strumento no 4 stereo amplifier!

[MylesBAstor]

cj ARTs back into the system after a long hiatus. Yeah I know it's messy. Such is the plight of an audio reviewer.

[MylesBAstor]

An old time favorite. Monochrome Sea from Aemimya on JVC RCA. Was a resident on HP's list around Issue 8 but for some reason disappeared.

[pharoah]

naughty naughty you said it was messy.

[Rust]

So the cat is used to damp out micro-vibrations in the speaker cable?

[MylesBAstor]

Actually his purring adds microvibrations! LOL!!!

[Rust]

I was going to ask if you had tried different cats, say a Maine Coon or Siamese.

[MylesBAstor]

No just our rescue Buddy. Our pure breds are above that! LOL.... Buddy also loves sleeping on top of the speaker or power cables laying on the floor too (for those shocked that my cables are on the floor, have no fear. They are unused,)

[Viva Hifi Scott]

Myles, two questions for you: How do you keep the cat off the turntable? It looks like you live in an apartment - what do your neighbors say about loud music?

[MylesBAstor]

Myles, two questions for you: How do you keep the cat off the turntable? It looks like you live in an apartment - what do your neighbors say about loud music?

Good question. My babies are well behaved and never had an issue with the table. Now Sweet Pea on occasion thinks it's neat to jump from the tape deck to the top of the speaker. And they do love the warmth of the tube equipment or Class A ss amps.

The only neighbors are upstairs. No one to either side or downstairs. I do try and be considerate and never have had an issue in 13 years of living here. Knock on wood.

[1morerecord2clean]

Myles, two questions for you: How do you keep the cat off the turntable? It looks like you live in an apartment - what do your neighbors say about loud music?

Viva HiFi, I too live in a two BR condo as does Myles. Same situation. Very little noise side to side between apartments. Most noise travels up and down. Ten years here and no complaints knock on wood. I also go to headphones by 9pm even though the condo rules permit music until 10. No use in pushing you luck. Now my wife is another story.😁

[Bill Hart]

Got a chance to visit with Myles today at his place for a few hours of listening. First stop was to meet the kitties, since my wife, in addition to being a pretty good audio wife, is as much as cat lover as anyone. Once we got to say hello, we cozied in for some music, which ran a range from Pink Floyd to Jerry Garcia, a wonderful modern string trio recording and Stevie Wonder and Sade, as well as Elvis, Dean and a Stealer's Wheel. Myles did his best to stay away from audiophile warhorses, but did fire up a Mallets, Melody and Mayhem record from Harry's list that was a hoot. We were listening to some condo-sized Kondo amps on the Magicos which you might not think would be the best match on paper but the speakers sang, bass on stuff like Stevie Wonder was subterranean without bloat or blat, and had that midrange 'magic' so characteristic of a good SET amplifier. All I can say about listening to tape was that there was more 'there' there; denser, more fully saturated (in a good way, not oversaturated), like the color is filled in more and everything is more 'present' without sounding forced or too loud. Myles' listening position is more near field than my usual position, so at a certain point, I switched and sat one seat behind Liz and let it flow. Myles' room is not large, or heavily treated, but this heavy-weight system sounded fabulous in the space. I don't like going to the city much any more, but this was a treat, Liz was fascinated by the system as well. (Always a good sign when someone who is not an audiophile has their toes tapping and is asking questions). Of course, I left with a few new purchases on my list, and thanks to the instant gratification machine known as the Internet, copies are en route.
A big thanks to Myles for the listening session. This is what it is all about- yeah, we talked a little shop, but Myles was a fast moving DJ, constantly spinning another disc or tape, and we left, a few hours later, sated and psyched-
I've heard a few systems in my day but Myles got it right. This was a pleasure.

[allenh]

Bill, great writeup, thanks for sharing! Heard some great feedback on Myles' room from members of AS. As one would expect, Myles has a great system that's dialed perfectly in.

[MylesBAstor]

It was a hoot getting together again after all these years. Sometimes this hobby gets a little too solitary and it's always great having people over and listening to equipment or music. As a long time and diehard audiophile, knew you'd get a charge out of hearing the Kaguras. And nice meeting Liz too! And reminiscing about Chuck L.

The album was Mallets, Melody and Mayhem.

And it there was nothing like blasting off with Dean Martin's Dream with Dean. But that Elvis '57 and Jordanaires was really special sounding too! And those 45 EPs of Sade and Yello were pretty good. I didn't know how the Kagura would handle them but the amps didn't seem fazed.

I hadn't heard some of those tapes since I modded my deck (Stevie Wonder/Garcia-Grisman) and they were so much better than I remembered. The Stevie Wonder wasn't nearly as edgy and Grisman's mandolin really sang. In fact, I couldn't believe how good "Visions" and "Living for the City" sounded.

Tubes may not be the ultimate in the lowest octave but they can do some very special things in the mid and upper bass. That cello on the Janaki String Quartet really sang.

[JCOConnell]

System is lookin good Myles

[Andy]

I continue to think Myles has the best cable cooker I've ever seen:

[MylesBAstor]

Great camouflage!

[MylesBAstor]

[DetroitVinylRob]

i want/need one of those, bad!

[mep]

^There's the bad boy.