Fairchild Futterman and More

Ain't that a Beauty! Click all pics to enlarge.

Potpourri: Eye-Watering Gears, Mouth-Watering Food

On Monday, Kevin picked up Andy and I early for an outing to New Jersey. It was a reasonably fine day, also the first day the bridge and tunnel tolls were raised (again). If not for the ridiculously designed (with poor signage) NJ Turnpike, which GPS has not mastered, causing us in the express lane to over-shoot our exit and to detour, we would have arrived at our destination a lot sooner. There we were met by James.

Chez Paul Paul's a technical wizard who is into vintage audio, and it is always a pleasure to visit him (brief mention here). His large house is tidily arranged (for an audiophile). The cavernous basement contains the main listening system anchored around a pair of Tannoy Gold 15"s. His main system seems to comprise Marantz 7C driving on this occasion 6V6 SE amps and a DIY WE 91A replica 300B SET amp (covered). We listened to the Linn LP12 and Priscilla Chan 秋色 was quite good, but we didn't get to hear the King of 1541 CDP's, the Philips LHH-1000. Strewn here and there were items for repair and another fellow's DIY phonoamp employing globe tubes!

But! That was not the best part. We had time to check out the rest of the basement, which is a veritable treasure trove on silent display! The Fairchild 255A EL34 monoblocks looked strikingly good. Next to it we saw the historic Futterman flagship OTL 4-piece mono amps. On the opposite side, amid the many organ amps I spotted the Harman Kardon Citation IV, which I would have loved to hear, and also one of my favorite amps, which I sold only because I was leaving HK, the sleeper Fisher X-101-C. Also around were the Fisher 50-C's.

That was not all. In yet another corner, we discovered some vintage loudspeakers, any one of which I'd gladly loved to spend time with. Not to mention another pair of Altec A7s lying around (our friend Kevin got his from Paul).

As if that was not enough, in the living room, where the TV and video system is, there is another system. Here we encountered the smashingly gorgeous dual-mono Fairchild 245 preamps driving a pair of class A/B Fairchild 260 EL34 amps (sporting 2 x 5AR4 each) behind the TV into vintage B&W DM-17 bookshelves (once popular in HK). Sound was not bad at all.

I must say I really enjoyed looking at all that great stuff in Paul's place! Sometimes, for a collector of sort, looking is even more pleasurable than hearing! We then headed to lunch, but the food was not worth a mention...After lunch we scrambled on...

Chez Lu Miracle of Miracles! Mr Lu is 95 year-old!!!!! The oldest audiophile I have ever met and an inspiration to all of us. A veritable audio warrior! Mr Lu lives with his relatives, and the audio room is relatively small, around 120 sq ft I'd say. The back loaded horn of the Voxativ Ampeggio , which is familiar to me (heard it at NYC's Audio Arts), needed more room to breathe, but the sound was OK driven by German Lyric Ti100 (using KT66) SE amp (on the rack). Outside the door sound was better. The German Audio Valve 6AS7 monoblocks (deemed too coarse) are apparently only used just to watch movies, driving a pair of Lowther PM4's (naked) hidden behind.

These German gears were sold by a single dealer. Truth to say, though by no means bad, I'd think similar performance can be had for a lot less - not value for money at all, as is usual for German high-end. It should be noted that Voxativ's current flagship has recently been reviewed by TAS' Jonathan Valin, who declared it a "breakthrough". It is just an indication of how banal the audio press has become, employing fiction writers for reviews on things they know nothing about.

On route to Mr Lu's house I spotted a store that proclaimed "Records", and so we went after the visit. The incorrigible vinyl junkies each scored a few. VAS And then we visited Steve of VAS again. We heard his mono pickup on a VPI - a bit tight but there was promise. Apparently, VAS has a burgeoning Cartridge Re-Tipping Service at way below market price, no wonder it is thriving and Steve showed us the large number of Lyra's (seemingly especially fragile) as well as others that have come in...

In all, a great day! But for Mouth-Watering Food, it had to be a week prior, when Andy served us a fiery spicy Sichuan hotpot. At first the 2010 Haut-Medoc and 2011 Saint-Esteph tasted delicious. But after lunch, the peppercorn must have taken over as I found myself suddenly unable to appreciate either! Doesn't that seem a parable for strongly flavored audio???