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???

Letter from NYC 2010 (10): Infinity IRS Beta, Versa Dynamics, Quad, Futterman and more

Letter from NYC 2010 (10): Home Visit Infinity IRS Beta, Quad ESL, Futterman and more
Talk Vinyl: Versa Dynamics galore, Garrard, Ikeda and more

(article completed in HK)

Click on pics to enlarge

House-guards
Just before I left NYC recently I was fortunate to have made the acquaintance of a new friend, AL. Andy is a vinyl connoisseur, said to own more than 20 turntables. I didn't see quite that many, but certainly I saw enough to turn my heads several times around, including SEVERAL rare and legendary Versa Dynamics.

As soon as we entered the very nice old house, my attention was held by the lovely sound made by a pair of Quad ESL-63, driven by ARC SP-8 and a rare Futterman OTL using EL509 (no doubt in place of the rare-as-hen's teeth 6LF6). Mercifully, I heard none of the frequently abnormal, even bizarre, sound obtained by some HK ESL users, just great music. On the table were placed an a Technics SP-10 and an old AR fitted with Decca arm. AL jokingly said any TT coming in has to pass muster by comparison with the latter first; not as easy as it seems, he said.

click on pic to enlarge

New World, Old World
Then we ascended the wood staircase to literally a new world. The large room was laden with audio classics. Besides the TTs, the collection of cartridges was even more astonishing, literally strewn all over the place. We marveled at the fabled Ribbon cartridge. From the point of equipment, AL is a man after my own heart. There were more than one stations, though we listened only to one. Like me, AL uses long cables. I asked him whether he worries about loss, he said not at all. Well, it's the sound that counts, and the sound was exemplary. Brief list of equipment used during the visit:

TT1 - Versa Dynamics 1.2 with Decca SC4E
TT2 - Garrard 301 with Ikeda Rex Kiwami on IT-407

Phonostage 1 - Audio Research Phono Reference (for VD)
Phonostage 2 - Conrad-Johnson Premier 15, Nagatron Z Coupler X'former (for Garrad)
Preamp - Audio Research Reference II Mk I.
Amp for Tweeter/Midrange column - VTL MB-450 monoblocks (8 x 6550 each)
Amp for Bass column - McIntosh MC-2500 (for bass column)
Loudspeakers - Infinity IRS Beta

click on pics to enlarge

The Best for Last, 2010
AL first played for us an old Vanguard LP of Varese' Ameriques (now available as a re-issue) on the Versa Dynamics TT. I was instantly drawn to the holographic sound of the Infinity. AL must have done a tremendous amount of work on the system as it is one of utter refinement, no easy task with the array of ribbon tweeters. In comparison, many of the Maggies I heard in HK would be at least a little coarse in comparison. The uncanny imaging have the right sizes, unlike many of the HK Maggies which have exaggerated (and highly artificial) imaging. Mind you, this is with the Decca cartridge, famous for its upfront (hot) tendencies. Then we asked to hear AL's Garrard. The sound was more meaty, less refined, but quite musical. It was hard to decide which TT was the better one.

As we had to meet other people, we didn't stay long, but it was definitely the best sound I have heard in a long time. I think we would have to visit many more times to sample some of the other treasures.

More pics (see how many TT and arm can you identify)