And my preference for “Best in Show” was not a close race. The larger VAC/Van Schweikert system set up in the (aptly-named) Euphoria room by The Audio Company from Marietta, GA took my breath away. I texted a friend “Wow” and meant it.
I listened for over a hour, heard big orchestra, girl-with-a-guitar, blues, and other stuff - LP and digital. I wished I had come earlier and had to force myself to leave.
This system had the largest - widest and deepest - soundstage I’ve ever heard. I’ve had the privilege to hear large bands and orchestras while standing on the proscenium and from every spot on the stage and from nearly every seat in the house. This was the first time I could “hear” the entire Chicago Symphony Orchestra (for instance) as though I were actually there in front of them. Every instrument was present and in its place, its player performing his or her part just as they practiced, rehearsed, and were recorded.
And the dynamics were enormous, yet nimble.
And there was no question about clarity and resolution. This system was operating on a higher level than that. It was a given.
And the timbre was accurate. Correct.
Right.
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Perfect? No. There’s no such thing. (And I’m eager to hear the criticisms from those who disliked this or that about it.)
Practical? No. That’s not likely in most any context. But the person for whom this system exists probably has a context already bought and ready.
Higher (?) thoughts:
There’s an obvious absurdity in assembling a stereo system that costs $1.3M-$1.5M (yes, I asked) to do something you could just catch a cab and hear for real in Symphony Hall for <$100. You could do it about 15,000 times, actually. Yep, you could get two excellent seats at the symphony
every week for the next 144 years.
So the question becomes “Why?”
The bleeding-heart liberal in me considers questions of income stagnation vs. cost-of-living inflation, wealth inequity, poverty vs. prosperity, and the like. The spiritualist in me wants to know if I could assemble what is clearly a gross misuse of funds in the pursuit of audio nirvana, just because.
No, this system isn’t for me, or for any of us. One could question if it even should
be. But it does exist, and for a brief moment there was an experience as close to superficial stereo enlightenment as I’m ever likely to have.