See these two smiling faces? That's my uncle Omar on the left. He's standing with John Rutan of
Audio Connection in Verona, New Jersey, a short and happy drive from downtown Jersey City, along the Parkway and up good old Bloomfield Avenue, dotted with trees and liquor stores, pizzerias and movie theaters. A very fine place, indeed.
What's Omar so happy about?
This was my first time at Audio Connection. I'd been meaning to visit ever since I noticed their ad in
Stereophile, five six seven maybe almost eight years ago. I was not disappointed. We walked into the quiet front room where we were greeted by Carlos. Carlos led us into a small listening room, where we sat and enjoyed the blues as presented by Hans Theessink, a voice and style I was not familiar with. The system was very fine, too. The player was a
Linn Majik. Amplification was provided by the Rogue Audio Perseus preamp and
Atlas power amp. A pair of
Vandersteen 2Ce loudspeakers hid in the shadows.
What's Omar so happy about?
Last week I mentioned that Omar had purchased a pair of used B&W DM602s from a local
junk shop. He immediately brought them home and installed them in his very modest system. Before the B&Ws, he had been listening to an inexpensive bookshelf system. I think he had purchased it from Best Buy. He was happy with it. It was small and silver and it fit nicely on his shelf. He even liked the sound.
He connected the B&Ws, placing them just where the pieces of plastic had been—on a shelf, up against a wall, with only about ten sad inches of space between them. (I could cry.) It was the best he could do, the most he was willing to do. He would later tell me that he "didn't want to understand why he needed to place them on the floor." He "didn't want to know why he needed speaker stands." He "didn't want to sacrifice the layout of his living room." (I was dying inside.) He cued up a record on his thrift shop Stanton, and dropped the needle.
That was pretty much all it took. In that very instant—I wish I had noted the time—Omar became an audiophile. I've since endured countless phone calls, e-mails, and text messages from my uncle. He's keeping me up to date with how awesome his system sounds.
John Rutan even convinced Omar to place the B&Ws
on
the
floor
!
I don't know how Rutan did it. I certainly wasn't able to convince Omar to do this.
John had suggested a placement which would provide the speakers with about 71 inches between their tweeters. Omar has mustered up a solid 48 inches—a considerable improvement over those miserable ten inches he had been so attached to. Rutan also emphasized the benefits of a good pair of sand-filled stands, but advised that "even perfectly-leveled 16 inch cement blocks sprayed BBQ Flat Black would do the trick." Omar, my BBQ Flat Black-loving uncle, adored this idea. He made a quick trip to Home Depot, and picked up everything he needed. John supplied the Fun-Tak, which also tickled Omar to no end.
With the speakers on the floor, atop their cinderblock stands and with space to sing, Omar's system sounded even
better. Much better.
E-mails, phone calls, text messages.
What's Omar so happy about?
Well, he's the proud new owner of a
Rega P1. He purchased one that day at Audio Connection. You would be smiling, too.
Omar is hooked. And that's not the end of the story. He wanted more. Obviously, he would need a new CD player. He didn't want to spend more than $150. It had to look nice, too. Small would be good. I told him about
the Oppo. He trusted me on that one.
E-mails, phone calls, text messages. Awesome awesome awesome.
And guess what? Omar says that CDs sound better than LPs in his system. He thinks he needs a new phono preamp.
