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Last Wednesday, my wife Carmen and I visited Mike in Sarasota. It was a short two hour visit but very worthwhile nonetheless.
First, we had the pleasure to meet Mike's wife Jeanette and their two young ones Megan and Nicky. Jeanette and the kids are wonderful.
We listened to a couple of systems:
First, the Lumin, Vitus (awesome looking, great sounding and huge) electronics and Magico S1 MKII. Very pleasant and the best sounding S1's I've heard.
We then moved to the "tour de force" system upstairs with the Avangarte speakers, Kronos Pro TT, Lumin, Lampi and a significant number of gear (too many to list). The sound in this room was absolutely fantastic. We listened to Vanessa Fernandez new album (awesome), Eva Cassidy (wow), Miles Davis (analog and digital) and a few others. I have to say that the presentation and realism was about the best I've heard in speakers costing $100K less - it was real, musical, dynamic. Could have listened for many hours. Kudos to Mike for putting together such a nice system.
Also, it is clear that Jim Smith system setup skills are really outstanding. But, then again, he is known to be one of the world's best!
One last item of note is that we decided to do a vinyl to analog comparo. As good as the Lumin - Lampi combo sounded with Miles Kind of Blue in digital form, the Kronos TT was superior. The stage, fullness of sound, the detail, pace and overall presentation was out of this world. Now, this analog front end costs at least twice as much as the digital but it is so special.
Once again Mike, thanks for hosting us!
First, we had the pleasure to meet Mike's wife Jeanette and their two young ones Megan and Nicky. Jeanette and the kids are wonderful.
We listened to a couple of systems:
First, the Lumin, Vitus (awesome looking, great sounding and huge) electronics and Magico S1 MKII. Very pleasant and the best sounding S1's I've heard.
We then moved to the "tour de force" system upstairs with the Avangarte speakers, Kronos Pro TT, Lumin, Lampi and a significant number of gear (too many to list). The sound in this room was absolutely fantastic. We listened to Vanessa Fernandez new album (awesome), Eva Cassidy (wow), Miles Davis (analog and digital) and a few others. I have to say that the presentation and realism was about the best I've heard in speakers costing $100K less - it was real, musical, dynamic. Could have listened for many hours. Kudos to Mike for putting together such a nice system.
Also, it is clear that Jim Smith system setup skills are really outstanding. But, then again, he is known to be one of the world's best!
One last item of note is that we decided to do a vinyl to analog comparo. As good as the Lumin - Lampi combo sounded with Miles Kind of Blue in digital form, the Kronos TT was superior. The stage, fullness of sound, the detail, pace and overall presentation was out of this world. Now, this analog front end costs at least twice as much as the digital but it is so special.
Once again Mike, thanks for hosting us!
