Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
Speakers: Sonus Faber Cremona 5.1 system (4x Cremona towers, Cremona center, Cremona sub) Main A/V Stack: McIntosh C2600 Vacuum Tube Pre-Amplifier McIntosh MX122 A/V Processor McIntosh MC8207 Home Theater Amplifier Sources / Chains: Roon -> Mac Mini -> Ayre QB9-DSD (USB) -> C2600 (balanced) Roon -> Google Chromecast Audio -> RME ADI-2 DAC (optical) -> C2600 (balanced) Arcam DV79 -> C2600 (RCA stereo) Arcam DV79 -> MX122 (RCA 5.1, for DVD-Audio) Headphone Stacks: C2600 -> Stax SRM-727II (balanced) -> Stax L700 C2600 -> Massdrop x THX AAA 789 amp (balanced) -> all the headphones Screens: Sony VPL-VW600ES -> Stewart Studiotek 115" 2x LG 65" OLED TVs (OLED65C7P) Gnome: Jim With Hands in Pockets (aka Gnome Chompski) Misc: Furman IT-REF 20I power conditioner
VTI BL series racks Speaker "stands" are custom-cut pieces of granite from a place that does countertops Monster speaker cables (for aesthetic purposes) Balanced cables by Monoprice Roon ROCK running on i7 NUC 8x8 4K HDMI matrix switch (w/ web control) by No Hassle AV Various XBox consoles (pictured: OG 360, Slim 360, Day One X1, X1X Scorpio Edition) Wired gigabit ethernet throughout