Ok, I'll play! My name is Phil, and I'm an audio dealer located in Northern NJ. My screen name is PhilNYC because I used to live in NYC, and I didn't feel like changing my name to PhilNJ on the dozen or so audio forums I've participated on past and present.
I first started here on the SD forum as a happy SB2 customer. Became a SD retailer when the Transporter was announced, because I anticipated that it would be a network music server product that would finally perform at a high end audio level, and it has not disappointed. I'm what you call a "home-based" dealer; I operate my dealership out of my home. I've been in business for about 4 years, and I only sell gear that I want to own for myself. That said, I have over 1000sqft of dedicated demo space, with 4 systems available for demo: 1 - Reference System: Focus Audio FS888 speakers, Blue Circle BC3000mkII GzPZ preamp, BC206 hybrid amplifier, Dodson DA-218 DAC and SD Transporter (also an Oracle CD1000 for folks who bring their own CDs to listen to). 2 - Tube System: Focus Audio FS-78SE speakers, Cayin A70T tube integrated amp, Bel Canto CD-1 cd player. 3 - AV System: Acoustic Zen Adagio speakers, Bel Canto ref1000 monoblock amps, Pre2 preamp, DAC3 DAC, modified Sony S7700 DVD player, Panasonic 50" plasma. 4 - Office system: Focus Audio FS-68SE monitors, Bel Canto Pre3 preamp, S300 amp, SD Squeezebox 2 driving Zhaolu 2.0 DAC. Slimserver is running on my eMac, where I have 14 days worth of music (so far) ripped to an external hard drive. I'm an unoffical "co-founder" of a NYC-based audio club called the NY Audio Rave. We use Audiocircle.com as our online home, and we have meetings in peoples' homes once a month. Its via these meetings that gives me the opportunity to hear far more gear and systems than I ever thought possible, with gear shootouts being a focus of many of our meetings. I was a believer in the effects of power cords, interconnects, vibration control devices, and other tweaks long before I became a dealer. I do not believe that something needs to be expensive to be good; I also do not believe that if something is expensive, it is overpriced. I'm willing to try just about any tweak once, but do not use many tweaks in my general audio/music-listening life. That said, I think Machina Dynamica is full of sh*t...! I am also of the believe that there is very little *bad* gear out there, but that system synergy and proper setup plays a huge role in the differences we hear in audio gear. I'm in my early 40s, and I grew up mostly listening to rock, blues and jazz. Played piano as a child and keyboards in a college rockband, but was a jazz saxophonist in high school. At my current age, I no longer play the piano or saxophone...if someone wants me to play music, I now play the stereo. :-) My music taste has evolved as I've gotten older. I will admit that my audiophiling has also affected my musical tastes, finding it hard to listen to poorly recorded music from the 1940s and earlier as well as some of my favorite stuff from the 80s. These days, I'm listening to a lot of guitar-based music (everything from Jeff Beck to Tommy Emmanuel to Kenny Burrell), trumpet (John Faddis, Mark Isham), and world music (Mino Cinelu, Robbie Robertson, others). But I still consider Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz among my favorites. As far as my audiophile tastes, I have gotten to the point where I don't think I could live without a tube somewhere in my system! The Blue Circle hybrid amps are perfect for me, because I can get the warmth and musicality of tubes that I love while still getting enough speed and clarity that the music I love demands. I'm not a "mega-bass" kind of guy, as you can probably see from my primary use of 2-way speakers with no subwoofer. And Ralph Dodson is the most impressive engineer I've met in this industry, so if he thinks Bybees help, I'm all for 'em...! ;-) Anyways, that's me... -- PhilNYC Sonic Spirits Inc. http://www.sonicspirits.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PhilNYC's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=837 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
