OT: What Hi-Fi systems do sound pros have?

[Alien_Shore]

I am curious - what kind of Hi-Fi systems do sound engineering professionals have in their homes?

In researching this, I came across this article which is pretty interesting:

Alan Parsons on Hi-Fi

Anyone have any other links or personal experiences to share?

[bowtie427ss]

Some sound pros actually use great hifi gear for their work. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Bob Ludwig:

Tell me about your monitors.

I used to have Duntech Sovereign 2001 monitors. I think around ?86 when I was at Masterdisk, I decided to find the best monitors I could so that when I was working on digital I would have something that could really reproduce sub-sonic defects. So I went down to New York to some of the audiophile shops to see what kind of audiophile speakers I might be able to find for mastering that would be professional enough that I wouldn?t have to change the tweeter every other day.


I found these Duntech Sovereign 2001 speakers. Tom Jung, the engineer that owns the DMP label, had a pair at his house in the basement. His basement had very low ceilings. The Duntech speakers are in a mirror image arrangement; the tweeter is in the middle and then there are the midrange speakers and then there are the woofers on the top of the speaker and the bottom. So in the basement of his house, that upper woofer was coupling with his ceiling as well as the bottom one coupling with the floor and he had bass for days. So he sold me his pair of Duntechs and that?s what I used at Masterdisk from then on.


I also bought one of the first Cello "Performance Amplifiers" from Mark Levinson when he was there at the time, and subsequently he told me that somebody in Japan had actually bridged a pair of these things and it was really worthwhile. Of course his amps are mega expensive, so he loaned me another pair so I could try to bridge them together. Doug Levine, who ran Masterdisk and was in charge of all the money, could actually hear the difference between the bridging and the non-bridging enough that he thought it was worth spending the extra money on it.


Then when I started Gateway, I got another pair of Duntechs Sovereigns and a new pair of Cello Performance Mark II amplifiers this time. These are the amps that will put out like 6,000 watt peaks. One never listens that loudly, but when you listen, it sounds as though there?s an unlimited source of power attached to the speakers. You?re never straining the amp, ever. So I used those Duntechs for quite awhile.


Then when I began doing 5.1 surround music, Peter McGrafh, a Classical engineer friend of mine, had fallen in love with these Eggelston Works "Andras" speakers that are made in Memphis. Bill Eggelston has been designing speakers for many years and Peter told me that he thought those were the best speakers that he had heard at the time. Peter used to own an audiophile hi-fi shop and he?s heard everything under the sun. As he?s a very good Classical engineer, I give what he says a lot of credence. So I had made it a point to seek them out. I really fell in love with these Andras and for the 5.1 music, I use five of them. They retail for around $14,000 a pair, and I have 2 1/2 pair of them. They were Stereophile Magazine?s "Speaker of the Year". With five of them in the room, they move plenty of air with no problem whatsoever but I felt that there needed to be a bigger speaker to work right in stereo.


I told Bill Eggelston if he ever decided to build a bigger version of the "Andra"s to let me know and maybe I?d consider changing my Duntechs if I thought they sounded better. He decided to build what he thought was the ultimate speaker which is called the Eggelston Works "Ivy" speaker (he names all of his speakers after former wives or girlfriends). These speakers are a little bit taller than Duntechs and they weigh close to 800 pounds a piece. They?ve got granite on the sides of them. There?s three woofers on the bottom, a couple of mids, the tweeter, and then a couple of more mids on the top. Actually each cabinet had 23 speakers in it.


You know how M&K uses the isobaric principle in their subwoofer? The Eggleston Works "Andras? use that same isobaric principle in their woofers. Well, Bill extended that principal to all of the speakers, so behind each speaker is two others. I guess if the isobaric principle is carried out to purity, you?d have an infinite number of speakers. But he has two behind each of them and they?re amazing. Every client that comes in, once they tune in to what they?re listening to, starts commenting on how they?re hearing things in their mixes that they had never heard before, even sometimes after working weeks on them. It?s great for mastering because they?re just so accurate that there?s never much doubt as to what?s really on the tape.


One reason I?ve always tried to get the very best speaker I can is I?ve found that when something sounds really right on an accurate speaker, it tends to sound right on a wide variety of speakers. I?ve never been a big fan of trying to get things to sound only right on an NS-10Ms.

FWIW, Eggleston Andras are on the short end of my "be on the lookout" list. While they may never actually happen, it's fun to dream. They're about the only non-Altec speaker i lust after.

[alancohen]

I've been a big Alan Parsons fan since Dark Side. I have Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I Robot and Pyramid on vinyl and used to listen to them in college regularly.

I like what he said here: "I do think in the domestic environment, the people that have sufficient equipment don’t pay enough attention to room acoustics. The pro audio guy will prioritize room acoustics and do the necessary treatments to make the room sound right. The hi-fi world attaches less importance to room acoustics, and prioritizes equipment; they are looking more at brand names and reputation."

I'm amazed how different my system sounds in the new house. I haven't done anything as far as acoustic treatments yet, but some things sound better, some worse. I think the bass is better (still needs work), and the mids are stellar. It's the highs that are completely disorganized. I need curtains, diffusers and absorbers all over the place with this cathedral ceiling. I have too many other things to do at the moment, but a room analyzation project is high on the list.

[Old Guy]

I spent from the late 60's to the early 2000's mostly as a touring engineer, later in the studio, with breaks in retail sales of audio. Generally had Valencias, have owned about 3 pair. I have to say 'about' as can't remember if it's 3 or 4.

Built a bunch of home brews but always went back. Bought 4311's but went back. Power generally Marantz, but sometimes Crown, Harmon Kardon, Altec, even Phase linear and SAE at times.

[LICORNE]

Allan Parson tend's to generalize a lot. Listen to this you tube clip well done using a decent microphone.UREI 815 .Listen how smooth this thing sounds.