Description

The system is in an old landowner/merchant's house deep in the north country of Japan (in the hamlet of Kamagui in Niigata Prefecture for anyone interested in setting up an Audio Club) which we purchased and refurbished with a friend of ours.

Everything is used (only the Altecs were purchased for this system so far - the rest comes from a home system), and I am thinking of replacing the EAR and SONY before getting the DIY done because they don't look scruffy enough.

The Whiskey Room is on the 3rd floor of an old 'minka', with a view over the hamlet's rice paddies as the sun sets - the perfect place to drink a whiskey after a hard day relaxing in the countryside.

There are no room treatments ('mud-over-straw' walls are sooted with woodsmoke from when the kitchen was wood-fired and this room was the chimney to the outside), the floorboards were formerly the inside wall-boards of one of the storehouses, furniture is a couple of ugly brown vinyl armchairs and an even uglier 'baby-poop brown' La-Z-Boy recliner, and a couple of brown bar stools (all told, about $50), and an old wooden fridge. There's a tattered old Uzbeki rug on the floor which I like, and, oh-yeah, there's no heat, and not enough light.

But the view is great, and the sound is out of this world.

Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood...
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Components Toggle details

    • Altec Lansing Model-19
    Two-way, super-efficient (101dB?) speakers. Fabulous for the price.
    • EAR 859
    EAR integrated SET-like amp (called Enhanced Triode Mode - pentode tube given triode functionality/linearity (Grid1 tied to cathode, Grid2 signal, Grid3 is ground) putting out all of 13.5W. Uses EL519 tubes which will probably outlast me.
    • Sony SCD-777ES
    stock player, owned since 2002
    • Ridiculously Comfortable Chairs
    self-explanatory
    • Baby-Poop Brown Lazy-Boy Recliner
    also self-explanatory
    • Diatone LT-1
    Linear tracker from the late 1970s. Mitsubishi's top effort as a TT. Uses a Denon DL-103R right now but going to change to a higher compliance MM cart.

Comments 30

Showing all comments by pjudice.

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It's raining in NYC right now, I'm listening to assorted roots and blues with a 1999 Ken Wright pinot noir (Oregon - great stuff, but with a depressing label that has some sort of potato famine visual on it. Isn't wine supposed to be a happy drink?) although I suppose blues probably pairs better with Bourbon. 90% of me is extremely happy.

Unlike a lot of AG'ers, I'm probably spending more on good wine than audio tweaks. Or maybe good wine is the tweak. I'll take a case of good GSM (ha!) over a magic power cord any day of the week. At least I know what to expect from the Aussie red.

pjudice

So, why is it that the pleasures of good music and good drink are so intertwined? You obviously get this and I'll bet that there are dark rings on the arm rests of your baby poop chairs from the hundreds of cocktail glasses that have sat there. I can hardly imagine sitting in front of my modest hi-fi without a good glass of Burgundy or a smokey scotch.

Does the excitement of two senses at the same time add up to something greater than the sum of the parts? Or maybe everything is better with a cocktail.

pjudice

I'm depressed at the thought of passable pinot noir for 80 bucks. Clearly I'm (a little too) attached to red wine, but I agree that drinking like the locals is always a good way to go. My Japanese friend has taken me to a lot of good places in NYC where I had sakes that really surprised me in their range of flavors, depth and complexity.

Getting back to music; (this is an audio site) any Japanese music we should be listening to?

pjudice

T-bone, I'll give you thumbs up for the eclectic musical and beverage selections. You also get points for having the least pretentious listening room on AG - I wish I were there in a baby poop chair with a Japanese mint julep in my hand and a stack of LP's in my lap.

Can you find good red wine in your neighborhood? I hold a little wine tasting at my office on Friday afternoons and a Japanese colleague brought some "gold medal" Japanese wine for us to try. YIKES.

pjudice

What are you listening to? More importantly, what are you drinking?

pjudice