Betcha by golly wow!
Indeed, they are! Audiophiles can only exclaim these words in amazement, while those who are blessed with fat wallets get to bring them home. We’re talking about the glitzy array of audio-video gadgets, which Listening in Style — that imposing shop at Shangri-La Mall, Edsa — offers.
Proprietor JR Pecaoco talks about his audio-video shops. He says the shops should be judged on the performance of the products, and not by the costs.
I was greeted by the drift of warm and sweet music coming from his main listening room when I entered Listening in Style. JR had fired off his $68K Wilson Audio Maxx 3 loudspeakers so that they’d be at their optimum sonic level.
Maxx 3 was driven by Pass Lab AX 160.5 pure class A amplifier, and pre-amplified by Jadis JP 200MC. Music was provided by a Forsell Air Reference turntable and a DCS Puccini CD player. They are wired by Transparent Reference XL interconnects and speaker cables. Maxx 3 and these supporting casts are what JR hopes to showcase in this year’s November Hi-Fi Show at the Mandarin Hotel.
It is easy to get yourself immersed in the whole system’s life-like presentation of any music genre fed to it. However, what makes the system personally appealing to me is its silky and elegant attack from the top-to-the-bottom frequency.
JR says the reason the Maxx 3 is a cut above the rest is Wilson Audio’s Adjustable Propagation Delay technology in which a stair step is provided to adjust the tilt of the upper module, to accurately align the dispersion of the upper drivers to any chosen listening position.
He says the technology allows a far more accurate alignment of the individual drivers in time and dispersion, thus eliminating a source of distortion otherwise intrinsic to large speaker systems. Also a key architectural element of the Maxx 3 is the mechanical and electrical isolation of the crossovers. The midrange crossover has been relocated to the bass cabinet, freeing up space for the mid-range and the independent tweeter crossover.
He was a music teacher before he got himself involved in electronics. By 1967 he had his first electronic/record store in Evangelista, Quiapo. Cashing in on the golden years of analog audio, he opened his second store in Raon five times the size of the first. His never-ending quest for excellent music reproduction led him to the world of high-end audio in the early ‘70s. At the time, Japanese brands dominated the amplifier market. For speakers, JBL, Altec Lansing and Acoustic Research were the top choices. Opening himself up to a much-wider musical experience, he learned to listen, and in the process, became adept at tweaking and squeezing the juice out from every detail of a sound system.
“I have learned to look for the micro and macro dynamics, the image, the transparency, the texture and even the intention of each musician that makes the music transform you to another space and time,” says JR.
JR swears that the business still excites him as much as on the first day it began. It really pays to do the things you love the most, he says. Icing on the cake, he adds, is getting to work with the who’s who in audio, as he ticks off the list, to name a few: Dave Wilson of Wilson Audio, Dan Agustino of Krell Industry, Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson of Conrad Johnson, and Jean Coffi of Jadis electronics .
* * *
My apologies to the all the fans of Charles Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts. We have inadvertently identified Schroeder as Linus in our last edition. Linus is Lucy’s brother and Schroeder is Lucy’s piano-playing crush.
* * *
For comments or questions, e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com or you can tweet audiofiler at www.twitter.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.
