Retired lawyer Jun de los Reyes may have entered into a number of amicable settlements during his days as a hotshot lawyer. But when it comes to music, he is an audiophile through and through: He makes no compromises.
Inside his music room, Jun is surrounded by some of the best equipment that the industry can offer. He is one of few audiophiles who possess five turntables and several cartridges to suit his listening preference; more than six sets of amplifiers and preamplifiers, and more than 3,000 prized vinyls that are neatly stacked in his LP racks.
One wonders if he has the time to use all his analog gizmos and listen to every record he has collected. He professes that his gears and LP collections are not meant to be viewed, but to be listened to. It takes time, he says, but time is all he has, now that he has retired to relish the fruits of his labor.
Some weeks ago, Jun invited me with some other friends to listen to his sound gears. The sight of his music enclave is an experience in itself; what with the array of Koetsu and Zyx cartridges, SME and Morch tonearms, and turntables such as Kuzma, Immedia, Garrard, among others; and a pair Von Schweikert VR4SR loudspeakers. I’ve always dreamt of a system which boasts good transducers (cartridges and speakers). Anything in between — whose technology has already been perfected like amps, preamps or even cables — is not as critical as those which extract and reproduce music.
No compromises indeed. How can an audiophile go wrong with a Koetsu Rosewood cart mated with SME 3012 on a Garrard 301 turntable with pure music nirvana flowing out of the VR4SRs? This recipe beats the other combinations in Jun’s musical arsenal. Good music reproduction is, after all, the result of accurate matching of sound equipment. In my humble opinion, however, what really lifted Jun’s system several notches higher are the VR4SRs.
When I listen, I want to hear the music as close to how it was recorded, either live or in the confines of a recording studio. Von Schweikert speakers boast a design following the recording microphone’s signal in reverse. I found out that this is not just a sleek marketing campaign; VR4SRs live up to the product’s claims.
The founder, Albert Von Schweikert, grew up in Germany, was schooled in Cal Tech, USA, and had a stint at LucasFilm Ltd. creating THX speakers. It was at Cal Tech where Albert realized that a good speaker had to be able to take a listener back to the creation of the recording; meaning that it must reproduce the sound exactly as it was picked up by the microphone.
Lovers of rock music would surely revel in the capacity of these speakers to hammer out the bottom-end in squeaky clean fashion. Likewise, the Von Schweikerts’ are simply awesome predominantly in their unimpeded midrange.
Jun played several songs by Stacey Kent, and I just couldn’t get enough of the velvety softness of her voice. The VR4SRs did an awesome job of recreating the conditions at the Candid recording studio. I was instantly mesmerized by Stacey’s virtual presence: She seemed to be just a whisper away.
Percussions sounded as dynamic as if they were being battered live. As the guitar and violins morphed into the music, I could visualize precisely where the players were on the soundstage. With the VR4SRs, anyone can play any kind of music without suffering listening fatigue.
Talk about luck. Only three pairs of VR4SRs have reached our shores, and one pair is in Jun’s music room. At any given hour, in whatever mood he may be, and with any musical genre, Jun knows that his audio equipment will not fail him.
But an audiophile like him just can’t get enough.
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For comments or questions, e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.