To Hans Wetzel,
I intended to write to you before, perhaps as long as nearly two years ago. I just wanted to tell you that I think that you are a great thinker -- and a gifted writer. And no, I’m not about to pull out the rug from under you. You remind me of me in my 20s -- but possessed of notably keener intellect and personal insight. I look forward to your editorials and discuss them with my beloved Alice. After what has happened here, she has read your editorials -- a first for a non-audiophile like her.
Your quest for the “right” speaker and ancillary equipment strikes a familiar chord. I love music: it comforts, stimulates, consoles, lifts one’s soul. But I love wild nature far more. And I also believe in doing what I can for those of my own species who are less fortunate. That was my career and not a glamorous or remunerative choice. [And] so it goes. I would do it again -- in a heartbeat. So how do I justify purchasing “unnecessary” material goods with a varying, but generally ridiculous carbon footprint, and also look in the eyes of the next homeless person I meet when I truthfully tell him that I have no spare cash? And voice my concerns about the fate of our Earth, our island home?
Over the years, I careened between small speakers, decent electronics, and turntables available for little of my income and large expensive speakers and accompanying gear. The sad fact is that in the end -- or nearly the end -- I realized that I was deluded to some degree. My first “real" system arguably was the best I’ve owned -- within limitations primarily imposed by my preference for small living spaces (I recognized long ago that the US lifestyle as promoted in popular culture was toxic for the planet). I purchased a [used] pair of Rogers LS3/5A speakers, Connoisseur BD101 turntable, Grace 707 Mk.II tonearm, Grado MM cartridge, and NAD 3020 [integrated amplifier]. Less than $1100 produced magic -- in 1978 dollars. But I subsequently thought that I needed more bass, greater dynamics, etc. There ensued 38 years of selling this and buying that and always experiencing a sense of severe disappointment after a few weeks, especially when it came to electronics -- promises never fulfilled. Changing up to a Linn did make a difference on vinyl replay (and also drove me spare with its “fussiness”). And all the money could have been put to far better use, especially since my first system reproduced music so well and there are less selfish pursuits when all is said and done. And I recalled that in 1979 a friend brought over his open-reel deck and a tape of some jazz he had recorded in his studio. His jaw dropped when he heard the music through the little LS3/5A speakers. He remarked that he hadn’t heard the recording sound so real since he sat in the studio. That remark was spot on, as I was to learn.
But, your review of the Dynaudio Xeo 2 (and a series of editorials that preceded the review) made me want to seek them for an audition and get off the hamster wheel of decades of “upgrading.” My soulmate, Alice, arrived after the LS3/5A speakers were gone and absolutely couldn’t tolerate any that followed. She claimed that other speakers hurt her ears. No such complaints about the Xeo 2s (hurrah) and no ridiculous carbon footprint. No clutter -- important to someone like Alice who insists that living quarters always must be “ship-shape and Bristol fashion.” No reasonable shortage of dynamics and no reasonable shortage of bass in a 160-square-foot room that is typical of every place that we have lived. And we can just enjoy the music and quit worrying whether things could be a bit better here or there. And the total cost, with a very good disc player, was $1700, much less expensive than my beloved first system. Now we just read editorials and music reviews -- and enjoy the music.
Now if I had started with the little Klipsch speakers and moved up to the Xeos, I would have been spared much [useless] angst. Please stay the course. You are doing more good than you may know.
Peace always,
Walter Mirk
United States
Thank you for the kind words, Walter. It’s comforting to know that my thoughts are not wholly consumed by the Internet’s digital abyss. At the end of the day, it is -- or should be -- all about the music, rather than the equipment. Just this morning I found myself ogling Magico’s new A3 loudspeaker on the company’s website, as gears started turning about how maybe, just maybe, I could possibly grab a pair. As you suggest, though, that (imaginary?) money in my bank account could be put to far more responsible, and arguably better, use. In the meantime, let me see about getting review samples of those Klipsch speakers I wrote about last month. . . . Hans Wetzel
