Most of us have our prized stereo systems in our living room or family room. Some, like PS Audio, are fortunate enough to have dedicated listening rooms. A rare handful of folks have temples of sound.
The first temple I ever had the pleasure of visiting was in the Philippines. This was back in the mid 1990s, when life seemed simpler than today. *
After an hour's long drive through the hills of Manilla I wound up at a gentleman's relatively meager home where we enjoyed a cup of tea together and chatted about audio. I was there on behalf of Genesis Technologies. The man had recently purchased a pair of Genesis Ones (our version of the Infinity IRSV) and part of the deal was getting me to come to your home to bless them.
Based on his rather small home I was hoping this wasn't going to be a trip like I had in the past where someone was trying to squeeze a pair of these 4-piece beasts into a "closet".
Tea finished we went out the back door of his home, walked through a beautiful little garden and arrived at the front door of what appeared to be a guest house. Odd. Upon entering I realized this was an entire building dedicated to the stereo. His personal temple of audio.
It was a gorgeous room with perfect dimensions. At the far end of the temple stood mighty and proud the Genesis Ones, placed exactly where I would have put them. Beautiful.
Disc after disc we played music and revelled in the sound. There wasn't one hair out of place nor one thing I would have done differently. I was in awe.
As I was leaving it occured to me that the entire reason I was there was not to bless them with my setup talents—his were better than mine. No, I was there to witness an extraordinary achievement. A lifelong journey that culminated in this golden temple of sound.
I came as the teacher and left as a humble student.
*I have noticed that I am not alone in believing life of decades ago—the world in fact—was a simpler place: No 911, no crazy political battles where it seems more like two competing sports teams than people interested in our well being. And then I remember, that's completely wrong. Back then—in the moment—the world was just as chaotic and bananas as it is today. We remember better times in the past because of memory smoothing. We weed out the day-to-day turmoil and turn it into pasteurized versions of reality.
