My visit to the Audiophile Boutique, Santiago de Chile, July '17
 

Last week, I was in Chile for the graduation ceremony of my oldest daughter.
She's become a medical doctor in December, and boy, they do celebrate that down under there!

Luckily, I did find the time to have a long walk through the city.
Since '88, the first time I was in the country, Chile has changed enormously.
It thrives economically, but has succeeded in keeping the latin spirit and hospitality.

From the neighbourhood where my daughter lives (she's doing her specialisation in gynecology now), it's only a 6 mile walk to the shop, and the weather was wonderful for a winter day (sunny, 71°F).

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To enter the shop, I had to ring a door bell.
A most friendly 'Jefe de Tienda' (store chief), Mr Bernardo Silva opened and let me in.
I presented myself, and talked about AudioAficionado.
He explained a bit about the business.
As Chile is still a relatively young economy, high end is not yet booming over there.
But they're doing their best in presenting a nice and broad selection of good brands.
We decided to first visit the most beautiful system they installed, the Burmester - Raidho room.

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Sexy!!!

:naughty:

A 808 preamp (with top line power supply) is always impressive.

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The 111 Music Center:

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The system also had a 089 CD/DAC, a 948 Power Conditioner:

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And of course, a 911:

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I loved the Burmester rack (we have 2 in our living room, so no surprise here!).

This system, with the lovely Raidhos sounded excellent, with ample detail and bass (even a bit too much for the room, these was a little rattle, but they're working on that room; it already has some extensive Vicoustic treatment).

Through the hall then, where you can find quite some B&W speakers, and Rotel:

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A short look in the theatre room, with the automatic TV lifting system (I forgot the name):

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Electronics and speakers in that room from Meridian.

A new acquisition: Lindemann:

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Lindemann has some excellent digital products, highly praised here in Europe:

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Back through the hall on that second floor:

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On-wall solutions, quite popular here in the smaller apartments in Santiago:

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On display this historic but still actual piece:

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Designed in '93, but still selling 2 pairs a month!
I explained that the engineer who created this model, Laurence Dickie, has developed the concept much further in his own company, Vivid Audio.
Mr Silva had no knowledge of this.
Would be a good thing the 2 found each other!

On the first floor then, a rich variety of tastes.

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Moon, with some small Technics monitors.

Bowers and Wilkins omnipresent, with larger Technics on the side:

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A rack full of Moon components:

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Raidho D1s:

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Some impressive D4s:

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"These are not sold every day", Mr Silva told me. :D

The store is trying to build up an online business also, because there is quite some interest from Argentina and Brasil.
And, Chile is a country with long distances. When you live far south or north, Santiago is 2000 kms away.

Accessories from B&W (the T7, which is surprisingly good for such a small device, we have one at home) and Geneva:

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Headphones from B&W, Beyerdynamic and Audeze:

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I didn't have much time, so this was a rather short visit.
But it was a most agreeable one.
I'm pleased to see there is a future for high end in South America also.
Seeing the increasing number of Porsches, Audis, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes on the Chilean roads, I'm optimistic about the future of this shop.

Returning home, this nice building made my walk interesting with ever changing reflections:

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