Steve (SL1800) hangin' with Buck and Mark in the Southeast

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by SL1800

Hi guys. I made it to Mark’s place (SCAudiophile) on Sunday, my first time to meet Mark in person, super nice guy. We had a great evening jamming to his system and enjoyed Mark’s mastery of the BBQ grill.

Spent some time Monday checking out some local sights then drove down to Bucks that evening. More to come with pics and impressions of these two awesome systems.

It was great to meet you after all these years, hang out and hear great music together!!!

[Weirdcuba]

You guys are killing me. Here I am in snowy and cold and dark Grand Rapids.

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by Weirdcuba

You guys are killing me. Here I am in snowy and cold and dark Grand Rapids.

We miss ya Jim, full trip report coming this evening! We were down near your house yesterday at Decatur CD.

[audioguy3107]

Adios to Steve who just left a little while ago .....had a GREAT time shopping for records, listening to the system and visiting a few dealers here today. When I get the kids settled this evening I’ll post our pictures and vinyl finds of the last couple of days.

- Buck

[SL1800]

To Mark and Buck both, thanks so much for your hospitality, I really enjoyed the visit and hearing your awesome systems.

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by SL1800

To Mark and Buck both, thanks so much for your hospitality, I really enjoyed the visit and hearing your awesome systems.

Thank you Steve,...it was great to meet you and spend time listening to alot of good music and having great conversations!

[audioguy3107]

Trip Report!

So Steve journeyed back to Oklahoma today after what I hope was a fantastic trip down south here to see Mark (SCAudiophile) and yours truly. We had a great time doing a lot of listening and giving him the quick 10 cent tour of the Atlanta metro. He met me here after I got off work on Monday evening and we ventured back to the house where he got a quick tour of the home theater as well as the dedicated audio room. This is him in deep thought upon first listening in the sweet spot.



It was fairly late so we didn't have a ton of time on Monday night, but I managed to give him an introduction to the room design and some things that Jim Smith did when he did his room play in my room. Tuesday would be record store day for us.

[audioguy3107]

Tuesday. Got up and did some more listening, namely perused Paul McGowan's PS Audio playlist on Qobuz which was pretty cool, found some new stuff that I wasn't familiar with as well as played him some of my more "collectible" records including Holly Cole's Don't Smoke in Bed on Classic Records 45 RPM box set, introduced him to Lyn Stanley's jazz recordings on vinyl and promised him I wouldn't play any ABBA. Other selections included Brothers in Arms MFSL 45 RPM (of course), and we also spun some CDs using the DCS Rossini as the DAC. Once Atlanta traffic died down, we headed out first to grab some lunch......picked a place called the General Muir near Emory Univ...., voted one of the top lunch places in Atlanta two years in a row, it's a deli/restaurant known for their burgers and sandwiches




After lunch we headed over to Decatur CD, a small but well stocked shop near midtown Atlanta that carries a ton of new and used vinyl as well as numerous CDs. They have a pretty decent audiophile section too.



I picked up a few things there that I'll share in a minute. From there we headed over to the Little Five Points area known for their eclectic shops, restaurants and of course Criminal Records, one of the founding fathers of Record Store Day.





Steve posing in front of the collectible wall....they had some really good (but expensive) stuff on display including an original MOFI Led Zeppelin II



Had a couple of pretty good finds here...I found a NM pressing of John Lennon's Imagine from the EMI 100 anniversary reissue project.....an all analog release that sounds better than the newer one from the Lennon box set. After hanging there for a bit, headed back to the house to beat Atlanta traffic.

[audioguy3107]

Tuesday Evening. After we left downtown, we picked up my girls and headed back to the house. They were dying to show Steve the home theater and give him a proper demonstration, so after much deliberation, Audrey decided on Avengers: Endgame as a proper demo. Not being much of a Marvel movie fan, we may have put Steve to sleep a bit, but dang, 4K Dolby Atmos on the JVC projector.......the girls didn't want to turn if off. After we got the girls settled, headed back upstairs for more tunes........I did a quick cleaning of the Lennon album and we checked out "Imagine"......sounded pretty good for the recording it is. Here's what I picked up that day:

The aformentioned Lennon EMI record, the new Van Morrison record, Cassandra Wilson and NM original Telarc record on vinyl of Stravinsky's Firebird. Excellent.




Moving on, we played all kinds of stuff including the really impressive Classic Records' Houses of the Holy. That pressing is almost mind blowing.



obligatory sock shot of the evening:



Then Audrey decided to join in......this is a picture of her schooling Steve on the finer points of the MOFI Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde vinyl box set.



Then she demanded we put on the new 50th anniversary Abbey Road.....I'm trying to be a good influence.

[audioguy3107]

On Wednesday we made the trip to 3 of Atlanta's finer audio stores, the Audio Co., Georgia Home Theater and Hifi Buys. We started out with breakfast at J. Christopher's, a popular breakfast/lunch spot around Atlanta and from there we headed over to Marietta to visit the guys from The Audio Co. For those of you not familiar with them, these are the guys that tote the massive Von Schweikert/VAC/Esoteric reference system all over the country to all the audio shows. We met them 2 years ago in Denver but they were missing in action this year at the Gaylord Rockies center. The other part of their business is an antique store called Sweet Melissa's Records...the front of the shop has all kinds of antiques and collectibles with the records in the the back. The high end showroom is one door down separated from the record shop.





Of course I should've called ahead of time....when we introduced ourselves and told them we met them in Denver, they didn't exactly roll out the red carpet as is par for the industry. Anyway, turns out they're by appointment and just got back from Capital Audiofest so their showroom was in disarray and he said it wasn't up for any listening Well, he at least walked us next door and gave us a quick tour of their listening rooms. Heres a pic of Steve next to the big Von Schweikert's and VAC equipment:



From there we headed down the street to Georgia Home Theater, one of Atlanta's premier Home Theater Dealers.



The guys over here are first class and very friendly. They have an impressive building and numerous theaters on display with equipment from Monitor Audio, B&W, Paradigm, Klipsch, Sonos, McIntosh, Mark Levinson, JBL, Martin Logan and Anthem.













Guys were really cool, talked some home theater, Disney + and they treated me to the first 5 minutes of the new Star Wars show "The Mandalorian" in one of their Martin Logan home theaters.....really cool. From there it was time to hit one more of Atlanta's premier record stores and then the great guys at Hifi Buys.