FM Acoustics, who knows this company?

Its not Keith Johnson, Hafeez, its Rick Fryer, who is the "impossible one" chez Spectral, but otherwise I liked your piece. Cheers,

Thanks for the correction.

Actually, I remember back in 94 calling Spectral and speaking to a Keith Johnson but Rick Fryer does not come to my mind. Anyways, I got a mouthful whoever he was and all that Stradivari stuff and I said ,well a Stradi does not depreciate and almost every other electronic items does and the phone went dead. So that was my first and last experience with the Spectral crowd.

The other character who has his ego stick out like Mt Everest is Mark Levinson. Phew! This guy is the limit.

Then u take someone like Jud Barber of Joule Electra who is HP's favourite amp today and he is the sweetest guy you can imagine. An absolute gentleman, humble and actually blushes when you praise him. This man oozes with knowledge and it is a real pleasure to speak with him.

I also spoke with Manual Huber of FM Acoustics back in 90 & 91 and he sounded quite refined and impressed me with his passion for audio. Today, he is hardly involved. At least that is the impression.

Another creative genius is Dieter Burmester of Burmester Audiosysteme. And he too is a gentleman, scientist and artist. An amazing designer and one that makes high end such a valued hobby. Again, he too is humble, simple and meticulous. His face shines like a schoolboy when you ask him to explain about his design philosophy and he has the magic touch of emersing his listener into his holistic world of musical truth. No wonder, he is a legend.

Check out their website:www.FMAcoustics.com for some
infor from their dealer, etc as their webpage is under
construction.

Thanks for the kind words, Detlof. Inna: I have listened to FMA on a few occasions, lately (~1yr ago?) playing in a Genesis speakers/SYorke TT/Symphonic Line Reference cdp, system. The sound was more impressively clear and very fast. I mean to stress VERY fast & VERY clear.
There was some small graininess in the beginning that we licked completely through trial & error with cables -- only having three choices (bearlabs, their own, valhalla IC/spm speaker) we settled for their own and bearlabs.
The TT sound was subjectively better than the cdp (the medium & my cdp vs. the Simon Yorke). General impression was of a room full of sounds coming from all points before us -- except the speakers per se!
If I remember the models correctly, it was a 266 pre (there was also another phono pre) and a 611(610?) power amp. Interesting point: the pre's output is huge. Could the pre "accept" the input impedance of a speaker, one could, theoretically, drive the speaker directly at low volume...

BTW, the owner of these nice units quoted a nice price too: in the range of $60-70k? for both pre & power!!!

I listened to some of this newer FM Acoustics units. A few things should be said to this company, from my point of view of course.
They export the most of their line, it is extremely expensive, like Goldmund, they are in a market, where lots of customeres don't care about the price. They want to have it.
I listend to their premium Pre amps, the FM 222 phono unit, the smaller phono unit FM 122 ( ? hope it is right ) and one of their big block amps via a ESL 63.
It was very, very good, specially the amp impressed me most. A powerhouse par excellence.
The pre amp is like other good preamps.
The FM 222 is a rare unit, because you can select the RIAA for old recordings ( FM 122 , too ).Price is ...well ....
There is a difference when you switch to RIAA when using a old record, believe me.The musical quality from the phono amps is good to excellent, but I know a owner who sold the FM 122 when he listened to a Klyne 7 PX. He said, the Klyne was so natural, he sold the FM unit and never regret it.
Overall I would say, I would rate their units above most other SS manufacturers. I like them much more than Mark Levinson, Spectral, Krell or Burmester.
But musical taste will make the last step of course.
But when you can not listen to it, and will find a second hand unit, think about buying it. There is much worse out there, really.