I met this guy in a hotel room....

Many years ago, in a dark hotel room I heard a pair of relatively small two-way speakers with excellent tonal balance, clarity and absolutely glass smooth response. Literally among the best sound at the show, the only other contender in a room there in Oakland being a top of the line Vandersteen driven by $60K worth of electronics. Nothing else in the entire show actually sounded as good in room as these little gems.

I ran into Blue Coast records (an excellent and under-appreciated audiophile DSD label). Cookie was there, along with two lovely musicians who had finished their tour. The musicians also praised the room. Cookie had not heard the room, I beleive. She was busy actually working! She did sell me a portable DAC that was amazing though. (I may be mixing up 2 different Cookie stories). Sadly it died six months later from some power supply issue. I miss that little puck. Anyway, going back to my story...

In the room I speak of was Fritz and his speakers. For under $4,000 he was selling really unique crossover designs with world class drivers. $4k for the parts he was using is basically a song, and to be put together in such lovely sounding speakers was an amazing feat.

Today, looking for an interesting new DAC, I came across the Montreal Audio Show coverage in Stereophile, and I found a pair of speakers using similar components and they run almost exactly 10x the price.

I don’t really have a moral, except maybe that audiphiles need to get away from looking at price tags for sound quality and that if you are looking for sweet 2-ways, and have been following any of my postings about how you can get a lot of bass out of two way monitors you should look up Fritz.