Ken Fritz's $1M Dream System update

Excess in anything is bad. Even if it is in a good thing.

That man had seriously screwed up priorities.

Yes he did.   I watched an interview with him and thought how sad to let a hobby completely overtake your life.   I love this hobby but it has always taken a back seat to what's really important.   Family.   

As I texted on Jay's Audio Lab on Facebook "Nobody needs a million dollar system". 

@jasonbourne71 Agreed. 100% That is beyond diminishing return territory and planted firmly into no returns land. 

Unfortunately Ken got obsessed in this hobby. Family priorities were put aside.

I’m surprised it netted that much. I thought the monstrosity custom speakers and turntable / stand thing (once the actually-valuable high end arms and cartridges are stripped off) would have to be near give-aways; really just come and and haul it off. I’m surprised if anyone thought otherwise.

Then there were a bunch of electronics which are most OK, nothing special and not really big bucks - just tedious to sell in aggregate. I’m sure a good portion of the sum went to the auction managers.

I wouldn't give too credence to the "family drama" story. Sounds like someone wanted the attention. This should have remained private to the family. 

+1 @mulveling

Yes private and we don’t know the reality. Seems we should not speculate negatively on a man that has passed.

I am actually glad they talked about his family. It reminds me my priorities.

The music is going to tell me every time I put it on, you didn’t waste your time and money and you spent your time and money wisely, so enjoy it.

No dude, if your kids hated it THAT MUCH, it wasn’t worth it

re: million dollar system - I don’t listen to million dollar music. Having something that expensive to hear someone scream while 3 musicians rock it out in the background would be like eating a Danish with a silver fork and knife.

I wonder what a crappy quality recording on an 80's CD sounds like on a $1M system? 

Did anyone hear it?

"Yes private and we don’t know the reality. Seems we should not speculate negatively on a man that has passed."

There are direct quotes from his own children verifying his selfish obsession and lousy parenting.

He was a pathetic human and died alone and miserable. 

I followed the online auction, and based on my math, the ENTIRE AUCTION, all 668 audio items in the house, only brought in $167,000 based on adding up all the final auction bids.  Unreal.  In an interview, Ken estimated his entire system build and room cost him around $1.25 million.

In my opinion, the Krell gear was the only gear that brought a decent return.  The Denon PBN turntable was a STEAL.  PBN tables without arms can sell for $30,000.  This had 2 Kuzma arms that are $10,000 each and cartridges that also run almost $11,000 each.  That's $40,000 costs in JUST the 2 arms and cartridges.  I spoke with somebody at PBN, and this current build would run approximately $60,000.  The winning bidder got an endgame table, a Super Denon on Steroids, for $10,750.

The "Frankentable" went for $19,750.  Considering $19,000 is what I priced a Kuzma Tangential Arm at, and his turntable had TWO OF THEM, plus another Kuzma arm, and all three arms had cartridges that cost over $10,000 each....yeah, it sold for pennies on the dollar. Ken had estimated he had close to $150,000 in it in just PARTS. In the end, it was an albatross.

@grannyring -- I’m not saying anything negative about Mr. Fritz. I never met him and I don’t speak ill of the dead. However, the forum members making comments could have read the exact same article I read in the Washington Post that delved into the family break-up prior to his death.  The article started off with,"He spent his life building a $1Million Stereo.  The real cost was unfathomable."

Ken was estranged from one son, and after his terminal diagnosis they attempted a reconciliation which went WAY SOUTH, with Ken’s son’s last words to him being, "I hope you die a slow and miserable death." Apparently, all of his children were estranged up until the end when he reconnected with one son (in the documentary) and his daughter.

The Washington Post article was a tough read -- it pulled no punches. It looks to be behind a paywall now, but I highly recommend trying to track down a copy to read. Then go hug your spouse, kids, and family. I know I did.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fritz-greatest-stereo-auction-cost/

At least when Harman Audio spends 1 million on R & D they have trained engineers who know what they are doing and the facilities to test it out scientifically. So they know what they are getting.

This guy "puts together some Stereophile "A" components" and thinks he will have great sound. With no technical expertise, you can build a speaker from a solid block of aluminum which will be very expensive to make and thereby justify a high cost. But that does not mean ii will get any better sound than some MDF unless you what you are doing.

This guy reminds me of someone off the street who walks into a boxing gym and thinks he can beat the champ (Andrew Jones of Mofi for example). Except hi-end audio is subjective with no right or wrong while boxing you will know pretty fast if you are wrong.

Sure, filling a big room with full range, high volume, sound can cost 1 million, But that does not mean you have to spend that much for great sound. Just start with a small room. Stereophile regularly gives a $1,500 bookshelf speaker an "A" as far as sound quality. If not the ability to fill a big room with full-range sound.

I would say most of us here have that drive to make some killer system that blows everyone else away. That’s what hi-end audio is all about. Or why get into it in the first place?

The real sadness for the last few months of his life suffering from a terrible health problem. In the end it's all about the journey I guess. You climb to the top of Mount Everest look around for a few minutes and then start going back down.

Ken’s life can teach a valuable lesson as audiophile.I am glad i read his story. I learned a lot from it.

@cdc ​​​​​​i never thought the idea that Harman used when Floyd Toole was there for comparing speakers was done fairly, by using only one speaker and then positioning ever make, model, and type in same exact spot.

So much misinformation about this poor fellow. Not least of which - much of the high value gear/media was sold before the auction even started, hence didn't reflect in the auction totals..

@rooze Please provide a location or source to help those who are interested find more about the misinformation mentioned. 

@veerossi I attended the auction preview (prior to anything having been sold via auction) and a lot of the equipment and media you see in his original video had already gone. I spoke with the auctioneer and his daughter and was given a value of what had already been sold pre auction and it was significant. I could comment on the content of the written article but what’s the point? People believe what they want to believe, generally.

@rooze needs to read the Post Article 

Here's this too (see newspaper link) and here's a documentary.

@rooze "People believe what they want to believe, generally."

I agree. 

I am one of the odd-balls that is open to listening and caring about other people's perspectives and positions in hopes of expanding my ability to understand more while on this planet. Lay it on me. 

@rooze and @veerossi 

I too am "ears wide open" to any additional information that reveals opposing information and would love to know what gear was not included in the online auction list I used to compile my spreadsheet.  I was handling the Probate Estate of my Mother at the time Ken's auction was occuring, and therefore I had an Excel  spreadsheet I created to help me with her estate items. 

To take my mind off of being an Executor, I made a copy of the spreadsheet and plugged Ken Fritz's stereo gear into the columns.  I had watched the documentary soon after it was originally released, so I was familiar with the items listed in the online auction.  I went back and watched the documentary again, and compared the items highlighted in it to the listed auction items.  I didn't see any disparity of note of the items shown in the documentary to the items listed for sale -- especially the audio gear in Ken's main room. 

Was there a lot more expensive gear not shown in the documentary that was sold prior to the auction?  For example, the Denon PBN turntable, 2 SOTA turntables, custom Tannoy speakers, custom JBL speakers, 2 Cayin and 1 Dynaco tube amp, an unreal number of JBL and Focal drivers in boxes, Krell gear, custom audio stands -- I could go on and on -- all were not mentioned in the documentary (that I saw) but are listed sold with the price online.  Do you know what other gear he may have had that wasn't shown in the documentary or on the auction site?  You said a lot of "high value gear/media was sold before the auction" -- I'd love to know what other gear Ken owned.

Did you get to go to his house near Richmond in person to view the pre-auction items?  If so, I'd love to know your impression.  Did you hear the main room system? Prior to the auction announcement, I read a forum thread authored by a friend of the daughter.  He was assisting the family early on when they were trying to figure out what to do.  Someone asked him if he had heard the system, and he said the daughter didn't know how to turn everything on, and at that time she wasn't sure who knew exactly how to set everything up properly. 

I'm envious if you saw everything in person, mainly because of the vinyl collection Ken owned and the actual listening room.  It looked beautiful in the documentary -- the furnishings, the ceiling's molding, the rugs, etc.  Thank you for any additional information you can provide. 

Does anybody really believe a Washington Post Article?  To me that’s the amazing story here.

Does anybody really believe a Washington Post Article?  To me that’s the amazing story here.

That, and the fact most people seem content to run with just one side of the story. Kids are just as likely to be rotten as the parents, and the fact they were so quick to air dirty laundry on death makes me like them less. So he wanted to wake you up early and put ya to work, wow what horrible abuse *eyeroll*...

@skinzy 

Remember a certain radio personality (RIP) called it the Washington COMpost, and for good reason.

Read the reviews on the salon 1 how jbl has the machine that puts the speakers in the same spot every time they test it to reduce that variable.they have some quality engineers.how they  made the cabinets  the speakers so they don't overheat and get compression and the budget to do engineering science. I enjoy my salon speakers and the work done to reduce resonance in cabinets the curvature for time alignment.enjoy the music.enjoy the hunt but not to the point of ond.now I'm going to have to research this article.

To hell with all this bleeding heart nonsense about wives and kids. Put your money where your mouths are, sell all your gear and give your paltry donations to the widows and orphans of dead selfish audiophiles.  I’m with Ken. He tried. God, he tried.  The spineless Washington Post can go to hell too. 

this thread is a magnet to selfish insensitive individuals

@mark200mph 

Seems like you made a wrong turn somewhere.

The story is well over a year old, longer since Ken's death, the recorded interviews, several years. He built what he thought would sound best within a generous budget for any home system. He appeared to have a large vinyl collection, and his playback equipment was the most customized of the components. The room is what seems least discussed except that the ceiling is a copy of a concert hall ceiling in Osaka, Japan and the walls are concrete (this all built not-so-harmoniously onto a pretty ordinary-looking mid-60s tract house in an ordinary-looking suburb with dowdy landscaping.) From the looks of things, Ken's efforts seemed to stay in the listening room. The splendor, if you can call it that, ended there.

People find ways to enjoy their money, or at least seem to try. Sometimes it brings satisfaction and pleasure, the interview suggested he got some from his efforts, but maybe not all he wanted. The quest vs the arrival and all. Like so many hobbies, the pleasure is in the journey more than the product.

If you appreciate fine woodworking, there is a remarkable tool case built by an American master piano maker Mr. H.O. Studley. It is now displayed in a museum in Massachusetts. The case was his own work built for himself, and is a masterpiece of organization. It is at once a display of his extraordinary woodworking skill, decorating finesse and mental organization. It cannot have been made all of a piece, but as a meticulous process of layered organization, measurement, trial-and-error and a deep knowledge of materials and craft. Although it looks finished, you have to wonder whether it ever really was done.

Ken stopped for illness, but I wonder whether he was done.

Some interesting perspectives coming to light here.

I've run Into Ken a couple of times, late 90s/ early 2000s. He was indeed a tad eccentric, but, so are loads of guys in audiophilia.

For those unaware, he was a big proponent of multichannel audio. I never heard his end game rig in that large space, but, I get the feeling it would have b.slapped the daylights out of whatever lousy lil rigs y'all have (the harbeths,  crappeths, gooftubes, etc, whatever and let's not forget the fuses) around here, lol..

All the Ken hate seems to be coming from these constantly disgruntled dudes (chains of misery) who always have lousy sound no matter what they do with their crappy lil stereo squeakers on lil stands in terrible rooms. Blame everything on the cable thereafter and keep changing the cables, mighty silver knights....bwaaaaajahahaha

It was about harmon and Floyd toole measuring his speakers.buy yes Izzy I made a wrong turn went into medicine then the government ruined it from my prospe time watch Southpark the episode the end of obesity. I spent the best years of my life studying to help people only to have corporate  destroy it.thats why I like music.enjoy the hunt.some might say doing trauma surgery every other night on call  was old but that's what it took to be excellent and train at the knife and gun club in new york.

These spoiled kids should've met my father who split when I was 5 and my brother  was 8! Fritz gave them a roof over their heads and probably fed them too!  And at the very least willed them a house and other stuff to sell, what the house sell for? I'm sure the kids fought over every last penny and are estranged from each other because of it. 
If they hadn't been so lazy they  could've easily fetched more for the gear, an estate sale or auction house isn't the way to go! 

Does anybody really believe a Washington Post Article? To me that’s the amazing story here.

I just recently unsubscribed from Washington PooPoost. That Bezo baldiluscious locks bubba’s too ugly (bobigly)....and I kept seeing the ghastly when I tried to read it...

Interesting perspectives indeed.

Confusing, but interesting.

The auction prices don't tell us much except what equipment brings in a short sale window with unknowns regarding condition and costs of removal and transport. Whatever the system might have sounded like in the space where it was designed to sit couldn't be assured somewhere else. It might be sad to think that the equipment would be sold for used parts value but that may be the truth of it.

I tend to think brunomarcs is on to something. Plenty of examples of really poor parents by which to compare. I find it hard to believe that some many of you (us) believe the printed word regardless of the source. To accurately understand this family dynamic would require spending time with all the parties involved. 

I'm looking forward to the upcoming Netflix special on his life. Apparently the depth of all he did was not well covered in the Post death articles and his videos. 

i met Ken at audio shows a couple times and talked to him on the phone. he called me about tape decks a few times. we had some things in common as far as our desire for an ultimate room and hifi system. but his direction was different than mine. so as far as over-the-top commitment to music and hifi i can relate to him.

it is sad to see the negativity as part of his legacy, and it’s been unfortunate how the spin of it has gone. yes; there are lessons to be learned.

personally, even though my commitment was considerable, my family never was sucked into it other than my wife allowing me to do it and her understanding of how i liked it. i worked 6 days a week for 50 years and hifi/music was my stress relief. my children never have been a part other than my son helping with my network stuff as he is an expert. one time he helped me with a project for a day, and i gave him an expensive bicycle.

having a super hifi system and exotic room can be something complimentary to a happy balanced life. one thing for me is that my children have not provided me with grandkids. only a grand-dog. so from that perspective that would have taken much of my hifi fire away and directed my time and energy differently. been married 50 years and we are going strong, retired 18 months ago, all is well. and still love my system and spend hours a day in it with a smile. my wife and i are now making plans for some traveling around.....and enjoying life.

a huge commitment can be something that gives to you, and not something that crushes you and your family. but it has to fit into your life, not control it.

The first wife seems did not recognize the passion of her husband as well, and did not support Him. She probably did not know how to support Ken as well. In this hobby you need the wife support.i read if Iam correct Ken fav recording is The SWan , She called it Pig Swan?

Chris Rock (or Dave Chapelle, one of those guys) made a joke once that only women, children and dogs are loved "unconditionally" in this world. Such a thing is not true for men, it's just transactional for the most part.

But, you could imagine that you're loved unconditionally by so many artists (so many beautiful souls) when you're in your listening room, i.e., before this transient thing called life ends.

Life is short and you should find happiness in it wherever you can. For some billionaire a million dollar audio system is mere pocket change. But for someone who really can't afford it yet sacrifices to do so, it can become the proverbial albatross around the neck.

It may be a sad story, but it’s no deterrent. From the humble system I have today, In the time I have left, I too am aiming for a $1m system. It’s the personality that counts. Even knowing I am bi-polar, does not change anything. Like, I do not want a $1m car, or recvee. I know what I want, and every year it sounds noticeably better.

IAN.

... as long as what you've amassed sounds like a million with that you prefer to hear with it....

There's excess, and manias'.

One chooses which to embrace.

Madman Across The Water comes to mind.....

....and the one playing out Now....