HE 2007

Mentoring at the Amplifier & Speaker Workshops

John Atkinson  |  May 15, 2007

They were a hit at last year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, so I asked Bob Cordell (resting his dogs in the photo), Peter "PJay" Smith, and Darren Kuzma to give a repeat performance of their seminars on amplifier and loudspeaker performance at HE2007. These ran throughout the Show, and I kept being stopped in the corridor by audiophiles who would say something like "Now I know what tube amplifier clipping sounds like" or "Now I know what is meant by 'dynamic range.'" I was reminded by something I had been told years ago, perhaps by Jon Iverson: that the only difference between an audiophile and an ordinary person is that the audiophile had a mentor who showed them how to listen. Bob's, PJay's, and Darren's efforts will create many, many audiophiles.

Stereophile sponsored the seminars and provided the room and furniture, as well as my personal Ayre C-5xe for use as a source, but Ray Kimber is owed a large "thank you" for supplying cables and for helping with expenses.

COMMENTS
Jeff Kalman's picture
Submitted by Jeff Kalman (not verified) on May 15, 2007 - 4:40pm

Thanks for doing it! I originally signed up just for the workshops, though I was very entertained by the rest of the show as well, since some of the gear I heard isn't available in my area, or would require multiple days journeys into the city to visit different audio stores. I just wish I could have hit every workshop (I managed to hit three of them), but I only had a few hours on one day to check things out...

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