Discovering Audio Art…in the Middle of Ohio?

Living as I do about 30 miles east of Columbus puts me in about the dead center of Ohio, geographically speaking. Mostly what you will find out here, with a cursory glance, are smaller towns, farmland, and remnants of a once mighty early industrial base that has slowly disappeared over the last century. It’s not an uncommon story in much of middle America.

Conversely, if you take a closer look, there are also some newer and unexpected surprises to discover about this state. A short way northwest in Marysville, Honda has an advanced assembly plant that was (until its run recently ended) completely manufacturing the latest Acura NSX sports car (in Ohio, not Japan). A little west of us in New Albany is the headquarters of Limited Brands which has a huge footprint in the fashion world. Also, in the same neck of the woods, you will find a sprawling Amazon data and fulfillment center. Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are also setting up shop nearby too (oh…joy). And then Intel recently broke ground on a huge new chip fab in the same vicinity. So, needless to say, there is certainly more than meets the eye in this particular midwestern state.

This brings us to the artisan audio brand Metaxas & Sins. No, they definitely are not from Ohio, but let me back up a second. I recently became acquainted with a most affable fellow named Jeff Garshon; a special thanks is due to Ian White from E-Coustics for introducing us. Jeff by all accounts appears to be just another well-established upper middle-class Ohio resident on the outside. But besides being a generally splendid individual, a diehard audio nut, and “Hoser” (we both were born and grew up in Toronto), Jeff’s company, Reel Sound Distribution, (which is headquartered in Florida but has its showroom here) is also the new US distributor of, you guessed it, Metaxas & Sins. Yup, right here in cornfed Ohio. Now don’t that beat all!

Jeff Garshon of Reel Sound Distribution.

For those that are unfamiliar, Metaxas & Sins, as an audio brand, is the brainchild of Kostas Metaxas, an Aussie recording engineer, audio designer, and visual artist who splits his time between the Netherlands and Greece.

Kostas Metaxas

Parlaying a desire from a young age to build superior audio equipment, with experience gained from making hundreds of live recordings, Kostas started his own company in 1981. Now, along with his two sons Alessandro and Andreas, they create singular audio components that can also be considered as unique art objects.

While I have been aware of Metaxas & Sins designs, I had really only seen them online and in print, never in actual three dimensions. While certainly beyond striking in looks, I was never entirely sure if there was any more to the brand than simply that. Jeff graciously invited me to his home over a couple of evenings to properly experience some select Metaxas & Sins creations firsthand.

Jeff’s Listening Room.

Jeff has an enviable basement listening space that looks to have been properly designed and treated to get an excellent experience from whatever equipment is being auditioned. A self-described reel-to-reel junkie, Jeff has a fine collection of recordings on RTR tape along with a few decks to play those reels on. As luck would have it, the first thing that caught my attention by the equipment rack was the stunning Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon RTR tape recorder.

Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon RTR tape recorder.

Looking like someone crossed an intricately designed timepiece, with a professional tape machine, and perhaps a James Bond-esqe explosives detonator for good measure, the Tourbillon seemed just a bit unreal. Finished here in black and gold and on its matching stand, I quickly touched it with my fingers to verify that something this cool, and slightly outrageous looking was right in front of me. Bottom line, it is freakishly cool-looking.

Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon RTR tape recorder, close up.

To the left of the Tourbillon was the organically shaped Solitare integrated amplifier in a matching black and gold finish. Ironically it conjured up images of some kind of oversized cyborg heart, especially with all the cabling (almost like arteries) coming from its backside.

Metaxas & Sins Solitare Integrated Amplifier.

Metaxas & Sins Solitare Integrated Amplifier, 3/4 view.

Standing off to the sides of the room, not quite broken in yet for our first listening session, were the fluidly sculptural Metaxas & Sins Siren loudspeakers. High-end Accuton drivers are set into one of the most mind-blowingly organic and complex shapes that I have ever come across in a loudspeaker. The entire cabinet is CNC’d from solid aluminum. How they have achieved some of these complex forms and surface changes without using traditional molding techniques, I have no idea.

Metaxas & Sins Siren Loudspeakers.

Metaxas & Sins Siren Loudspeakers, rear view.

Jeff Garshon with a Siren.

Close up of Accuton Drivers in the Sirens.

Metaxas & Sins Siren Loudspeakers, profile view.

While I don’t know what creative inspirations Kostas and his sons have drawn on to come up with these designs, the photos I have seen up to this point don’t do their creations justice. Standing back and eyeing everything as a whole, I see shades of futurist artists like Syd Mead, John Berkey, and H.R. Geiger (minus all the phallic and vaginal symbology). The Siren speakers particularly evoke images of those feminine mythological creatures, luring unsuspecting sailors to their doom with the sounds of their song. If the character of Dr. Eldon Tyrell from the original Blade Runner movie had a stereo set, this would be it! Looking at these pieces honestly begs the question of why any audio component need have four corners at all.

But I wasn’t just invited here to look, Jeff was intent on my listening to what these components could do. Our first listening session focused on the Tourbillon and the Solitare, played back through Jeff’s more than capable MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A electrostatic speakers.

The first selection to be cued up was an RTR tape of some Sarah Vaughn from the Pablo album How Long Has This Been Going On. Listening to the title track was immediately impressive. Vaughn’s voice sounded huge, alive, and right smack in front of us. The overall soundstage was massive, extending well beyond the speaker boundaries. Oscar Peterson’s piano, Joe Pass’ guitar, Ray Brown’s bass, and especially Loius Bellson’s drum kit all sounded full, musical, almost palpable in space. While the instrumental imaging may not be as razor-sharp as digital, the music sounded warm and incredibly appealing on a whole different level.

Next, Jeff cued up Roxy Music’s “More Than This” from the Avalon album. Again, the sound was beautiful, big, and lush. It also had a sense of depth to the sound that I wasn’t expecting. I’m familiar with this album on CD and I’ve always felt it had a thinness to its sound. That was certainly not the case here. Brian Ferry’s vocals were especially prominent and in a good way. They popped just a little more from the mix than I’m accustomed to from the CD making his lyrics easier to follow.

Finally, to satisfy a fellow Canadian’s request, Jeff cued up Rush’s Moving Pictures on the Tourbillon. I have a love/hate relationship with this album. I love this music till the day I die, I hate the way this album has sounded on every CD version of it I’ve bought until the 30th-anniversary Multi-channel mix came out. OMG! When the first few bars of Tom Sawyer started playing from the heads of the Tourbillon, I knew we were in for a completely different experience. All through Tom Sawyer, YYZ, and Limelight, The songs sounded full and had body to them. The bass was there in abundance and Neil Pert’s drumming finally had the weight and impact that was so woefully missing from all my past depressing CD versions. It was majestic. Here was a power trio that finally was reproduced as…a proper power trio! And there was no question about the Solitaire integrated amp having both the finesse and frankly the “stones” to play Rush back at volume with the bass and impact that we were getting. This was the absolute best I have heard recorded Rush sound in stereo!

Metaxas & Sins Siren Loudspeakers, profile close-up.

After a two-week period, Jeff invited me back to have a listen to the same system but with the Metaxas & Sins Siren loudspeakers in place, having now been suitably broken in. Standing about 10 feet apart they looked a little like sculpted Dementors (from the Harry Potter books) seemingly very imposing with those MTM drivers angled down at you. In this listening session, Jeff handed me the iPad that controlled his ROON endpoint and essentially let me loose to try out whatever songs I chose.

The Sirens are tall and relatively slender enclosures and even though I know they are vented through the rear top and bottom I was not expecting copious quantities of bass to be coming out of these things. I would soon find out how mistaken I was. “The Sound of Silence” by Geoff Castellucci, has some very low electronic bass in the recording. Bass that is low and loud enough to bottom out some drivers in both speakers and subwoofers that I have auditioned this track on. The Sirens amazingly reproduced the lowest synthesized bass notes, both with serious authority and output yet without noticeable distortion. But beyond the bass, the Sirens projected a soundstage almost as wide as the MartinLogans we heard before. Geoff Castellucci’s deep baritone voice was precisely pegged dead center and ahead of the speakers.

Next up was “Our Love Remains” by saxophone great Bobby Watson with Carmen Lundy on vocals. The Sirens succeeded in recreating the intimate jazz experience laid down in the recording studio. Watson’s saxophone was smooth and expansive with an appealing clarity of tone. Basically, it sounded “right there!” Carmen Lundy’s deep, breathy vocals were up close and personal. They just sounded full, dimensional, and just plain dynamite! And little details like the reverberation of the bass strings after being plucked, were easily discernible through the Sirens. The speakers seemed to have an uncanny knack for throwing a large soundstage and yet imaging very precisely with a transparency that lets you hear deep into a recording. Occasionally more than you might like. On one particular studio recording I tried, both Jeff and I could make out the different parts that had been multitracked and subsequently pieced together. It was fascinating but it slightly took the fun out of the song for me.

Next up was slide guitar virtuoso Sonny Landreth’s live performance of “Broken-Hearted Road” from the album Grant Street. The Sirens immediately transported me into the nightclub where the recording took place. They accurately relayed spatial cues like the room reflections and the audience with the tinkling of bottles and glasses alongside and sometimes behind me. The almost heartbeat-rhythm electric bassline was deep and palpable, and then there was Landreth’s searing slide guitar work. The Sirens not only accurately reproduced the twangy distorted lead of the slide guitar but also the reverberations of the walls and ceiling that defined the size of the space.

We continued for some time with various other selections until it was late in the evening, and we had to call it a night. It was an incredibly memorable experience finally getting to sample some of the Metaxas & Sins catalog of products, unbelievably in practically my backyard!

These aren’t simply niche audio products or even uber-high-end audio components alone. They are bespoke crafted works of art, made and refined one at a time. Yet they are purposely designed to reproduce music in the most complete and transparent manner possible. Which makes them far more than static objects of art. These are not the sorts of things one buys, plays with for a while, and then puts for sale on Audiogon to finance the move to the next piece of gear. These are very much heirlooms. Rare, unique items that are displayed, and shared with those who can appreciate what they truly are about.

I love seeing the unique, the creative, and the unexpected. Things that challenge the notions of what we expect to see in something as ubiquitous as a pair of speakers or an integrated amplifier. No, it isn’t stuff for everyone, nor is it meant to be. But what groups like Metaxas & Sins do, whether we realize it or not, is create halo products that inspire others, create a buzz, and get people looking and talking. In a nutshell, they help make life in our little corner of the universe more interesting. And who couldn’t use a little more of that?

Carlo and Jeff flanking a Siren.

I would like to thank Jeff Garshon for his time and desire to share all this wonderful gear (and his passion for Reel-to-reel) with folks like me. I wish him and his company nothing but wild success in his partnership with Metaxas & Sins. And that many more people can directly experience what truly happens when art, science, and technology come together, not as just another marketing tagline. But rather to actually create things far greater and more meaningful than the sum of their parts.

Who knew you could find all this in the dead center of Ohio?!