YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Instagram
Carlo Lo Raso
We often hear that being an audiophile is all about the music and/or the gear. But for me, it’s increasingly becoming a lot about the people I meet.
I’ve been an audio nut since my early teens. As an individual audiophile, music nut, obsessive geek, or what-have-you my relationship has always been between myself and the gear, or myself and the music. Historically, in my more immediate circle of family and friends, few others ever shared my affinity for HiFi so it was a bit of a solitary hobby.
As I grew older, I got to know the odd person who was as much into stereo gear as I was. Still, it was a fairly limited crowd given my friend group. And those audiophiles I did get to know were a fairly, shall we say, unique bunch. Actually, I was able to draw several personality parallels between audiophiles and other members of my chosen field of endeavor, visual artists.
Now, when I speak about artists, my experience is with illustrators, animators, painters, sculptors, cartoonists, etc. But I’ll wager the similarities can extent to other disciplines like, acting, writing, photography, and so forth. Whether they are audio designers, engineers, public relations people, distributors, other reviewers, you name it, I find there is a certain amount of obsessiveness in their general makeup.
That’s why I consider myself extremely lucky to involved in this side-hustle-turned-career of audio reviewing. The fact that I get to interact with some genuinely cool people is something I consider a blessing. I’ve learned a lot and I’ve gotten to meet and know people who I now consider genuine friends. And after the first real full-slate year of audio shows and events, I thought it would be fun to share a small sample of the more personal images from this past year and a bit.
Frank Doris and Sue Toscano. Two of the genuinely nicest people in Audio PR.
Me, Doug Schneider and Jason Thorpe (Soundstage Network), John Darko (Darko Audio), and Edgar Kramer (Soundstage Australia). Just a bunch of audio “hoods” having a beer!
The Geshelli Labs crew. I dare you to find a harder-working and more down-to-earth family than this bunch. And they make great quality headphone amps and DACs of all things!
And they even have their own pre-show warmup dance! I mean c’mon, how fun is that!
The Perlisten team: (L-R) Lars Johansen, Steve Jain (Fidelity Imports), Erik Wiederholtz, and Dan Roemer. What these guys have done with their brand, in such a short span of time, is almost unheard of. And they are also as down-to-earth as they come.
Another darling lady of the PR world, Roberta Lewis. Don’t know about the schmoe she’s hanging out with, though!
It’s always a good time when Sonus faber’s Will Kline is around. I mean, look at that smile!
TAD’s Kazuto Ohkura and CEO Shinji Tarutani. It’s always a pleasure to catch up with these guys. The thoughtfulness they have shown in helping manage TAD’s re-entry into the US market is quite brilliant. Bravo to both of them!
Dave Malekpour, Founder and CEO of PAD-HIFI. As US distributor for TAD, he and his team are the other half of the equation for TAD’s successful US return. Saavy and street-smart, Dave has built an enviable array of companies that service almost every level of the pro-audio, hip-hop, and recording community. Essentially soup to nuts. And some of the stories he has from his long history in the biz will leave you in stitches!
In my list of genuinely nice and agreeable people in this business, Andrew Jones and Peter Madnick are well up there. Both have freely given up their time to answer all sorts of requests from me on various reviews and reports. Decidedly brilliant and what they do, they are also a hoot to just sit down and shoot the breeze with.
Livio Cucuzza Chief Design Officer at the McIntosh Group, particularly Sonus faber. Young, creative, and with a taste for vintage audio, Livio’s design chops and good taste are exceptionally well-balanced. I loved the feel of his team’s creative design area when I visited Sonus faber HQ.
Soundstage Network’s Jason Thorpe. A fellow ‘Hoser”, a skilled wordsmith, and an enlightened traveling companion. All that and a bag of chips!
DALI’s Nicolaj Love Hansen and retired PR guru Peter Hoagland. I am blessed to consider them dear friends. Nicolaj is a comic book geek like I am and Peter, well he just puts up with the both of us!
Marjorie Baumert (formerly of RMAF) being honored by Steven R. Rochlin of Enjoy the Music.com. This was a nice and well deserved moment from the last Florida Audio Show, recognizing Marjorie for her years of hard work in putting on Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.
Julian Margules, a soft-spoken but deeply passionate audio craftsman. And when you have a 90-year old audio company with that name, right at the top, it sort of says something, no? Julian’s gear never disappoints.
Paul Barton, founder of PSB Speakers and one in a handful of Canadian audio revolutionaries. He continues to punch a clock and I always learn something new from him whenever we get to catch up. Someone seriously needs to put this man’s name in for The Order of Canada!
FOCAL-NAIM America’s VP, Romain Vet looking very French and very Imperious! Hah! Dude, even the guy in the back can tell it’s all an act! What isn’t an act is what Romain and his team bring to every audio show they display at. As both a manufacturer and a distributor, FOCAL-NAIM is a force to be reckoned with!
Riccardo Nasta, Donatella Vigilante, and Bartolomeo Nasta. The key trio behind Unison Research and Opera loudspeakers. You honestly don’t meet lovelier people than these. They are “The Family Business” done right!
The Gold Note team. Essentially another Italian family operation, but with a twist. The same deep passion but more progressive in execution. Deeply delightful and charming folks when we visited.
In a listening session with the team from Audia Flight and Alare Loudspeakers. Just reveling in the beauty of what such a small team hath wrought.
Giordano Zacchini and Andrea Ricci from Spirit Torino. Ever since meeting these guys two years ago at the Tampa show, they have turned the high-end headphone market on it’s ear with their unique and creative offerings! What is it with Italians and Audio anyhow?!
Adam Sohmer is another good friend in the audio PR world. Adam wears many hats, as they say, and has been around long enough to have good insights on things. Plus, he’s a Frank Zappa fan so there’s that!
Instagram and YouTuber Brian Stout from “Woody’s Soundup”. I got the pleasure of getting to meet and know more of Brian this past year and he is just a super-nice guy, and a whiz at what he does!
Former Secrets contributor (now retired) Don Disbennett, has always been a bit of a cheerleader on my reviews ever since I started with SECRETS over 10 years ago. So it was great to finally meet him face-to-face at AXPONA this year. I still owe you a lunch Don!
This is Vince Bruzzese, founder of Totem Acoustic. If you look closely, Vince has that whole “Twinkle-in-his-eye” thing down that makes you half-believe he can do magic!
VPI’s Mat Weisfeld working a crowd at Munich High-End this year. Pound-for-pound I don’t think I have seen anyone with more drive, tenacity, positive vibe-age, and yet sprinkled with a healthy dose of “Don’t Screw with Me” attitude as I’ve seen in Mat. He’s not afraid to put it all out there and he is fun to watch. Plus, his family builds kick-ass turntables but that’s besides the point!
I can’t lie. This is just a gratuitous picture of Mat with Al Di Meola. Moving on…
Eric McBride and Andy Kerr from Bowers & Wilkins at the launch of the new 800 Signature Series editions. These gents are absolute class acts in the business. Andy though, being the voice and face of the company at product presentations, has that cultivated that innate ability where he could talk to you about things as mundane as dryer lint or coffee grinds and make you believe they are the most import thing in your life at that very moment. The man is a PR Alchemist! Luckily for B&W, they don’t do mundane!
When you discover you are on the same flight as SVS’s Larry McGough and you scare the be-jeezus out of him with a selfie!
This is Norman Varney. His acoustical outfit, AV Room Service, is just just a hop, skip, and a jump away from me in Central Ohio. As I’ve gotten to know Norm, I’ve experimented with a few of his isolation products in the course of some of my latest upcoming reviews. And while I’m not much into “audio tweaks” per se, Norm uses math, science, and measurements to back up his claims on his designs. I’ll be talking more about these products in my reviews, but let’s just say that Norm is a very interesting cat! And they say that nothing interesting happens in Ohio!
It’s always a pleasure to run into Jim Garrett from HARMAN International. Jim is a welcome bit of humanity in an increasingly large and bureaucratic company.
The Fidelity Imports crew who were gracious enough to sponsor our Munich High End coverage this year and then take some of us “journos” on a visit to three Italian manufacturers that they distribute in the US. It’s been great getting to know Steve Jain, Eric Smith and the rest of the Fidelity team this past year. They certainly aren’t messing around as they look to make an impact with the brands they rep.
As this editorial is titled “People”, It is more than appropriate to announce some additions to our staff here at SECRETS of Home Theater and High Fidelity. It’s my pleasure to introduce five new members to our reviewing bullpen. They are:
- Isaac Adams
- Michael Epstein
- Lory Hawley
- Stephen Scharf
- Jeff Wheaton
All of them come from diverse backgrounds of experience and each has their own unique viewpoint on this grand hobby of ours. All are currently working on their first reviews for us, along with the odd editorial and we hope that you enjoy their contributions to SECRETS going forward. Please make them feel welcome!