Strap in, folks—we 'bout to go for a riiiide…
The first thing I did after unboxing these items (very carefully, I might add) was call up David and freak out. I immediately tried to talk myself (and him) out of my accepting the responsibility that comes with handling this level of high-tech audio. But The Godfather Robinson would have none of it; he just kept telling me to calm down and that he was sure I would eventually be able to cook up an article that offered some really good nuggets from my "unique perspective" on what I felt and heard once this rig got assembled. I was getting nowhere with him. Clearly he knew something I didn't. He wouldn't let me send anything back, and I was worried that I would break something just from staring at those huge, heavy, and absolutely gorgeous hand-carved walnut speakers. The box of unbelievably cables looked like a living, writhing snake pit, and at least one of them was blue! And why were there so many of them? (I later found out that the blue one even had its own name, actually called "The Truth!" How cool is that?)
I needed help, and fast. How had I gotten into this mess? Oh, wait—I remember now—that first meeting during last year's Blues Masters at the Crossroads festival, and I was sitting in Chad's Blues Heaven Church/Concert Hall where I sat sandwiched on a church pew between Chad, David Robinson, and Michael Fremer! These guys are also like audio Mafia members to me now—they're "made men" who can "press a button" and make things happen; send "packages" to you. Loved by some, hated by others, but respected by many, they're now referring to me as "a friend of ours!"
I immediately started researching these items one at a time through every archived issue of pf and Stereophile I could find. I immediately got a subscription to The Absolute Sound. I prayed in hopes that I might somehow overnight learn how to write in the fancy tech-talk way that the big bosses did in these magazines to describe what I was about to experience in this basement that now looks like a mad man's laboratory. I now have not just one but two complete rigs. And then it happened: I stumbled across a fantastic review of one of the pieces in my possession—the PH 150 got a glowing review from one of The Made Men—"Analog Corner No. 253!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (the 14 exclamation points were actually his, by the way), found in July 2016 issue of Stereophile. I summoned the courage and texted Michael Corleone (cough-ahem!)—correction: Fremer, pardone me—and told him I had a ModWright PH150 sitting in my basement that I had no idea how to play with. He admitted that he'd written an in-depth article about this very unit. He proceeds to give me audio-Mafioso advice about the specific settings for what I am needing to get this thing up and running ("Capacitance will affect performance of MM and resistance must be set to 47K—nothing to do with bass and treble!"…"50K resistance is CRAZY bad!!"…"What cartridge?!?")
And here is the first opportunity I take to spare you the details and save you the agony of me trying to be Fremer when it comes to describing how this beautiful specimen works—just go straight to his article and read it—you'll never get a better rendition of the inner workings of the ModWright PH150 from me, and quite honestly, that's exactly what David Robinson is not hiring me for. Ye Olde Editor already has dozens of people who write for PF who can do that. In fact, let me also refer you to another PH 150 rave-up found in the excellent equipment review written by Jason Kennedy in the July 7 2016 HiFi+ issue 127, and yet another one by Greg Weaver subtitled "Hybrid Delight." These three highly detailed articles will more than prepare you with the required minutiae, while saving me from re-inventing the wheel, and allowing me to move on to the job I was hired to do—talk about sonic reverberations!
As for the LTA components, Teajay from Audiogon wrote a tremendous rave about the Micro ZOTL Preamp in the discussion forum. As for the Ultralinear's capabilities, a guy simply known as dodgealum wrote fantastic things about the unit and posted them in late January of this year, and more glowing reviews can be found on LTA's home website; in addition there's even more details from a dude simply known as "Jack" on his January 2018 review on his Audio Beatnik website—seems like there already are more than a few devout followers of the relative newcomer to the audio arena—maybe I will become a devotee as well? Stay tuned—don't change that channel!
As for the phono cables, speaker cables and every other kind of interconnects, none other than our own PF roving reporter Robert H. Levi checked in only months ago and extolled the virtues of WyWires in his "Diamonds Are Forever" raveup in Positive Feedback Issue 98.
And so it begins. I called up one of Chad Kassem's lieutenants, Nate Lennox (who'd replaced Chad Stelly as my unofficial lifeline at Acoustic Sounds when it comes to all things audio) and asked him to make a house call and help to install all this heavyweight equipment. He readily agreed, but said he wouldn't be able to get there for some days, so we made an arrangement for him to come later. Meanwhile I contacted a few of my local assistants and asked them to come and help me set up everything that we could—things that would make it easier for Nate to hit the ground running when he eventually would arrive. KSU Professor Craig Weston and one of my jazz saxophone students, Jacob Wright, came by. Among the three of us, we correctly set up the phonostage, amp, preamp, speakers, and all the appropriate cables and interconnects.
All that was left to do was set up the turntable. We meticulously unsealed the box, lifted a few layers of packaging, and saw beautiful things, but several of those items were also unfamiliar to my experience. I thought, this is not gonna be easy—lots of delicate parts that looked like it required a surgeon's touch to get it done right.
I wasn't about to risk it, and neither were my accomplices. We put the things back inside, closed the box and waited for Nate.
