SOUND TRAVELS

Audiophiles are often regarded as a conservative bunch who, as they say, ‘don’t get out much’. So it’s a breath of fresh air to meet an exception—one who’s ready to party at the drop of a stylus.

Laurie says that after 50 years, he’s finally reached the right sonic balance.

“My current system is dynamic and clear and spatial... and I like it loud,” he says, though he hastens to add “but loud doesn’t mean unrefined.” Contradictions abound some say, but never conflict, between the man himself and the music he enjoys.

He’s the radical Goth inside the Conservative man. “That’s just Laurie,” says a friend who knows him well.

ST: You were involved in commercial audio gear more than 30 years ago.

LN: We ran a mobile disco in the 80s, using speakers I constructed from Gauss professional drivers after I blew up a Klipsch bass driver at an outdoor party. My Gauss system delivered ear-splitting levels.

They could really pump! The midrange driver alone without the horn weighed in at around 15 kilograms.

ST: That’s impressive. So when did your interest in audio first begin?

LN: I was given an inexpensive Kreisler 11-9 radio by my parents when I was nine years old. It had valves and lulled me to sleep with the tunes from 3XY and 3AK.

But it was my dad’s Sanyo radiogram that was the big deal. It attracted a steady stream of visitors who I impressed with its bass and treble controls on my favourite test track— Eagle Rock by Daddy Cool.

ST: When did you get your own audio system?

LN: I bought a small, three-piece, shelfmounted record player with my pocket money when I was 12 years old. It was very modest compared to my dad’s system but it was a Sanyo like my dad’s and good enough for me. There were no bass and treble controls on this one, but one day I made the amazing discovery that by placing the speakers face down on the cabinet the perceived bass was more prominent, even though the midrange and treble were muffled. I thought this was awesome! Bass was everything then!

ST: You have owned lots of equipment over the years, haven’t you?

LN: I used to visit various hi-fi stores and eventually purchased a Technics SL120 turntable/SME combination, a Teac AS100 amp and a pair of Celestion Ditton 44 speakers. I had to wait six months until I could pay off the lay-by.

Those six months seemed an awfully long time to me back then.

ST: And the bug bit again, you say?

LN: A hi-fi salesman convinced me that Klipschorns were the best things in hi-fi. I was working full-time and so when Douglas Hi-Fi cut the guy’s $2,200 price tag by $500, I became a proud Klipschorn owner for only $1,680. That’s quite a bit less than the $34,990 that Klapp AV charges for them now!

ST: Your dad was upgrading too. It seems to me as if you contracted the hi-fi bug from him?

LN: You could probably say that, because at around the same time he bought a Luxman CL35 MkII preamp and a Phase Linear 400 power amp plus the venerable Linn Sondek LP12 with a Grace 707 tonearm. He was a talented cornet player and loved mostly classical and big band jazz. We bought the gear together, we shared our hobby.

ST: The Grace 707 was legendary but you had reservations about it?

LN: A few years later I actually met a man who claimed he was the original designer of the Grace 707 tonearm, whilst I was buying his Crown tape recorder from him.

Sadly, I can’t recall his name but his version of the Grace was made of wood and he paired it with Quad amplifiers and stacked Quad 57 speakers.

Being a Klipschorn owner I didn’t really appreciate the subtleties of his system, so I left a bit underwhelmed.

ST: Have you made any special purchases over the years?

LN: A highlight for me was buying an EMT cartridge in the late 70s from a well-known local audiophile who’d bought it for his system, which cost less than the cartridge!

He’d read about the EMT and bought it on impulse. He realised his folly and sold it to me for a nice price, provided I let him hear it on his system before taking it home. It sounded fabulous but at $800 retail, it should have done!

I also think that my Naim pre-power combination which I thought sounded glorious at the time, was a special purchase for me. Looking back, those purchases were insane as the whole system cost me year and a half’s wages, something I wouldn’t dream of doing now. My gross wage then was $94 per week, and by themselves the Naims cost $3,300—it was completely nuts!

ST: Your hi-fi inventory is long and varied: a home-built Gauss speaker system, then Timpanis, followed by Whatmough Mk7 speakers, Prima Luna amplifier replacing Cymer Audio valve monoblocs replacing the Gryphon Tabu integrated which in turn replaced the Naims, and all linked to the Martin Logan SL3s (which you still have)... that’s a lot of upgrading, even for an audiophile.

LN: Yes, but it was a lot of fun!

ST: So you’re happy with your current hi-fi system?

LN: Yes. I now have finally settled with a VPI Prime Turntable with its 3D printed tonearm and the other gear I’ve listed. The electronics all drive a pair of Altec Model 19 speakers, which I bought from a little old lady, who hardly ever drove them hard. ( Questioned further about the Altec Model 19’s provenance, Laurie insists the story about the little old lady is completely true… PX.) The system doubles as my home theatre system comprising a Sony VW80 projector and earlier electronics and older speakers that I still own.

ST: Are you satisfied now, after such a long hi-fi equipment journey?

LN: I am extremely content with my sound and most visitors think I have done OK. I can substitute the Altecs for the Martin Logans, a pair of Doug Tipping speakers, or my Usher Mini Dancers from my family room system.

The Martin Logans are more refined but they can’t do 125dBSPL! The Altecs have superb dynamics and visceral energy for music and home theatre. Also, I recently purchased a PS Audio regenerator, which I think is a worthwhile improvement for all audiophiles.

ST: And what about your musical journey? Where has that taken you?

LN: I bought my first LP, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker Suite’, in my early teens.

Even though my friends know me as a head-banging kinda guy I have always loved The Nutcracker and most of Tchaikovsky’s other works as well.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy still remains my all-time favourite piece of music. Admittedly I bought my first Deep Purple album soon after the Tchaikovsky. Black Sabbath and Emerson Lake and Palmer were also favourites at the time, and I still enjoy them now.

Currently I am listening to Rammstein [a German band], and the US progressive rock band Dream Theater, plus the electronic music duo, Yello. All music has its value, but my desert island disc is still Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, The Resurrection, conducted by Sir Georg Solti. It’s absolutely wonderful.

ST: How do you think music will be consumed in the future?

LN: I think physical media will be replaced mostly by streaming, which is the current trend, music being stored in a memory medium, a digital space. However, there are younger kids buying vinyl because they think it sounds better even on their modest systems. They enjoy the ritual of playing the record and looking at cover notes; there’s a sense of ownership. But the convenience of having all your music in one place is how it’s going.

ST: What have you learned on your audio journey?

LN: Two things I have learned, albeit slowly, is that each step to audio nirvana is filled with excitement, but also with some degree of anxiety. You ask yourself: “Am I getting carried away? Is the expense worth the improvement? Have I gone backwards? What will the wife say? Do I tell her at all?” The other is learning that spending lots of money is no guarantee of happiness in our quest for better audio. Overall, it has been interesting, challenging, and lots of fun— but expensive. Very expensive. Sometimes we just have to enjoy what we have rather than always looking over the horizon.