Music Store or Museum?

Found this on AA. It is somewhere between a store and Museum. Store front starts on page 2.

http://my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=1333

ML's on page 13

Lots of stuff indeed. Speakers include Avalon Sentinels, Watt Puppies, YG Acoustics, Magnepans, B&W Nautilus, Rockport Altairs, Kharma Exquisites, JBLs and TADs, and many others. MLs also appear on page 8, and ML Statement E2s can be seen on pages 26, 27, and 31.

I'd be curious to know where this is.

Yeah, this is that Chinese fellow who had a profile done in some of the Audiophile magazines last fall...

So THIS is what the Cultural Revolution was really all about?...

I'm sure Chairman Mao would be proud. It's good to see that in a socialist nation, where everyone is supposed to be economically equal, they are doing so well. I mean, I knew China was doing well, having replaced the USA and EU as the manufacturing center of he planet, but I had NO idea that "Standard State Issue" stereo gear in China included Wilson Watt Puppies, Mark Levinson, MBL, and Spectral Amps, and Rogers, Levinson, and Krell CD players. :devil:

Who'd 'a thunk it? Marx WAS right all along--Capitalism DOES suck. I'll bet he's buying a LOT of his gear from out-of work stock brokers in NYC and London...

From each according to his skills, to each according to his needs, hmmm?

I'd venture that this fella is funding his "hobby" with the sweat, toil and suffereing of THESE folks:

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_40/b3701119.htm

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10164325-92.html

http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=197

That vinyl just wouldn't sound as sweet for me, knowing that it's probably covered in the sweat and blood of enslaved children, but I'm sure for some folks on this forum, the sweet smell of serfdom only enhances the experience...

Now that's what I mean by an audio equipment collection. Wonder if he has a Marantz AX1000?

...And he's driving his Statements with Crown amps?!?! Wonder if Ethan is on to something? Maybe I'll have to go and spend $100 and see what they're like!

Oh, and what's that subwoofer he's using with the Statements?

Dreamer said:

Yeah, this is that Chinese fellow who had a profile done in some of the Audiophile magazines last fall...

So THIS is what the Cultural Revolution was really all about?...

I'm sure Chairman Mao would be proud. It's good to see that in a socialist nation, where everyone is supposed to be economically equal, they are doing so well. I mean, I knew China was doing well, having replaced the USA and EU as the manufacturing center of he planet, but I had NO idea that "Standard State Issue" stereo gear in China included Wilson Watt Puppies, Mark Levinson, MBL, and Spectral Amps, and Rogers, Levinson, and Krell CD players. :devil:

Who'd 'a thunk it? Marx WAS right all along--Capitalism DOES suck. I'll bet he's buying a LOT of his gear from out-of work stock brokers in NYC and London...

From each according to his skills, to each according to his needs, hmmm?

I'd venture that this fella is funding his "hobby" with the sweat, toil and suffereing of THESE folks:

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_40/b3701119.htm

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10164325-92.html

http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=197

That vinyl just wouldn't sound as sweet for me, knowing that it's probably covered in the sweat and blood of enslaved children, but I'm sure for some folks on this forum, the sweet smell of serfdom only enhances the experience...

Click to expand...

Thank you.

It is the guy that has been referred to as "The Worlds Number 1 Audiophile". There was a post here with a link to an article that Robert Harley did in Stereophile.

For what it's worth, many of the photo's are from the guys private residence. Many others are from the museum he opened dedicated to audio equipment and the recorded arts. It's open to the public and free to anyone who want's to visit. I don't know this guys history, but I don't hold a grudge against him just because he can do what he's doing.

Dreamer, I'm honestly not sure why you seem to hate the rich, or why you think that everyone who has money can only have aquired it from the misery and suffering of others. It seems very closed minded and judgemental to me. I'm not rich, but I have a comfortable life. I work my backside off everyday to achieve what I want in life. I also contribute to the arts and other charities, do volunteer work and do what I can to support our society. I do well, and have done well. I like to believe that I leave the world a better place as I walk through it, but it seems like you would have me and others like me strung up as examples as your cultural revolution exorcises it's demons.

This sort of statement...

"That vinyl just wouldn't sound as sweet for me, knowing that it's probably covered in the sweat and blood of enslaved children, but I'm sure for some folks on this forum, the sweet smell of serfdom only enhances the experience..."

is exactly the sort of thing that I believe diminishes your credibility.


I'm sure I could be wrong, but maybe he's just a nice guy who happens to have aquired wealth and chooses to spend it as he likes. It doesn't seem so sinister to me.

MiTT said:

Dreamer, I'm honestly not sure why you seem to hate the rich, or why you think that everyone who has money can only have aquired it from the misery and suffering of others.

Click to expand...

Because, under most current economic models, that is how it works.

Getting rich is something anyone who is motivated, lucky, and well-placed can do. But true wealth almost always comes at the cost of subjugation, exploitation, and dehuminization. This is jut a simple fact.

I guess that I'm cursed with an innate curiosity, and the desire to always "look behind the curtain". I don;t hate the rich, or the wealthy. What I hate is people who feel they are somehow entitled to special privileges, treatment or deference because their grandfather was crafty enough to set up a few "foundations" before inheritance tax law caught up with the newly emerging capitalist-nobility class. What I have a problem with is people who see the bling, and are blinded to the blood. What I have a problem with is people who have been lulled into compliance by the carrot of "success" and don't realise that the people they idolize come from a generational history of corruption, subjugation and enslavement. Eyes wide shut, bro...

MiTT said:

I like to believe that I leave the world a better place as I walk through it, but it seems like you would have me and others like me strung up as examples as your cultural revolution exorcises it's demons.

Click to expand...

You are free to believe anything you want, regardless of whether or not that belief based in reality. At least, you are for the time being. (That too, is changing quickly though)...

I, however, KNOW that I will be leaving the world a better place, because of my art, my teaching, the passing on of my skills to younger people, and my dedication to preserving the written word. By working for decades to ensure that many published parts of history will be preserved for another generation to see, rather than "disappeared down the memory hole" (to quote Orwell, who was, BTW, funded heavily by the Cecil Rhodes foundation, and was himself a vocal proponent of Eugenics), I KNOW that I will make the world a better place for some people, if you define "better" as a world comprised of people who are more aware, awake, and curious about that world. If to you a "better world" means a place where people do their jobs, don't question authority, and follow orders diligently, then I suppose the world I'm trying to make might be perceived as a hell on earth...

MiTT said:

I'm sure I could be wrong, but maybe he's just a nice guy who happens to have acquired wealth and chooses to spend it as he likes. It doesn't seem so sinister to me.

Click to expand...

Then why, in all the published articles and profiles, has no one ever once mentioned his CV? Why does no one ever once say what industry, technology, or service this fellow so excelled at in a Communist state to allow him to afford such stratospheric gear? All I'm asking for is this guy's CV. It is the omission of information that is conspicuous...

And PLEASE don't say that such a thing is odd or unprecedented--it's actually quite common in journalism to include professional information on "profile pieces". Please don't make me publish a bunch of links of all the people who have had profiles in Robb Report, Conde Naste, etc., where they went to great length to toot their own business horn.

If they're gonna "show us the money", then show us the "money trail" as well, that's all I'm asking...

It kills me to see all that awesome audio equipment just sitting there not hooked up when it could be in my system getting a workout.

Dreamer: by your reply I get the sense you hate hypocasy as much as I do. Worshipping the proletariat I'll leave to the Marxists, worshipping the rich I'll leave to bankers/brokers. The hypocrasy of Chinese millionaires is asounding when the country is a vicious dicatorship, and the proletariat are almost slave labour. So much for Marxist utopia. What's the one sin Christ railed against more than any other in the bible? Hypocrasy.

We are to blame for China's strength in one way, that as a society the west has decided we want lots of cheap things instead of a few expensive things. Of course the western poor need to buy cheap, but do we all? I for one will not buy made in China audio equipment. I wait and save up until I can buy things from countries I suport, though that's well nigh impossible for clothing, and many other items. But where I can, I go out of my way to buy Canadian and American. I feel good doing it, even if it seems to be a losing battle.

An amazing amount of equipment though. The moral part of me says "Too much! Excess! Probable nasty Communist oppressor." The original sin part of me says "I want!"

But my lust for fabulous equipment is currently tempered with my new Summits. Thank you made in Kansas magic!