Stereophile: Brooks Berdan's Ayre/Vandersteen System

Southern California's Brooks Berdan, Ltd. continued to affirm the store’s reputation for high-quality sound in its Ayre/Vandersteen room, which had also impressed Wes Phillips in an earlier blog entry. Listening to the Ayre MXR 300W monoblocks ($16,500/pair), K-1x preamp ($7000), C-X5e universal player ($5950), and about-to-be-released power conditioner, connected to each other and the wood-finish Vandersteen Quatro speakers ($10,700/pair) by Ayre's own cabling, I encountered a soundstage whose height and depth had no right to exist in such a small space. But beyond issues of size and depth, listening to a Channel Classics SACD of the Ebony Band Amsterdam performing the music of Silvestre Revueltas enabled me to enter that composer's phantasmagoric universe in a deeper, more all-consuming way that I had ever before experienced. It was as if I was inside Revueltas' head, haunted by the very demons that drove him to write his extraordinary music. To discover myself so immersed in music in the middle of a bustling show was a rare gift.

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Reader Comments

Posted Wed Jun 7, 2006, 5:28 PM — By Gerald Clifton

Revueltas? Jeez. You get all the luck. I was in that room often, and all I got was miscellaneous Jazz and a few crooners. Which was fine...but it was same old, same old. I remember fondly getting banged out of my seat, a couple of years ago, when Esa-Pekka did "Sensemaya," my first live contact with that composer. Sony Classical, SK60676, fixes the performances in time, for all our enjoyment. O, The miracles of technology, when used in the service of the arts.

Posted Fri Jun 9, 2006, 4:53 AM — By Jason Victor Serinus

Hi Kal. It was moi who wrote that. I was not exaggerating. That system, despite being dark, worked for me. I'd love to have the multi-channel experience at home, but the spouse would string me up with the extra cables. jason

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