I was sent to work at the airporot in Skien for 3 weeks. That is the town our member Rolf lives. So I decided to send Rolf a message asking if we could meet. And so we did.

I took a taxi to his countryside house, a beautiful place about 10 kilometer from town. Beautiful surroundings, with forest, nice view and fresh air. We sat outside enjoing a cold beer, and talked about all kind of stuff. And when it got cold, we went inside to see and hear his stereo system

I have never seen a pair of JBL 4343 before, and it was a shcock to me how big they actually was. MASSIVE!, yet a beautiful piece of furniture - at least in my opinion. But my wife would probably disagree.

The system was set up with a beautiful cd player from Burmester - expensive stuff that I have not heard before, a preamp from Perreaux, and two large power amps from the same company. I thought it was mono amps, but it was not. Rolf had a active crossover network, and one amp was driving the bass, the other was driving the rest.
Rolf told that JBL was a good match with tube amps, and that Perreaux was close to the sound of tube amps. I was exited to hear, and it was time to put on a cd.

Dire Straits was playing, and it was no doubt: This was really good stuff. Crystal clear, powerful and dynamic. Just the way I like it. The room was not that big, and it was well furnited, so I would say it was more or less optimal when it came to how much one can get out of a room - and still call it a living room.

The sound was very different to what I am acustom to at home. My 4430 with Nakamichi amps soudn very different. The two systems is of course as night and day in many ways. I have a two way design, he have a 4 way design, and he use larger power amps, and external crossover. But not only that: My living room is extremely bad when it come to acoutics. Large hard surfaces, and a walnut floor without carpets: far far from the more ideal acoustics in Rolfs room. My experience is that the same system can sound very very different from one room to another. I belive many of you have the same experience.

We enjoyed some good music, from modern music, to jazz and blues. And we had some cold beers also. Very nice night indeed.

Thank to Rolf for inviting me home.
It was a great experience!


Leif