Reader’s System: Just What the Doctor Ordered!

By Rich Teer | July 13th, 2012

More than a few months ago now, I visited the music room of Mark from Seattle. He’s a paediatric radiologist and a huge fan of jazz music.

If you’d like your system to be featured in our Reader’s System series, just send us an email. In the meantime, here’s the transcript of the chat I had with Mark before we settled down for a listening session with a couple of his friends.

What’s your background? Tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born and raised in Kansas City. I earned a degree in chemical engineering for God knows what reason, then went to medical school. Radiology is my speciality. Paediatric radiology is definitely a professional passion. I did all my training in Saint Louis, then came out here to interview for my Paediatric Fellowship. We knew from the minute we passed Boeing Field and saw downtown. My wife turned to me and said, “I don’t care what you have to do, you’re getting this job!”. That was it!

Where did you get your love of hi-fi and music?

I have no idea! Nobody in my family is musical. My side of the family is tone deaf and has no musical talent. My wife’s family has a lot of talent. But how did I get into it? I was always attracted to it. I bought my first record when I was 10. I still have it, it was Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume One. Growing up, I was always the kid with the most records.

For my 13th birthday I got a cheap hi-fi. I kind of got into high-end first about 25 years ago. I got introduced to Linn. I literally ate cheese sandwiches for six months during medical school so that I could afford a Linn Sondek, and I had it for more than 20 years.

In that respect your story is similar to mine. Not a Linn Sondek, I had a Roksan Xerxes, but the eating cheese sandwiches for six months. The things we do for our passion!

Exactly! [laughs]

Roughly how many records do you have?

I have about 2,500. I have about 2,000 jazz and pop, and about 500 classical.

What’s your favourite genre of music and what are some of your favourite records?

Well, jazz is my passion, but I’ll listen to and I like just about everything. Recently, the only time I buy CDs is because I’ve recently gotten into Latin, Brazilian, and Mexican music. I’ve recently become a big fan of Brazilian music and it’s really hard to find the records, although I’ve now got a source, in New York City. The name of the store—it’s probably the best record store I’ve even been in—is Tropicalia in Furs. If you’re ever close to NYU, you must stop there! I’ve actually sent them my wish list...

My favourite records... Probably Monk, Thelonious Monk is probably my all-time favourite. Boy, I’ve got 70 Miles Davis records, so I guess he’s up there! Rock and pop, The Clash, X, groups like that.

Roughly how often do you listen to vinyl as opposed to other sources?

About 98.6% of the time I listen to vinyl. [laughs] The thing I listen to second most is XM radio in my car. I’ve become completely addicted to Little Steven’s Underground Garage on channel 59. I like it in part because Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones’ first manager, DJs on there. His voice has an uncanny resemblance to the actor, Terrence Stamp. It’s hysterical!

I know you alluded to this earlier, but what was your first system, and how has it evolved over the years?

I am definitely of the “buy and hold” persuasion. I was just thinking about this. I’ve had three amplifiers in 20 years, this is my second turntable in 25 years, and I’ve had the BAT preamp for 10 years.

My first system was a Linn Sondek, the Krell amp that you see there, I can’t remember what the preamp was, and Shahinian Obelisk speakers. About 15 years ago I bought [Wilson Audio] Watt/Puppy 3.2s. I had those for a long time, I had those for 15 years. I did change amps. I got Mark Levinson 436s, which I had for a number of years until I got this amp. I had a Classé DR6 preamp for 10 years and I’ve had this one for probably eight or 10 years. Phono preamps, I started with the original Linn Sondek Lingo (I still have it), and I’ve had the K&K for about a year, it’s a transitional product, but it’s already sold. I should be taking delivery before the end of my life [laughs] of the Experience Music. I do have to show you a picture of it...

[Mike L] What you should do is send him pictures to put in the article, because that is the ultimate audio porn!

Well, we all like our audio porn!

I sold the Linn Sondek about five years ago, and I had a Wadia CD player for about 10 years. Loved it, but it died, so I purchased a Simaudio Moon Andromeda CD player, and I realised that my analogue just wasn’t cutting it, compared to the CD, and I thought, “That’s not right, there’s something wrong here”. So I went to Rocky Mountain [Audio Fest] and thought (based on the research that I did) that I was just going to buy a new turntable. I met up with Tom Mackris of Galibier and was sort of, “OK, take the blue pill or the red pill”. I took the red pill, I guess, so I got this setup, a Triplanar tonearm, and a Dynavector cartridge, and then things have cascaded.

I met Joel [Durand] the day I took delivery of my turntable, and you’ve heard the stories: Joel has made this magnificent tonearm. I would put it up against any tonearm in the world. At about the same time, I got into mono when I realised, “Oh, I have all these mono records!”, so I bought a Miyajima—we bought it together in a group buy—and the Einstein I bought from a buddy of mine who’s also a Galibier dealer. I think that’s going to be the limiting step in this system going forward. The speakers are the Daedalus Ulysses, which I bought two years ago. I had the Watt/Puppies for 15 years and heard these at the RMAF, and the guy who makes them lives right up close to the Canadian border. I drove up there one day: he is about the nicest guy you’d ever meet, and he makes beautiful speakers. I thought they sounded great. We have wildly divergent tastes but somehow I knew that’s what I wanted. One of the things that are important to me are a wide dynamic range, which a lot of systems don’t do. Mike’s is the king of wide dynamic range but for us mere mortals, this sort of speaker, that’s one of the things I liked about it. It’s also fairly easy to drive, it’s got a sensitivity of 96 dB. I don’t have a very large room to fill so I’m considering going down the SET path.

That’s a good segue into my last question: what’s next on your equipment wish list?

I need to get the newest version of the Talea, that’s a long-term loan, so I’m gonna need that. I’ll put the Miyajima mono on the older version of the Talea, I’ll put my Dynavector on the newer version. Other than that, and considering getting into the SET setup, that’s about it. I’ve got the last turntable I’m ever going to get, as long as Joel doesn’t make another huge quantum leap I’ve got the tonearms I want. I know I’ve got the last preamp I’ll ever have, and I really love the speakers so the only thing might be to play with the SET thing. Definitely in this room, once I’ve got everything settled, I need to get into some room treatments.

Equipment List

Power source Dedicated sub-panel.
Analogue source Galibier Stevio turntable with Durand Telos and Talea II tonearms.
Cartridges Benz LPS MR on the Telos, Miyajima Premum Mono Be on the Talea II.
Phono stage Experience Music two-box phono stage with mercury rectifiers and hand-wound step-ups; one dedicated stereo, one dedicated mono.
Digital source Simaudio Moon Andromeda CD player.
Preamp Experience Music two-box line stage with mercury rectification and 71a tubes.
Power amp Einstein Light In Dark.
Speakers Daedalus Ulysses with poly crossover upgrade.
Cables Interconnects: Found-Music Silver and Copper single ended. Speaker: Dynamic Designs. AC: Found-Music.