The Million Dollar Stereo System Auction from Ken Fritz - Krell, Denon, JBL, Tannoy and more...
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- Reviewing some of the incredible gear sold in the recent Million Dollar auction from the Ken Fritz audio system. Several pieces were custom built, so I am also discussing how one would go about determining a valuation for a custom item. Reviewing several of the items sold from Tannoy, Krell, Denon, JBL, Dynaco along with some custom speakers and turntable.
It was one man's dream which he dedicated many years to build, but sadly, it was all dismantled and sold in this auction for a total of $156,800.
Gear from Krell, Denon, Tannoy, JBL, Dynaco and others.
Link to Collector Julian Burke: • Collector Series: Juli...
Link to Ken Fritz documentary: tinyurl.com/2677w8ej
Link to Auction: tinyurl.com/2hkhtk5p
Link to PBN Audio: pbnaudio.com
This video: • The Million Dollar Ste...
Email: stereoniche@gmail.com
#krell #vintageaudio #tannoy #jbl #vintagespeakers #vintagestereo #denon #audiogear #audiophile
I went to high school with Ken’s daughter and was privileged to audition his system with his favorite piece Swan Lake. Jaw dropping does not begin to cover it. Ken was such a kind and generous man happily sharing his passion with those that shared his enthusiasm.
I cannot imagine. I bet the hair on your neck stood at attention. I would have paid money just to hear it. We lost a kindred spirit.
If the place was turned into a paid attraction, I would have pilgrimaged over there at least once in my life (probably more often, after hearing the system). Very sad to see this apex of an achievement dissolve after so much work. I hope he got to enjoy and share it with people for a while. RIP Ken Fritz
@@Kairo1985 ama supercross
KEN FRITZ IS TURNING IN HIS GRAVE.
He loved this with all his heart. I can't believe the family got rid of everything. Shame on them.
versus what? putting all in a closet so no one can ever appreciate it again ?!
Ken Fritz is a selfish jerk who neglected his wife and children and treated them terribly. Shame on him he got what he deserved. And shame on you for defending him.
since ken spent more time building his system than with his family i think they are glad the stuff is gone
The best compensation, is that Mr Fritz enjoyed very much building his dream system along the years and all the time he spend listen.R.I.P
I wonder where the system was auctioned off. The family should have publicized it in the major magazines such as Sterophile, The Absolute Sound, etc. To let these custom speakers go for ~$10k, the turntables, the amps for such ridiculously low prices is almost sacrilege. If the auction had been publicized properly I would think that the equipment would have sold for a lot more than the winning bids you showed, and would have been appreciated more by the eventual buyers. It looks like the high bidders had little or no knowledgeable bidders to compete against and bought these items for a song, probably to be flipped at much higher prices. This kind of stuff has more value than a pile of parts sold at a discount because they’re vintage. I would think the owner of Sky Fi Audio would have bid much more for these items and probably could have made a profit reselling them or just used them for his own system. I would have definitely bid more for the turntable than what the high bid was if I had the money. Ken also had tons of LP’s , Ampex tape decks, and who knows what else that could easily obtained top dollar bids as well. A shame that such a system was devalued by poorly publicized auctioneering.
The auction ads were ALL OVER major audio sites. The daughter asked opinions on Audiogon, Steve Hoffman, etc. Most famous audio reviewers spoke about the auction. The house was in Richmond. I followed the auction everyday and bid. I added up what the auction brought in for all 668 items -- $167,000 😢
I have watched Ken's video several times, what a sad ending to a great story! One of his requests was that his system not be separated, but I imagine it would be hard to fit that system anywhere besides the room it was already in! I would have love to have felt that system!
Indeed, unless he planned well in advance, I can imagine very few places that could have accommodated his massive system. Sadly, we (collectors and audiophiles) will all eventually be in that boat and it will be in the hands of our loved ones that have to make the best decisions for their situation, and most likely, it will not align with our passion.
Just valuing parts is the wrong approach. You need to put a value for labor and design. Otherwise, why bother? Just buy the parts.
I've seen several auctions that have given me serious questions about their veracity, none more than this one where pristine, high end, sometimes one of a kind equipment sold for a fraction of it's value. Whoever bought Ken's custom made turntable got the biggest jewel in the crown.
A piece in any auction is only worth what the buyer is willing to buy.
Vinyl is trash, turntables are a joke
@@VoltLover00lol to some....
@@VoltLover00 Thanks for your insight!! I just tossed my TechDas turntable in the trash. Any other wisdom you have to share?
I bought the JBL set for $2600. I haven't seen them yet but I am looking foward to getting them home and hooked up. I always followed Ken's build and never realized I lived 2 blocks away..😢
Congratulations on winning them. As a vintage collector, they were one of the items of most interest for me. Please reach out after you get them and let us know how you like them, etc..
@stereoniche will do. I will be looking for advice on amps and crossoverers and such. I'm hoping he built the crossover .
My home setup is focused on 13.2 surround. Mx123 ,Emotiva and B&K reference amps. Magnepans ,Monster Audio THX.
@teamJEL You should have bought Ken's main speakers for the front/center channels! 😀
@@stereoniche I consider it bit logistics of moving , storing ,raising my second floor 3 ft, and the cost of divorce stopped that.
@@teamJEL Well, I guess you could have turned them on their sides? Just joking, but, I did run across a massive HT system where the owner bought some high end speakers from Europe and modified them so they could be turned on their sides and mounted on a wall. Not 1500 lbs, but around 200 lbs each and cost around $80k/pr. for a 5.1 system
I am amazed no one bought the entire system. There is 100% a business to be made out of this incredible set up and the story that goes with it. A shame imo it is no more
I chatted with Ken via email when he was building his system with all the work he had to do to the house to make it work was truly amazing. I think it is very sad that no one in his family shared his passion for music and sound. It is also sad that no one in his family respected him enough to fufill his wish not to have the system seperated. To be fair I have no idea what the families circumstances were or their resources. At least he finished it and got to enjoy it. May he rest in peace.
Sorry to hear Ken passed away. “One Man’s Dream “ is a cool documentary.
Great insights Scott. Thanks for posting!
My pleasure!
RIP Ken....I've yet to see a U-Haul behind a hearse!
But a lot of audiophiles on their death bed will look back on their life and wish they hadn't spent a lifetime of money on audio. Seeing the world, helping other people, helping animals, really enjoyong life are much more important things to have done than spending all that money for a little cleaner treble. When selling expensive audio equipment, I think the longer you wait, the less audiophiles there are going to be, and the ones who do buy vintage equipment and go higher prices, might not have that many years left. Many of them are already gone. It is not easy to find the right person to go big prices on audio equipment, generally speaking.
Rest in peace, Ken. I hoped to come visit you and listen to your amazing system.
"Oh wow! God bless Ken. He was an iconic person for what he built." it was what I showed my wife to justify buying my first entry-level B & W speakers at the time.
Much appreciated or depreciated I cannot quite say lol! Cannot wait for your next presentation. Love from Canada,💓
Thanks for watching! If this is your first video, be sure to subscribe, but also take a look at prior videos and let me know which hit on the subjects you most want to see.
Hi Scott. I just wanted to let you know that PBN is an American Company. An engineer named Peter Bichel Noerbaek (PBN) has quite a few models of speakers that are fairly huge, and beautiful. He has a few speaker kits as well. He builds a line of Amps, Pre-Amps and a DAC. Also several models of Turntables, including the PBN-308 that Ken had that you showed, he builds custom when you order it. He's quite the audio enthusiastic engineer, to say the least, and his gear is held in high regard. Oh, his company is in Montana. Thanks for the great videos showing all the cool vintage gear. Take care
Thanks very much for the information and correction. I will put a link to PBN in the description so we can all find it and see Peter's great work.
You had to buy the complete house because the room is part of it
You have to value the labor involved as well. What you pay is another matter. But value must consist of parts and labor.
Sure, you can even add value to how good they sound to you as well, but finding a comparable for that will be tough, or rather, impossible. They are certainly valued at whatever YOU are will to spend.
The value is what someone is willing to pay, no more, no less
There were some fabulous deals to be had in this auction. I think the bespoke turntable was an incredible deal. And those line array speakers, but you have to have the space to accommodate such large pieces. When I watched Ken describe his build, I knew it was sad that he spent a lifetime and a small fortune building a building full of bespoke stuff that would sell for pennies on the dollar invested.
I DIY my entire system. In the present, I marvel at the fact I have sound that would be very hard to duplicate at 10x what I paid to build. But I have no illusion that the system has no asset value. No one would buy any of it, so when I die it will go to the dump and I'll go to the crematorium. My real assets will go to a good cause and were not depleted by buying audiophile priced gear.
Mr. Fritz (RIP) must be spinning in his grave over how little this system brought as he put a lot of time and money into building this very custom set up.
Ken also designed and built the special polymer baffles on the speakers. That would cost way North of a few $K itself
His attention and dedication to detail was quite admirable.
The ENTIRE AUCTION, all 668 items in the house, only brought in $167,000 based on adding up all the final auction bids. Unreal. In an interview, Ken estimated his entire system build and room cost him around $1.25 million.
In my opinion, the Krell gear was the only gear that brought a decent return. The Denon PBN turntable was a STEAL. PBN tables without arms can sell for $30,000. This had 2 Kuzma arms that are $10,000 each and cartridges that also run almost $11,000 each. That's $40,000 costs in JUST the 2 arms and cartridges. I spoke with somebody at PBN, and this current build would run approximately $60,000. The winning bidder got an endgame table, a Super Denon on Steroids, for 10% of retail. Unreal.
I'm sure Ken's family could have done far better at selling his equipment for way better prices. There are lots of multi millionaires and even billionaires in the world who would have loved to own his system, and might have paid them a million dollars for it. There is a video. (if it is still on), here on CZcams of a guy demonstrating his $250,000 Audio Note Gaku On power amps, in what looks like another instance of someone having built a listening room like Ken Fritz built..Perhaps this is a not so uncommon occurrence with very rich audiophiles. Many mansions and big homes have a movie theatre room with theatre seating. Maybe quite a few rich. audiophiles, realizing their room is their main limitation, build special rooms with acoustics being given priority, so they can enjoy the sound ofand potential of their systems more.
Of course with the money Ken spent, he could have flown all over the world, seen the world, and listened to symphony orchestras like The Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony etc. in the world's greatest concert halls. And still have had money left over for a second hand Goldmund turntable, some Air Tight or VTL Ultimate Tube Amps, and somesometbing like MBL or Focal Grand Utopia speakers. Maybe it would have reproduced classical music about as well or better than what he was using. Massed strings just never sound so thick syrupy and sweet as with good tube amps. Even on Columbia Records.
I think his thing though, was TO CREATE. To build somethong and put together something. so superior to anything that has been done before. Not likely he did it, as a layman, there are audiophile phsicists out there, but he did try to use the best materials. We'll never know for sure sure.how good a sound he achieved. His video was was nearly an hour of talking and only seconds of actually playing the music, and showing showing a fleeting glimpse of what it actually sounded like.
@sidesup8286 -- Back in June, a Forum Member in a group I follow first announced he was helping Ken's daughter and soliciting ideas on what she could do. Members suggested selling the house with the system (problem was, it was a very modest, standard Ranch house except it had this massive addition built on...the person with the money to pay for that house and system didn't want to live in middle-class Richmond).
Other people kept saying to rent it as an Audiophile AirBnB. That raised nightmares about the potential damage by drunks, party goers, or people who didn't know how to operate the system (blown speakers, a broken stylus, etc.)
Everybody kept asking him, "What did it sound like??", and he said he hadn't heard it because the daughter didn't know how to fully turn everything on and operate the amp remotes or video projector!
It appears none of Ken's 3 children had a very big interest in his dream build. In the CZcams story that Ken and his son narrate, if you listen closely early on, his son admits this is the first time he has seen the system completed -- I believe he insinuates he hasn't been in the room in more than a year or two.
People kept saying, "Find a buyer, any buyer, who is a multimillionaire and would want THE BEST SYSTEM!" Problem with that, how do you "prove" Ken's system was "The Best"? It was designed FOR THAT ROOM and that room was built for THAT SYSTEM. Take either part away, and the speakers may have sounded like crap. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all built especially for the the way his speakers diffused sound. Knowing all that went into the build and how room specific it was, why would a billionaire in Silicon Valley, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Asia, or Europe buy this DIY system and go through the shipping hassle and danger, when they could make one phone call and have a Tech Das Air Force, dartZeel, and Wilson gear delivered and setup in a few days?
Sadly, in the end it became an albatross to the family and the entire auction raised less than $167,000. Hearing in the video how Ken described going to his favorite used record store with a crate frequently, filling it and shipping the records home, I knew it would be a nightmare for the family. I don't mean this with disrespect, but after seeing the auction I was reminded of the A&E show, "Hoarders". Just with VERY WEALTHY tastes. I don't know if you saw the entire auction lot, but you should.
Very interesting info sir! Yes, hoarders and many audiophiles and record collectors, have minds that are wired to think more is better; and that of course spawns 5,000 and 10,000 lp collections, and other collections collections.etc. Some would call it obsessive behavior taken to the extreme. In a more general sense it would fall under the broader category of "Materialism".Thinking material things will buy you happiness. Many come to substitute things for people & relationships, as it is such a crazy world that finding someone with the right qualities is hard. Easier to latch onto something good.by simply taking money out your wallet. People with obsessively large collections of things could be trying to make up for something that they lack in their life.
lMy sound quality is to a point now that I really wonder if it can get much better. I am not feeling the need to upgrade or change anything. The sound is so cool. I cannot imagine anyone that once you get to a certain level of sound quality, feeling the desire to upgrade. I have to think that most audiophiles no matter how much money they frittered away on their system; their sound quality lacks in some important ways. I don't think they've ever reached that sound quality level where your mind says "Stop, this is the sound I've always wanted and now that I've got it, I want to keep it." Upgrading becomes the last thing on your mind. So falling short of that level, they keep upgrading and spending huge amounts of money; not really knowing what they're doing or the best things TO DO
It seems that Ken Fritz fell into that category, until near the end.. He convinced himself himself that his system was the best, the best you can do, so there was no more more logical need to upgrade. He spent all that money and was now tired...real tired. Tired from all that work. And growing increasingly ill. He wanted to make his mark before dying, like so many others before him; who choose both good, bad and ugly ways. His video was for that purpose. He didn't share much of his actual sound with us, only seconds in fact. What he shared was how he did it & all the things he did; his accomplishment in other words. The guy on here with the $250,000 Audio Note amps system, was more about sharing his system with the world and how it sounds. If you asked me what system I would have liked to hear more in person, it would have been the Audio Note tube amp system. I know how genuine a good tube amp can sound, and I know at least some of the very special qualities it can have. Which I never hear with solid state. Which does have a few of its own advantages. But I wod have liked to have heard Ken's system also. So he was a nice man whose life got cut a little short. Tragically....Life often does that to dreamers.
@sidesup8286 -- I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm glad to know you have reached a level of satisfaction that too many in our hobby will never know. I have different systems throughout my home, all tubes and all vintage. I know there is much more expensive gear than my ARC, McIntosh, Dennis Had, and others, but what I have gives me satisfaction and frees up money to buy vinyl, CD's, and Streaming.
Again, I mean no disrespect to Mr. Fritz or his Family. He was brilliant and had talent and skill that eclipsed the common man. I saw my late Step-Dad in Ken. Both were Renaissance men. My Step-Dad was a top Chemical Engineer Project Manager at Tennessee Eastman, whose last project before retiring in 1980 was building Arkansas Eastman and the plant's Coal Gassification System. In his life he was in the Army Air Corp during WWII, owned 3 planes including a Great Lakes Trainer Bi-Plane that he built himself, taught a course on building telescopes and grinding your own lens (he ground a 15" lens for the massive telescope at our house), self constructed a 3,000 square foot log cabin on his family farm using 3 original cabins from the 1840's, and was a Master Woodworker who built Corner Cupboards, Jackson Presses, Pencil Post Beds, and every type of furniture you can name. In 1988, he asked me what I would like -- he had several hundred board feet of solid Cherry. I described a piece of furniture for my stereo equipment, and 3 months later he drove up with a paneled mini armoire (48" H x 32" W x 21" D) made of solid Cherry with a solid pneumatic lid that lifted like a turntable cover to hide my table and 2 front doors that opened to adjustable shelving. All tongue and groove, not a single nail. Built solely off my description. That was just the first of almost 100 pieces of furniture and furnishings Dad built for my wife and I.
Seeing Dad build items with a workshop that rivaled professional businesses and knowing the time and materials that it took, I was crushed to see Ken's custom built wooden stereo racks sell for less than $400! Ken had 5 or 6 pieces that blew away any Salamander Rack -- and those can sell for thousands. His racks were amazing -- look them up. The auction items were just crazy. Boxes of JBL, Focal, Tannoy, and other drivers just laying around. JBL Horn Fins. Speaker cabinets the size of Cornwalls that just needed drivers and crossovers added, made out of beautiful wood. Boxes of solid brass isolation feet. It seemed like whenever Ken needed a part, he bought 10 instead of 1. Over 20,000 vinyl albums -- which Ken admitted most had never been played. As you commented, buying just for the sake of buying. I tried to find out how much his business sold for, solely out of the curiosity due to all the "stuff" sold at auction. Really none of my business -- but I'm inquisitive!
Continue to enjoy the music and life. Let's keep Ken's memory and his pursuit of excellence alive, but remember to stop and listen.
I am one known for not only thinking outside the box; but outside the whole box factory! I once had a job at a factory that made fire hydrants. NoThey had them all over the place. Everyone was afraid where to park. I once made a speaker cabinet which, where wood would normally join with wood, there was something vibration absorbing between the sides of the wood where they would normally join and contact each other. Am I the only one to think of this?? Probably.
Ivor Tiefenbrun the head of the Linn turntable company, which is credited with starting high end audio. As an innovative and usually very accurate thinker, once said that the best audio equipment on the planet has only 12% the sound quality of live music. That was decades ago and the best equipment may have progressed some since then. But imagine spending a million and a half, and even if your result is near the best equipment; you have only about 20% the sound quality of real! I live somewhere where they have weekly concertslive concerts in a square. Yesterday there was a guitarist duo of one guy playing guitar and the other one playing several woodwind instruments. instrumentsMy first impression was that the sound wasn't as refined. They were amplified and playing through Electro Voice speakers. The more I listened the more I realized that the sound was so much clearer. It is hard to compete with a live feed from the microphones to the speakers. After becoming acclimated to the sound more, my ears gave it more credit for refinement. I think it was warming up, and my ears were warming up to it. But spending all that money on home audio equipment, still doesn't get you very near near to a live microphone feed.
I love the documentary of Ken Fritz's audio system. How I would have loved to sit in front of it, just to hear what a man can make. There are probably many afectionardos who are kicking themselves for missing this bargain. If I had the money, I would have built a tailor made wing extension on my house.
great content i enjoy your videos question what would be a good CD play to hook up to a SX1050 already have turntable its a UTURN TURN TABLE its the orbitplus with wharfedale Lintons 85s
I cannot recommend a specific one as all of mine are fairly vintage. I've had some very high end players that sounded fantastic, however, eventually the laser will fail, so my recommendation is to know that you can find replacement parts for any CD player you choose.
Great series and analysis of the auction. As someone who worked in high end audio retail, I've experienced numerous families of dead customers trying to get us to buy back our former customers equipment. We never did. (We didn't do consignment sales and only took used equipment in trade as part of a sale of new gear. We did always offer a free valuation of the system and advice on how to best resell the components. Looking at the final sale prices of this auction, I assume the auction wasn't advertised well to the audio community. I also think a single company commissioned to handle shipping and handling would have brought in more bidders. I agree with your analysis of the final prices, but I must admit I don't see Krell FPB 600s selling for $3k unless they are broken. So I'm anticipating those back on the used market for around $5k. I was shocked to see so much equipment. Many of my old customers who were diagnosed with a terminal disease would off-load much of their gear before passing or trade up and consolidate to a final and single "magnum opus" system.
It is certainly never an easy task to deal with for any family. Given Ken had dedicated so much time to it, they probably did not want him to bear the burden of having it downsized/sold before his passing. Thanks for the comment on the FPB 600, the last time I looked at values they were selling at around $3k for all original models, but I do see they are selling for more at this time. Might need to see if I can get some interest in my pair, but there will probably be a flood of them on the market soon. 🙂
This auction WAS advertised heavily to the high end audiophile market and beyond. It was on Audiogon, Steve Hoffman, TAS Sites, PTA, even Instagram and Facebook Marketplace.
The problem was, Ken built that system EXCLUSIVELY FOR THAT ROOM. The 17' ceiling was modeled after an Opera House in Osaka, Japan. The walls were built with 12″ cinderblock and Durawall wire reinforcement was incorporated in between each vertical course. A 1″ rebar was inserted into every other vertical cavity and then the cavities were filled solid with 3500 PSI pea gravel concrete. The floor was poured using 3500 PSI concrete to a thickness of 8″, and the ceiling was built using trusses on 16″ centers spanning from the front to the rear of the room. Fiberglass insulation was installed in the walls before ¾” plywood sheeting was glued over, and then two layers of 5/8″ fire code sheetrock were then glued, with Durabond 90.
The walls were built for the diffusing type of drivers in his NINE FOOT TALL front trio speakers. Think about it? How many people have rooms that 9 foot tall speakers will not only fit in, but sound good?? And they were so heavy Ken had to place the Krell amps on counter-balance platforms behind them so they wouldn't topple.
Ken's custom built turntable weighed 1500 pounds! The shipping costs were astronomical -- I bid on items and checked. Unless you could drive to Richmond to pack and haul items yourself, shipping that turntable and other gear was not only extremely expensive, but dangerous. Can you imagine how many mistakes could be made by shippers handling 1,000 pound speakers or a 1,500 pound intricate turntable??
Sadly, it was just a nightmare Estate to handle. A lifetime build that Ken said exceeded $1.25 million sold for $167,000. That was all 668 auction items added up. There is still the house, but it is a modest home except for an added extension that is like a room in a Hollywood mansion -- I believe 20' by 50' with a 17' ceiling.
@@allenfields9058 I just came across that documentary for the first time the other day and had no idea he had passed until I saw this video. I was curious about the total sale value and it’s crazy to see that number at 167k. This is a hobby with an already incredibly low return on investment but when you DIY and customize build outs to this extent it’s almost impossible to sell any of it and recoup that value. It’s sad to see!
Advertised heavily and yet I did not hear of it. Not that the world revolves around me, but more to note that as someone who frequents all of those sites, and is a vintage enthusiast, word never reached me. One thing I have learned, I am not unique. If you search for Ken Fritz Auction on CZcams, this and one other post-auction video show up in the results.
Plenty in the community were unaware of the auction. I dont think anyone informed expected the loudspeakers to sell for anywhere close to the money Ken put into them, but there were many other products that sold well below market value. Its those other pieces that could have made up for some of that loss on the speakers.
In response to a few comments questioning some of his choices, remember that DIY systems tend to be personal statements on what constitutes “good” sound and what is important for that sound. You may not agree with the choices he made, but this is HIS system and HIS choices.
Wow I saw Ken's video on his room, it's a shame they couldn't find a way to preserve it but it's not realistic to presume anyone else would want to spend their time keeping someone else's dream alive after they pass.
Indeed. It seems the family did try, but could not find a buyer for the house and the stereo.
The fact those large speakers weighed 1500lbs each & were 7ft tall sure didn't help the resale value, but I'm still surprised they only sold for 10g. That's a whole lot of bang for the buck if you have the space to put them to good use & bucks to buy all the power they would need to drive them.
Yes, this is why there are no mass produced systems like this one as 99% of potential buyers could not accommodate them.
You'd have to remodel your house for those speakers. That's where the real cost is.
I wonder how those extreme speakers were extracted from the house! Crane, forklift, or disassembly?
Would be interesting to find out. I read somewhere that the person who bought them was in the process of considering a similar build, so they must have been ready to tackle something at this scale.
All that and no ADS towers . :-)
Well, I guess he just missed out on REAL sonic bliss. 🤣
I think the speakers being too tall for most rooms reduced the number of people able to take them home. With two columns of drivers separated horizontally like that, they would have a very erratic directivity pattern horizontally and a very narrow pattern vertically unless the designer was very good at introducing delay and shading up and down the array. You have to build speakers for yourself and not worry about what others think. It's rare to have a DIY speaker sell for more than the cost of the parts.
So sad that Ken didn’t leave proper instructions on how to sell his system. This sold for pennies on the dollar because of the bizarre choice of seller.
Gave it away.
Ken was right when he asked not to separate the system. Many people don't realize that audio is an end to end system, including the room. To any passionate, rich audiophile out there wanting to do something like this, please don't build it in your backyard. Build it in a separate space. That way, it can be sold off as a unit.
Indeed. Maybe I will do a follow up at some point to discuss some examples like this one and even my own in how we might plan ahead for the eventual day our passion needs to be passed on. We would all dream for it to be taken over intact and made into a museum or a local destination/experience, but the truth is our loved ones will need to deal with it and everyone's situation is different, of course.
@stereoniche agreed! I am kinda working on something like this and, of course, on a smaller scale/budget. I'm confident that DSP, combined with AI modeling, can recreate the Symphony hall in our living rooms. By no means, a soundbar is suitable for that solution it will still involve multiple speakers (11 channels, etc). 2 channel is extremely limited in re creating that "live" performance. People have to realize that it is more of those subtle reflections and gentle splashing of the sound that actually create the "live" performance.
Rear and side speakers alway exact a large penalty in the focus of the front channel instruments. Already with that alone; you won't be able to simulate a true concert hall experience; at least a close up or mid hall experience. Maybe a rear of the hall experience you can get a bit closer to; where with being that far away from the sound, nothing seems to have so great of a focus. The much missed, and one of the great audio writers of all time, Bert Whyte discussed that unfortunate aspect of it in one of his monthly write ups in the old Audio magazine. I had a Carver C4000 preamp once with a built in digital time delay circuit and amps for 3 back channel speakers. At first it was interesting, but it soon wore on me, and I soon realized that I enjoyed the sound more without the rear speakers on, which diluted the great focus and effect of the Sonic Holography circuit. A respected writer in one of the U.K. audio publications rated Sonic Holography as mpre of an improvement over regular stereo than regular stereo is over mono. Don't know if I would have gone that far; but it WAS great.
@sidesup8286 I had a carver preamp that did the gimmick, too! Cool, but not enough... currently, I am experimenting with LCR, front heights and middle heights, soundstage is incredible, kinda like 2 pairs of 901s except it is more focused because I'm using Dirac to time align all the 7 speakers. 901s drop sharply at 30hz and 15khz, and my current setup goes to 24hz and 20khz.
It is so fun to experiment with stuff like that. I can pretty much upgrade my stereo every time I plan on listening to it ; and usually do. I hear a new sound quality every time I tirm my stereo on.I got these highly effective anti- resonance stick-ons that I bought long ago from the company that used to make them for a short while, before the owner retired. Even if we don't get to 100% real; it sure is cool the levels of realism we can get to.
Goes to show how OCD can drive one beyond sense, however, we’ve one life to live and some itches must be scratched.
in the 70´s custom built was the word ,magazines saying how to shape a big wooden cabinet and speakers specifications to use and everybody was making them selves very good sound speakers and some even amplifiers ,tubes ones and they are better than todays professional gear from the best brands,mainly in Germany but everywhere else was in the bricolage wave
Its sad nobody is into stereos anymore, when I was growing up in the 70s everyone was into it there were stereo shops everywhere. and plenty of hfi magazines on the stands.
Well, some folks are still into it. They even make their online avatar profiles hifi related type names. :-)
OK a few old timers like you and me are still interested but show me one person under the age of 50 who is interested,go to any hifi show now and its a geriatrics convention.@@stereoniche
Food for thought: the guy apparently ended up listening to music on an iPad...
He was using Roon to control the system, not streaming from an iPad
@@grantharris1971 Interesting
The mains going for 10K were literally a steal, if only to part them out. Some of the closing prices were stunningly below value. I suspect that the auction was not well marketed. The estate could have done better consigning with a large nationally known specialist vintage dealer. Though if immediate funds were needed that would not have been ideal.I agree with others, it should have been preserved. Plenty of ways to generate self-sustaining income. As to the naysayers deriding the quality of the reproduction without having heard the system themselves, troll elsewhere. Watch the documentary. Anyone with any sort of technical chops can discern that the system was engineered at a level several orders of magnitude beyond what most are capable of either technically or financially. I would argue money was the smallest factor in the equation.
the turntable sold for 19 grand - that is so cheap for what it is
Most DIY equipment just isn’t collectible, no matter what it is or how well designed and implemented. The only exceptions I can think of is if the equipment was owned by someone famous or was designed by a famous person or designer. DIYers are often trying to make systems that they could not afford commercially and anyone buying a DIY system is probably looking for a bargain. As such, trying to place a value on DIY equipment is generally a waste of time. There is simply no telling what someone is willing to pay for it and I don’t know any DIYer who worries about resale value. If that was your concern, you wouldn’t be a DIYer in the first place.
In this case, the gear that used vintage JBL drivers, for example, are quite collectible, but even then, the same valuation process holds true. This system was the exception though in regard to the sheer scale of it all.
I think he died about 6 months after making his CZcams video, as he said the room was silent for years until it was completed, a year and a half before that. So after all that money spent and decades of work, he only got to enjoy that system for two years, and part of that period in dying misery. Very sad. Those decades that he had left before his death, could have been put to much better use, spending lots of time with his loved ones, he was rich enough to travel and see the world. In my opinion, he could have spent those years in a much wiser way. In the end I'm sure he had good sound, but it doesn't take all that time money and effort to achieve great sound. As sad as it is, and as nice a man as he seemed to be, he is perhaps the prime example of obsessive compulsion with audio and over excess. As big as his listening room was, it was still not even anywhere near 1/5 the size of the Asian symphony hall he was trying to re-create. You simply cannot duplicate those acoustics in the home. The genre of music he was listening to is the one type of music that you can't realistically re-create in the home either.
I think I can get pretty close to replicating a live Jazz performance and the acoustics of a jazz club in my large listening space; especially with a digital time delay unit. But a full symphony orchestra; forget it. Interesting that his seating position while listening to music seemed to be at least 16 feet away from the speakers. According to the equalateral triangle rule, his speakers should have been 3 times that apart; or at least 48 feet. They only looked to be a fraction of that. Sitting closer to his speakers, he would have heard much more detail; but he must have wanted to re-create a mid hall experience; perhaps replicating his favorite seat and perspective when he went to the symphony, to hear live performances.
After custom building his own turntable and going to all that trouble and expense, I think I noticed speaker cables on the floor; a no no for ultimate sound reproduction. Also interesting was his choice of solid state amplification. After building a room in an effort to mimic a concert hall, you would think tubes would have been his choice, as according to what I've experienced and heard; tubes seem to be the ultimate way to go for the most realistic spatiality and depth re-creation. I'm sure he did what he thought best though. Sad that he couldn't have been around longer than the two years he got to hear his custom audio system in his custom acoustics.
It was an error saying his speakers should have been that far apart. They should and might have been the same distance apart, as they were distant from him. I haven't had my coffee yet this morning!
I have seen the video hosted by Ken, and can only say that this man had a passion for sound and also a passion that drove him to build a system that I don’t think anyone could or can equal. He was a true audiophile who knew what he wanted and had the wherewithal to not only design it but also build it. To denigrate his choices because he used solid-state amplification, and left his cables on the floor, etc. is arrogance on your part. Yes, it’s sad that Ken did not enjoy the fruit of his labors for long, but he enjoyed the journey probably as much or more than the final product. I salute Ken Fritz, may he rest in peace!
My exact words are that it was "interesting" that he used solid state, (definitely not known for as good a spatial capability) as tubes, after spending a major fortune designing a copy of an Asian concert hall. Those were my exact words; your mind must not be that exact. This "denigrate" thing came from your mind; not anything I said. I think the psychological term for that is "projection." Rather than make such a wreckless inference and projection; it would have been better to ask me what I meant, if for some strange reason, what I said happens to be so important to you. You must be just someone trolling and looking for an argument.
Something you said which is not important to me, but strange enough that I'll mention it; you said something to the effect that you're SURE Ken was the only one who could build equipment of that excellence. Are you sure that Ken is the only one in the world that is that advanced in matters of audio design. How did you come to that conclusion. There are a lot of great audio designers in the world, what some of them have in their private homes that they've designed for themselves, might be more cost no object and more advanced than anything that is feasible to build for the audio market. That Ken Fritz was the most advanced audio designer in the world is really not very likely at all. I feel bad he couldn't have been around longer to enjoy the fruits of his labors for many years. But ultimately I think what he did was foolish. Spending all that money and all those years (pretty much his last years), trying to have "the biggest baddest" audio system of all time. Through his own words he strived to build the best audio system in the world. He probably didn't, and most normal audiophiles aren't overly concerned about their system being better than anyone elses. We just try to get our system to a point where it's exactly the kind of sound we want; and the quality level we want.
I'm almost certain Ken lived a little over 2 years after the CZcams video was released. However, he was going through the degenerative effects of the disease, so I don't know how much Ken got to enjoy the system.
I hope you are right and he did live longer, with an ability to enjoy. My time line is based on when he did the video and reports on an audio forum that he had passed. He reached for the stars on this Earth with his audio and let's hope he achieved it. Speaking of stars, there was a write up in an old Stereophile magazine saying how Krell designed custom amps for Fabio, and the electrostatic speakers he was using as a known celebrity audiophile. That seemed to be one of the few pieces of gear he bought that wasn't custom made (or was it)? He might have liked to play his music loud and tried to get the kind of enormous scale it would take to reproduce a symphony by using big speakers with many drivers. Good tube equipment always to my ears, has a special way of re-creating spaces between instruments on the front to back plane, (depth). While solid state seems to shortchange that noticeably. With great solid state it is possible to get somewhat closer to tubes in that way, and great solid state can certainly sound very open. Maybe he did the right thing there, by counting on his speakers to reproduce space and scale on a grand level. Or maybe solid state was the ONLY way to go according to his calculations. He's the only person deep into classical music that I've ever heard say that "Swan Lake is my favorite music". It's usually something like a piece by Bach or Beethoven. Tchaikovsky's music was more accessible than most of Bach's music and more for the masses, Besides Vivaldi's The Four Season's and Beethoven's 9th Symphony (the 2 best selling classical music pieces of all time), Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker might be the most recorded piece, and his 1st piano concerto with Van Cliburn was one of the best selling classical lps of all time.
I think Ken used the best materials he knew, especially for his turntable and arm,, but does someone building a tonearm and a turntable make them a designer, yet alone the greatest, as one respondent volunteered? I seriously doubt it. iBut I think it was important. to him to have hand built at least certain parts of his system. system.Listening to your own work is very satisfying. I should know. My mods make everything I tackle, a brand new animal. For the better; by far.
Seems like most components sold for peanuts. It's a damn shame
Very sad news. That guy seemed to be a passionate guy, the video was breathtaking. However, I wonder how he dealt with Phase cancellation with all these drivers... To me, it's just a scientific aberration, never understood manufacturers making speakers with more than 2 Mid+Tweeters. In the bass area it's less problematic as waveforms are much longer.
If I recall, I think PS Audio did the build, so you might be able to send them a question. Paul McGowan often does a video answering such questions, so we all might get to hear about it.
@@stereonicheThanks a lot, indeed, I get to watch MgGowan's answers on YT quite often, thanks for the vid and the answer !
Basic answer is you do array shading, and apply slightly different signals to each driver. That way you can control the shape of the vertical dispersion at each frequency. E.g. you could use all of the drivers at bass frequencies equally, and then as you go up in frequency taper off the edges of the array to maintain a uniform dispersion.
SO sad to always see one's legacy being split up and sold for pennies to the dollar....
While the pennies on the dollar part may not always happen, the splitting of our legacy, if a collection, is most always the end result. Especially in this case. It would have taken a very unique space that could have accommodated Ken's collection.
I’ve had much worse return on investment on various hobbies throughout my lifetime. Fritz had a great time building this and enjoyed it. Well worth it.
I thought they would try and preserve everything?? Why sell it all?
They wanted to sell the house and no one was interested in the house and stereo as a package.
Makes me want to spend a crazy amount of money on a system, only to see it given away for dimes on a dollar
Obsessions can certainly ruin a person.
for $33k someone could grab unreal system! DACs today cost more!
Anyone spending more than $500 on a DAC is a moron
Wow...that is sad.
True, however, I think more sad if he had passed BEFORE his dream system was completed and he never had the chance to hear it. We cannot choose our time, but hopefully we feel accomplished when it comes, Ken at least was able to say he fulfilled his life's dream.
$10k for these 3 main towers is extremely cheap. I would buy it, if i would have the room
You almost grasped why they sold for $10k...
That's sad. Too bad.
The money he pissed away on a ridiculous system is the sad part
@@VoltLover00 You sound like a really happy person. 🙄
Ken Fritz must be rolling over in his grave! 😞
So sad, all he wanted was for it to remain complete and his family just parted it out for an easy buck. Shame on them
I suspect the poor man was almost taup. the crap can't sound good.
The "million dollar" system was always a joke, the components were not impressive, the size and weight of the speakers was nonsensical
II spoke to Ken Fritz once. He was a humble and kind man! To see his system squandered for little money is a terrible shame! Destroying this man's legacy is a sin, and those who inherited his system just to squander it cheaply should be ashamed of themselves! His listening room should be honored as a national treasure and preserved for the world! I am angry! Really angry! His heirs destroyed a temple! I cried when he died and now I'm crying again! Such a shame...
I think his family would have preferred Ken still be around much more than his system. While we enthusiasts understand Ken's passion, most others, even our own families, do not share it, so we need to be careful in how we portray them. They certainly lost much more than us in the audio community.
@@stereoniche His Family understands Ken´s passion better than we do. They all were involved into the build, and he did not only build the system, he built the house with the listening room inside too! His daughter earned her allowence when they made the Concrete Porch around the house... And his intention was that after him the Music building will be available for audiofiles... just like a private cinema for movie fans... But what did they do? They sqandered this inheritance for cheap. They betrayed Ken´s legacy and dishonered his wishes.....
He was a shitty father and horrible human.@@bernhardmichaelfux308
He treated his family like garbage.
@@intothevoid9831 Hmm Sorry, and this Information comes from What source?
I understand someone had the money to acheive what he/she wanted in a system, but seriously human hearing could not differentiate much more than a normal quality hifi system unless they are a bat. human hearing is 20hz to 20khz. deteriorates as we age.
Looks like you were looking at the 7’ talk rear speakers. I believe the three towers were something like 11’
The description posted by the auction house is in the video and it includes the dimensions.
Yes the one you referred to where the rear speakers. not the 3 x 11' fronts. Just saying@@stereoniche
ciekawe ! dzięki! 2be rechand2diereach🍀
Zapraszamy!