Ray Seda

My interest in audio began very early in life. Back in the early 70’s in Piscataway, NJ at the age of 12, I went to my friend’s grandmother’s house to hear his brother Frank’s (as in Stereo Times’ own, Frank Alles), stereo system. That afternoon of music turned out to be the defining event in my life. The system was pretty basic, Dynaco amplification, AR turntable, AR 3a’s and AR 2ax’s in a Dynaquad arrangement. On that day, I discovered Classical “Art” Rock, like Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Genesis, and I discovered the magical experience of a great-sounding audio system. From that point on, I was hooked and pursued audio and buying music with a vengeance. I became a permanent fixture at a great audio shop called the Hi-Fi Haven in New Brunswick. It was there that I was taken under the wings by the owner, Stan, and his main sales and service guy, Jim Foley. At the age of 13, I was spending my summer weekends at the shop, listening to my own records, learning the sound of Infinity Servo-Statiks, and Magneplanars and at the same time, working feverishly during the week in a paper route to amass enough money to buy my first system. That first modest system turned out to be an AR XA turntable with a Stanton 681EE, a Sherwood amplifier, KLH 33’s. By that time, I already had well over 100 LP’s and none had been played on a system of my very own! Fast forward to the late 70’s, the audio bug was so fierce, I even put off my college education just so that I could run a small audio store in Dunellen, NJ. My time running the audio store allowed me to further educate my ears and get exposed to all kinds of diverse equipment. I soon discovered that I had very acute high frequency hearing. In fact, I found that I could consistently identify ringing tweeters and damaged tweeters that were about to fail, when no one else could hear it. To this day, even at age 53, certain types of lighting in big box stores send me running out the door because I can hear their high-pitched whistle and it drives me crazy. I did the audio store thing for a couple of years until reality kicked in and I realized I needed an education or be broke for the rest of my life! So yeah, I went off to college, sold off my entire system including a very cherry PSE amp and preamp. However, every summer I would return home to Piscataway and work at a national record importer, JEM records. Of course, I never really saw a paycheck since I would blow it all on British and German vinyl! It wasn’t long after graduation In the early 1980’s that a couple of thousand LP’s and I ended up in Florida, owning my first house and first real high-end system; Martin Logan Sequel 2’s, Carver Silver 9t monoblocks (dubbed “the turtles” by friends of mine), Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, original VPI turntable with a Technics EPA-500 tonearm system, and a Benz Reference cartridge. Going to college and becoming an Accountant turned out to be a great shot in the arm for my Hi Fi budget! Since coming to Florida 25 years ago I have been actively involved in the local audio community including a stint as President of the South Florida Audio Society. I also have been and still am involved in beta testing, audio consulting, and have actively participated in several design efforts. Oh, and of course, I am still a corporate bean-counter. These days, I primarily listens to Folk and Acoustic, Jazz, Rock, British Rock and Progressive, classical and experimental, Industrial, and the occasional Punk, New Wave, and Alternative. It’s a mix that leads to some interesting listening sessions. I’ve been known to jump between Kate Bush, Kronos Quartet, Pere Ubu, Public Image Ltd., Gorecki, and Dorothy Ashby in a single Sunday afternoon sitting for instance (without even being in “reviewer mode”). Environment I have a dedicated second-story music room measures 14 feet wide, 27 feet deep, and has an 8 foot ceiling. The poured concrete slab floor is padded and carpeted wall-to-wall with a tightly knit Berber. The front and the left walls are external walls of concrete construction with double insulation and sheeting. The ceiling has a slight gradual pitch downward front-to-rear, and the room narrows in width to 11 feet at 12 feet in from the front. The left wall has two windows and is substantially covered forward of the listening position with acoustically dead, double-lined theatre drapes. The primary listening position is a distance of 13 feet from the front wall. The front right side has a six foot by eight feet high by three feet deep alcove/closet that contains the equipment rack. The rear of the room has a 30 degree slant and has theatre drapes covering the entry way to a walk-in closet which is equipped floor-to-ceiling with Ikea “Lack” units for vinyl and CD storage. The rear slanted wall has a 2-person sofa and serves as secondary listening positions. The rear right side of the room has a mahogany cabinet containing vinyl cleaning supplies and the record cleaning machine sits atop the cabinet. Walls and corners are treated with homemade acoustic panels of various shapes and sizes, corners are treated with Michael Green corner tunes, and the front face of mahogany cabinet is covered with Michael Green Room Tunes. The primary listening chair is a burgundy leather and mahogany, La-z-Boy ‘Metropolitan”.