Publisher Profile

Robert Dean

Reviewer

Over 5 decades ago, prior to joining the U.S. Marine Corps., I worked for Dean's Electronics (my Father's chain of retail stores) which at that time was the largest retailer of stereo component audio products (speakers, amplifiers, etc. in the East Bay Area across the bay from San Francisco) This is when I took up the fascinating hobby of audio reproduction for home entertainment. After four years of service in the Marines, I went to college. After college, I took on a management position at Simco Electronics, a scientific instrument maintenance company that provides calibration (to military standards), and repairs of sophisticated electronic instruments and mechanical dimensional measuring instruments for NASA and several major Northern California (silicon valley) and Southern California electronics corporations. I was the key account manager that dealt with every phase of these organization's instrument service needs. It is my experience in audio retail and in silicon valley and NASA electronic calibration laboratories I learned what makes audio and video components "tick". I also learned what one hears can be accurately measured, the results of which correlate with what the listener tells me they hear. This is true from the source (music) to its final destination beyond the ears and into the brain. If all things in the audio chain are produced and reproduced with utmost accuracy, and measure on scientific instruments as such, the brain perceives "reality" in sound. And this, dear audiophile, is only what I settle for. Anything less is clearly brought to light and will be reported to you in my component and speaker reviews on this website. In my reviews, you'll not read my personal judgment based on my taste, ego or subconscious driven belief system. It will be measurable...provable, and backed with good science. It matters not if the music is good or bad. What matters is it sounds "real" even though it is good or bad. My room measures 11 feet high X 21 ft 8 inches wide X 18 ft 4 inches deep. No one distance can be divided equally into the other which greatly helps to reduce frequency room nodes and suck outs. The ceiling is sound deadened with popcorn liberally sprayed onto the ceiling. There is a 8 X 11 foot carpet directly in front o the speakers. The speakers are 11 feet apart and the front of each speaker is 32-inches from the front wall and 5 feet from the side walls. They are angled in approximately 35 degrees so that the drivers on the face of the speaker enclosure are facing the center of the main listening area (sofa). My musical preference are limited to easy listening jazz, easy listening orchestral works, Solo grand piano works, big band instrumentals, motion picture big sound orchestral sound tracks, most all audiophile grade and praised "state-of-the-art" high rez recordings of singers and classical orchestral works streamed into my Oppo and processed at 96kHz/24b then converted into analogue at a quiet 130dB signal to noise ratio to feed to my interim components and powerful Anthem amplifiers. I listen to music nearly every day for about two hours and also while doing serious reviews of audio equipment which, in many cases, takes days to evaluate, write about and conclude properly. I prefer to stream music to my Oppo from my lap top to acquire a high rez, well done recording which measures and sounds better than CD.

System
						Analog Front End
N/A
						Digital Front End
Oppo BDP-105D Blu-ray/SACD/CD player
						Amplification
Anthem Model 30 (6) Adcom FGA 2535 (4)
						Cabling
Blue Jeans digital cables, interconnects and speaker cables
						Speakers
Computer-modeled with ScanSpeak drivers.
						Headphones
N/A
						Home Theater
See above
						Accessories
APC surge protector APC H15 power conditioner
						Room Treatment
Bijou Equalizer Marchand Electronics crossover
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