Cincinnati, OH, any audiophiles?


Any Cincinnati, OH -based audiophiles on this forum? I have found only one truly high end dealer here, and they are leaning more and more towards high end home theater so they tend to be quite busye, and no longer set up truly "reference" systems one can listen to for calibration. Would love to get into touch with other fellow maniacs in the area Hard to know what else you "need" unless you can hear it and covet it in someone else's set up!
128x128alexc
Hey Tom,
Glad to see someone checking in. We have met several times at Hanson and Audible Elegance.

I will be attending the Theil get together this Thursday 11/8/2012. Maybe I will see you there. Have a beer and catch-up!

I will introduce myself.
Yes, I plan to be at Hanson. Actually, I was by there last week and heard some killer Dynaudios. They are remodeling again. Their events are 1st class and they are good guys.
Thanks to Troy, Andreas and the Theil and Plinnius reps for a terrific gathering last night. It is always a lot of fun to attend these events.
Hansen is ist class all the way.i live in cincinnati and the drive to dayton is worth it. i spend my money where it's appreciated. bought a pair of dynaudio's and just love them a perfect match for rogue M-150 amps.
New Lyra Delos on its way. For the few that still follow this thread and are familiar with my system... I recently sold my Wilson-Benesch Carbon and Lyra Argo i cartridges. I realized enough to consider several new or used cartridges. This time,I am going to try new with the Delos. It should arrive by this time next week. FYI, these are in short supply as my dealer has sold 3 in the last 2 weeks including this one. This one will rotate with my Zu Denon that I enjoy for a different flavor. CU.
thanks to hanson for another great music night. the systems sounded great, the food was excellent. my favorite room was the s1 room. great job guys.
I am new to area, is there any club? I use to be in NJ and belonged a club there and learned alot.
There's a few of us out there. Wish we could check out each others systems somehow.
Uncle Larry
For those who are interested, I have added the Aerial 7T speakers to our demonstrations. Michael Kelly is a very fine gentleman and a superb designer. Your visits are welcome. We do not have a turntable on this system at this time so please bring along your CDs. We can also stream nice material.
Audible Elegance in Cincinnati has now received Naim Audio S400 loudspeakers in Rosewood. We will be in the process of breaking in these speakers for your listening pleasure so give us a week or so to really get them going and broken in. As we all know, most speakers can be pretty rough fresh from the box.

Please feel free to email us with your questions.
Audible Elegance of Cincinnati is pleased to announce the addition of our first Magnepan Bass Panel. We have started to break in this unit and it should be ready for your listening pleasure shortly.

We have also added the Aerial Model 7T loudspeakers which are quickly reaching their completion of burn-in.

In addition, we have added the Naim S400 loudspeakers and they have proven to be quite stunning right from the box. They are burning in as well.

All are welcome to give them a listen.
Hi to all my Cincinnati audio buddies I have changed a few things in my system. I have a new to me lightly used Dynavector cartridge XX2 MK2 . I also sold my Audible Illusions pre amp and replaced it with a lightly used Aesthetix Rhea phono stage thanks Scott. I now have a passive pre amp the Warpspeed optocoupler this thing is beautiful and sounds great. The power amp was replaced a few months back with a NAT SE2SE a SET with 211 tubes and 70 watts a channel . I guess you can see a lot of changes in my system the last few months . I still have a few tubes i want to try in the Rhea but for now just enjoying the sound a lot. I am going to mount the new cartridge this weekend now using a dynavector 17D MK2 but that will be my backup along with my old Benz Ruby . The Ruby will be sent to soundsmith for a rebuild soon maybe a spare arm tube for my Graham so I can switch cartridges without much work. I guess about the only things I did not change is cables , speakers ,arm and turntable and no plans to change them now ! i just want to enjoy the music now the Warpspeed is awesome a passive just works in my system .The Audible Illusions served me well for 18 years but now i see it was holding me back and the power amp with 70 watts is letting my speakers sing like never before.The Lukachek T9 phono pre I had was and is a good phono pre but the Rhea is great brings me much closer to the music. The computer music is getting a lot less use now but fine for back round music when doing other things or for music i don't have on vinyl . Well thats all for now just need more time to play records. I wish to thank Scott , Ed and Tom for input on the changes and setup and letting me try some of there eq in my system.
Audible Elegance is now pleased to announce the addition of JL Audio to our offerings. The first unit to arrive will be the Model 110. It will be available for audtion in less than a week so stay tuned!
Audible Elegance of Cincinnati is pleased to announce the arrival of the Naim Audio ND-5XS. With an ND5 XS you can stream audio from a UPnP™ server, discover internet radio, connect your iPod, iPhone, iPad or USB storage, and even listen to conventional digital audio sources. Simply connect the ND5 XS to your home network, plug it in to a spare amplifier input, and the new world of streamed audio is yours. It is available for your listening pleasure.
Greetings Fellow Cincy area audiophiles,
Looking for other 'goners for a music listening session soon. I live in Northern part of Cincinnati (near Lebanon, Oh) and would like to host a small group people to listen to music, get feedback on my system, which comprises Eggleston Andras, Spectral amplification, high end MIT cables, a PS Audio Perfect Wave transport and matching DAC via HDMI, and Chang Lightspeed and Townshend audio seismic sinks, as well as Kimber Powerkords. A pair of Proac response 2.5 sit dormant until I decide to sell them. Room is the biggest issue. The Andras may be too much for them!
Let me know by responding to this post, I am available on weekdays during the day but could also arrange weekend evening get together as well. BTW, I make a mean cup of coffee or espresso based drinks. Cheers and happy listening, Tim
513.382.6393
Yes! Burlington, KY. For full details, go to http://www.morrowaudio.com/audiophileclub.htm
The Morrow Audio Club meets this weekend, Sat the 17th at 4:00. Please email us at morrowaudio@gmail.com for the address.
Tim,

I'm in the Morrow area. Would love to get together for listening. I've been basically inactive in the forum for a couple of years...been up to my eye balls in work (making money type) I'm a builder of valve amps. I'm aways looking for a good listen and enjoy getting feedback on my own gear.

Chris
Passing of Tim Acton.

Some of you may remember Tim. He attended a few get togethers and was over to my house a number of times. Tim died on July 4 of this year. Tim had been married almost two years and he and his wife were expecting a child.

I have been asked by his wife to sell his audio gear. Tim had quite a bit, much of it nice and he was careful about taking care of it. He did not have any analog. Before it goes on A-gon, I wanted to give local folks a chance. If you email me at collinslaw@fuse.net, I can provide a list.

Thanks for your consideration.

Tom Collins
Tom, I just caught you post on Tim Acton. We had been sending him emails as he wished. I'll have that address removed promptly.

If I can provide assistance, let me know. Lou
Tash, what CD player do you need repaired. I know of a few places but it depends upon the brand.
I have a large collection of classical vinyl records and CDs, as well as jazz 78's that I must dispose of. Does anyone have any advice for me? I live in the Cincinnati area.
Dave I live in Dayton I have been an audiophile most of my long life {66}. if you want to make a connection here's my email. Crystalsynergy@Ameritech.net
Is there anybody in the cinn/Dayton area have expertise with precision turntable setup? If so let me know .I would be of course willing to pay for that knowledge.Basis 2800 , vector 4 tone arm lyra Skala cart
Dave03hd, Nstigator
I'm new to the Dayton area, still getting my house unpacked and working to get my room set-up done. I would be willing to meet up with you guys once all is settled, maybe even before that. Let me know what you think.
Let the fun begin!

We will be hosting an audiophile get together at my private home on
Sunday, November 16th from 2:00 to 7:00. Bring your favorite music!
This is ment as a time to get together and enjoy each other and the music.

Drinks and finger foods will be provided.

Experience the Avantgard G2 horn speakers in my main listening room.
I will also try to have my smaller listening room ready.

See the rooms here: http://www.morrowaudio.com/showroom.htm

Mark Beach will be presenting “The Foundation of a Loudspeaker:
An Interactive Tutorial on Motor Design and Magnetics” upstairs at 4:00
for those who are interested.

Please RSVP to morrowaudio@gmail.com. Let us know how many you will be bringing.
We also need to know how many will be attending the presentation by Mark Beach.

Looking forward to the gathering!

Mike Morrow
4687 Catalpa Ct
Burlington, KY 41005
W: 859-356-6994
H: 859-918-1748
Nstigator,
Andre Jennings who writes for Absolute Sound and set's up Valin's turntables is in the area and may be the best in the world. Warning, he is a Basis freak and owns two of their tables and also is a Lyra fan.
Dave03hd, Nstigator, lg316b,
A group of us having been doing a small club in Dayton, but its more like fight club and I'm not the head organizer. I'm interested, but don't like hosting large gatherings (>5). meleswright@gmail.com
We now have the Aerial Acoustics 6T and Magnepan .7s on display. Both are very impressive if you would like to give them a listen.
There was a club over there some years ago and some of us went over from Lousville. I was the high end dealer out of my house when I was In Louisville , we tried to start one but nobody showed up. I have lost the connection with the guy for the club there. some one else will see this or should.

Alex,

Am based here in Columbus, Ohio after living in New York City and London, England. I must say it was/is a a big change and the lack of an audiophile community here in Central Ohio is really disheartening.

There are almost no real 2 channel audio/hi-fi shops for miles around. I reckon the closest would be Audio Etc in Dayton. It is really sad that a town with such a huge university and numerous corporate headquarters, could not support an audiophile market and community.


There was a shop in Columbus right on High Street near OSU. It's been since 2011 when I was there.

After having my system in hibernation, I pulled it out earlier this year and have completely turned it over. Using a vintage McIntosh C28 and 2100 as the base. Since I don't use it for home theatre, the vintage gear works great for me.

jk31,

Unfortunately Progressive Audio on High Street is just a memory. Gone since 2012.

Hanson Audio in Dayton is a very nice shop.
reubent,
As stated at the onset of this thread many years ago, Audible Elegance in Cincinnati is the only one near me and still have a few Reference Systems set up. They are hanging in there but recently sold half of their shop/building. They split it down the middle. 

Recently I listened to a BAT system. Also a Ayre Integrated/Ayre Codex/Ariel 5t setup. A Mac and Maggie system and a BAT and Aerial 7t speakers. We also enjoyed A Rega Apollo R/PrimaLuna integrated/Totem Hawk setup. 

They do have one home theater room with Goldenear/Arcam/Cambridge. 

N
Reubent....didn't know Progressive closed. Was just up there two weekends ago and was thinking about it but didn't pay much attention as I drove by.  My wife was working for JP Morgan Chase and we rented a townhouse up there back in 2011. It sucked to find parking there being that close to OSU.

Nutty....when did AE downsize? I was there back in May?

Also Alamo Electronics carrys decent gear. Not the super high end but they have Paradigm, Cambridge Audio, KEF, Project etc.  
johnkidd31,

Very recently. I was there 3 weeks ago and their contractor came in and asked them to remove all the artwork from one wall so they could paint the next day. They have been there a long time. I've been going there for 20 years. They appear to be very busy on the weekends and operate and very expedited consignment business. I believe it was purely a strategic move, I am not privy to any financial info.

I have purchased a lot of gear from them over the years. And I will continue to shop there when they are competitive. I bought my Mark Levinson no.334 back in the days when they were a Premier Mark Levinson Dealer! Lou Hamilton, the owner, and his staff have always given me good guidance on system matching and continue to allowed me to demo components and cables at home. Mr. Hamilton now operates AE West in Utah.

N




Nutty,

I was at AE a few months ago and it looked bad. Half full, rooms nearly empty, etc. That now makes sense as they were obviously paring down their lineup due to the reduction of sq. footage.

I've bought several items from AE in the past, from Linn, CAL, Vandersteen, etc. Last time I was there I did not see a single item that interested me. Hopefully they will consolidate on a few quality brands that offer good value and will have enough sales volume to keep them going.

Have you been to Hanson Audio up in Dayton? It's a seriously nice place. Great facility. Pretty good selection too. Worth a trip if you are in the market for new/retail high end. I've even bought some used stuff from them.
reubent,
I believe it was a strategic move. Seems everyone shops online these days. In fact, I have purchased two pieces in three months over the net. So space is at a premium. 
Take a look at the website. They carry a wide variety of quality equipment at many price points.
www.audibleelegance.com
As for Hanson, I have not had the pleasure of visiting their store. I have viewed their website. Looks like a top notch outfit. Enjoy the music!!!

N


First time posting to this thread.  I've been here in Cincy for over 12 years and have met a few other audio folks in the area as well as attended a couple of annual events at Mike Morrow's place across the river in Kentucky.

Happy to meet other people in the area to share systems and fine music.

Audible Elegance has indeed shrunk from a once pretty busy place.  I've bought a number of things from them and they helped me set up my first installed home theater.  It's sad to see them shrink.

Hanson Audio in Dayton is in another league and worth the trip to see their place.  This is high end.

Cincinnati Guys,

I was in Audible Elegance again today. As Nutty said, they have downsized into about half of their old area. Things have been put back in order and they have some good systems set up in the 4 remaining rooms. The good news is that they have a nice core selection of 2-channel audio gear. I was really excited to see that they have multiple music server/streamers to audition. They have the Bluesound Vault 2 and Node 2. They also have Tidal streaming from Roon which is excellent. They have considerable experience with music streaming. If you have any interest in ripping your CD collection and streaming it, or streaming a music service like Tidal, go out to Audible Elegance for an audition to see what it's all about.
reubent,
I agree with your assessment. Was there a couple months ago. We listened to a Rega Apollo-R, Primaluna Integrated Amp and Totem Acoustic Hawk speakers. Wired with Cardas Parsec interconnects and Straightwire Encore Speaker cable. Pretty smooth, reasonbly priced system.

Did they have the BAT/Maggie set up when you were there?

N
Nutty,

They did have the BAT-Maggie setup in the big room, but I didn't listen to it. Really, just spent about an hour talking with Mark and Brian about streaming audio. Got a demonstration of Roon and Tidal. This is my next area of focus, so it was a very timely visit. I enjoyed it immensely. And the good news is that AE is a dealer for both Roon and Bluesound, both products that interest me. If I go that route, will definitely buy from Audible Elegance.
reubent, 
I like your decision to go with A/E on your purchase. I try to buy from them when possible. I purchased my Levinson amp, Classe' preamp, a few CD players, my studiotech stand and miles of cables through them. I was there Wednesday considering new interconnects for my Ayre cx-7emp. I was thinking Wireworld Eclipse 7, Mark suggested Audioquest or maybe (Cardas)- but really liked AQ best. 
Im gonna sleep on it. But cheers! to supporting your local Hi-FI guy!

N
Hello everyone,

Pardon my absence from here but, I have very preoccupied with my wife's heart condition which ultimately, 2 months ago, resulted in successful open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic followed by many weeks of a rough recovery.  I have been very busy writing in news groups for ICDs (pacemakers with a built in defibrillator) and HCM (a genetic heart condition disease).  She was hammered by the defibrillator 26 times and I shared 6 of those hits while holding her and calling 911.  Rather like holding onto an electric horse fence.

I'd like to address the downsizing of my store, Audible Elegance, in Cincinnati while I ran an operation here in Salt Lake City as well as a horse farm.  The actual demonstration area was reduced by no more than 20%. The truth of the matter is that so many customers have been buying on line, Amazon and such, that continuing to use that much space really did not make good business sense.  Combine that with an offer to buy me out of that space so another tenant could rent that whole old building simply made it an obvious choice.

I will be returning permanently to the east, in the near future, and I am sure everyone will enjoy the continuing changes that are now underway, particularly for the audio enthusiast. 

Happy Listening to all.   Thank you,

Lou
Hey reubent!

Still here in Cin-city. Havn’t been to Audible Elegance in quite some time. Made a few calls and asked a few questions. Mark, as usual offered sage and honest advice.

I hear they may have some competition locally. Have you visited Hansen Audio?

PS sorry I missed your pm earlier last month.

N
Hey @nutty 

I know you're still here! I see you on the music threads all the time ;~)

I was in Audible Elegance a couple of weeks ago. Talked with Mark and Brian about Bluesound Node 2i and Roon. One of these days I'm actually going to get a music server, rip all of my CDs and get Tidal. One of these days.........

I have not been to the Hanson Audio Store in Cincinnati, but I have been to their store up in Dayton. One of these days I'll check out the local store.  But I'm not much of an equipment consumer anymore. I just happily listen to music on the modest system I have now, which hasn't changed in a couple of years.

I do frequent Plaid Room Records on a regular basis. Great guys who have built a really nice business in a short amount of time.