I had the great privilege of meeting
mwc this last Tuesday while I was in Dallas on business. He invited me to his home for an evening of music.
Upon my arrival -- and immediately after making a "You're taller than I expected" comment -- he showed me into the kitchen (where his younger son was diligently doing homework) and offered me a beer. From there, we hit the HT room.
He has a pair of Magnepan MG12s connected to an Odyssey Stratos amp (the same kind pictured
here), which is fed by his new Denon 3805. Sources were a CD megachanger (I forget the brand), and a Sony SACD/DVD changer. A Hsu VTF-3 covers the bottom end of things.
He invited me to take the helm -- a very comfortable La-Z-Boy. Then I proceeded to enter audio heaven. Make no mistake -- Magnepans are amazing speakers and you are really shooting yourself in the foot by not giving them a listen. They may not be much to look at, but boy do they put you IN the music. We listened to Instrumental Jazz (Wynton Marsalis), Vocal Jazz (Joni Mitchell singing Gershwin arr. by Herbie Hancock), Blues (Robert Cray), Bluegrass (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Rock (Pink Floyd), more Rock (Dire Straits), and more more more. We had plenty of opportunity to discuss highly important issues between tracks, as well.
About 2 hours in, his wife came home. Now, my immediate instinct when a woman comes home is to reach for the remote and turn down the volume. After he introduced me, he assured me the volume was not a problem and we resumed. You are a very lucky man, Mike, but I think you know this.
Anywho, After the 3rd hour my ears were crying with joy but it was time to wrap things up. Before I could leave, though, Mike insisted I take a bottle -- better make that three bottles -- of wine home with me. And (why the hell not?) a 2-CD Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album as well.
Mike, your hosting was the definition of gracious. I was a pleasure meeting you and your family. I had a blast and I owe you one.
