bstaneland
New member
Sometime around 1999, in my early 20s, I was beginning to learn about the world of Hi-Fi and was on a trip to Houston with a few friends.
The gear that I remember a couple of these friends owning at the time comprised of a pair of Klipsch speakers, another had a Pioneer Premier integrated receiver and surely other nice gear I’m not able to recall.
What I do remember about their gear is it all looked good, cost more than I was able to afford and sounded much better than whatever I had.
Anyway, on this trip we visited Home Theater Houston. What a place! So many top-shelf brands, some we’d never heard of, all setup as individual rooms of sonic excellence. The high-end customer cars parked out front matched the ambiance inside the store - you just knew everything on offer inside was special.
I remember being drawn to the unfamiliar shapes that were the MartinLogan elecrostats. I don’t remember what model were on display, but I remember these “sheets of clear film” delivering a perfect reproduction of the music as if the roadies were backstage.
I knew then that one day I would have a pair of my own.
Throughout the years following that trip to Houston, at various times I’ve had the money to splurge on a pair for myself, but each time was able to justify a better use of those funds, whether it be a new big screen TV or a jewelry present for my wife or a part for one of my cars.
Ever since that Houston trip, I’ve managed to keep myself with staged improvements of audio gear, exploring the realms of audible possibility determined almost solely by my budget and often injected with moments of luck perusing craigslist and early morning Saturday yard sales.
I’ve owned and currently own various models of speakers offered by Polk, Harman-Kardon, JBL, Bowers & Wilkins, Definitive Technology, Yamaha and maybe a couple others that have come and gone. But never achieved my goal of MLs until now.
One thing that is key to all this, is an understanding and supportive wife. She knows how hard I work and how little I spend on myself. She also knew that I’ve always talked about one day acquiring a pair of these fantastical speakers. For the past few months I’ve been circling the facebook marketplace posts for the right pair of MLs based on model, condition and price. My desired listening environment is music, so decided that the best model for me was Aerius and have seen a few pairs. Along the way I also learned about Odyssey, so I set my sights on finding those. A few weeks ago I found my first local pair of Odysseys and jumped to go see them - unfortunately I was second in line to whomever was ahead of me and they were evidently not supposed to be mine.
Not having seen many Odysseys come up for sale (I know there is almost always a pair on ebay but I wanted to audition them) within a 100 mile radius of my home, I figured it would be another few years before the planets aligned for me again. So imagine my excitement this past Saturday morning, coffee in one hand, scrolling through marketplace with my other, I come across a pair of Odysseys that are advertised as great operating condition but missing the rear grills and missing the floor spikes - which the seller believed were justification for the relatively low asking price. And only 25 minutes drive from me!
“Guess what I just found?” I proudly exclaimed to my wonderful wife sitting across the table from me. “Another car you want to buy?” Nope. “Some land?” Nope. “A boat?” Nope. “Speakers?” YES!!! I just found another pair of Odysseys and they’re only $XXXX.
“Go buy them!”
It’s debatable if there is a better series of words that a husband can hear from his wife than those words in that order. It doesn’t matter what it is or how much, but when you get the approval of the ‘ol ball and chain to go buy it, that moment of heavenly songbird is almost unmatched.
And here they sit, in my listening room, as they are after we first carried them in. Nowhere near being setup, just standing proud. Right now I’m just enjoying looking at them. A 25 year goal has been met. I’m in no rush to set them up. Another few days or even a few weeks as I await a set of spikes is nothing at this point. Seeing them standing there, all 210 lbs of them, makes me happy.
They’re mine and right now that’s all that matters.
The gear that I remember a couple of these friends owning at the time comprised of a pair of Klipsch speakers, another had a Pioneer Premier integrated receiver and surely other nice gear I’m not able to recall.
What I do remember about their gear is it all looked good, cost more than I was able to afford and sounded much better than whatever I had.
Anyway, on this trip we visited Home Theater Houston. What a place! So many top-shelf brands, some we’d never heard of, all setup as individual rooms of sonic excellence. The high-end customer cars parked out front matched the ambiance inside the store - you just knew everything on offer inside was special.
I remember being drawn to the unfamiliar shapes that were the MartinLogan elecrostats. I don’t remember what model were on display, but I remember these “sheets of clear film” delivering a perfect reproduction of the music as if the roadies were backstage.
I knew then that one day I would have a pair of my own.
Throughout the years following that trip to Houston, at various times I’ve had the money to splurge on a pair for myself, but each time was able to justify a better use of those funds, whether it be a new big screen TV or a jewelry present for my wife or a part for one of my cars.
Ever since that Houston trip, I’ve managed to keep myself with staged improvements of audio gear, exploring the realms of audible possibility determined almost solely by my budget and often injected with moments of luck perusing craigslist and early morning Saturday yard sales.
I’ve owned and currently own various models of speakers offered by Polk, Harman-Kardon, JBL, Bowers & Wilkins, Definitive Technology, Yamaha and maybe a couple others that have come and gone. But never achieved my goal of MLs until now.
One thing that is key to all this, is an understanding and supportive wife. She knows how hard I work and how little I spend on myself. She also knew that I’ve always talked about one day acquiring a pair of these fantastical speakers. For the past few months I’ve been circling the facebook marketplace posts for the right pair of MLs based on model, condition and price. My desired listening environment is music, so decided that the best model for me was Aerius and have seen a few pairs. Along the way I also learned about Odyssey, so I set my sights on finding those. A few weeks ago I found my first local pair of Odysseys and jumped to go see them - unfortunately I was second in line to whomever was ahead of me and they were evidently not supposed to be mine.
Not having seen many Odysseys come up for sale (I know there is almost always a pair on ebay but I wanted to audition them) within a 100 mile radius of my home, I figured it would be another few years before the planets aligned for me again. So imagine my excitement this past Saturday morning, coffee in one hand, scrolling through marketplace with my other, I come across a pair of Odysseys that are advertised as great operating condition but missing the rear grills and missing the floor spikes - which the seller believed were justification for the relatively low asking price. And only 25 minutes drive from me!
“Guess what I just found?” I proudly exclaimed to my wonderful wife sitting across the table from me. “Another car you want to buy?” Nope. “Some land?” Nope. “A boat?” Nope. “Speakers?” YES!!! I just found another pair of Odysseys and they’re only $XXXX.
“Go buy them!”
It’s debatable if there is a better series of words that a husband can hear from his wife than those words in that order. It doesn’t matter what it is or how much, but when you get the approval of the ‘ol ball and chain to go buy it, that moment of heavenly songbird is almost unmatched.
And here they sit, in my listening room, as they are after we first carried them in. Nowhere near being setup, just standing proud. Right now I’m just enjoying looking at them. A 25 year goal has been met. I’m in no rush to set them up. Another few days or even a few weeks as I await a set of spikes is nothing at this point. Seeing them standing there, all 210 lbs of them, makes me happy.
They’re mine and right now that’s all that matters.
