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| Letters -- February 2004 "A breath of fresh air" February 23, 2004 Editor, I stumbled on your website Ultra Audio quite by accident and what a pleasant surprise -- a breath of fresh air where equipment is tested with classical- as well as pop-music sources. Honesty, literacy, integrity, common-sense reasoning with text worth reading and remembering. I like your up-front style and have this strange feeling Ultra Audio will become addictive -- a nice feeling when entertaining equipment is priced in the stellar regions of the universe. I've made too many expensive mistakes based on less-than-objective reviewing. Here's hoping that Ultra Audio will prevent any future blunders. You are a godsend to the high-end junkie. Paul R Ouzts Loves it! February 16, 2004 To Jeff Fritz You have some real balls to write "The World's Best Audio System," and I love it! One problem I have with reading audio reviews these days is that they can be real sleepers. Articles like the one you wrote can be entertaining and provide some insight into the components. I'd like to see you review some high-end DACs, like the Dodson, because that's what I'm shopping for. I'm sure you could hear the smallest differences with those Wilson X-2s. Keep it coming. Elliot Bouton Comparisons for "The World's Best Audio System" February 11, 2004 To Jeff Fritz, That was a nice and entertaining report on the installation of "The World’s Best Audio System" (the pictures were great, too). My only comment is that room treatment and equipment stands seemed to be neglected. If you happened to do any in-room measurements of the frequency response, that information would be great to share, too. I would think the expertise of the installers should prove the in-room measurements to be quite flat. Personally, I’m looking at getting a Rix Rax stand (Hoodoo model if I can ever find a dealer), and I think that it would look exceptional with your equipment. Of course, the Grand Prix Audio stands are much acclaimed and would probably work, too. In my opinion, a comparison of both would be worthy review material. Your premise of setting up "The World’s Best" and then bringing on worthy competitors is a great idea. I would love to see Halcro amps compared to Edge, Boulder, and Burmester offerings. Also, it’s about time someone put worthy DACs up against the EMMLabs stuff. As for speakers, Wisdom versus Wilson would be an entertaining read. Anyway, enough of my two cents. Keep up the good work. Jason C. Messina Thanks for the ideas. Room layout, in-room measurements, and how the equipment is housed are all worthwhile topics I'd like to cover in future installments. Your comments about the premise of the column are well taken also. There is no shortage of reviews out there, but the idea behind this column was to give a proper context for the audition of state-of-the-art components. Many times I see that ultra-performing products are placed within mediocre systems, and oftentimes the reviewer has little or no experience with components of the caliber he's auditioning. It's very difficult even in the context of an exceptional system to sort out the differences in the very best products available. But I plan to do just that....Jeff Fritz "The World's Best Audio System" February 2, 2004 To Jeff Fritz, Congratulations, this article is awesome! Sharing the same passion -- no, addiction -- I think this must be a dream come true. I have the opinion that a great stereo gives more back to you than money can buy. It's just my wife who doesn't believe this -- especially seeing my face when she disturbs me. For one of the next columns I would wish for subjects like, "How to get in a position to afford such a system" or more importantly, "How to sell such costs in money and time to your better half and not get divorced." As far as my budget allows I consider myself very ambitious in this field, too (having Wilson WATT/Puppy 6 speakers and Mark Levinson electronics), but seriously, it was already hard to sell this to my wife. So how did you do it? Would you mind taking some more and higher-resolution images, as there are not too many of the X-2 anywhere yet? In general, I would wish for more and higher-resolution images on the SoundStage! Network. Cheers, and give us more, please. Matthias Menz I'm glad you liked the article. It was great fun to write, not to mention the experience of having some talented industry professionals help with assembly. And you're right in reading between the lines -- my wife is wonderful and supports my hobby wholeheartedly, except for the day I brought home a Wilson XS subwoofer! But after that, everything else is minor, right? You'll see future installments of "The World's Best Audio System" on Ultra Audio, and lots more pictures too....Jeff Fritz
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