13 Jun 2004: Christos Kantarelis

By Tasos Syrigos

Chris Kantarelis is a very dear friend & an excellent fellow; so I'll not pet him. First of all, I'd like to begin with the things I like in his system: He has a fine pair of speakers, which I've always admired. The Tannoy is GRF Memory & a very nice turntable-cartridge combo the Avid 'Volvere' t/t and the Ortofon MC25 cartridge. So far so good...

The rest of the system...

The rest of the system (preamp-cables) is either a mismatch or of a lesser quality, compared with the source & loudspeakers. Now, why am i saying all these rather nasty things?
The easiest thing for me was to say that we've had a very pleasant evening, which is true, that we've heard very nice music, which is relevant, & finally that I've heard a very good sound from a very well set-up system, which is not true.

What I've heard that night was far from my 'Tannoyish' expectations. There was no big GRF sound, no warmth, no music flow, no involvement, no ease of drive, not that, not this, mixed up with a few good things such as: fine detail, good imaging, etc.

The main thing was that the system was far from evolving. The oddest of all was, that weather we were turning to tubes & analogue source, or to solid state & CD, the differences were small, to non-existent.

System Description

• Tannoy 'GRF' (w/ST200 super-tweeter) speakers, driven by Audion 'Golden Night' (mid/highs) and Crimson 640D (lows) amps and Creek passive pot
• Analogue source: Avid 'Volvere' t/t and a Ortofon mc25 cartridge (amplified by Tom Evans Microgroove plus phono) on a SME 309 arm.
• Digital source: Teac VRDS9/GrassValley tr/DAC combo.
• Wiring: VdH for interconnects and speaker cables.
• Power cables/Electr. install.: Not special.

Summing up...

Chris, i don't know what you've done, but that's quite an achievement!!!

What's comforting is that there were a few moments that you could clearly see that you had a sleeping giant in front of you & some great potential were sleeping along with him.

But, my friends... that's the beauty of our hobby; the challenges we meet: the challenge to wake up a giant, the challenge to fit some fine things together, the challenge to achieve a balance, the challenge to transform some rather ugly & lifeless boxes into a living and acting music servant...

Christos Kantarelis' Member Page