26 Jun 2011: Andreas Pollakis

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It was Sunday, June 26th 2011, at Andreas and Valia”s house. The drive towards Plaka Avenue was most enjoyable. Chris knew well his whereabouts, driving us along the country road overlooking the islands of Tzia and Makronisos ( Long island Ha Ha !! ) ,whilst George Heropoulos was telling us in detail all about his new hobby that is: espresso coffee hardware and software.

The arrival...

Both hosts, Andreas and his wife Valia, received us really well and made us feel at home at once. I felt very comfortable in their place, even more than I had been a guest of myself. As a genuine housewife, Valia introduced us to the family structure, and then she let Andreas take over. His shelves did not bear a Varaggis signature, but they were sizeable and laden with vinyl LPs and audio CDs.

The audition...

We listened to loads of good music, mainly from vinyl records, played on a very good turntable and through a single loudspeaker, which Yiannis Vlachos had just assembled for the needs of the occasion. (it must have been a Lowther loudspeaker for such a Papadiamantis figure to tackle)

Being a lithographer in profession, his manual dexterity is a fact, Andreas is an avid Diyier and has build most of his equipment ie phono stage , power amplifier and speaker cabinet . I also remember that the cables are his and that the transformer in the power amplifier was designed by the good and competent friend and ACA member Peter Avgeris.

The conclusion...

I have the feeling that the Club has matured . Its members are cultured people and through the Hi Fi they probably approach the main aim which is the good music. So at the end they did not went in to equipment rating which would have put me off , instead we went to an amazing buffet with mouthwatering staffed grape leaves and very good food and wine