12 Dec 2010: Apostolos Konstantinidis

By Nikos Protonotarios

One could say that we audiophiles are unlucky in choosing our hobby.

We are doomed to seek for the perfect fidelity of the reproduction of a musical event in spite of the fact that the recording process itself is far from perfect.

Everyone understands that a sound emitted by one or more musical instruments accompanied by a human voice and that passes through a microphone, is converted into an electronic signal that is then stored on a magnetic, physical or digital medium, then transformed back into an electronic signal which is then amplified by various circuits and finally transformed back into sound waves by vibrating electromagnets has no chance of sounding exactly the same as the original.

So someone may say that our goal to simulate the live experience has very little chance of success.

However, if that someone visits Apostolos’ house and listens to a couple of vinyls playing in his amazing system, he could very easily get fooled into believing that the orchestras and performers are playing live in front of him, despite the fact that many of them, playing with such vitality and passion, have been received in Heaven many decades ago!

We usually talk about "high fidelity" but actually , what we demand from the system is to disappear from the reproduction process and to “reenact” the musical event, like it was alive in our living room, in front of our ears and our eyes....

In this case the system is called upon to perform like a good actor. The performance must be so credible that, with the collaboration of the listener, the event is “relived” to all intents. The situation is similar to participating in a show in the theater or in the cinema. We know in advance that what we see and hear is not “reality” but nevertheless we agree unconsciously that this will not affect our enjoyment.

Therefore, the pleasure we get mainly depends on the quality of interpretations of the actors with the quality of the scenery or lighting having a less important role.

The performance...

So… the sound system is a performer and the Apostolos system gave one of the best performances I've experienced in ACA. Of course, there will be some people who will say that the asymmetric ceiling and living room and the lack of proper room audio mods did not help in attaining a completely neutral reproduction of the mid-lows or a very focused soundstage.

Certainly, some of these points are valid, ( if someone cared to make them), but I don’t think they are worth mentioning, because they are not annoying and at the end of it all, do not affect the overall enjoyment of the musical event. It's a bit like someone who has gone to watch a great theatrical performance with e.g. Anthony Hopkins and then complains that the scenery was not the best.

Conclusion...

Apostolos has squeezed the maximum performance from his system in that particular room with the choices that he has made and has brought substantial improvements, compared with the system I had heard about two years ago. These fine results are mainly due to the new speakers and the excellent analog rig in which Apostolos has invested recently.

Last but not least, I must congratulate the Apostolos’ dear wife, Antonia, for her support of our hobby and her amazing hospitality… (Oh yes, and also her skill in manning the light switches during the event )...

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