On Saturday, January 17, a lively group of seventy three SFAS members met at San Rafael’s newest store, Audio Video Integration (AVI), for what felt like our own private mini-CES. Everyone we’ve spoken with since, attendees, AVI staff, as well as industry reps and manufacturers all said they had a really great time at this event.
AVI hasn’t had their official grand opening yet, but they pulled out all the stops for us. The pre-event planning meetings with SFAS staff for this gathering paid off, as this was a notably well thought-out and well-managed three-hour event, which included good food and a fun raffle!
AVI’s Backstage Room housed two showcase demos. Listeners were first treated to a demo of the VTL and Magico two-channel system, consisting of VTL 7.5 Series III Reference Preamp, VTL Siegfried Reference Monoblocks Series II and Magico Q3 speakers, along with a Meridian 808 V5 CD player and Nordost Valhalla 2 cabling.
Then the demo shifted to the Cinema One system, first in two-channel audio only, then multichannel audio, then audio and video, culminating with the Earth re-entry sequence from the movie Gravity. I won’t try to describe the Cinema One System except to say that it was almost entirely hidden in the room and features 4 subwoofers. The sound was phenomenal, I thought.
Clearly a contender for state-of-the-art in-home theater, the Cinema One system was designed by SFAS member Manny La Carrubba and Tony Grimani, of Grimani Home Cinema.
Before each group entered the Backstage room, Manny met us in the anteroom and gave a 10-minute description of the system, passing around samples of his 180-degree tweeter waveguide. This was a great way to get everyone informed without cutting into demo time, and an indication of how well everyone had their acts together for this event.
The other formal demo we heard also included two systems. The first was VTL and Magico again, featuring VTL TL 5.5 series II Preamp, VTL S-200 Signature Stereo Amplifier, and Magico S3 speakers, tied together with Nordost Tyr cabling and fronted by an Arcam UDP411 Disc Player. Then we turned our chairs around and were treated to a Meridian multichannel system with video and some music and movie clips.
To round off the experience, we also saw and heard several other excellent systems and products at various price points.
I doubt anyone was bored during the time between the two scheduled demos. In another room, listeners were able to hear Paradigm’s new Prestige 85F speakers and Golden Ear’s flagship Triton One. With Arcam electronics. And there was the Pono/Chord room, with several Pono players and high-end headphones from Audeze and others. And there were two areas in the center, open space of the store featuring Tannoy Revolution speakers. Oh, and a stunning 65” Sony 4K display. Something for everyone!
AVI is a family-run business headed by industry veteran Tony Probst, who was joined by other members of the Probst clan: Chris, Michael and Stephen. (Any relation to Jeff Probst of Survivor fame?) While this store is new, Tony has been doing AV in the North Bay for a long while (AVI was formerly Home Theater Solutions). He’s a big, friendly, enthusiastic, and generous personality, and it’s reflected in in every aspect of the store and its staff. In addition to the family members, others on hand from AVI were John Weischendorff, Seth Maybee and Julian Jory. Julian checked us all in the on the iPad and handled the raffle duties. (Yes, there was a raffle, with three lucky members snaring excellent gifts provided by AVI and its vendors.)
Tony arranged to have manufacturers or their reps on hand from most of the products represented: Luke Manley (VTL amps), Steven Lester (Linn/Chord/Tannoy), Dave Shackelton (Magico), Sami Kamangar (Pono), Mark Bassett (Paradigm), and Brad O’Toole (Meridian).
The infrastructure at this store is the stuff of audiophile dreams, including a wall-mounted toroidal transformer the size of a Mack truck hubcap feeding power to in-wall racks stacked with the coolest looking electronics. And besides all the audio, Tony Probst is also a veteran diver and shipwreck enthusiast. The store features several display cases of his collection of found objects from sunken treasures around the world.
SFAS/BAAS have had many events at dealerships over the years. I think the past two (this one and November’s at Lavish HiFi in Healdsburg) really stand out as home runs.
What do you think?