Above: From DOWNBEAT magazine 1966: Bassist Ben Tucker discusses his home hi-fi system. Tucker played with a real who’s-who of the mid 20th century jazz world. I really like this idea of profiling the hi-fi systems of studio-savvy musicians; seems like a potentially good way of cutting through the audiophile obsessiveness, the marketing hype, and the bargain-hunting mentality that seems to inform a lot of sound-system purchases. Musicians tend to know what things are supposed to sound like and tend to respond intuitively to the emotional aspects of music reproduction, and they also tend to be on real-world budgets. Seems like a good sort of individual to take home audio advice from. Tucker used an Electrovoice 1177 receiver, AR3 speakers, Koss Pr-4 headphones, a Stanton Longhair cartridge, and a SONY 500 tape recorder.
Are any current publications/sites running similar features today on contemporary musicians?
One reply on “Systems of the Stars”
Yeah, but the successful musicians today are in the 1% class, and systems with Mark Levinson, Krell, Linn Sondek tables, etc. overwhelmingly predominate.
McIntosh had an interview with Les Paul on their website, which was made a very short time before his passing. He talked about McIntosh amps, of course, and Altec 604 speakers.
Most musicians I know have regular old receivers, inexpensive two way speakers, and few are playing vinyl. If they are they probably have a Japanese direct drive table. Musicians don’t care about the “nuances” of the reproduction chain, but rather of the playing. The “really serious music lovers” are the same way.
Every ten or fifteen years the high end audio saloons get the idea to sponsor in-store concerts by singer songwriters, classical guitarists, string quartets, etc. They quit when they find out that the people who come in have, and are satisfied with, modest systems and if they buy anything it’s a small two way acoustic suspension speaker or a receiver.