Simco Audio. Interview with Stefan Simchowitz

VernissageTV

At first glance this video seems to a bit off topic, but in fact it focuses on a major element that makes the Simchowitz Hill House so special: Stefan Simchowitz' passion for High End audio equipment that goes hand in hand with his love for contemporary art. In this interview, Stefan Simchowitz talks about how Simco Audio came about, the interplay of visual art and music, turntables, aesthetics, acoustics, the Simco One Speakers, vintage vinyl, and some recommendations. As for the visual arts: There are currently three exhibitions on display at Simchowitz Hill House: Lily Ramirez: So Far Out of Sight; Andrey Samarin and Lera Derkach: Two of Us; and Ken Taylor Reynaga: Selected Works. The first two exhibitions mentioned run until April 11, 2026, the Ken Taylor Reynaga show is ongoing. VernissageTV has reported on these exhibitions in previous films. For these and more Simchowitz related films, including an interview with Stefan Simchowitz about Hill House, visit: https://vernissage.tv/?s=Simchowitz  Simco Audio is a high-end audio company specializing in premium, audiophile-grade equipment and curated sound systems. It operates as the audio-focused arm tied to the broader Simchowitz ecosystem. Simco Audio integrates high-end audio into art spaces, residencies, and experiences—such as at Hill House in Pasadena, which serves as Simco Audio's HQ. There, audio setups enhance art viewing by encouraging longer, more immersive engagement through music and sound.  Simchowitz Hill House is a multifaceted art and cultural venue in Pasadena, California, founded and operated by Stefan Simchowitz as part of his broader Simchowitz Gallery ecosystem. Launched in September 2024, it serves as an innovative, non-traditional space that blends contemporary art exhibitions, high-end audio experiences (via Simco Audio), artist residencies, and alternative programming.   Simco Audio. Interview with Stefan Simchowitz. Simchowitz Hill House, Pasadena (USA), March 3, 2026.

Transcript

00:08welcome to simcoe audio heinrich and this is the main listening room where the simcoe one

00:17speakers are we'll just start off by playing you a little bit of a little bit of mono

00:30so what we're doing is we're listening to a mono record with a mono cartridge from a company called

00:36miyajima on a table turntable which has been redesigned by jean nante in canada which is a

00:44very famous turntable called the lenco that's been fully refurbished in a hundred pound plinth

00:49sonically really beautiful everything in here is made in a sense by artists who reynard thoris made

00:58this preamp point to point wired handmade so it's really a a journey of kind of artisan ship and

01:07and artistry we're listening to a first watt j2 made by the great american designer nelson pass

01:15and these first watt amps are basically they're like things he practices on they're small sort

01:22of discrete amplifiers with very unique characteristics made with sort of esoteric

01:27esoteric electronics and listen to how beautiful this is

01:35real mono and of course we're listening to the simcoe one speakers which are made the key feature

01:41of these is the fiberglass resin transfer molded horn and they're just beautiful and musical

01:49and we do this so when people come over to look at the art they sit in the chair in

01:53which you're

01:54filming and they start to stare at this amazing wall of works on paper by ken taylor and getting

02:02people to look is really difficult because usually what happens in an art gallery you're like this you

02:07look for two seconds three seconds five seconds if you're lucky people sit in the chair for 20 minutes

02:14listening to this beautiful music what happens they start to look at the drawings they start to pay

02:20attention they start to look at the flowers the tiger and after about 10 15 minutes they ask a question

02:27who's the artist they start to look getting people to slow down giving them an experience it's really

02:36difficult i could do this for hours let's give you guys a little music on vernisage tv for a change

02:58and when people come here we have openings this room is packed for hours sometimes two or three people

03:04stay four hours straight just listening to music you'll notice we've got a lot of turntables here

03:09multiple tables different tone arms different cartridges it's really heaven if you listen to vinyl records

03:16we put together systems and sort of design systems that suit your needs and your your budget

03:23and it's been great and yeah we'll turn the music off so we don't have it

03:29but how did you come to this idea you know to combine uh visual arts and audio this is a

03:37true

03:37story one of the artists we work with found a cat in the alleyway near our offices in town

03:44we took the cat in cat's name was smoky real street cat serial killer you know bringing a rat or

03:50a mouse

03:50every day i always had a stereo system my whole life ever since i was as i can remember even

03:57freshman year stanford i had uh

03:59i had some speakers totem speakers and and uh a bryston amp i always had like a good system a

04:06nice system

04:09and i bought these sort of where a lot of people begin and end as macintosh and bows and wilkins

04:15which are two famous brands

04:17neither of which once you become an audiophile you ever want to look at again but that's a whole other

04:22story

04:25and i bought a very expensive pair not very expensive you know eight nine thousand dollar

04:29pair of bookshelf speakers by bowers with these diamond tweeters and every time i'd come home

04:34the tweeters were broken i went to the store i'd have to replace the diamond tweeters with two thousand each

04:39and i caught the cat basically hunting flies on the grill and falling on the tweeters and this began my

04:46journey

04:46because most people like will will sort of find speakers and we'll find the kind of the mainline

04:52brands and they'll find bows and wilkins macintosh sonas faber and in the audiophile world once you

04:59kind of learn the game they're they're sort of like generic they're sort of high high-end generic hi-fi

05:05a lot

05:05of celebrities have them people be like i got a macintosh amp but like once you kind of it's not

05:11bad product

05:12but it's not great product and then i began this journey of trying to find a new pair of speakers

05:18and actually having to go outside of my area to find them and i drove two hours to a store

05:23called

05:23upscale audio which is a famous store run by a guy named kevin beasley one of the big big sellers

05:28and

05:28purveyors of tube-based equipment and and i began this journey of learning simultaneously we were building

05:35this property to become an exhibition space and we wanted it to be um experiential we wanted to do

05:42something special and i quickly realized that one of the things i could do to make a big difference

05:50would be to put high-end audio systems in the place because when you run galleries you do beautiful

05:58shows people come to the openings and you notice people don't really they don't look at the art for

06:03very long and i wanted to just have a space which is comfortable you can sit down you can spend

06:10time

06:10in the spaces getting people to slow down and i realized pretty quickly that having these music

06:18systems that really transport you to another environment because the quality is so immediately

06:23impressive and i think what's interesting is most people today have heard in-wall speakers or hold on

06:33um most people today have heard in-wall speakers or sonos and you you know people haven't heard this

06:42kind of music before they might have heard macintosh and bowers but this stuff when you listen to it

06:48immediately you realize something special is going on it's it's it is immediate you're like

06:56this is something i haven't experienced before i'm listening to songs i know albums i know it

07:01sounds very different to what i'm used to and as i learned more and got into it i realized that

07:07this

07:07is really a special thing and then i started i sort of i had to spend quite a bit of

07:13money just

07:13furnishing the place with audio equipment close to a million dollars i realized that it would be nice to

07:19kind of get people to it's a terrible business by the way to get people into the hobby and become

07:25a dealer for certain things so i contacted brands as i learned that i liked and became a dealer for

07:31boner key audio became a dealer for the most prestigious valve brand in the world audio note

07:38which is an amazing british company that i'm proudly a dealer of and then i met these young kids

07:44in manchester who had designed the speaker which i now call the simcoe one and i just went deep in

07:50it kind of like i went into the art business i i decided that there should be more american-made

07:56products so i decided to start a line of cables that were american-made tone arm for cartridges

08:02that's american-made the tone arm is the thing that goes on the turntable and i just like everything

08:07i do i just went really deep tried to learn everything about it met these guys who you could even

08:13consider gurus who who are really knowledgeable about their field whether it's analog the analog is

08:20the hard part the vinyl chain is quite complex because it has a lot of a lot of elements and

08:28i dove in as you can tell and uh you know started like a little audio dealership that i think

08:36can become

08:37something quite nice when paired with the art

08:43yeah uh how do you i mean you have a lot of different brands yeah and what i realized is

08:49you

08:49really have a lot of different um kind of uh lp turntables yeah and vintage ones and you transform them

09:00somehow yeah can you tell me a little bit about how do you go about where do you get the

09:06vintage ones

09:07and you know is it all uh bespoke uh do you get um you request for a thing how does

09:14it how does it work

09:15so so one of the things that you learn when you get into the into the hobby is uh the

09:21first

09:22the the sort of the the when when turntables and vinyl was big 50s 60s 70s the the best turntables

09:30invented were really the idler drive turntables that are a mechanism that kind of uses a a wheel that

09:37that turns the the the um the platter around it has a lot of torque so the sound is very

09:43dynamic very

09:44musical and there were a couple of manufacturers the british made this table called the garage the 301

09:50and the 401 the swiss had the thorntz and then there was the lenco which was the budget table

09:56and once you kind of learn tables and you experience idler drive turntables you will never

10:02ever ever go back to a belt drive table which is the cheaper way of making a table use a

10:08belt to turn

10:08it or a direct drive table which is very reliable it's the techniques dj tables that you see djs playing

10:15once you become kind of um an audiophile for me personally at least i think the price to

10:22performance ratio of idler drive tables is extraordinary but they're complicated to put

10:28together because you have to buy vintage tables they have to be refurbished and beyond refurbishing

10:33the table the the plinth which is the wood thing that the table and sometimes slate sometimes wood

10:39sometimes iron is very important because it dampens the sound so it you know cartridges are microphonic

10:47they they they they they're very sensitive to vibrations and what i did is there's a small

10:55community of people spread all over the world who passionately either refurb these tables or make

11:04plinths again these are not brands per se these are individual people who have a passion and so

11:11jean nante lives in ottawa and he he's very well known in a small community for refurbishing the lenco

11:19and making this this platter or um carl ellis who lives in manchester ray who's got a company called

11:25classic turntables audio grail um there's there's a small handful of them globally but they take so long

11:32to make the product because they're single you know these are single owner businesses sometimes

11:38it can take nine months to get a plinth a year to get a table that i have them all

11:43working making

11:44stuff for me so i can get some level of volume to assemble them and one of the nice things

11:49about

11:50this place you can literally come here and walk out with a fully refurbished idler drive turntable with

11:55tone arms with cartridges ready to go um all of these guys are artisans um they're small businesses

12:04they're not even businesses they they're people who do it for love what is the most difficult thing

12:11in refurbishing uh these idle drive turntables i would say the plinth is the is the the plinths are

12:19the the tables are mechanical and you know you you can you can sometimes get a table with a bomb

12:25motor

12:25you need to replace the motor but systematically you you know you you can get them fixed up and

12:32refurbished just about money and time and price when you buy them they come sometimes in terrible

12:38condition sometimes you get lucky and they come in great condition um i think the most difficult thing is

12:43integrating the vintage table with the plinth in which it sits and the plinths are all different so

12:51and everyone there are different philosophies of plants but jean nante believes that the plinths

12:56should be more than 75 to 85 pounds to dampen um and they're just time consuming and and expensive to

13:05make

13:05um i think another complication is matching the tone arm what tone arm do you put with the matching what

13:12tone arm you put with the with the plinth you know so that you know the tone arm has a

13:19certain

13:19a certain column it needs to you know the whole thing is is is complete but the plinth design i

13:25think

13:25is is really a key component what kind of material do you use for the plinth plinths again that plinth

13:34is

13:34birch ply just layered birch ply this plinth is has has got solid wood there's a thing called constrained

13:41layer dampening where you have birch ply and then you have a a thin piece of panzer holtz in it

13:46or

13:46a piece of resin it's called constrained layer dampening that plinth over there is made by oma

13:53that is slate which is one of the best materials you can use um for plinths again very difficult to

14:00work

14:00in slate um different philosophies again um but i i i think uh also ua from tone aparte which is

14:11that

14:11the plinths behind me is super beautiful beautifully made plinth but generally layers of of birch ply

14:18so you you don't really want to make it out of solid wood you want you you need to sort

14:22of have the

14:23structures you know belay it so the the resonance sort of gets dissipated when i come to you and

14:31let's say want to have a whole a whole um system um do i have some something to say you

14:39know regarding

14:40the aesthetics do you have some recommendations or how does it work um yeah i i think i'm if if

14:47you

14:47look at most if you if you look at most audio videos or most stores or most listing rooms they're

14:53really ugly so one of the one of the big problems in high-end audio is there's no aesthetic to

15:00it

15:00there's no aesthetic integration there's there's there's the lifestyle component is really secondary

15:06to the audiophilia component um and i think this has been very damaging because uh a lot of people

15:14want to hide audio equipment in the walls because it's so ugly and the architects do so what i'm trying

15:19to present here if you walk around is just the beauty of the equipment just the the makers that i

15:25choose the the manufacturers i choose make really aesthetic stuff you know reynard thoris's uh amplifiers

15:34are just beautiful to look at they're they're they're just objects of desire so unlike most audio

15:41businesses i'm sort of 50 lifestyle 50 audio both have to be excellent but if they don't cross that

15:49boundary together i'm not interested so there's a lot of great product that sounds great but it's

15:54just hideously ugly i'm not interested in it and there's a lot of beautiful product that is really

16:01shitty from an audio point of so you have to find that boundary and what i generally do is um

16:06i i i ask

16:07people to you send me a picture their living room or whatever and try and really advise aesthetically

16:13first what you're going to enjoy looking at because most of the time the stuff is not on

16:18so it has to have a sculptural element it has to have it has to enhance the living room one

16:23of the

16:23exciting things i've done i've taken systems out that are like ugly systems marantz bows and wilkins

16:29and change the living rooms just by properly aestheticizing which speakers are there you know

16:36matching it to the environment so they become like sculptural objects that

16:41that that inhabit the space as well as you know acoustic instruments what i like about design is it's

16:48not shouting design you know it's not shouting oh this is a design piece yeah it's just um beautiful

16:57it's natural yeah and uh you know if you look around here everything somehow fits you know it's it's not

17:04a

17:04uniform design like uh you know minimalist or expressionist design it's um yeah it's um

17:13a design that you can feel really at home with and uh it's it's utilitarian it doesn't look like it's

17:21projecting

17:22expect there's a there's a thing in hi-fi called oligarch hi-fi where you walk in and it's like

17:27having a mclaren on the wall

17:29you know what i mean where you're expressing that you've got an expensive system it's it's it's it's

17:35really but this is something that that i like this kind of like you've seen the space here multiple

17:40times it's not a home that's got marble everywhere and it doesn't express that this is an expensive

17:45you clearly know it's an it's it's a good environment but you're not you're not sort of

17:50you're not showing off it's not bling i'm not interested in in bling hi-fi which is a whole

17:56category on in of itself there's there's bling hi-fi alike like like nagra's bling hi-fi but it's

18:04very understated you know um i'm not a bling guy but i really like also the acoustics i i think

18:13you

18:13put a lot of thought into the acoustics of the room again it developed because we were hanging art

18:18here and and and again for me this is a journey it's not i'm not an expert i didn't work

18:24in hi-fi my

18:25whole life it's very it's very personal what i realized because i like my houses to be used i i

18:32i'm very welcoming we always have guests my my homes i don't even view them as like i'm in this

18:39is this

18:40is a home and i live here i view my places as shared spaces as i build them for not

18:46for myself as a home

18:47but really as a place for a community or whatever community i have to to share and the one one

18:54of the

18:54the biggest lessons i've learned in the last few years if a room is acoustically bad you just don't

19:00spend time there you don't realize it it's not like oh i'm not spending time in the room but really

19:06if you make a room acoustically good you'll find people inhabit those rooms it's subconscious almost

19:12so a lot of those houses you see with a cavernous staircase and the fifth and you no one sits

19:18there

19:18because they sound terrible sound is something that is so present to us sub we don't think about it

19:25because we we most people don't think about that i've that i've learned like as i acoustically treat

19:30the rooms so these rooms become functional that room i just acoustically treated about a month ago

19:37suddenly people are hanging out in that room they're sitting having a conversation the music sounds better

19:42so it's not it it's not like acoustically treated like you see in the stores where the ugly acoustics

19:49are behind or you you filmed the audio note room with the sculptures so we have an artist named kundi

19:55nathan in zimbabwe who makes these beautiful tapestries out of fabric and they just happen to be fantastic

20:01acoustic treatments so for example sony music group has a system from me in their executive lounge and i just

20:08hung kundi nathan artworks everywhere so how do you integrate art how do you integrate music how do

20:14you you know how do you bring these disciplines together it's really difficult because everyone's

20:19in a channel the art guys are in a channel the music guys on a channel the fashion guys are

20:23in a channel

20:24the movie guys are in a channel how do you integrate these disciplines and this is something that's

20:29through throughout my life is always because i was in the movie businesses i've been in different

20:34businesses and i was like why don't these creative disciplines why don't they let us together why

20:39are they so separate um and i think it has to do with with with the aesthetics of how you

20:46integrate

20:47these components together very difficult to do so recommendation buy art hang it on the walls it's a

20:54good acoustic um yeah create a good acoustic uh room i mean my my recommendation for for how people

21:02that should live is surround yourself with culture books art music culture is the one thing that humans

21:13do well it's the one thing that humans do when you listen to good culture or you see good culture

21:22or you

21:22read good culture and i i broadly speak to poetry literature music art it shows the humanity and brilliance of

21:31mankind when you look at their politics and their war and their beefs and their greed and their money

21:39but when you look at you know i sometimes sit in that chair where you're sitting and i listen to

21:45something i've never played before and i can't believe it's real i can't believe i've never heard it before

21:52it's so good and i have this hunger just to be like i'm 54 55 now and i i've got

22:01maybe if i'm lucky 45 50

22:03years left if i'm very lucky i gotta listen to all this stuff that's been created i listen to things

22:09like i listened to jacqueline dupre last week um she's a chalice very very well known i'd never heard

22:15it before if you're in the classical music business everyone knows who jacqueline dupre is

22:20but for me it was just like an hour of heaven basically and i think this is so transportive

22:28and and i i have this like lust or greed just to experience these things that are sitting on these

22:34discs that no one's heard before in a way that is you know when you listen on systems like this

22:41it's

22:43you you walk out of that room you go to bed and you're like what have i been doing and

22:48most people

22:48listening to sonos in wall speakers i think as you get older you realize that the the time you have

22:55left is less and you really start to think about like how do you want to spend that time like

23:01how do

23:01you want to fill it and you also realize how in the past maybe you maybe you haven't appreciated what's

23:08what you're sitting right in front of you to experience and i think in in in art art is a

23:16very

23:18inaccessible thing because in order to experience it it's very expensive you have to go to a museum

23:23you have to go to gallery takes a lot of time and the experiences are are oftentimes not overly

23:29satisfactory because you have to it's a white wall people don't live like this we're not we're not we're

23:34not used to this it's a foreign environment so how do you how do you bring art into an environment

23:40where it's less foreign music everyone listens to music everyone's got a radio in their car

23:47music is is so ubiquitous that people's understanding of music they're much more literate with it but

23:55they're not literate with playing that stuff with quality i have a client

24:01who is the the ceo of a major record company and i sold him a system and he's but a

24:08month

24:08later he sent me a message and he said i've been in the music business 45 years and i'm listening

24:15to

24:15albums like i've never heard them before and for me to be an art guy no no because i'm not

24:21a music

24:22industry guy it was so beautiful really has to do with the artisans who make the stuff who respect the

24:29output who who really it's a it's different thing to making music you know those who listen those who

24:35make different i think in in art in order for art to exist you need people to see it you

24:43need people

24:44to interact with it and you need to figure out new ways to get more people to interact with it

24:50which is

24:50difficult as we know we're not this is a mute an audio an audio video but they're the same characteristics

24:56in the audio business where this kind of i'm not going to say serious listening but listening with

25:03intention is disappearing and it has to do with an industry it has to do with very similar industry

25:10problems than the art business you know these you know these authorities you know it's the same

25:15structure you've got these small producers who are protective of their markets who are kind of a

25:21little arrogant and how you think they should listen this is a very very very different audiophile

25:27environment to what you'll see anywhere it's it has my own structure my own belief system that i've

25:33built because i'm not from the business i've built it myself so i'm not saddled with and laden with the

25:41preconceptions and preconditions that the business imprints on you it's very similar to art i'm not from

25:47the opposite from the audio so when i came into the art business i didn't have these i didn't work

25:52at

25:52a museum i didn't work at a gallery i didn't come up through the system so i entered and then

25:56i i sort

25:57of built it according to my own set of principles and rules aesthetically from a business point of view

26:02very similar in audio i'm building this sort of essentially as a as a virgin not not not not coming

26:13brainwashed by by what it is and what it isn't and it's been it's been great and also very grateful

26:20to

26:21all of these guys who are you know in their 60s and 70s and 80s who have dedicated their lives

26:28to

26:28to doing this with frankly not very good financial returns these are not guys who are sitting around

26:33you know telling you how much money they raised in venture capital this week and when they're going

26:37public they people who just you know you know eke out a living and do it out of love and

26:46i have a

26:46lot of respect for these guys because you know they're unrecognized and and in many ways they're very

26:54rich because unlike most people they get i have a friend who's a who's a distributor and not a rich

27:03guy

27:03lives in a simple very humble house but you go into his living room and he must have a half

27:08a

27:08million dollar system and from morning to night that guy's listening to music and he's traveling

27:15he's time traveling and he is experiencing a better life than the guy in the 400 foot yacht with a

27:21helicopter that delivers him sushi you know what i mean his life is rich rich with culture these experiences

27:29you can't pay for you can't buy the only way you get them is to dedicate your time

27:35is to allocate and time is equal for all of us and i think it's it's been a great journey

27:42and just

27:43again something something that i i enjoy learning and something that i'd like to share and also

27:50something that i think really enhances the artistic experience because i can get people into these rooms

27:57which i do and if you come to the openings and you have people sitting in the rooms for 10

28:0320 30 40

28:04minutes and actually like this painting is so interesting it's a ken taylor painting of a bull

28:10and i hate walking people into a room and saying this is a great artist it was just acquired by

28:15the

28:15museum in poughkeepsie and the curator blah blah blah or it's going to be worth more money than six years

28:20just having people sit and waiting for them to ask who's the artist not this is ken taylor he's in

28:30this he's at this gallery i don't want to do that i just want you to look just look and

28:37then ask out of

28:38curiosity instead of instead of this is an important artist because this is the you know i go to galleries

28:44sometimes and before i'm through the door i got the spreadsheet that he's in a group show at this museum

28:50i'm like get the out of my face i haven't even looked at the paintings for god's sakes

28:55let me just let me just look at them before you tell me it's good by by the time you

29:00walk through

29:01the door if you don't like the show you're like i'm an idiot because i don't like this but like

29:07so immediately you're set up to feel like a fool and i think the music the music so interesting you

29:13sit down and you just and it's like you watch people i i this is what i do when i

29:18play music

29:20i don't look at this i sit in the chair and i watch their faces and it's so beautiful i

29:25just

29:25watch their face i watch their reactions and it's amazing and that's it yeah i think it's a genius

29:32combination of audio visual and uh it's just a beautiful place here and audio plays a really a

29:40big role and uh yeah um what are you listening to i think you listen a lot to a lot

29:47of classic i

29:48listen to a lot of classical in fact i think we should put put something on so i'm now switching

29:52my

29:53input we're gonna we're gonna switch to this turntable and we're gonna we're gonna play a little

29:58bit of jacqueline to pray let's pop that down see what wow

30:17i i listened i've been listening to a lot of class one of that one of the things that happens

30:21when you

30:22when you start listening and again i think you eventually end up in classical because

30:29you just are able to get the detail and and and there's so much in classical to learn it's

30:35there's so many you know it's a whole world of the decker london records are great there's a lot of

30:42bad

30:42classical prints but the classical is where you really you know classical and jazz is i think where you

30:49where you end up going you know jazz is the classical music of the 20th century and i'm i think

30:56you're

30:57you're absolutely right if you listen to this on this system versus um listening it in a in a car

31:06for example it's a it's really different very different

31:14you can even hear it on the cell phone when you when you hear it

31:22how did you design the for example um your yeah these famous speakers um your yeah so did you do

31:31a

31:31sketch or no no so so i met these two 23 year old guys in manchester who had designed the

31:38speaker

31:39and i bought one it arrived it was amazing i was like i need 10 more and they were like

31:43you're out

31:43of your mind we're kids we need to take we we need it we have jobs as engineers so i

31:48basically did a

31:49deal with them where i purchased the rights to manufacture the speaker from them and we make it now in

31:55california very difficult to make this the horn itself is fiberglass resin transfer mold really

32:02difficult so i didn't design it i'm not a designer but what i am i'm a curator in a sense

32:10i find talent

32:11i find talent in art i find talent in in in different things and and i i i understood that

32:18these guys had

32:19looked at the horn speaker which is a very traditional speaker the altex the old speakers

32:25but there were 23 old guys in manchester they were looking at the horn from the perspective of how do

32:31we

32:31make a horn for today and for the future it's got modern drivers pro drivers it's a it's a totally

32:38modern interpretation of a very classic speaker system done in a completely beautiful and i recognize

32:44the aesthetic beauty of it immediately um and so so i'm not going to take any credit for the design

32:51but i what i will take credit for is my ability to recognize talent and my ability to basically be

32:57quite decisive and in moving so they agreed with it they liked the partnership and you know where we

33:04we built and they just designed the simcoe baby speaker which is a small bookshelf version of it

33:10and uh you know i i don't make the stuff i don't design the stuff i just recognize the good

33:18stuff

33:19reynard thoris is a genius designer if you saw this thing inside it is so beautiful you you can

33:28i might might send you some images to try and pop into the video nelson you know all of these

33:33guys are

33:34it's like curating talent you know there's a lot of shitty art there's a lot of good art and you

33:38just

33:38you find the good stuff but this has been a journey because manufacturing a production speaker is very

33:43complicated and then we we have some tweaks you know i i make this in black as you filmed in

33:52that

33:52room we change the baffle so you can change the you know the the stands we also make the furniture

33:59which is beautiful this piece of furniture this piece of furniture

34:05you know all of this furniture we make on the back wall here you should video this we make this

34:12this is a phono stage made by a this is a beautiful phono stage made a moving magnet phono stage

34:18that we

34:18manufacture this is a switching device that we manufacture that takes different inputs that's a cd

34:25transport from audio note which is which is a very famous company look how beautiful this this is a

34:30real piece of esoteria it's a crazy tone arm this is a plinth by ua from tone aparte this is

34:37the tone arm

34:38that we manufacture american-made tone arms it's called the ahuaka look how beautiful that is maybe a

34:44question uh that people might ask why you have two tone arms generally speaking one for stereo one for mono

34:52you know you know so generally i i'm a believer in mono in mono listening a lot of records all

35:00records

35:01produced prior to 1958 and all reissues of 1958 records are mono the beatles are mono hendrix is

35:07mono listening to mono is is very beautiful has a very specific sonic characteristics so i'm a big

35:14believer you have a stereo cut on one side and the mono cuts if you have a mono record you

35:19can play both

35:20do you have a lot of you know vintage uh lps winers you know of course i mean these are

35:25vintage these

35:28you know a lot of them are are vintage sometimes they're reissues but yeah a lot of vintage a lot

35:33of good a lot of japanese stuff most of it is is is vintage um i think i'm going to

35:42play a little bit of

35:43ella fitzgerald

35:47i just don't know i don't know if yesterday i was a in a in a vinyl shop in pasadena

35:53and they had a

35:54really very very very old sibylline which which store was it oh it's on

36:03i don't know the the street name um it's um small or big store yeah it's not that small

36:12it's near the um near the bookstore on this uh larger street you know where you can from it's

36:19a nice store sibylline like it's a store okay civil is it this size the store uh no it's um

36:26no no

36:26it's ten times the size no no you're something go to sibylline that's a great store okay because they

36:33had also new 78 rpm things like i don't know 30s or 20s you the best store is sibylline okay

36:43it's great

36:43that's where it's just in downtown pasadena we can go there

36:50and then we'll go we'll play a little bit of ella so i can also switch to multiple cartridges

37:03a lovely smile that is so right with me you can't know how happy i am that we met i'm

37:14strangely

37:14attracted to you this is mono i'm trying so hard to forget don't you want to forget someone too

37:26it's the wrong game with the wrong yeah the funny thing is that people think that stereo is always

37:35better it's better it's not the case not the case

37:50just stand here heinrich just stand here in the middle come

37:55you can't know how happy i am you can't know how happy i am that we met i'm strangely attracted

38:05to you

38:07see the sound stage

38:09there's someone i'm trying so hard to forget don't you wanna forget someone too

38:23see you

38:24it's the wrong game with the wrong chips though your lips

38:31are tempting they're the wrong lips they're not his lips but the

38:37such tempting lids that if someone might agree well it's all right it's all right

38:50and you got a jacqueline to pray for some it's really good i mean the audio the sound inside

39:02here is fantastic and uh yeah it's as you said you know it's it's important to to have the

39:11your damping and the stuff like that but really the song and and the canvases

39:17they make i mean listen to this you can't listen it's unbelievable

39:51you told me you bought a lot of lps winers lately i buy a lot from japan so all of

39:57these are japanese

39:58pressings so all of these are i like i you know i have i have different strategies for buying i

40:06buy

40:06a lot of classical so for example this is these are deutsche gramophone uh which are so deutsche

40:15gramophone they make good stuff but you'll notice they have a tulip label around here so the tulip

40:22labels are much better than the white labels because that means they were recorded with tube

40:28equipment so basically so so once you you sort of you get to know the the idiosyncrasies of vinyl

40:36production um and it makes a huge difference these are but these are also more expensive than i guess

40:44yeah yeah so a lot of classical records is a dollar fifty cents but then the proper stuff 50 bucks

40:5050

40:5080 bucks so this is that's called shaded dog so living stereo so you you you kind of learn it

40:59the classical is difficult because there's a lot of classical that's worthless and then there's a lot of

41:04great classical you have a lot of rooms like that uh what's your favorite room this is my favorite room

41:15no it's unfair to say i mean this is this is the room of the simco speakers and you know

41:21you've got

41:22so this is really like where i can i can sort of show people a lot of a lot of

41:28different things because

41:29i've got a lot of i've got a lot of sources set up here so i have for example you

41:36know so for example

41:37on this input i have i actually have four inputs here because i've got the switching device so this

41:48this is a switching device with a separate power supply so i can actually turn one input into four

41:53so i've got two tone arms into here a cd transport a dac all going into one so i can

42:01so i can i can have

42:03a lot of input a lot of a lot of channels basically

42:29so do you have a lot of you know synergy effects people are who are first interested in in the

42:35visual arts and then buy all your stuff and vice versa not really not not really i think it's

42:43i think it's i i think everyone sort of sees synergy i i know i think it's really random i

42:50i

42:52i think um you know some people like just can't wrap their heads around spending 20 000 on a pair

42:59of speakers i'm like but you just spent 85 000 on a painting you're going to listen to this every

43:03day

43:04so i think you know i think i think that one i i i think it's i think art people

43:10are very strange a

43:12lot of art people have terrible furniture they're bad art they have like good collections but they have no

43:17taste so this it's and then you have designers who have beautiful taste but shitty art it's it's

43:23there's the relationship between it's very hard to find a collector who's got great taste in art great

43:30taste in design and furniture and and audio they're few and far between yeah it's really funny you know

43:37it's very strange because you you would think that like you would think that they would like but like

43:43people like the interior designers oftentimes they could put horrendous art on the walls and it like

43:50it's it's very peculiar

43:55i mean so so beautiful

44:11and then there's old cartridges you know these are all so you get to experience in this room

44:18so much different product you get to experience a dyna vector you get to experience a koetsu cart you get

44:25to experience a hell of a lot of different gear

44:35they always like is these um you know the switches yeah so beautiful special material well

44:40this is swiss this is the thorens that's swiss product

44:46please let me play some lightning hopkins let me play something different

44:52she she had this woman was super interesting she had ms crazy crazy story let's play you

45:02let's play lightning strikes this is an audiophile pressing from acoustic sounds

45:08they make some of the best modern acoustic audiophile sounding stuff in the world

45:25i'm gonna get me a mojo and i'm gonna get me a mojo and i'm gonna fix my woman's soul

45:56you know what's also funny is when people have new stereo equipment and they want to demonstrate it

46:03they push up the loud you know loudness and also volume like far too much in this you can listen

46:10at a

46:11normal volume and it sounds great it's not it's not about the volume it's about the quality yeah

46:21so it's beautiful just

46:36but if you if you sit here you can really hear the instruments are like the band is in front

46:41of you like

46:42if you sit down this position you'll hear you'll you'll just hear the placing you can literally

46:48close your eyes and really close your eyes and you'll visualize the instruments they're not coming

46:52from the speakers they're placed in real space with dimension as if you're there that's the trick

47:00that's called soundstage

47:02don't let your woman boy fix you like mine fix me can hear right you know she'll make you a

47:22fool about

47:27it's very different so it's highly recommended that you come to hill house yeah dear viewers

47:38it's worth it please come and we even give you choice between sparkling and flat

47:47that immediately when you walk in the door

47:52thank you so much my pleasure uh do you want to add something i do we love vernissage tv

48:02we think vernissage tv is the most important document of audio visual content in the art world over the

48:12last 30 years the achievement of your channel is extraordinary and likewise everyone should

48:20subscribe on youtube thank you so much stefan but as i said come to hill house it's really fantastic thank

48:29you very much

48:44so

48:53so

48:54so

52:18And they've got two decks, they've got, you know, always new stuff, not huge.

52:24The problem with big record stores is you get overwhelmed and then you just want to leave.

52:29It's too much.

52:30So it's really compact.

52:34And that's it.

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