BE A SHOW-OFF THIS HOLIDAY SEASON – AND MAKE HI-FIDELITY SOUND THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Yes, it’s that time of year again, and as an audio enthusiast you want high-fidelity sound to be a huge part of your holiday celebrations. In fact, your goal this year is to make your spacious home a showcase of modern sound technology. Delighted guests will come away with a fresh appreciation for the rich, vocal crooning of Bing Crosby in “White Christmas,” and the spirited melodies in Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.”

Your home has already been equipped with the latest in whole-home audio technology, so as your guests arrive and are ushered into the great room for appetizers and drinks, they are at once treated to spirited renditions of “Jingle Bells”, “Frosty the Snowman”, and “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” emanating from your Origin Acoustics ceiling speakers.

While socializing before dinner, your guests repeatedly compliment you on the astounding sound quality of the background music, giving you the opportunity to talk-up industry-leading manufacturers such as McIntosh, KEF, Marantz, Denon, TOTEM, and ARCAM. For those eager to know more, you invite them back at a later date for a grand tour of all your audio gear.

As the time nears for dinner to be served, you make an announcement concerning after-dinner activities. Guests can avail themselves of several possibilities: Christmas karaoke in your game room, BeatleMania in your brand-new listening room, “The Santa Clause” playing in your home theater, or simply jazz music and star gazing with hors d’oeuvres and drinks on the balcony. No matter which activity they choose, your guests will experience the best sound innovations that the industry has to offer.

Over dinner, you field a barrage of questions about sound technology from the “newbies” to the subject as you attempt to eat turkey and mashed potatoes. To your delight, you are fostering several budding audiophiles, all as the cooing voice of Karen Carpenter’s “Merry Christmas Darling” plays sweetly in the background.

With the scrumptious dinner complete, your guests wander your beautifully decorated home for a bit, fighting off after-dinner drowsiness before finding their way to their selected activity area.

Luckily, it is a gorgeous star-lit night, with no wind and mild temperatures. Those who want an after-dinner cocktail and fresh air head out to the balcony, where Elvis Presley’s silky baritone voice renders “Blue Christmas” over one of your favorite rigs for two-channel hi-fi stereo: the versatile, turntable-based Colorful Audio Set by Pro-Ject.

Being a lover of analog audio and vinyl recordings, you want your guests to experience the precise musical colorations that such a system can produce. Pro-Ject engineered it for high-quality, high-fidelity sound, along with ease-of-use. The system consists of components in the mid-price range that none-the-less produce quality sound for a small space on either a temporary or permanent basis.

Conversations with several of your guests naturally turn to the advantages of this uniquely colorful set. Getting a bit long-winded, you can’t resist the temptation to laud the attributes of the turntable, the Debut EVO Carbon. It has a five-star rating as a basic deck in an affordable price range, but Pro-Ject also offers affordable upgrades that turn it into a superstar in it’s class: improved motor mounting, new height-adjustable damped feet, and a heavy steel platter that features a unique damping ring on the inside for quieter operation. You recommend that those interested check out it’s most recent review by WHAT HI*FI?

You further mention that Pro-ject wisely added an MaiA S3 Stereo Integrated Amp, two Speaker Box 5 S2 Bookshelf Speakers, a Connect It LS S2 speaker cable, and eight Damp It TPE speaker isolation pods to round out the set.

This integrated set is a great value for the high quality of its’ components, so when your sister later pulls you aside to ask for a recommendation for a Christmas gift for your 13-year-old nephew, you name it as your number one pick. In the last year, Milty has taken an avid interest in two-channel stereo hi-fi, and this system would be easy for him to set up in his bedroom. If he tires of listening to his limited collection of vinyl records, he can use alternate inputs on the amp to use other sources, including Bluetooth. Plus, it can be ordered in one of five available colors to better suit his adolescent tastes.

To keep peace in her household, you also suggest that she add a set of KEF MU-7 wireless headphones to the mix.

As conversation wanes and your guests on the balcony have relaxed into star gazing, you excuse yourself to check in with your other guests.

Those who chose Christmas karaoke in the game room are having a blast. The highly-rated TONOR Karaoke Machine that you set up in the back of the room is precisely reproducing each and every off-key-note of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Next, you head to the other side of your home to check in on those guests enjoying your home theater. You quickly sneak into the rear of the room and observe that both parents and children are actively immersed in the show as they roar with laughter when Scott Calvin tumbles unceremoniously off the roof of his humble home.

Last year, the audio professionals at AV Enthusiast upgraded your home theater environment with a theater-quality surround sound system cosisting of TOTEM speakers and Arcam audio processors and amps. Along with your Wolf Cinema projector and screen from Screen Innovations, these quality components are giving your guests a mythical “ride of their life” in the comical Santa’s sleigh.

You tiptoe out of the theater like a sneaky little elf, giddy with excitement that your guests are enjoying an unforgettable experience!

Last, but definitely not least, you return to the balcony where the two guests who are interested in exploring your new listening room continue to enjoy a serene and star-filled night sky, good conversation, and spicy, rum-tainted eggnog. You lure them away with the promise of an astounding sonic experience and usher them down the hall to your recently completed project.

This latest addition to your home is a cozy rectangular room, with designer décor dedicated to your all-time favorite group, the Beatles. Wall art commemorating their rise to fame is actually acoustic panels. Along with carefully selected furniture, carpet, and ceiling tiles, they acoustically support the stereo system to provide perfectly precise sound reproduction. In addition, essential sound-proofing insulation was installed in the walls during remodeling.

With the room engineered for perfect acoustics, you next decided to have AV Enthusiast technicians install a high-fidelity two-channel, turntable-based stereo system from Pro-Ject in the room. Of course, for this coveted environment, you wanted the highest-end components, carefully matched for compatibility. You highly considered going with McIntosh, whose top-of-the-line products can’t be beat. But one of Pro-Ject’s newer product lines caught your full attention after your favorite audiophile and best friend, Tom, pointed it out to you. One glimpse of their Yellow Submarine turntable and you were inescapably smitten! Yup, gotta have it!

After careful consultation with the professionals at AV Enthusiast, you decided to integrate your latest obsession with a mix of ARCAM and Marantz audio amplificatiom and processing components.

As you and your guests step into the room, you remotely activate the lights and sound system. The upbeat and quirky melody of the Fav Four’s famous “Yellow Submarine” overwhelms your unsuspecting visitors with Beatle-mania magic as they marvel at the artistic workmanship of your exclusively unique Beatles-inspired turntable resting in a recessed niche at the front of the room.

You graciously direct each visitor in turn to the center seat of your small sofa, where the “sweet spot” of sound envelopes them in Beatles bliss.

Wow! Is the only sound they can utter!

As the evening winds down, your guests wander back to the great room to partake of the remaining appetizers and drinks before heading home. You greet them at the door as they leave, thanking each one of them for their presence at your humble soiree.

Every member of your family immediately heads for bed because they have a long day ahead of them tomorrow. It’s that time of year for the traditional trip from Alabama to Montana for the family ski trip!

Unbeknownst to the other members of your family, you have a grand surprise for all of them, and it was delivered to your garage earlier in the day without their knowledge.

After all, the family deserves to have an unexpectedly enjoyable trip in your newest audiophile obsession, a 2022 Grand Wagoneer, fully decked out for comfort on long trips. And you couldn’t help but order it with a newly-available McIntosh MX1375 Entertainment System! You show-off!

Just remember, folks, music is the vehicle that gets you there!

**Questions? Please contact AV Enthusiast at 256.882.5081 Monday – Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM OR drop by our office at 514 Madison Street in Huntsville on Saturdays from 10 AM to 3 PM.**