Safely tucked away behind strong dikes lies a country called the Netherlands. Although many of its inhabitants live below sea level, the country is home to the largest port in the world; Rotterdam. It is in this city, with a population made up of more then 167 different nationalities, that we live. The atmosphere is eclectic for a couple of reasons.
Regarding history, there was Erasmus, author of the "Praise of Folly" raging against the ruling classes [upper left]. Rotterdam was also the place from whence the Pilgrim Fathers set sail. Many Europeans followed the Fathers centuries later when the Holland America Line shipped emigrants to a brighter future. During the Second World War, the city was robbed of its heart by a fierce bombardment. Osip Zadkine cast a great statue symbolizing the destroyed city [lower left]. The absence of old buildings in the city center -- except for a handful of survivors -- opened the way to erect a modern infrastructure. The country's first high-rises are located here and supply office spaces for all the businesses a trading nation is built upon.
City by the sea
Holland America Line
Both of us are from the great model year 56, making the late 60s the start of our stomping grounds. Of course radio was the first medium to bring home a variety of music. With the arrival of the Pirate Stations, other forms of music entered our ears and changed the world. A schism developed between the Progressive and the Commercial. Commercial music was a sign of bad taste. Underground music, psychedelic music? That was the real thing. Little did we know that the same record companies were behind all of it. But we did listen to Dutch bands like Q65, Super Sister or Solution.



Woodstock had a great influence in Holland and was copied in the Kralingen Festival in 1970. This was the first chance to see and hear Santana, Quintessence, Pink Floyd, Dr. John, Soft Machine and others. Only a few radio stations played this sort of music so there were two ways of listening to the now-favorite tunes. One was to frequent one of the 'heavy' local record stores and spend a whole day listening. That worked for a while. Alas, when the owners noticed too many records evaporating under jackets or sweaters, our welcome expired. So we were forced to buy the records. We made deals with a group of friends who were to buy the desired records and make copies for the rest of us on open reel tapes or cassettes.


This was the time the Magic Herb played a big role in the perception of music. Getting together -- preferably in a squat house, with enough Magic Herb to smoke out an entire termite colony -- music was played, discussed, evaluated and critiqued. What was this music doing to the mind, the body? Did it make you happy, make you dance or make love? What should the ambiance be for this music? Bright lights, candles, aromas, jeans, jalabas, nudity?


At home, it first was a Gerard turntable atop a wooden box, with a home-made tube amplifier or a little Lenco integrated turntable and amp with plastic loudspeakers. Spare time was spent playing in several bands, all earned money invested in huge Marshall towers - and two Marshall towers made for great stereo! None of the bands was a success and listening to music was put aside for a while. The time for big cars and motorcycles had arrived.

Moving house and more or less rebuilding it consumed a lot of time. When some peace and quiet was needed, the record collection spun on a Dual turntable, its plastic console replaced by a heavy sand-filled one. Reading a then-popular Dutch magazine called Audio & Technique, a DIY speaker design looked appealing. A piece of PVC tube normally used for drains formed the basis, with two Focal units for drivers and a second piece of PVC tubing inside the larger tube making up the remainder. As an amplifier, an old E84-based Lafayette LA 224, [ right] worked just fine.


After some reworking, the amp sounded even better: Silver wired, new tubes, better caps, upgraded speaker terminals. Hey, a sort of new hobby dawned. Meanwhile, a new medium was introduced - the CD. Picking up a first-generation Philips CD100 CD player, the advantage of scratch-free records was a reason to start swapping the battered LPs for little shiny discs. Many guilders -- the now defunct Dutch currency -- changed owners in the record stores. The amount of CDs rose commensurately with the rising of our income, especially after we launched our own company. The home-grown audio setup brought music to life, made us cry and laugh. We were happy with the sound. Going to many Rock and Jazz concerts, the (in retrospect poor) sound was not much worse than the concert sound. We could and did live with it.

Then a friend seduced us. With an engineering background, he switched from being a radio amateur to audiophile. We have to blame him for the SET addiction. When we had money to spare, we invested in a CEC TL5100 belt-driven transport, an Audio Note DAC2, an Audio Note Meishu 300B SET amplifier and a pair of Audio Note AN/Jsp silver-wired loudspeakers with Silver AN interlinks and Audio Note copper for bi-wiring the speakers. The reason for this choice was the laid-back sound quality. We were used to an in-your-face sound with emphasis on the extreme regions, bass and treble. With the AN setup, there was less bass emphasis, a smoother treble and a great natural midrange. The Internet is a great place for gathering all sorts of information and is the place where we found references to and writings by Dr. Harvey 'Gizmo' Rosenberg. Collecting and reading his attributions to various discussions and articles, we felt somehow connected with this free spirit, his love of music, technique, art, motorcycles, wine and all the other things that make life bearable. In short, it all came down to the Search For Ecstasy, be it musical or otherwise. We started corresponding and followed some of his advice regarding our installation.



This brought us to Paris where, at Triode et Company run by one of the most charming men in Audio, Philip Heitz, we listened intensely to a combination of Audio Note amplifiers and Avantgarde Acoustic Trios and Duos. After many visits, we decided to acquire a pair of the silver-wired Duos.


Gizmo also notified us of the wonders of home- brew silver loudspeaker cable. The costs were low, the fun great. Back in Paris, we picked up some round cotton tubing at Bouchera's, to be used as the sleeve for the fine 18-gauge silver wire from Marlon Toback in New York. Result? Two tri-wired Duos.

Needless to say, all our equipment is tweaked. Where possible, we've used silver wire and Black Gates caps. Tubes are rolled heavily. For 300Bs, we can choose from various makes and adjust the sound of the system to our liking. The same can be done with the TacT RCS 2.0, a device we introduced because we suffered some nasty room acoustics problems [our penthouse is in the tall orange tower in the foreground].


The contacts with Gizmo, live and virtual, led to the idea of setting up a Benelux Triode Guild. The BTG was planned to help lovers of triodes advance on the path to musical ecstasy. Gizmo's latest concept, the 4th Wave, was based on this idea: "Because each of us is a musical instrument, our job is to express the music in us. To do that, we must 'tune' ourselves. And we do that by tuning our music system, which is an analogy for our musical consciousness."



As part of the 4th wave, Gizmo was planning on supplying kits to build fully tunable amplifiers and loudspeakers. The Triode Guild Benelux would be taking part in distributing the idea and kits. With Gizmo's passing, the Triode Guild and the 4th Wave as such need new impulses. Please e-mail if there is an interest in this exciting movement.


And what beauty hides in our drawers? Two main influences have steered our musical travels. After the psychedelics of Soft Machine, Ash Ra Temple, Gong and others, it was Frank Zappa who opened new doors for us. His quotes of Edgar Varese and other classical composers in his own pieces made us explore the Classical Department. Heavy stuff from Wagner to the light fare of Mozart, when played with passion, is simply marvelous.
4th wave case & WE C91 amplifier
The second major influence was Miles Davis. We stepped in during his Pangea and Agartha period. A whole different world opened up. The beauty of Miles' live concerts at the various North Sea Jazz Festivals introduced us to other jazz greats playing at the festivals. We followed Miles back in time and discovered more legendary performances of stellar musicians. World music came into our lives through a friend who owned the Lucho record label. All kinds of Latin American music appeared on our plate, including the most emotional of them all, the Tango.
Bill Brauer: "Tango Dancers" - click for gallery
As long as music is played with heart & soul, what sort it is becomes irrelevant - including audiophile recording quality if that even exists. African music recorded live on a cassette tape can be more stimulating than the same music recorded in a studio. There is so much music to discover, to trigger our hot buttons! There are only a few negative tendencies in modern-day recordings. Most CDs are too long. Instead of even just a handful of pieces or songs played and recorded with love and emotion, there's 70-odd minutes on the disc. The old LP with its limited capacity forced musicians to record only the best songs from the best sessions. Now a lot of crap is added just for filler - quantity before quality. No wonder downloads of that one song from an album are so popular! And what about the new formats? We have reviewed several SACD and DVD-A players and listened to others. Our verdict is still out.
View from our penthouse
And how do we listen? In two ways. For reviews of albums, the record is played several times as background music during reading. This eliminates the surprise effect. After two or three spins, the real listening can commence. That occurs with remote at hand and a laptop for notes within reach. We are honored to be able to publish our reviews of hard- and software in the two leading Dutch audio and video magazines, HVT and HomeStudio and for the website Hifi.nl as well.


Real listening is a different beast. Most of the time, a sort of play list is composed. That could be assembled on the basis of musicians, composers or genre. According to the play list, the atmosphere in the room can be adjusted by means of lights, candles, aromas and what not - little has changed over the last 30 years. Wishes and dreams? More time to listen and enjoy. 0n the material front? Some silver-wired output transformers would be nice...

An ad for 6moons next time? HEMA is not only HEnkMArja but also the Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij. In the olden days, Hema sold everything at the same price. Now they changed their philosophy to sell only their own brand: Hema. Good quality for a reasonable price. We were asked to participate in the campaign. Altijd Jezelf means AlwaysYourself...