Going to California
Finally.
We’ve been telling people we were going to do this for sooo long. And now the stars have finally aligned, the moon was in the 7th house, and it is happening.
Moving to the San Francisco Bay Area.
South of 92, North of San Jose. We hope.
Looking to open the store in our home, again, with perhaps a retail location later.
Since every audiophile has this dilemma about finding a place with a decent listening room(s) while satisfying several other constraints, we thought it might be fun to share our experiences. You know, as kind of just-what-can-happen tale of audiophiles trying to find a home that ‘works’ for audio as well as for the mundane aspects of life.
Our needs are slightly different than most people, which hopefully will allow us to get something that most people pass over [so it will be cheaper] but which we find AWEsome.
Specifically:
- A big listening room 15×25 feet or bigger if possible, with a big window with a view at the speaker end [our room at Newport was 13×18 ft. This is kind of an absolute minimum]
- A smaller listening room with solid corners for the Audio Note speakers, hopefully with some kind of window with a view there too.
- Two more rooms for our offices.
- An attached garage to put crates and packing material
- Oh yeah, a room to sleep in. We’re OK with one of the offices being in here if the room is not too small.
- Mid-Peninsula where it is warm [Neli likes it warm] and close-ish to most of the Bay Area [for the business]
This is more difficult than imagined – but at least most places have an attached garage here [I will always remember the day before a RMAF, carrying the 120lb Edge Signature One amps, covered in bath towels, stumbling down the 45 steps in a blizzard that had just dropped 6 inches of new snow while Neli and Steve G. were down at the storage unit in Boulder picking up boxes we had forgot to get earlier, with no doubt their own fun times ;-)]. <neli> yeah. driving a F rental truck in the snow [up and down the mountain]. Ugh.
What We Want
[Steve Jobs’ old house in Woodside]
What We Can Afford
[Adorable garage-cottage mid-peninsula:-)]
North Peninsula Townhouse with Awesome View
This is the place we looked inside of first [after driving by about a dozen places all over the peninsula].
Well. A room that is octagonal, like our listening rooms in Boulder. We know all about setup in rooms like this after 20 years of living in them. But this is a dining room, and the length is not great enough to put a couch, or even a chair, in the sweet spot.
And… townhouse? We are thinking that one on the end, and ‘end unit’, where the listening room is farthest from the wall shared with the neighbors, might work OK. Neli really does blast opera a lot, so, ….maybe not 🙂
The main living room of this place has a diagonal corner. [Bad]. Plus the speaker would have to go in the doorway between the dining room and living room. [we can live with this]. The left speaker would also block the door to the deck [which means we can never barbecue. Hmmmmmm]
Nice view though. Can see all of mid bay to downtown San Francisco.
So. No go for this one though a comparatively reasonable price makes it somewhat seductive, even with all the problems.
Looks like this will take some time….
