by Michael

Going to California II

Continuing our search for the new location for our home / store… in the general Silicon Valley area.

[Yes. This song is about L.A. but same state, right? Tried to find a good Jefferson Airplane version of this The Mamas & The Papas song. But nada. But this is a nice rendition].

In many ways it would be great if the house would have rooms that are about average. Average size, rectangular, real corners, tall but not too tall, etc. This so people can come and hear something and be sure that it will sound the same in *their* home.

But so many audiophile homes do not have ‘average’ rooms – there is a hallway to the side of one of the speakers, or one side of the room opens into a dining room or something. The roof is slanted as the listening room is just one area in a home with a cathedral ceiling. Often there may be a fireplace with a large hearth between the speakers. And on and on, an audiophile’s travail. [These ALL were the case with our main listening room in Boulder. So it was ‘average’ if not for the 24 foot ceiling and octagonal walls.

But, one can [should] *try* to get the ‘perfect room’ [without building one] when one moves. Right? Right???

Which is what we are doing here… with some degree of frustration we must admit.

Upper Peninsula

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This is the living room – a little narrow but in other ways the perfect room for us. Long-ish, Reasonably tall. Rectangular. With a window with a view at one end. Both Audio Note and Acapella speakers would work here.

airport-2-IMG_20160609_131033

This is the larger, family room in this house.

Awesome, awesome views. Big rooms. Most are rectangular. A nice big garage for all the crates.

Really perfect.

But…

E-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e [whew! knew that, right? :-)]

Plus, it is in one of the colder areas of the Peninsula – and Neli is sensitive to the cold.

And… The neighborhood was off-putting – getting glared at by the neighbors. [So many people fear change, leading to anger … but not so many of them here in Silicon Valley]. Pretty good security, I guess, but Life is too short.

So moving on…

We would love to find a listening room big enough for the large Acapella Apollon speakers [or even larger Poseidon speakers :-)]. I mean, if one is going to try and find a place that will host several audio systems, why not be a little ambitious [crazy]? 🙂

in California / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments
 by Michael

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:

  1. 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]
  2. A smaller listening room with solid corners for the Audio Note speakers, hopefully with some kind of window with a view there too.
  3. Two more rooms for our offices.
  4. An attached garage to put crates and packing material
  5. 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.
  6. 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-house-woodside

[Steve Jobs’ old house in Woodside]

 

What We Can Afford

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[Adorable garage-cottage mid-peninsula:-)]

North Peninsula Townhouse with Awesome View

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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 🙂

north-bay-view-2-IMG_20160608_132019

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….

 

in California 0 comments