What made it so great?

So why was it so good?

George Haralabopoulos

An ecclesiastic era for music reproduction

As if the skies over the Parthenon gave way to shadows and paths to the light gleaming below, we tonight at George’s home became one with each other, one with the world and one with music.

Never have I experienced such a passionate vision, from a listener of high end reproductive machines place so much emphasis on the simple impression of sound.

Never have I wanted to scream to heaven that now I understand what it is like, and I will fight for ever to achieve it.

Now I finally understand why the A.C.A president wants us to fight for true musical reproduction and nothing in between or half way results, since the top is worth reaching and everyone that is involved in music deserves to climax within his own person, through his system.

Everyone lucky enough to be with us tonight, was wooed by the musical choices made by our host. From Aretha Franklin, to Black Sabbath, and in between some Carl Orff and Rossini, we not only heard music, we heard our hearts fall in love again. Just like when we were kids. Totally and unconditionally given to the souls of those who performed for us tonight. And I say this because even the digital source was so in tune with the system, had it been a blind test we would have all sworn it was an LP playing. For this to happen, it is impossible. I have never lived it and for most tonight neither had they, but it did.

For once in my life I felt so many emotions from a digital source and when Emerson-Lake palmer was played for us. I could feel the emotion in the room heightened by the shear temperature of the room rising!! This was not a stereo to be reckoned with. It was a life of passion and health through music.

Sure it was not perfect in EVERY aspect, mostly when it came to the low end bass, but the mid band and highs were so comfortable and evident that the song Unforgettable by Aretha Franklin took on a whole new meaning to it.


And this is what made almost everything just simply remarkable.

Mercedes Sosa was so alive, the soundstage so full, with every guitar in its exact position that we ended up speculating over what is focus and what is not, after our listening session. No matter how we phrased it, it all came down the to same denominator. And you can guess what that was……Pure heaven.

I do wish the DIY amplifier though was bigger, because I wanted it louder and I didn’t want it to stop. It was the first time I didn’t want to hear what the other A.C.A members wanted to say, and I sat there in awe of what I was experiencing that nothing that can be written in words, can make up for so much feeling!

It was not just music, it was a life time of trial and error, it was a sense of belonging and it was a wisdom only a few people in my life have found.

This is what makes A.C.A such an incredible place to belong to. Not for the machines, but for the rare moments like this when someone’s entire life can be heard through two speakers and a system he has created.

I am not sure if I can ever listen to my stereo again. With all due sincerity it is hard to imagine what is going to happen to me tomorrow when I warm up my tubes and place my LP down and wait to hear something even close to what I felt tonight.

For me, George will go down in the hall of fame in A.C.A for the most sensitive and kind man of all. And even if he doesn’t get the acclaimed adjective placed next to him, I can only hope one day, I too can be as close to Kingdom come as he has done.



George, thank you from all of us. We are grateful for the ever lasting amount of passion and emotion you gave us tonight. Tonight we rejoice. Tonight we smile, and tonight we dream, even with our eyes open. Because tonight you opened our eyes to what it is all about. And for that, the word thank you, is simply not enough.

Den xorepsa mono egw

H pragmatiki alithea htan pos eixa xronia na xorepso, kai ti, latin, enas xoros pou theli kai sigekrimenes kinisis kai rithmo pou h to exeis mesa sou, h den to exeis, opos ego paradeigmatos xari.

Eixa kalesi ton anologo kosmo na voithisi, parolo pou den sikothike kan apo thn thesi tous na kanoun esto kai enan xoro, hrthan apo upoxreosi, alla ekei emeine.


Ego den eimai katholou sigouros gia to ean boro na xorepso leeo stin Anna Sophia, kai mou leei, aplos klise ta matia sou kai niose thn mousiki. Den exo ksanaxorepsi mazi tis, dioti opos exoume katadisi twra me ths sxesis, sto krevati pas pio grigora apo to na tin valis stin kouzina, h akoma kai na vgeis na xorepsis, opos ta palia xronia.

Irthe h stigma pou eipa oti prepei na xorepso, dioti ithele h ASophia kai pragmatika den iksera to apotelesma, dioti, den exo xorepsi pote latin, ektos apo mia for a me duo Brazilianes didimes se ena krouazieroploio, pou oute kai afto kratise polu. Kateftheian sto psito, kai exasa to monadiko mathima pou tha ekana. Ftou!

Katevika sthn pista kai adi na kliso ta matia mou, kathomoun me ta matia mou karfomena stin AS, gia oti nomiza htan gia wres, kai h matia tis htan toso vathia, kai me toso noima, pathos kai ilikrinia pou ta podia mou eleftherothikane apo tin sklavia oxi monon tis kathimerinotitas, alla kai tis idias mou h psixi. Pou thelo h den thelo na paradexto einai sklavos teleftaia se pragmata pou den aksizoun toso sthn zoh, oso to fegari na fegi sthn thalassa, ta matia tis AS, kai h mousiki na reei mesa mou san Heroin mesa sthns flebes mou.

Mona tous kinithikan ta podia mou, den me endiefere ean xoreva kala h oxi, eimoun ston kosmo mou me tin AS kai afto oso kai asteio na akougetai agapita meli tou ACA, mou ekane ena klick sto mualo, pou gia liga defterolepta, h gei, o kosmos mas, eixe nohma.

Den sas kourazo allo me ta dika mou kai sinexizo.


O Xristos htan telios, oxi monon eixe eleftherothi apo ta desma tou kalou disimatos, kati pou oute ego oute o Malakas Medrinos eixame kataferi kai htan enas Proedros aksios sevasmou prosopou, kai oxi aplos onomatos kai thesis, sto kato kato ths grafis who cares gia titlous? Xorepse san adras me xari, agapi, kseniasia, kefi, kai xoris fovies, prokataleipsis kai ola ta upoloipa pou ego ean eimoun proedros tha eixa. Alla na giati aftos einai, kai ego den eimai. Den exo ta arxidia tou na kano afto pou ekane apopse, oxi monon na einai o proedros mas, na mas adiprosopefsi, alla kai xoreftis, kai oikodespotis kai kai kai...Pragmati enas Xristos pou agapisa, pera apo ths plakes kai vlakies pou exoume kai tha sinexizoume na kanoume edw sto forum.

H Popph htan thea, skalismeni apo ta vouna tou Olymbou, elabe elliniko fos, den thn exo dei toso omorfi kai laberi, htan ksekathara h gunaika ths braduas. H kardia ths htan to A kai Ω ston kanape, kai pragmatika mou ekane ediposi pou edeixne thn agapi tis gia tous guro, den fovotan na to deiksi, Htan tolmiri kai gnisia. Apistefti pragmatika! Den exo logia na perigrapso thn thespesia parousia ths sto apopsino Latin live sthn Glyfada. Eprepe na thn deite.

O Nmendrinos eipe oti eixe na xorepsi h gunaika tou 16 xronia, kai apopse xorepse, kai aftos gia ligo. Eida oti vgike apo ta kaloupia pou ton trone edo kai xronia kai eida enan toso euxaristo Niko pou xarike polu. Den ton ksero oso kala ton kserete eseis oloi, dioti den erxete se meetings, alla apopse eida enan Niko pou thelo na gnoriso, thelo na tou doso thn ektimisi pou tou aksizei kai tou armozi, otan toulaxiston einai o eaftos tou.

O Costas, enas kai monadikos, filikos, kai euxaristos, ti na po gia afton, askopi grafi, afou ton kserete.

Kai genika oloi, htan ena xamogelo sthn kainourgia enia pou eixa ekeines tis stigmes pou sas evlepa olous na xorevete kai na gelate kseniasta.

Sas euxaristo polu pou mou dosate thn eukairia na sas gnoriso kai na katalavo ti anthropoi eisaste oloi sto ACA.

Sas sixero olous, enan enan, kai as min egrapsa gia sas edw.

Kalhmera kai kalhnuxta.

The theory of music and sex is old (although not documented as much as it should be). Most people think that some forms of music are created as to bring out the animal instinct in us, thus want to commit to the act. Driving oneself into a frenzy while listening to music that makes his heart beat faster and want to “get down tonight” is not only common knowledge but proven by scientific research. Or is it?

Everyone thinks that music is a type of sex or natural form of sexuality because it makes you want to dance, and dancing is a form of expression. Thus music brings on the need for sex. Does sex, as music transport you to another space and time dimension though? I feel not. Sex can only take you so far, while music has no limits.

Sex is 80% mental, this is a fact, and thus sex is controlled by the mind up to a point. Hence what we call fantasy, mind over sex, by simply changing our thinking. In reality, if you lose the mental control of sex, you have lost the best part of your sexual experience. Even when you think it is just physical, it is most of the time mental, when in need of sex, but during those moments of sex, do you want music or not?

Most answers were:

Yes, we want background music, otherwise we cannot concentrate.
Yes music is great before and after, but not during. For mood enchantment, and chilling down afterwards.

OR

Music is great, it gives us the rhythm and
Music makes us make love longer!
Music makes us do it better.
Music is like a drug, it makes you do things you otherwise wouldn’t.

I had the same answers in my very unbiased one to one survey of almost 200 sexually active people, 50% couples and the remaining singles, again the same split between women and men, not enough to make an accurate T-score, but just enough to get an idea of what it might be worth studying, or getting another P. hD in.

My personal opinion is not established here, but before for preparatory deed, I do believe songs like “Let’s get it on” Barry White, do get some neurons/hormones going and does set the mood for a sensual evening. As for other types of music preferred is Café del Mar CD’s.

That is a lot of information to dwell on only in a few paragraphs, and one could discuss a few more things, but let’s change the subject and get to the music and to the lyrics of the songs we hear. Frank Sinatra sung “Love and Marriage” and is still sung by most but as a trifle to a television series or just as a quote. Nobody thinks it’s a real song, and surely no one sings it at parties!

Pop music does not show a reality of things happening in life, Why is this? Why do songs never talk about what is really happening, but rather what should be happening if we ever make it after a one night stand, which nowadays means having a relationship.

Can you imagine issues such as gay/lesbian trends in pop music? Will George Michael ever sing "He's the boy of my dreams?"

In real life, despite the preponderance of pornography or such college pastimes as spring break and "Girls Gone Wild," sexual freedom, if it exists, exists underground, only to surface in pop music videos.

And to reflect back on the gay/lesbian thing, not even MTV is ready for out and out homosexual expres​sion(however, two girls having sex somehow manages to escape homosexual radar).


Rap videos (and no less heavy metal and other sub-genres), are filled to the brim with sexy people, mostly guys surrounded by a bevy of women.

Clearly, we are confused about sex, love and marriage, in culture, and in pop music.

When you hear music, does it make you want to have sex, or does it make you want to get married?

Is true love, or love that lasts forever, something that defies the institution of marriage? Do love songs poetically exist on another level that holds love as the ultimate ideal, regardless of who loves who?

When the next songwriter writes, "I want to funk all night," someone needs to ask who, exactly does the character in the song want to funk all night? Is the character married? Is the one to be funked, married?

Is it OK to funk all night, as long as you're not married? Of course, married people are perfectly capable of funking all night, but, with each other, not some stranger who disappears with the morning light.

Too many questions, and not enough space to write the answers. All in all, over 65% of the people asked in the survey said they did not want music during the deed, while the rest hated the idea of Metal playing, but did want some type of soft, no lyrics, no thinking music as a background for the neighbours not to hear or the children.

This was written only as a summation of the study done by an A.C.A member for educational/entertainment purposes only. Please do not have sex if you are a Christian under the Roman church before marriage or any other religion if it states so. Sex is not love. Love is the church, and church is God, so don’t funk with God!

price, pret /pl. preturi
cable, cablu /pl. cabluri,
poweramplifier, amplificator de putere/ amplificatoare de putere
pre amp, pre amp / pre amp-uri
cd, cd / cd-uri
turntable, pick-up/ pick-up -uri
room, camera / camere
bass, bass
treble, tripla
midrange, medii (sunete medii)
wood, lemn
steal, otel
horn, horn
woofer, woofer
tweeter, tweeter
shape, forma
highs, inalte
subwoofer, subwoofer
the words best, cel mai bun din lume
great for money, bun pentru acest pret
good sound, un sunet bun
sound, sunet
analogue analog

CD
Gimell productions
1998
Oxford, England
Printed USA
Division of Polygram

A little history of the prophet, before getting into the CD per ce;

The prophet Jeremiah was active in Jerusalem during the tragic period of the city's destruction by the Babylonians, which occurred over several stages. Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns of various kings: beginning in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah (626 BCE), and then Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah, and during the brief rule of Gedaliah ben Ahikam, whose assassination in ca. 585 BCE marked the final end of the remaining Jewish community in Judah and Jerusalem and symbolized the conclusion of the First Temple period.

Jeremiah prophesied an ineluctable, unavertible disaster.

He launched his prophetic mission in his native village of Anathoth, but was rejected by the villagers.

Jeremiah castigated the people bitterly for forsaking God and the Torah and turning to idolatry.

With a sense of the inevitability of a terrible punishment, he felt disgusted with his life. Gradually he became the leading exponent of the approach which called for surrender to Babylonian might and not attempting a rebellion against its awesome strength under the auspices of Egypt. This was considered a defeatist stance and as such was rejected both by the people and by the various kings during whose reigns Jeremiah uttered his prophecies.

He himself rejected the idea that Jerusalem and the Temple had an almost magical inviolability.

Viewed as a traitor, Jeremiah was declared an outlaw during the reign of Zedekiah and placed in detention until the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. He saw the shattering of the last hope for the survivors of the carnage: the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians had appointed to rule over Judah. Although Jeremiah was saliently a prophet of apocalypse, he emphasized the temporary nature of the destruction and the consolation to be found in the certainty of the nation's return to its land.

For more http://jeru.huji.ac.il/eb35l.htm

Although not Catholic, the story of Jeremiah, I believe, must be given for someone to read, previous to listening to the CD. But it may not be so at all, as it has proven itself.

Just because magic is not understood, it can be enjoyed nevertheless the same!

The CD was recorded in the Church of ST Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk, England, and includes the 6 tracks making 72 minutes and 45 seconds a unique experience indeed.

Ferrabosco the Elder, Thomas Tallis, Antoine Brumel, Robert White, and lastly Palestrina reproduce lamentations one to three, (5vv) and for Holy Saturday, lesson 3,(6vv).

Directed from Peter Phillips (now if you don't call that IRONY what is? Phillips recording for Polygram!)


If you are Proprious recording lover, you will certainly enjoy this explicit church, complete voice, no organ presentation of the Lamentation.

Track one, 9.59 seconds, penetrates walls, time and even the room of where you sit taking you straight to the church where it was recorded. The female vocals, will take you to heaven, or at least as close as you can get while listening to CD during this track. I have used this track for several patients, and have found it is not only remarkable in its power to reconstruct what the poem wanted to create, but also in creating peace of mind within the nine minutes and fifty nine seconds it magically reproduces.

The Klipsch Horn comes to mind if this CD was to be played, but even on a pair of Audio Physic, down to the smallest set, the Yaris, the sound was just as good, open and passionate to the point of harmonios delusion.


The male vocals, tenors, set track two, with explicit unification of souls, rather than voice. It's support of female vocals, represents the melodious architecture of the poem, which do not throw the female voice to hights beyond the clouds, as track one, but bring out a natural belonging to any system, any ear, and most hard to believe, any religion!

Track three by Thomas Tallis again, will bring the same reason to life as with the last track and when Brumel comes in on track 4 to give the solo vocals in prism of a church as well as a show of encumpassing vocal sublimity, if you are not on cloud nine by now, nothing will take you there!

My favorite, track one and six, by Palestrina, The lamentations of Holy Saturday lesson 3 (6vv) just makes my mind stop dead in its tracks! (no pun intended).

In conclusion:

Listening to this CD makes you believe that the survival of mankind is not an action towards a comet, and our end is not an Armageddon.

My impression from this CD as I closed the lights, the valves to cool the pre, and the CD player, was that there is a God which some people have found. A God which cannot be reproduced in flesh but certainly by spirit of mankind and through his voice.

This CD creates images which will stamp your soul, not by its entity, nor its parts alone, but the compilation of internal schemata which will start a chain reaction to the devine.

Only to be listened to by those who wish to learn, live and die. A complete CD with good quality recording and by far, an experience to own and to live with.

I just don't know why I had not written about if for 7 years? When I went on holidays with maxg and bought it because I liked the cover! Only to find myself listening to word-painting on a masterpiece of religious bitterness of Jeremiah's complaints, and freely elegiac that make this music so stunning. In reality, because it is a religious CD, with music played at specific times of the year, I thought it was not worthy of mention. And for some reason tonight which I might not be able to write on paper just yet, I said to myself, I was wrong.

I will finish using the translation of Tallis, c.1505-1585

Aleph

How desolate lies the city that was once
thronged with people
The one-time queen of nations
has become as a widow.
Once a ruler of provinces
she is now subject to others.

Beth.

By nights she weeps in sorrow
and tears run down her cheeks.
Of all who love her,
there's none to console her.
All her friends have spurned her
and have become her foes

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
turn to the Lord, your God.

What can you expect from Costas Daras. A young individual who normally sits quietly in a corner and once in while without revealing his real extravert inertia comes forward to bring a pair of wires or two, to say something which he has never said with words. What are those words? simply, LISTEN TO THIS! LEARN!

So when you drive half way around South Africa to find his home, (where else would such an introvert be but in the hiding), you expect to see something totally different than what most of us saw.

A normal human being!

So normal and so refreshingly good that he doesn’t belong in our absolute nut house of over the top abnormally egoistic virile group of sadistic machine freaks and music lovers! ME included!

But as the night progressed, and in his choice of music which he chose for us, the real Costas came out, where we tossed and turned from the drum Improvisation, by Jim Keltner, a CD which I have heard and learnt off by heart from being an IASCA judge for years in the past.

I know this track so well, I can play it with spoons on a kitchen table. Or I thought so until the MG 2,7 Qr’s proved me wrong. But we will get to that later, for now let me continue about Costa proving to be an uncanny in every good sense of the word audiophile.

Not only did he put on a drum disc for his first song, playing on a speaker that does not fame itself on bass, but then flew us from Carl Orff, to Frank Zappa withing15 minutes! I mean this guy is the 2nd worst DJ in the world, the first being myself. He played so many types of music that it was not weird to me at all. Which means it must have upset other people (I am not insinuating Max Goodman, of course not!) who hates Frank Zappa, to the point of calling it torture! Not to mention the Greek music!
I mean what kind of nut would play music like that to a bunch of audiophiles but me.
Maybe the kind of nut that loves his hobby, enjoys his music and doesn’t give a hoot if anyone likes it or not!

Which suddenly makes Mr.Daras an outcast in our group of the aforementioned egotistical bees!

Down to the music….And to the machines producing it.

Personally I loved 3 things about the system which are really 4 if you include the speakers. I thought the Kuzma Stabi is perfect for his taste of listening and table (Voyd ‘Valdi’) and secondly his Sony CDR W66, which I have personally owned, and never heard it play like that before. After that, the Gamut D200 MK3 which drove the speakers to a comfortable and even loud sound pressure level, even good enough for me, who loves to hear loud sometimes.

I do have to mention the downfalls, being the Benz micro MC2 which was more used than some of the 1950 trolleys in down town Athens! And the fact that RPG’s were needed so much that I was trying to hear the music with the effect of a diffuser and with the curtain closed to imagine the depth it missed and filling effect that a woofer gives, but ribbons do not, unless the room is conditioned just for listening.(that was a run on sentence but it is 446 am, so please give me a break)

Let us start from the song list and go down. From there you will understand what I mean.

As we said before, Jim Keltner in a CD drum improvisation, where the drums were always the improvisation until I heard it on Costa’s system. Although the drums were not thumping or deep enough, or even big enough to reproduce the 18 inch drum, the metal acoustics of the improvisation was so good, that nowhere have I heard it better.

What did I expect, I expected it to be really bad, but in its totality it was coherent with what Costa hears and wants to hear, without intrusions of big bass wallowing his stomach muscles as I would. Which is totally wrong on my behalf of course.

The timing seemed slow off the Sony, at start, but kept up with the fastest drum beating later on, and the silence was dramatic and beautiful, the essence of stereo could be so fully enjoyed that it was a pleasure in every aspect of listening to it from where I was sitting at least. They symbols were so clear, with perfect height against the drum on the floor it was a dream in itself, with tempo to carry over to the next century.

Song number 2. Carl Orff, and our favorite Carmen Burana revealed the speakers lack of RPG’s, and or positioning of the speakers. The lack of depth, body, and staging was evident, or maybe it could have been the CD recording. It was totally off compared to what I know it to play, and it showed that it was not a system set up for orchestral works of large sizes. In general the speaker setup was perfect for voice and for a few instruments, but the space allocated to the speakers, and the asymmetric right and left spaces cannot accommodate pieces as such.

Tune 3 was Gary Karr, O holly night, a beautiful display of voice and love encompassing our ears, a true delight, with devastating character, no harshness and with curtains closed much better! (sorry for those who could not hear the difference, it might have been your seating arrangement).

Esther Ofarims, una matica de ruba, a true gospel (not literally) was next, with a voice that brought inner peace, impeccable speed, but a lack of depth and presence while the drums were hit by hand. The big sound was not there, but the voice didn’t need anything else to prove, that was all you needed to hear!

Frank Zappa on CD reminded me of my love for Fender and for screeching guitars, but on this system nothing of that sort happened. The Gamut did a wonderful job here and although others call this type of music harsh, I thought it was wonderful and it was FUN! You could not hear the amp playing, but I didn’t care. What I cared about was the affect of me wanting to bring out a bottle of Jim Beam and wiggle my romp and shake my head.

The TT was turned on and the spinner was going to show how incredible these speakers can be! The choice was perfect for me, PINK FLOYD, On the run, from Dark side of the moon. Then Time, which was astonishingly clear and precise, with timing to match and the LP just sang itself to heaven. But that was cut short since the needle needs a needle doctor ASAP and the voices in the songs were unnaturally unnatural! But as someone said, if you have not heard this song before, it was like walking though an alley or labyrinth where you knew nothing of where you would be in the next few seconds. It was a moving piece of music and the setup brought forward in its own way. If it were not for the needle, I am sure it would have sounded 100% better, and it already sounded good until the metal got too soft. Here is where the diffusers would have done some amazing work, since channel separation existed, but depth was flowing back and forth with a female voice which was nothing less than beauty to my soul. Although there was a certain colorless metallic, although not harsh at all, but surgical cut within everything that was hard strung. Others like it or not, it depends on what stage you are in, during your listening period of your life, I remember listening to harshness and loving it. Now I have to agree with Costas but even go further and allow some color to come through the pre which was not up to par with the amp.

Then I made the drastic mistake of going to sit at the back of the crowd and from song 8 to 12 I could make out the music, even couldn’t help myself to sing along with it, but I am in no position to tell you how it was speaking in high fidelity terms.

But I can tell you about the food, the extremely subtle and gentle parents, the amazing drawings on the walls which were done by Costa himself and his outstanding partner which was and is, his other half. It was glorious to see someone so much in love with his partner and it was even better to see parents which were so nice, no words can even come close to describing there hospitality.

Thank you Costa. You are a true lover of music and you are not afraid to play it with your own taste of music, you showed us your taste and you welcomed us into your home. Thank you. I cannot say it enough times, but that is the way I feel. I could only wish others could write and not only me, because I am sure they would say the same.

What were your positive experiences. Not only the meeting of members, but the learning and lust of machines that drove us wild, and the mistakes we made and the things we said to each other....but then again that goes to the bad side......woooops...

Tony sometimes I have a difficult time following your thoughts...

I just thought that not everything could have been bad during the past decade. And I am sure of it. So I wrote a few articles which were in my history books and put them back here for some people to remember about the good, not just the bad.

I would hate to think that it was all bad, that means we are in general, really sick people. ALL OF US!

Most of the things were good Tony...

As we know, it is very hard to create something but very easy to destroy it.

In our case the egocentric character of a few people was enough.

Rome was taken down in a night.....so the same applies here....