AudiogoN Forums: The Whiskey Room

The Whiskey Room

  Altec Lansing Model-19 Speaker
  EAR 859 Tube amp
  Sony SCD-777ES CD Player
  Ridiculously Comfortable Chairs pic
  Baby-Poop Brown Lazy-Boy Recliner Tweak
  Diatone LT-1 Turntable

The Whiskey Room
The system is in an old landowner/merchant's house deep in the north country of Japan (in the hamlet of Kamagui in Niigata Prefecture for anyone interested in setting up an Audio Club) which we purchased and refurbished with a friend of ours.

Everything is used (only the Altecs were purchased for this system so far - the rest comes from a home system), and I am thinking of replacing the EAR and SONY before getting the DIY done because they don't look scruffy enough.

The Whiskey Room is on the 3rd floor of an old 'minka', with a view over the hamlet's rice paddies as the sun sets - the perfect place to drink a whiskey after a hard day relaxing in the countryside.

There are no room treatments ('mud-over-straw' walls are sooted with woodsmoke from when the kitchen was wood-fired and this room was the chimney to the outside), the floorboards were formerly the inside wall-boards of one of the storehouses, furniture is a couple of ugly brown vinyl armchairs and an even uglier 'baby-poop brown' La-Z-Boy recliner, and a couple of brown bar stools (all told, about $50), and an old wooden fridge. There's a tattered old Uzbeki rug on the floor which I like, and, oh-yeah, there's no heat, and not enough light.

But the view is great, and the sound is out of this world.

Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood...

T_bone (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

06-16-09

Responses (1-30 of 30)

Click title to read one, or click date to read all below it.

06-16-09 Very cool.... i've never seen anything like it! congrats! Pdreher

06-17-09 What are you listening to? more importantly, what are you dr ... Pjudice

06-17-09 I am crazy about old houses. mine is over a century old. one ... Muralman1

06-17-09 Pjudice, most of the lps currently up there are either 50s-7 ... T_bone

06-17-09 I have been to japan many, many times, but never as far nort ... Gsm18439

06-18-09 I call it 'north' because i am tokyo-based. it's actually on ... T_bone

06-19-09 T-bone, i'll give you thumbs up for the eclectic musical and ... Pjudice

06-19-09: T_bone
Thanks Pjudice. I can great wine in my neighborhood in Tokyo (3mins away I have a wine store which will give most premier wine stores in NYC or London a run for their money - and it has certainly taken a bunch of mine) but in that neighborhood, after looking long and hard, I have found a place which will, on occasion, have a barely passable table wine. I usually take my own up there (and let it settle for a month before drinking)). I have never had a really decent bottle of wine made in Japan - at least nothing for which I would willingly pay the asked price. I did have a passable pinot noir from Yamanashi once, but it was a guy with a hobby who sold his wine for close to $80 a bottle.

Sake is, on the other hand, a great alcohol. Regular sake (not the stuff in the carton) is eminently drinkable - more so than wine of the same price per glass. Good sake is very good, and there are variations like there are variations in red (or white) wine. Different rice, water, yeast cultures, outside temperatures, brewing times, serving temperatures, etc., all lead to different sake and much Japanese traditional cuisine goes well with sake. And drinking warm sake while eating a hot nabe pot dinner around a charcoal hearth on a cold winter night with friends is about as good as it gets.

Other Japanese contributions to the pantheon of great world alcohols are... well... hmmm.... I'll have to get back to you.
T_bone (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

06-19-09 I have had great wines in japan. but they are all imported a ... Gsm18439

06-20-09 I'm depressed at the thought of passable pinot noir for 80 b ... Pjudice

06-21-09 Japanese music... i have never really gotten into japanese c ... T_bone

06-21-09 So, why is it that the pleasures of good music and good drin ... Pjudice

06-21-09 I have a number of japanese jazz group cds; however, my favo ... Gsm18439

06-21-09 Pjudice, it's probably 90% in our heads. i like listening to ... T_bone

06-21-09 It's raining in nyc right now, i'm listening to assorted roo ... Pjudice

07-05-09 Now that is what i call life-fi. fun looking system, in a f ... Rottenclam

07-05-09 Rottenclam, thanks. the weird thing is that i almost never d ... T_bone

07-09-09 Very cool and satisfying music room. yes to vintage altec l ... Mjcmt

07-14-09 Thanks mjcmt, i'm venturing back into the wilds of the north ... T_bone

07-14-09 Tbone, i forgot that your in japan and magnavox was philips ... Mjcmt

07-14-09 Yes, in japan those players were sold under the philips and ... T_bone

06-04-10 I've visited your virtual system before and keep returning b ... Mjcmt

03-11-11 Tbone, i hope all is well with your family in light of this ... Mjcmt

03-11-11 Thanks for your thoughts. we're in tokyo so family is well. ... T_bone

03-12-11 Glad to hear all is well with you. i prayed for your family ... Mjcmt

03-12-11 Hi t bone we also hope all is well and are thinking you in ... Cwlondon

03-12-11 t_bone, why you live in my house? i leave for few wee ... Noble100

12-25-11 Frohe weihnachten travis eckart Thuchan

12-27-11 Thanks eckart. and to you too, and a happy new year to all! T_bone

04-15-12 There's a certain rightness about that space where, i can im ... Subseatree