Upgrading Connections at AcousTech Mastering

It goes without saying that there are many controversies and debates in the perfectionist audio/LP collector market.

But one area of near universal agreement is the quality of mastering that emerges from Kevin Gray’s custom-built AcousTech Mastering studio in Camarillo, CA. Kevin, along with Steve Hoffman, has provided many of the best sounding new and reissued albums on LP during the last 5 or 6 years working out of AcousTech.

When Ron and I agreed that AcousTech (and Kevin and Steve) was the place we wanted to do the transfers for our Music Matters Blue Note reissue program I began to think about the connectivity issue at Acoustech. As VP of product development at AudioQuest since 1983, the knowledge that cables make a difference is hardly new to me!

An inspection of the AcousTech facility revealed adequate wiring (mostly from Canare I believe) but hardly the stuff of audiophile dreams. As great as the output of AcousTech has been, I knew we could push the performance of this system significantly higher by improving the wiring of both the line level connections as well as the many AC cables in the chain. Kevin quickly agreed to give it a try.

The improvement we heard (by comparing before and after acetates) was substantial. It was clear that AcousTech Mastering had made a significant improvement to the facility. Through my many years at AQ (Bill Low and I shipped out of his garage back when I started at AQ in 1983) I have become quite familiar with the kind of musically important improvements that can be made when the cabling is made to be more of what it should be…..a sonically “invisible” conduit to the source.

After hearing the difference the AudioQuest cable made in his mastering set up, Kevin Gray had this to say: “I found the change with the AudioQuest cable to be subtle at first. It didn't really change tonality like many other cables I have auditioned. What it DID do is allow you to hear further INTO the music. Subtle directional and spatial cues became clearer and more defined without brightening or hardening the sound. I really appreciate this. So many cables I have heard tend to harden or soften one area of the frequency spectrum and everyone goes ‘Ooh, ahh!’. I don't want that. I just want definition. AudioQuest offers the finest sense of that I have ever heard.”

The sonic results of this improvement are being heard not only on the Music Matters series of Blue Note reissues, but everything coming out of AcousTech. Ron and I naturally decided not to make the improved wire a “Music Matters only” feature. After all, we are music lovers first and foremost.

We think you will be quite pleased with the improvement we have managed to squeeze out of an already state of the art mastering facility at AcousTech.

With the music in mind….

Joe and Ron
Music Matters Ltd.

 

Thanks for sharing Joe. Great stuff to know.

 

Great news! I was already excited about the upcoming Music Matters series, I can't wait to hear the results!

 

Excellent news.