Cautionary Tale: Audiophile's dream's end... Make sure to find balance, audiophiles.

 I remember a couple of years ago, I saw this YouTube documentary on Ken Fritz:

[Available as audio podcast summary.]

That is certainly an impressive demonstration of dedication and passion poured into the sound room and audio system! Few would have such tenacity, disposable financial resources, or apparent family support. Admittedly, I wondered while watching that video just how well those massive DIY speakers integrated into the room and what measurements would have told us about frequency response and time-domain performance. There's a low resolution frequency response graph here. Yeah, I'm sure the system could play loud with 35,000W* of amplification.

And 2 years later, sadly, the final chapter of the life story was published a few weeks back:

He spent his life building a $1 million stereo. The real cost was unfathomable.

I guess we'll never know exactly how that system sounded like now that everything has been taken apart. What looks like 27 years of labor and $1M original price was dismantled and sold off for $157k total in a comparatively short time. Clearly, neither the family nor the new home buyers had need for the extravagant system in the large room. The dead might at best influence, but cannot declare the will of the living.

Here's a detailed description and list of components. Obviously, audio/music items are generally not investment vehicles unless it's attached to someone very special (like maybe say Hendrix's guitar amp). These things we talk about are for the consumption of music primarily. The non-investable nature of these products is especially true of DIY items given that the quality of such items are unknown even if the bits and pieces like speaker drivers could be from a reputable brand. Over time as components degrade, it could be difficult performing repairs on non-standard builds.

* Regarding the impressive "35,000W" number, it looks like he had four Crest Audio Pro 9200 amps which are Class H rail-switching Class A/B type design for efficiency, rated at 6,500W each when running bridged mono into 4Ω, <1% THD+N. These are designed for commercial purposes like PA systems used in touring. I suppose just with those 4 units, one could already quote "26,000W of power". Obviously, that's not particularly impressive and it's doubtful that his speakers would even need a small fraction of wattage numbers like that! 

As usual, there's no need to be impressed with wattage values since what we want is quality over quantity and a few hundred good watts should be all we ever need in a good sound system depending on speaker sensitivity and room size. Just don't go deaf with excess loudness and distortion! Best is to go estimate what you need yourself.

For me, the most interesting part in the whole system was the 3 front speakers. I wonder if that center channel is ever used when not doing multichannel or movies. If so, what kind of processing did he use? I see he has a Krell Evolution 707 that can decode with Dolby Pro Logic IIx.

Here's the auction page on eBID. I found it amazing that those speakers were sold off for a mere US$10,100 despite the US$216,000 appraisal based on the parts! I suspect Ken would be horrified to know this. The fact that they were 1400 lbs each, 9.5' tall must have disqualified them from the homes of most audiophiles. As usual, the most expensive component of an audiophile's sound system should be the room/house, not the components themselves although speakers also should be up there as being important for good sound. Too often, we see pictures of megabuck hardware in tiny mediocre spaces stuffed with all kinds of other components, shelves of LPs, etc. and the listening chair typically shoved near a rear wall. Simply unimpressive regardless of how fancy the brand names or what amounts of dollars were offered for the products.

Since it's public information, and we know the address from the auction, here's a look at the house in North Chesterfield, Virginia within which was that sound room:

The house looks nice but certainly far from lavish outside. It was initially built in 1964 and the property is currently valued at US$457k in early 2024 and the family sold it already according to the WaPo article. Clearly, between the headline $1+M for Ken's building costs excluding his own time over 27 years, the final auction price of $157k for all the gear, a mere $10.1k sold for those three speakers, and the value of the whole property at $457k, I think there are some understandably mixed feelings around the disparity, the imbalances, wrapped up in this story whether one is an audiophile or simply an observer of financial stewardship, the human spirit and what drives our psychology.

Obviously we should not be too judgmental about this and consider that Ken must have enjoyed what he made and that journey must have been fulfilling for him. However, my belief is that as with any passion, we do need to be careful of the risks if one is living within the fringes of the audiophile obsession playing with such toys. Unless the pay-off is good because you're potentially making money off this stuff, it's important as consumers to not get too sucked in with audiophilia or any other costly activities with "diminishing returns". IMO, what we spend on this stuff should be disposable time and income easily paid off in cash, not stealing time from other much more important tasks. No matter what, little good can come from spending too much time and money at the expense of the family's quality of life if all is gone.

Whatever dreams we may have, whatever passions, I think it's always good to remember that these hardware toys we're playing with are just things. No matter how great one's system, one day, capacitors leak, wires break, power supplies give out, and there will always be a better toy out there. As Shelley cautioned:

          ...

And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Eventually, ourselves and all that we own in this material world will at best be but empires of sand and dust.

I think it's wise to make sure to enjoy the music first rather than ruminate over the hardware especially these days given the phenomenal quality at very reasonable prices. And through the seasons of life, find balance with all the other demands that make life fulfilling. Except for the names of the extraordinary few individuals that would live on in history on the tongues of others, only our family and friends are all that may remember us for a time fondly.

I suppose the name Ken Fritz might live on on-line and among audiophile lore as a result of the videos and various articles over the years. I'm not sure this is the kind of legacy or memory that most of us would want to leave behind though.

Embrace life. Love others. Enjoy the music. Be mindful of one's own gluttonous appetites. Don't feed Snake Oil salesmen. In that approximate priority order.

Addendum: October 2024 - for those who prefer to listen to the core contents, here's the A Dive Into... audio podcast summary of "Cautionary Tale: Audiophile's Dream's End - Ken Fritz":