Audiophile Notes #3: Prashant

Here we are again in a new Audiophile Notes appointment to end-up this particular year, challenging under many circumstances. Solidsteel team continues the hard work to provide the same excellence that worldwide distinguished the Brand in the last 30 years. As 2020 comes off we are preparing the last part of the year and organizing the upcoming one, with a lot of passion and renovated spirit for giving the best products and services to our fantastic customers all over the world.

This time we chose Mr.Prashant from India, who is a true music lover with a classic and well positioned audio system in his home with a couple of Solidsteel S2 Series Hi-Fi Racks sustaining great audio components, carefully selected. We report his beautiful own words to describe himself: “I don’t call myself an audiophile exactly, I see myself as an explorer standing before the vastness of High Fidelity music where the quest for perfections is a mere oasis, it’s a never ending journey where one doesn’t get tired but enjoys every passing milestone.” We loved it.

Prashant, how did you become passionate about high fidelity?

I grew up watching my parents being passionate about music. My father was a “vinylhead” himself and my mother an avid listener who took singing as a hobby. Somewhere down the line I grew the ears for High Fidelity and started contemplating on building my dream Hi-Fi system someday.

Describe your Hi-Fi/ AV System and tell us more about your components. Is there something from your equipment that you would never substitute?

My primary system as of now comprises of:

Project Carbon Espirit Turntable with Acrylic platter

Project Tube box DS Phono stage

Audiolab 6000N music streamer

Marantz CD5005 compact disc player

Denon DRW 695 cassette player

Cambridge Audio AXR100 receiver amplifier

Fyne Audio F302 floor standing speakers

Dali P10 DSS Subwoofer

Solidsteel S2-3 3 shelf AV Rack.

My spare room has a basic set up:

Audio Technica LP60 turntable,

Teac T1-D FM tuner

Bose companion 5 Active speakers on the backdrop of a my DIY vinyl-wall.

As I am always on the quest for better sounding music upgrades are inevitable, there is so much to explore.

What is your favorite music genre? Which are your reference albums you generally choose for “testing” your system?

My music taste has a wide spectrum, blues, jazz, alternative, psychedelic, classic rock, soundtracks, heavy metal and Indian classical too.

For testing my system I usually use Kid-A by Radiohead, Mezzanine by Massive Attack, Come away with me by Norah Jones, Symphony & Metallica by Metallica, Live at Pompeii by David Gilmour, Dummy by Portishead.

Which is your favorite “moment” of the day for listening music with your audio system?

That would be either early in the morning with my coffee or my weekend late night listening sessions that sometimes extends into the wee hours.

Which audio format do you listen most? Digital or Analogic? Can you tell us why?

I grew up to the sound of vinyls and cassettes so It will always be analog music for me. Though I use streaming services like Tidal and Spotify I would still yearn to have the same music on vinyl. The warm vinyl sound is so satisfying besides the excitement of owning your own record and the entire process of setting up your system, warming up, placing the record on the platter, dropping the needle and settling down to read the inlays counts above everything else for me.

When you first heard about Solidsteel brand?

I first read about Solidsteel in early 2015 when I was still in the planning stages of setting up my system and was looking for a sturdy, aesthetically pleasing racking solution for my components. Solidsteel ticked all the boxes.

In which terms have you noticed benefits in using Solidsteel products? (Audio quality, Design, smart components positioning) What would you recommend to other music lovers?

I am fan of the Solidsteel design philosophy, the simplicity in detail, the build quality, option to add another shelf in the future, the positioning. They are designed to enhance the beauty of your system at same time providing a firm and sturdy base for your components.

Solidsteel has a wide selection of AV racking solutions to meet any music lover’s requirement. Currently I am using the Solidsteel S2-3 3 shelf rack that best suits my needs.

Considering your attention for any aspect connected to your components, their proper position and the music room ambient, which advice do you feel to give for those who are approaching the Hi-Fi world? What is “essential” for creating a first audio system?

The most essential of the components of your entire listening experience are within you. The first being the passion for music and the second being your ears. The advice to the ones embarking on their High Fidelity journey is to train your ears to the details and the depth of music, read and gain the knowledge about AV systems, component and recognize your need and then work around it. The arena of High Fidelity music is so vast with so many minute aspects that unless we deliberately explore we are bound to remain ignorant to so many things.

What’s your feedback about emotions in music? Do you like attending music concerts, live shows and events?

Emotions are like salt in music, without emotions the music starts to sound flat. It is the emotion in the music that adds to vibe and it shapes your listening experience.

Yes I love to attend concerts and live shows whereby you gets to witness the music being created right before you. It’s a very pure and unadulterated form of musical experience.

Suggest three music albums that we absolutely can’t miss.

My three picks would be Dummy by Portishead, Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd and Sunset Mission by Bohren & Club of Gore.

(Solidsteel’s Company do not own any rights on the suggested album covers.)