| |
Of all the exotic and wonderful places I've
traveled in pursuit of Audio Nirvana, I
would have to place this trip to Istanbul as
my most memorable. Drenched in a history
that dates back many thousands of years, many
of its office buildings predate Christopher
Columbus' discovery of America are still
erect. I was overwhelmed by the hundreds of
attractions that included excursions to the
Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Byzantine
Hippodrome, Bazaars and cruises up and down
the Bosphorus Straits. This bustling city
feels as dense as Manhattan and boasts a
population of nearly 13 million people (and
continues to grow at a rapid rate).
Weather-wise the temperature was a perfect
80 degrees each of the five days spent with nary a cloud in the sky
(unfortunately, within 48 hours after
arriving home, the worst flood to hit
Istanbul in 90 years took an estimated 30
lives and caused major damage to city's
infrastructure).
Wikipedia states:
Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul, historically
also known as Byzantium and Constantinople;
is the largest city in Turkey and fifth
largest city proper in the world with a
population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also
a megacity, as well as the cultural and
financial centre of Turkey. The city covers
39 districts of the Istanbul province. It is
located on the Bosphorus Strait and
encompasses the natural harbour known as the
Golden Horn, in the northwest of the
country. It extends both on the European
(Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides
of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only
metropolis in the world that is situated on
two continents.
Kerem
Kucukaslan, president of Echole cables and
Absolare electronics, made this global meeting of the
minds as the formal unveiling of his
new Absolare preamplifier ($23k). Somehow, we stayed on
the Bosphorus each day to visit a few of the
super-elegant restaurants and ate to our
hearts delight some of the tastiest foods (meatballs)
on the planet. High-end audio luminaries
also on this trip included: Sherif El Sharkawy (Egypt),
Norbert Mundorf (of Mundorf Germany),
Frederik Caroe (of Duelund Denmark), Satoru
Murayama and Hayato Ishiguro (of Oyaide
Japan), Hoyoun Kim (of Sonoris High-End
Korea), Han de Hair (dealer, of Holland),
Igor Hocevar (of Elementare Slovenia), Per
Lundahl (of Lundahl Sweden) and my newest
friend and music lover Alphonso (of Spain).
There were many
opportunities to do some serious listening
to the Kaiser Kawero/Master Sound/Echole
setup in Kerem Kucukaslan's dedicated
listening room (as well as get a formal
background on these respective companies).
It became obvious after about two or three
songs that this
system possessed an uncommon special blend of tube
musicality and accurate bass articulation.
I visited
Kerem Kucukaslan's modification facility
located in downtown Istanbul, where the
final stages to his Echole cables are also
assembled. We also drove a few miles nearby
to visit the Absolare paint shop. One thing
I came away with from this trip with was the
amount of sweat equity Kucukaslan put into
making this company a success. My hats off
to him and his staff. I look forward to
officially reviewing the Kaiser/Absolare/Echole
combination in the not too distant future.
Stay tuned....
|
