Ken Fritz - Audiophile Documentary

[kemmler3D]

I think we should avoid that particular word -- current popular usage goes back to controversial "philosopher"/novelist Ayn Rand. "Objective" is OK, of course -- but "objectivism" has been thoroughly co-opted IMO.

Objectivism

Good point, but hopefully nobody thought I was boosting the world's most tedious and intellectually bankrupt excuse for being a jerk instead of reliance on measurements of audio gear.

 

[ta240]

I wonder if when they were first linking up computers together over longer distances they paused and thought "Someday, we will be able to gather together and judge people we have never met"

Will probably go for 10 to 20 cents on the dollar.

Who cares? He couldn't take it with him. I've begged my parents to spend their money on anything and everything that they enjoy.

Perhaps a more accurate title might be "the additional costs of mental illness".
It feels to me like a sorry story for everyone involved

If it was mental illness then I feel for him but at the same time it is the Howard Hughes thing, would you rather be hungry, cold and yelling at the sidewalk or pursuing a crazy dream in comfort?

I'll admit that I didn't read the article, it wouldn't load, but at the same time every documentary or article is written from a point of view as is pretty well pointed out in this comment.

The only real negative the long article could find in all of it was the relationship with one of his sons. He had 5 children and a good relationship with 4 of them. The article dwells on the bad relationship he had with one of his sons while briefly passing over the good relationship he apparently had with his other 4 children.

Exactly, how many other men have children they had issues with? 4 out of 5 is usually a pretty good statistic

 

[BlackTalon]

nothing in the article said or hinted that he had good relationships with any of the other 4 kids. I read as they were just less bad than the one.

 

[kemmler3D]

nothing in the article said or hinted that he had good relationships with any of the other 4 kids. I read as they were just less bad than the one.

Yeah, I think the article was pretty clear about how Fritz had an unreasonable obsession with this stereo that either hurt his relationship with his family, or was a symptom of his poor relationship with his family. If anyone was especially fond of the guy, somehow that didn't make it into the article.

It's a little weird how some want to leap to his defense, maybe because we ostensibly have a hobby in common? But I imagine that if this guy spent $1M building the world's best bathrobe collection and alienated his children in the process, nobody would find much cause to defend that...

 

[ahofer]

But I imagine that if this guy spent $1M building the world's best bathrobe collection and alienated his children in the process, nobody would find much cause to defend that..

The bathrobes would have held their value better.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The bathrobes would have held their value better.

Nope. I say after selling some nice clothes from deceased relatives. Clothes new and never worn hold little of their value.

 

[ahofer]

Nope. I say after selling some nice clothes from deceased relatives. Clothes new and never worn hold little of their value.

That was the joke…his system didn’t either

 

[neRok]

I don't think you'd get an article like this in say the 60s or 70s, saying how the man had neglected his family (true or not) to pursue his dream. I don't want to get into the politics, but although it is never mentioned by name, I wonder if what the article is suggesting is that Ken Fritz had some kind of toxic masculinity (whatever that might be).

I think the article is very much of its time, in that it does seem like it is trying to 'take him down a peg', but seeing as he is now dead and gone, to what end?

It's good to reflect and learn lessons. The following video discusses how long term happiness is correlated with the quality of your relationships. By the sound of it, Fritz failed spectacularly at this. His wife left him, multiple (maybe all) kids complain about his performance as a father, and 1 even became estranged. He probably didn't feel much regret on his death bed because it sounds like he was a massive narcissist too. Examples of this are him not letting his adult son listen to his stereo, and demanding his headphones be returned from someone who was in mourning.

 

[Vacceo]

I think we should avoid that particular word -- current popular usage goes back to controversial "philosopher"/novelist Ayn Rand. "Objective" is OK, of course -- but "objectivism" has been thoroughly co-opted IMO.

Objectivism

I guess that works for the US. No half decent philosopher over here would spend more than half a second with the mess Rand called "system".

However, in the spirit of universalism, more that objective (your feelings and mine are objective, we do indeed feel them), I prefer to consider what Amir does as "test and measure". Objective or subjective is the interpretation, the big value of this forum is both the data and the "tutorials" to understand what you're reading.

 

[Newman]

Obsession, in whatever shape or form, rarely ends well.

View attachment 341729

Ship those speakers to Amir for review

Easier to ship Amir to the speakers!

 

[Newman]

Those look like big line arrays to me, without the curve of a CBT, and unless he had a DSP system that could set variable delays on every tweeter I don't see how it could have worked all that well.

Actually, if every driver group stretches from floor to ceiling, it works perfectly with no shading. All he needed was a lower ceiling!

 

[Newman]

Great post. There is a cautionary tale here for all of us. What happens to our stuff when we pass on from this mortal coil?

We owe it to our families to make sure they don’t have to auction all our gear at 10 cents on the dollar or less.

That perspective seems like capitalism gone mad, to me. As if it’s immoral to invest our earnings in ways that deliver a low ROI? Crazy talk!

It’s immoral to think of nothing but oneself. It’s immoral to harm others physically and emotionally. If one’s legacy is all about the realizable cash value of one’s sellable assets, then that is as sad as sad can be. What about the love that one has earned with one’s loving and nurturing acts? What about the positive life-affirming values that one has displayed in daily life and instilled in one’s children? If one has ticked all those boxes, then I bet that the ROI on the assets means nothing to one’s surviving family, who are living their own lives of affirmation and achievement drawing heavily on your true legacy, and are too busy crying for the departure of a beloved friend and confidant, sharing stories of joy from one’s life and gratitude for having been part of it.

I couldn’t give a toss if his $1m hifi sells for $0.1m or $10m. The story is in the non-financial cost of his actions. And IMHO that is the cautionary tale for all of us to ruminate on with respect to our own lives, not the ROI on our assets.

Cheers

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

It's sort of the ultimate realization of the audiophile mythology - if you want better sound, throw more money at your system and you'll get better sound. There's no doubt Ken got "bigger" sound for his money. But that doesn't necessarily mean better sound. I've been to a lot of concerts over the years, and I don't think any of them could hold a candle to the sound quality I get from my $600 headphone setup in terms of clarity and detail and instrument separation etc. I mean sure, a few of them made my bowels vibrate and my headphones can't do that, but all that gut punching power definitely came at the cost of a lot of sonic clarity. And I've never been at a live show in any large venue that had any sort of sensible spatial positioning of instruments. It's pretty much just sound coming from everywhere in my experience. I think the whole spatial positioning aspect gets over-played a lot by audiophiles. Ken put together what he felt was an amazing system. Personally, beyond the first 10K (or maybe/probably even less) dollars I think all he really got was bigger sound for an unnecessarily larger room.

 

[mhardy6647]

The bathrobes would have held their value better.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. -- Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

Bathrobes.
Moths.
Unless, of course, they're synthetic.

 

[OldHvyMec]

Lastly, I also think he must have been a bit of an asshole. The "Y" in DIY is "yourself", not "your whole family". Anyone that conscripts all of their family's time and resources to support their hobby can't be described as anything but selfish, at minimum.

I've watched this thread dip into the WBF world of pure assumptions and talking ill of the dead. No I don't like it. Nor do I care for comments about
his family life. He was a successful businessman that raised a family. He had one kid that was an ASSHOLE and as a son will realize the rest of the
family had the same choice. To embrace their fathers dream or not. I'll bet good money his first born is a full blown brat. I seldom got to see my
kids when the school years started. For 18 long years (between my two kids and their 2-30 different friends we raised) I struggled between 3 jobs.
The wife worked full-time and time spent with my family was WORK time, not play time.

I may not have gone on the family vacation, because of work, but I made sure my family had what I NEVER had as a kid. A VACATION. I came off a
working 55 acre sugar pine farm in Prattville Alabama. I was the youngest so I drove the old Ford 8N (5 years old) tractor. I remember when he had
the money for a 9N. The PTO would disengage if you depressed the clutch, nice feature.

So we are 100% clear, there are thing KIDS can say that will stop you from wanting to help them. No ifs ands or buts. 7.9 billion people on this earth now
with ONE man and a dream that has passed. His family was one lucky bunch to say the very least. His oldest could have made it right and still can by
admitting he was wrong. A simple act of contrition from a BRAT goes a long ways in the stearnest of fathers.

His oldest is very lucky that his father even mentioned his existence, my father would have struck his name from the family Bible and never spoke his name
again at some point. You can only be the prodigal son if you act like one. It's a wonderful story of redemption and JEALOUSY about BOTH sons.

I wish his family well and I personally will pray for his oldest son. I'm a praying audiophile, imagine that.

BTW My kids didn't come with instruction manuals. It's obvious with his first, his didn't either.

Side note: My only regret in my life at this point, is that I didn't have 3 wives at the same time and 15 adoring children that all married billionaires
to give me 100 grandchildren and build me a palace and a tomb. One so I can enjoy and the other so they can visit their wonderful GRANDPA after
he kicked the bucket.

Regards

 

[JP]

Amazing how easy it is to decipher a lifetime’s worth of family dynamics from one poorly written article.

 

[TheWalkman]

I've been following the Ken Lantz story for several years, and as mentioned in another thread, was fortunate enough to visit the house when they held the auction.

For an audio guy, seeing this system in person was like a visit to the Great Pyramid.

I had a very nice conversation with his daughter and several of his audiophile friends who were there to answer questions. I didn't get a bad vibe from any of them about Ken.

When I read the Post article this weekend, I was quite surprised at the family backstory and particularly about his relationship with his eldest son.

Reading these comments brings to mind the family dynamics of some friends/ acquaintances of guys with big boats - particularly sail boaters, who race. I've seen a number of these guys who are successful, Type A's with 40' plus sailboats who turn into absolute tyrants once the starting guns sound. They are obsessed with their boats and winning the race and F U N doesn't factor into the equation. That's why I no longer crew on these boats. I isn't any fun for me.

I'm betting Ken was like a number of these sailors. He was apparently a successful business man with disposable income, but I speculate that Ken probably didn't have a lot of other hobbies than his sound system. As one who apparently, didn't sit still well, it seems used all of his spare time focusing on this project.

The moral of the story, to me, is have a couple of hobbies/ passions in life, truly appreciate your friends and family and be content with a full and well rounded life filled with good (maybe not the absolute best) experiences and memories.

 

[Axo1989]

I've been following the Ken Lantz story for several years, and as mentioned in another thread, was fortunate enough to visit the house when they held the auction.

For an audio guy, seeing this system in person was like a visit to the Great Pyramid.

I had a very nice conversation with his daughter and several of his audiophile friends who were there to answer questions. I didn't get a bad vibe from any of them about Ken.

When I read the Post article this weekend, I was quite surprised at the family backstory and particularly about his relationship with his eldest son.

Reading these comments brings to mind the family dynamics of some friends/ acquaintances of guys with big boats - particularly sail boaters, who race. I've seen a number of these guys who are successful, Type A's with 40' plus sailboats who turn into absolute tyrants once the starting guns sound. They are obsessed with their boats and winning the race and F U N doesn't factor into the equation. That's why I no longer crew on these boats. I isn't any fun for me.

I'm betting Ken was like a number of these sailors. He was apparently a successful business man with disposable income, but I speculate that Ken probably didn't have a lot of other hobbies than his sound system. As one who apparently, didn't sit still well, it seems used all of his spare time focusing on this project.

The moral of the story, to me, is have a couple of hobbies/ passions in life, truly appreciate your friends and family and be content with a full and well rounded life filled with good (maybe not the absolute best) experiences and memories.

I've had that experience with friends sailing, a bit of a shock at first. I'm sure I've behaved overzealously when charged up about some things. I try to do that less as I reconsider what's important.

 

[Anton D]

Examples of this are him not letting his adult son listen to his stereo...

From the article: 'It was past 1 a.m. when Kurt, with a few drinks in him, told his father he was going to stay up later and listen to some more music. All the work he had put into building that stereo system — pouring concrete, painting the walls — now Kurt wanted to enjoy it."

Would you be going to bed and have any drunk pal or family member decide they were gonna stay up and play your records?

That description can be interpreted in more than one way, I guess. In the movie of his life, how would someone script that conversation?

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

My first thought was Watts Towers. Obsessive dedication to a project most people would consider, at best, odd. My real life surname is Fritz so I have a personal interest too. I don't think we're related.