How did you first meet Alex Rosner?

I think it was 1969. It was after I discovered the existence of Klipschorn speakers, because a friend of mine had them. I was amazed by how they sounded. I had been an audio hobbyist all my life – I was always pursuing the right speaker. I was at a friend’s house and it was the first time I went to visit him and he had music playing in the background. You couldn’t see the speakers, he had them behind curtains.

After about a half hour, I said to him, “What in the hell do you have behind those curtains?” And he pulled the curtains back and said, “These are Klipschorns.” I fell in love immediately. They sounded really good. About six months after that, he called me up and said that a friend of his was selling his Klipschorns. I bought them, but then I was looking to buy an additional pair. At that time, Klipsch Associates was a very, very small company. Paul Klipsch was just making speakers out of his garage. If you wanted to buy Klipschorns, Alex Rosner was the only person in the northeast part of the United States that had the franchise to sell them. I called him up and that’s how I met Alex. I bought two more speakers and then I threw a party.

But you didn’t stop there with the soundsystem.

I was always experimenting and trying different things. Even though the Klipschorns were very good, rule number one is that no matter how big the houses that you have are, if you don’t have good room acoustics, you’re not going to get it right.

You had a particular philosophy in regard to sound, in that it should honestly reproduce what the artist originally intended.

Absolutely. You don’t want to hear the soundsystem. You want to hear the music. I never quite got the right room to be able to do it. I wanted something where you walk in a room, but you don’t even see the speakers. You just hear the sound. You don’t even know there are speakers in the room.

I would have to have a room where I could cover the speakers, but visually if you get my drift. You should not even know how many speakers are being used or where they are located. The room should just be filled with sound. When you go into a concert hall, like Carnegie Hall or any of those places, they don’t even use a soundsystem, they use the room.

Have you been to clubs that have awful soundsystems?

I’ve been to clubs with soundsystems where you stand there and your clothes will be dry cleaned. It’s like the soundsystem was more important than the music. It’s totally unnecessary. It’s not what the artist intended. Once you hear the soundsystem, it’s a whole different story.