The system is in an old landowner/merchant's house deep in the north country of Japan (in the hamlet of Kamagui in Niigata Prefecture for anyone interested in setting up an Audio Club) which we purchased and refurbished with a friend of ours.
Everything is used (only the Altecs were purchased for this system so far - the rest comes from a home system), and I am thinking of replacing the EAR and SONY before getting the DIY done because they don't look scruffy enough.
The Whiskey Room is on the 3rd floor of an old 'minka', with a view over the hamlet's rice paddies as the sun sets - the perfect place to drink a whiskey after a hard day relaxing in the countryside.
There are no room treatments ('mud-over-straw' walls are sooted with woodsmoke from when the kitchen was wood-fired and this room was the chimney to the outside), the floorboards were formerly the inside wall-boards of one of the storehouses, furniture is a couple of ugly brown vinyl armchairs and an even uglier 'baby-poop brown' La-Z-Boy recliner, and a couple of brown bar stools (all told, about $50), and an old wooden fridge. There's a tattered old Uzbeki rug on the floor which I like, and, oh-yeah, there's no heat, and not enough light.
But the view is great, and the sound is out of this world.
Two-way, super-efficient (101dB?) speakers. Fabulous for the price.
EAR 859
EAR integrated SET-like amp (called Enhanced Triode Mode - pentode tube given triode functionality/linearity (Grid1 tied to cathode, Grid2 signal, Grid3 is ground) putting out all of 13.5W. Uses EL519 tubes which will probably outlast me.
Sony SCD-777ES
stock player, owned since 2002
Ridiculously Comfortable Chairs
self-explanatory
Baby-Poop Brown Lazy-Boy Recliner
also self-explanatory
Diatone LT-1
Linear tracker from the late 1970s. Mitsubishi's top effort as a TT. Uses a Denon DL-103R right now but going to change to a higher compliance MM cart.
I have a number of Japanese jazz group cds; however, my favorite group is the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio (various recordings on Three Blind Mice). For something very different, try Dotou Banri Ondekoza - traditional Japanese drum music [on JVC XRCD2 SVCD-1027].
I have had great wines in Japan. But they are all imported and, therefore, very expensive. I agree with T_bones' assessment of sake - the taste and tradition of Japanese sake is rich and varied and preferable to drinking wine in Japan unless someone else is footing the bill.
I have been to Japan many, many times, but never as far north as your house. I, too, had an EAR 859. Currently, I am using a Deja Vu 2a3/45 - great sound and definitely scruffy.
