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eric Nov 22 2014 at 9:18 AM	I have a beer bankroll and champagne taste when it comes to audio gear, NAD receiver Kef speakers Energy Subwoofer, CD player old battery powered Panasonic (good specs in it’s day mainly due to battery power rather than a/c). I also like to play Pat’s recordings at highest undistorted volume. What do you listen on? Do you like it turned up? I’d sure like some 24 bit DL of Pat’s records too someday!
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bluepno May 28 2015 at 8:27 AM	For the listening room it is still the old Kenwood Amp and receiver with Advent and Infinity speakers.
bluepno May 28 2015 at 8:22 AM	Just upgraded my system in the living room to a Pioneer Elite 7.2 amp...a whole new world of audio. It took months of trial and error and my wife saying "Bring that thing back"...the setup is unlike anything I had run before. I’ve custom built the speaker arrange by mixing 2 Velodyne subwoofers with JBL left’right channels and Bose bookshelf speakers as upper left/right...the center and rear speaks are just some 15 year old standard stuff but the system as a whole is now a very satisfying digital audio experience. No EQ just a choice of 2 dozen presets...I find that annoying. The speaker volumes could be individually adjusted by +- 10 db per channel.
Aristide May 14 2015 at 8:33 AM	I listen mostly to tapes through my Sony Walkman bought in 1982. Walmart used to have really good prices for 10-packs, but they semm to have gone.
HAMBONE May 12 2015 at 9:40 AM	We have a 200 watt Panasonic receiver that feeds 2 floor standing Bose speakers in the living room that are about 15 years old and 2 Yamaha bookshelf speakers that were bought in 1983 in the teaching room. The speakers can handle much more than that but the space and our ears can"t. The Panasonic cd/dvd player is the main source of music as we have about 500 cds combined and 50 video discs, including all of Pats. I also have my 30 year old Panasonic turntable with sub-woofer hooked up and break out the old vinyls every now and then. What a great depth to the sound of a clean album. I’ve kept most of my vintage old jazz and rock albums clean over the years. The volume when cranked is too much for the house, and receiver. But at a 7 it is tremendous, especially the low and mid-ranges. It’s proof you can get a lot out of quality equipment if you take care of it.
eric May 08 2015 at 7:33 PM	Anyone here have advice about bi-wiring speakers? I have KEFs which allow for it and I have two NAD receivers. Thinking it’d be fun to try it and wondering about your experiences. Also would like CD player suggestions. I have Champagne taste and a beer budget!
eric Apr 18 2015 at 5:18 AM	Thanks to everyone for adding to this discussion, I haven’t been here since I first posted the question and I’ve enjoyed every comment. Like some here, I am hoping for 24 bit downloads. I have a couple of albums in this format and while I have to play them on my Mac, connected to my audio system, they are sweet sounding, more open, more transparent as audiophiles say. Even when I took a 24 bit file and converted it to CD for my car (reducing quality as a result) the sound remained beautiful. Thank you Pat & team for all the care you put into your records.
theluggman Feb 13 2015 at 3:31 PM	I must admit that the first album of Pat’s I had purchased sure pushed me to upgrade my system. This has been going on since I heard Phase Dance on vinyl back in 1978. Now I enjoy my music via vinyl, CDs, and my ripped CDs on a music server on my computer. All this going to McIntosh C-26 preamp then bi-amped through tubes into a vintage pair of Klipschorns. I am VERY happy when I hear any of Pat’s music though this system. I have seen him live four times but when I listen to my system I always remember how it sounded in a concert hall small or large. I too am looking forward to a higher quality download from this website, hopefully in 24bit/96k FLAC quality.
Arlie Jan 26 2015 at 9:30 AM	I’m still using my vintage 1978 Pioneer 7500II amp/preamp with my original ADS speakers, supplemented by new Bowers & Wilkins C8 speakers, but I now have so much music on my "classic" iPod (over 9,000 songs, arranged in hundreds of well-planned playlists for different moods and times) that I have little choice but to use an Apple iPod adaptor run through the "AUX" input of the amp/preamp. I often think about taking my vintage Thorens turntable to a local dealer to have it refurbished (it needs a new stylus), but then I realize that I have given away or thrown out all my albums (and CD’s), so I am content to stick with my present set-up. I know that the "digital" sound is not as rich, but by carefully tuning the mid-range (which I can do on my old Pioneer amp), I can get a richness in the acoustic guitars and wood winds, and I have the speakers placed so that I can get differentiation in the "placement" of various instruments and vocalists, with the sound moving around the room or, even better, hearing a choir or vocalist like Bonnie Raitt singing in front of me even though the speakers are placed behind me. I wish I still had my stained copy of the Pat Metheny Group "white" album and my early James Taylor and Joni Mitchell albums, but I’m happy with the sound quality I get and, more importantly, love the convenience and variety I can get with the touch of a button.
harn Jan 26 2015 at 7:10 AM	I’m pretty sure I remember reading an interview with Pat where he said he liked the sound of small portable gear. It was a long time ago, before iPod docks so I guess he meant CD/cassette things. I definitely think there is a lot of snobbery amongst audiophiles, where I get the feeling that they are more interested in the equipment than the actual music.
thirdwind Jan 25 2015 at 4:53 PM	I enjoy having several different quality audio systems to hear Pat’s music on... anybody’s music, for that matter, but especially with PMG’s rich mixes, a difference in components, especially speakers, can draw my ear towards another voice in the mix. IIRC, a Stereo magazine interviewed Pat about 15 tears ago and reported that he had an all-Denon system at home, nothing exotic at all. But, he added, he wished he owned a car with a food stereo so he could hear the music that way, on the road. Coincidentally, I still have two Denon CD changers as primary sources? I won’t bore everyone by listing my other gear, but I will toss out a free endorsement for my computer speakers. They’re a Mission three-piece setup, with true flat panel speakers (no tweeter cones, just a transparent membrane). They look like tiny Martin-Logans, and the sing like birds. It’s really something special to hear Anna-Marie Jopek’s voice appearing from them, like frozen fog.
redrngr Jan 25 2015 at 3:12 PM	It seams to me it is a function of how much money you intend to spend. First though, You should realize that the sound waves is an organic thing and although CD’s sound great and if they are well produced they are actually missing the Richness that Stereo Vinyl Albums will produce simply because the Vinyl Album can accurately Follow the Sound Wave Cure. On the Other Hand, the Digital CD is Leaving-out all the Richness that the Vinyl Album provides. Still, How much do Audiophiles spend for a good turntable where you can really hear the difference I am talking about? $5000.00 and I am sure Pat Metheny has a turntable like that. For most people then a well-produced CD will sound good on say a Bose Acoustic Wave II System. Yet, spend the money in the $5000.00- $10,000,00 range and you certainly can achieve a Much Better Sounding System. Besides now Vinyl Albums are expensive as a posed to the CD and the every growing Digital Content via iPods and Digital Content Players.
patsfan Jan 23 2015 at 11:35 PM	Well, after many years I’m thinking that audiophiles are a little bit extreme, especially if you pay super huge bucks for components, wire etc.. I have a great NAD sound system with high end Magnepans and really appreciate them But on the other hand there is something great about good quality car speakers and cranking up the sound in that small space. Maybe that’s my favorite venue for Pat’s music ... and other great jazz tunes ... and the quality of the recordings comes out also. David Oakes is a fantastic sound engineer, especially for Pat’s live venues but also all of Pat’s recordings .
sunship Jan 22 2015 at 3:03 PM	Yes, the quest for the live sound in the home? Well, I have a Boothroyd-Stuart Meridian CD Player going through Audio Research Pre Amp and Power Amp. And those power up Naim Credo Speakers, which sound fantastic. I use custom made speaker wire, and Linn and MIT interconnects....Im not sure if Pat’s CDs are the best albums to demo high end audio equipment. Of course the music is great, but I think there are other artist’s recordings that sound far more transparent.. And that is a shame, because Pat should have the best in the business recording his albums...
thirdwind Nov 23 2014 at 1:21 AM	One of the consistent motives in my hi-fi progress has been to better hear Pat’s music. HIs midrange-rich guitar sound of the ’80s always put any distortion in my system into the spotlight. It was a challenging sound to capture, until I upgraded my amplification. Now I have the luxury of listening on two audiophile home stereo systems, or my VW GTI with its excellent audio system, or my computer. Rather than chasing some ideal, absolute sound, it’s fun to hear how different gear brings out different aspects familiar tunes, digging deeper into Pat’s often-dense mixes. Recently I switched my headphone from Grad SR 80 to Sennheisers, and that’s cause to listen to everything all over again. But the component that really punches above its weight is the computer speaker system, a Monsoon made several years ago. It has unique pint-sized planar magnetic tweeters, sort of like a pair of mini-Mark Levinsons, that make vocals like Anna Marie Jopek’s as transparent and crystalline as they can be. Audio is a rewarding hobby for music lovers -- indispensable, really -- and it can be surprisingly cheap if you know how to find older, less-fashionable gear, which I usually buy at a dime on the dollar.
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