AudioMachina Maestro Ti-200 High Park Fire Benefit Auction

The fire and the cause:

As many of you may know, this has been a very bad year for wildfires in our beautiful state of Colorado. The recent High Park Fire outside our home town of Fort Collins shattered the record for the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, with over 250 homes lost, and then that record was broken only weeks later by the Waldo Canyon Fire outside Colorado Springs.

We were one of the lucky ones, and our home survived two separate blow-ups of the High Park Fire, a week apart, and was only saved by the grace of God and the hard work of the firefighters. But many weren't so lucky, particularly in the Rist Canyon area just to the north of us, where in one day a giant blow-up consumed virtually the entire once-pristine area and well over 100 homes. Many of these belonged to the brave members of the Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department, who were desperately trying to save the homes of their friends and neighbors on that terrible day. RCVFD also lost one of their fire stations on the same day.

RCVFD is an entirely community-supported fire department, with no taxpayer support, depending only on voluntary donations from the local community, and their losses, both to the fire department and to its members, were devastating. Therefore, I have decided to do what I can to try to raise some money, to help RCVFD rebuild after the fire. I am auctioning off a pair of one of the best loudspeakers in the world, and anything over the opening bid will be donated directly to RCVFD.

The speakers:

The AudioMachina Maestro Ti-200 was our first "flagship" speaker, first put into production about 3 years ago. It has very recently been superseded by the brand-new Maestro S, and this pair was recently traded in on a new pair of Maestro S. It is in superb condition, no issues.

How good is it? Perhaps some comparisons are in order. When the design of the Ti-200 was finished, I was lucky to be able to compare it head-to-head, in an identical (S.O.T.A.) system, right down to the speaker cables, against the $89K speaker which had just been reviewed in a major US print mag as being the best speaker ever. Both I, and most others who were lucky enough to hear the comparison that day, felt that it wasn't even close: the Ti-200 was just plain more "real" and more "lifelike" than the $89K wonder-speaker. Secondly, one of our customers (a well-respected music producer), who purchased the Maestro Ti-200 as his mastering reference, listened extensively to the top-of-the-line model of one of the other heavily-advertised brands, which cost $107K at the time, and said it wasn't even close: The Ti-200 was vastly superior in every way.

Now, while the new Maestro S has surpassed the performance of the Ti-200, it's still indisputably one of the very best speakers ever made in the history of the world. And since the two above-referenced speakers sell on the used market these days for around $40K (which is a reasonable price for both), this pair of Maestro Ti-200 should be considered a ridiculous value at $30K, which is TWICE the starting bid on this auction. Thus, I am hoping that there are a few folks out there who not only would like to own a true state-of-the-art loudspeaker, but are compassionate enough to contribute some real money towards the RCVFD, and their brave and selfless firefighters, via this auction.

The Maestro Ti-200 in this auction is a 3-way modular speaker in which the upper (2-way) module is driven full-range by your system amp, and the lower subwoofer modules are driven by their own internal high-quality electronics. It is a very easy 8-Ohm load, and because of the active subwoofers, gives absolutely fantastic sound with tube amps. It also has precision stepped attenuators for both tweeters and subwoofers, making it one of the only state-of-the-art contenders which is fully "tuneable" to your room and listening tastes. It of course has all the attributes you'd expect from a world-class speaker, including true full-range extension below 20Hz, superb micro- and macro-dynamics, blah blah blah, but perhaps the most unique aspect (true to all AudioMachina designs) is the superb "naturalness" to its sound, something that's simply missing from most speakers due to their highly complex crossovers. This speaker is very like a good single-driver speaker in its naturalness and coherence, but with dynamics and extension that single-driver speakers can only dream about.

The fine print:

This auction is for one pair of AudioMachina Maestro Ti-200 loudspeakers, including all accessories including power cords. They will ship in their custom factory packaging, inside a wood shipping crate, total weight around 440 lbs (200kg), with each individual box in the crate weighing 90 lbs or less, so it is quite easy to unpack and set up.

Speakers are currently set up for 120VAC, but we will change to 230VAC upon request at no charge.

FREE worldwide shipping is included in the auction price. Paypal adds 3% and may only be used by USA customers. International sales terms are ONLY via bank transfer, NO EXCEPTIONS. System will not ship until payment has fully cleared our bank account, again NO EXCEPTIONS. Local Colorado customers may pick up in person, in which case we will cover the sales tax, otherwise sales tax is due according to CO delivery zip code. For non-CO addresses, no sales tax is due.

The finale:

I sincerely hope that there are a few audiophiles out there in high-end audio-land who can empathize with the losses suffered by all those who lost their homes in the High Park Fire, and would like to help out in a truly meaningful way while getting themselves one of the best loudspeakers ever made. Please be generous and try to help these folks out. Anything over the $15K starting bid will be donated to RCVFD to help them begin to rebuild their fire department and their lives. Thank you for your understanding and your help.

PS If anyone wants to contribute directly to RCVFD, you can find more information on their website rcvfd.org. Thanks to all.