Larry Israel points me to the chair. Near the back of Resolution Audio and Video [0] sits a pair of very expensive Proclaim Audioworks DMT-100s -- audiophile speakers with three sphere-shaped drivers that can be positioned as you see fit. They look like little Death Stars, and Larry has them pointed at a deep leather chair.
I settle into the chair, fully expecting to be blasted away [1] by Korn or the Rolling Stones, as I would be in virtually any other stereo shop in Seattle. But a remarkable thing happens: The speakers issue forth Sarah Vaughan, and damn if I'm not in the room with her. I can hear her breathe in between verses; I can hear the faint report of the strings hitting the wood of the upright bass. The speakers are perfectly "neutral," a word that Resolution's proprietor defines as "sounding like it's not there."
"It should sound like music and not like gear," says Israel. The speakers may remind me of the Death Star, but the sound they deliver is true to life.
Israel's perspective on audio gear transforms his Ballard shop from a plain old stereo store into something more akin to a sound gallery. The names he stocks may not be immediately familiar to you -- Rega, First Sound, Vandersteen, Donald North Audio, Gini, Theory and Application, Duevel, Bel Canto, Arcam, Aural Symphonics -- but Israel's devotion is to the sound first and foremost. If he doesn't think a particular Sony unit is properly "neutral," he won't sell it. (He is, however, very fond of Sony's video gear.)
That's not to say that he's indifferent to aesthetics. Resolution is a handsome space, warmly lit and hung with cool local art, and nearly everything sold in that space is attractive and sleekly designed. The speakers are gallery-worthy towers and unobtrusive in-wall jobs; the turntables look like landing pads for flying saucers; and the amplifiers and receivers are colorful metal boxes with exposed tubes on top. (Yes, tubes. There are some things that technology can't improve on.) Whether you have a house or a condo, Resolution's team will help you find the system that will sound it out without cluttering it up.
On that note, I have never experienced a more relaxed and more truthful sell than the one Larry Israel gives. He will clean and play any records you bring in, talks up his stock in synesthetic terms ("this one will give you lots of flavor") and steers you away from expensive gear to the more modestly priced stuff without being asked to do so. He genuinely cares about your ears and what goes into them, but he doesn't want to empty your wallet in the process.
When I compliment him on his pressure-free salesmanship, Larry Israel just shrugs. "I don't understand computers, I don't understand women," he says, grinning. "But I do know how to make a room sound good."
If you have a shop, sale, event or great product tip you'd like to share, e-mail seattleshopping@nwsource.com.
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