Grimani Systems CEDIA 2018 Show Report

In this industry, we regularly cater to “enthusiast” clients who are very enthralled with the idea of a fully engineered and commissioned private cinema. They may have played wit h speakers and receivers in their spare time. They may have preconceived notions about what makes speakers work or not work. They may even want to tell the crew how to go about doing the wiring and installation. This client just built his Tuscan dream home in the rolling hills over Newport Beach, California. He wanted a great place to enjoy concert videos and movies from all around the world. He got that and a lot more in an acoustically treated and tuned room with appropriate sound isolation, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, 4K video, and a luxury-grade interior finish. The room was to be laid out as a formal dedicated two-row theater, without many design frills, and with maximized return on investment for the equipment. The client decided not to adopt the customary stretched fabric dress in order to put mor...

So there's this project down in SoCal; the client is a huge vinyl rock 'n roll and blues fan with what you'd call a multi-use media room. After the initial commissioning of his system, everything was groovy (pun intended) save for some serious hum and noise issues with the high-end turntable rig. Unfortunately, scheduling required us to knock off before we could track down all the issues.  Over the next while, the installer's guys and some outside consultants gave it their best shot - to no avail. Eventually, I said, "Enough is enough; we've got to get this guy squared away."   So, I loaded up my test gear, tossed in my trusty Technics SL1200 turntable with a basic preamp of my own, and headed south. After a good bit of head banging (the bad kind) and hair-pulling, I replaced his turntable and phono pre with mine. Presto! Hum/noise gone. Taking systematic approach of slowly inserting the client’s gear into the scheme, I found a “perfect storm” of i...

The second place CEDIA Awards winner this year is a room in a new luxury high-rise condo which was converted into a dedicated listening room and home cinema for an uncompromising audiophile client. The design brief included (1) housing the client’s five very large Meridian 25th anniversary edition DSP8000SE speakers, (2) matching the modern, slick and artsy interiors of the residence, and, (3) serving as a fully soundproofed retreat from Singapore’s hustle and bustle. Our mission was to design and engineer an environment that could support and enhance a very sophisticated digital  audiophile audio system, with full soundfield quality expectations, and instantly switch to movie studio-grade AV  performance. The client wanted to spend a lot of time enjoying his passion for music and films, so the interior feel had to be comfortable and clean. This is probably the only room in the world with five of the large special edition Meridian  speakers, and the resulting looks, ...

The first-place winner at the CEDIA Home Technology Professional Awards this year was a basement-level, ultra-high-end home cinema in a new house in Nantucket, Massachusetts. This project took two years of development as part of the overall construction of a gorgeous villa nestled among pine forest. The client is a detail-oriented audiophile and videophile who owns an aerospace engineering company, and demands nothing but the best. He had owned several systems before, and was familiar with the products and brands of our industry. He wanted absolute perfection in picture and sound reproduction, and after intently studying all the options, was willing to take the time it took for thorough engineering and project management; a rare privilege! The interior architecture and design of the theater was to be “clean, slick, and modern”, and we completed the design work and lighting design in-house. After several months of deliberations and listening tests of various sound systems, we set...

Check out this video of Anthony Grimani's seminar from this year's T.H.E. Show!

Anthony Grimani was invited to speak to the San Diego Music and Audio Guild on the importance of acoustics for listening rooms and home theaters; more than 50 audio hobbyists attended.  In a thank-you note, Guild organizers B. Jan Montana and Jim Lindstrom said, “Your presentation was entertaining, logical, progressive and comprehensible by neophytes. It removed all doubts about the importance of acoustics. We’ve been advocating room treatment and EQ for years, but they keep wasting money on wires and turntable stands, rather than dealing with the real problems. You've brought God's honest truth home to them. You're doing more for accurate sound reproduction than any audio magazine.” 

Working on another great project with Karl Mautner and Integr8 in China , Anthony Grimani flew to Shanghai to do the final calibration on a world-class home theater. The home is marvelously appointed with the finest materials. Located next to an indoor lap pool, the theater is a fusion of classical and Chinese design form, and is dressed with Cine-Living fabrics. The Triad Cinema Plus speaker package is driven by a set of Theta Dreadnought amps, all controlled by AMX. The system includes a 16 channel Ashly digital audio processor to fine-tune the nine speakers and 12 subwoofers. An awesome dual-stacked Runco  D-113d projector lights up the 180” wide 2.39 screen. Wow! World class! While in China, Tony also met with several AV technology, design and architecture press, including Insider and LP - click the links below to see these articles.   http://www.evolife.cn/html/2014/75365.html   http://dh.yesky.com/hometheater/336/35896836.shtml#top