Touraj Moghaddam, Founder and CEO of Vertere Acoustics, held court at the showrooms of KJ West One last Friday and Saturday.
As a co-founder of Roksan in 1985, Touraj has become one of the most respected personalities in the world of hifi, with his turntable designs having garnered awards and praise in equal measure around the globe. In addition to being a highly-qualified engineer he is above all, a real music lover and his enthusiasm for bringing music to life is what drives him.
Even during the set up phase in our main demonstration room it was apparent that the Vertere RG1 turntable and Reference tone arm are a formidable music making machine. Watching Touraj fine tuning the system while playing a succession of great tracks from classic albums was an absolute treat. The Who’s “Magic Bus” from “Live at Leeds” positively thundered out of our Constellation Audio Centaur monoblocs and Focal Grand Utopia loudspeakers. I saw the Who in that era and this sounded more real than my memory of actually being at the Hammersmith Palais on 29 October 1970.
Meanwhile in our upstairs demonstration room the Vertere SG1 turntable with the matching SG1 tonearm was set up with a Naim pre-power combination and Magico S1 loudspeakers. This more affordable version of Touraj’s design concept also sounded absolutely entrancing, with Derek Jenkins doing the honours as DJ and room host.
In both rooms an eclectic mixture of rock, folk, female vocals, jazz, blues, classical and other genres was spinning on both days. Visitors were treated to some of the best sounds that have ever been produced by systems at KJ West One.
Our thanks to Touraj and his team for bringing these wonderful turntables and tone arms to KJ West One, and to everyone who attended for helping to make this such a memorable event for us.