Chosen through decades of listening.

Since 1995 I have thought about this the same way. GTT is not a brand collection, and it has never tried to be something for everybody. Every manufacturer here is one I chose myself, after listening, because I believed in what it does for the music.

Here is what I listen for. I listen to music as a whole. Would it sound like this at Carnegie Hall, at the Musikverein, at the Concertgebouw? Do instruments sound like instruments? Is it linear from top to bottom, with full resolution from top to bottom? Does it hold together as one performance, or come apart into sections? Naturalness and realism are what I am after. What all of us want is for the system to fool us — to believe we are at the venue, and that the players are there for us. When a component gets me closer to that, I believe in it. When it does not, no amount of reputation gets it in.

Watch: How to Listen and What to Listen For — Episode 86

Each company here has its own answer to the problem of reproducing music, each is open about what that answer is, and each engineers to a standard that keeps its products relevant for years. You are not buying into next season’s model. You are buying something built to be lived with.

The industry has not stood still, and neither have I. New thinking keeps arriving, and part of the work is telling a real advance from something that only sounds new. When something genuinely moves the performance forward, you will find it here.

I am not out bargain hunting. I choose equipment for how it sounds and how it performs, and sometimes that is the most expensive thing in the room. It can still be a value. But in the high end, more often than not, the most expensive is not the best sounding. The value I bring is in choosing the right components, knowing how to make them work together, and guiding you through it. I do this every day. Those years of listening sit behind every choice I make, and they are yours to draw on.

None of this is really about equipment. I love the equipment, and anyone who tells you the hardware is not part of the pleasure is not being straight with you. But it is a tool. What it is for is the heart and soul of the music. GTT is for the music connoisseur, for the person who absolutely loves music.

— Bill Parish