Tony Brummel, 33
President, Victory Records
Chicago
Tony Brummel lives and breathes music.
As head of one of the top independent record labels in the U.S., Chicago-based Victory Records Inc., Brummel pitches bands by day and listens to them by night.
And when he’s not attending his clients’ shows, Brummel relaxes at home with an entertainment system that mixes cutting-edge digital technology with equipment from decades past.
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The top floor of his four-story, 3,000-square-foot River West townhouse is an open room with vaulted ceilings featuring what Brummel refers to as “the rig,” or the home’s central entertainment system.
The “rig” includes a ceiling-mounted Sharp video projector and an 8-by-12-foot screen designed for watching DVDs.
There’s a Denon DVD player, a Sony 500-compact disc changer and an Escient FireBall digital music manager (www.escient.com). The FireBall is connected to the CD changer, allowing Brummel and his wife to select music from a menu-based environment on any television in the house.
The centerpiece of the system is a Denon multiroom receiver, which allows for playing different music in different rooms. There are 16 speakers throughout the house wired to the system.
Where are the MP3 files?
Currently, about 12,000 digital music files are on Brummel’s PC (which is not yet networked into the entertainment system) and 40-gigabyte iPod MP3 player.
But he said he expects to purchase a Sony Digital Studio desktop PC running Microsoft’s Windows Media Center (www.sonystyle.com) and integrate it into the central entertainment system within the next month.
“I haven’t even come close to converting my entire CD collection [to digital files],” he said.
Brummel maintains his MP3 collection with the Windows-based digital music software Musicmatch (www.musicmatch.com, the basic version is free; the enhanced version costs about $20).
“Sometimes I like having Musicmatch run the jukebox on random, but sometimes I like going upstairs and chilling out with an album on the turntable.”
Indeed, Brummel recently purchased a high-end VPI Aries Scout turntable (www.vpiindustries.com) for about $4,000 for his expansive record collection.
“This system is a total mix of old and new,” he said. “Sometimes it’s fun to pull up some music from the FireBall, and sometimes it’s cool to play some records. It all depends on your mood.”
Home-electronics company The Little Guys (www.thelittleguys.com), based in Glenwood, installed the system and wiring about two years ago. Total system cost: about $40,000.
Regrets? He’s had a few.
Looking back, “technology accelerates at such a fast rate, I probably should have scaled it back a bit. The FireBall was probably a waste of money at the end of the day,” he said. “A solid PC wired into your system can control your catalog.”
He compared the experience to purchasing a new computer.
“Six months after you buy, there’s a new PC with more bells and whistles, and it’s cheaper than the machine you have.”
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