I started off listening to the family's radiogram - An austere, dark brown piece of furniture with stereo speakers (oval I found out later), with a radio and a record player. It had space for LPs on the left and the disc spinner on the right and a hinge down lid. I seem to remember it was German, may be a Grundig. It was pretty old when I we were using it, it took a while to warm up and had a magic to eye that showed it was ready to play or was it a tuner, I don't remember. I do remember it was easy to listen to and it had a good radio.
My grand father was a keen listener and buyer of hifi, he used to take me up and down Tottenham Court Road and to the more esoteric shops off the main strip. At this time Laskys sold the better mainstream gadgets. He had a whole host of audio gear, from reel-to-reel recorders, to Sony receivers with a valve front-end. I remember him telling me to be careful not to knock it. I suspect it was an ECC81/82/83.
Other oddities, binaural and quad systems. I remember it had an interesting phase effect. JVC used to tout it. He bought a big portable tape and radio system, they were commonly referred to as "ghetto blasters" - is that going to upset people these days? Whatever. I'm not changing history.
Anyhow, every time we visited him, he had a new gadget. Now I know GAS is hereditary ! It's also a communicable disease, as corresponding and discussing this subject with like-minded people just perpetuates this.
I went through a stage of spending more pocket money and weekend money on my own audio journey that has spanned 4 decades so far. I was a flat earther before I knew the term. I spent a significant amount of my student grant (remember those?) on a ex-demo Mission Cyrus 2 amplifier, new Arcam Alpha CD player and a pair of ex-demo two way bookshelf sized speakers, I can't remember which they were, could be Mission speakers, 70LE rings a bell. It was fed with Linn K20 speaker cable. I was introduced to the Guitar Shop by Jeff Beck by the shop.
I've skipped ripping out the guts from the decommed Grundig and wiring the oval speakers to a mono Philips cassette player to make it sound better before the whole unit was disposed of. I kept the speakers. I wished I kept the amplifier as well, but I didn't know any better.
The Mission system stayed with me for the next 3 decades, though the OP transistors went on the amp, the speakers were sold, but I've still have the Arca Alpha ! It does have an upgraded clock with fancy PSU. It still works well.
Many amps and speakers have come and gone. Speakers, many Missions, Tannoys concentric series with the funny shaped cabinets, that got sold to a chap in Sardinia or was it Corsica? Dynaudio 42 which I found harsh, but I sort of bought again in the form of BM5 mk3, but are better behaved, but that's probably down to me using them as near field monitors.
I've bought Wilmslow Audio LS3/5A tributes with Morel silk domes and some other woofer that I assembled in the far-east where I spent a few years working. The Mission Cyrus went with me and travelled the world. I was re-introduced to the world of valves. 300B, KT88, push-pull and singled-ended. People with huge Tannoy speakers that took up 40% of their living rooms. Some had scary looking 211 and 845 amps driven by EL34s. They looked dangerous, but sounded good.
I went through a Naim phase, then modified Naim phase which included Les Avondale kit. Some of which I assembled and some which remains as pcbs and parts. I went back to valves again in the form of the Unico amp then a few Chinese EL34, FU29 etc
A pair of very nice Magnepan Magneplanar also graced my living room, driven by a Sonneteer Orton. Loved it. The work front got dry, very dry for more than 12 months and I sold them along with the toys I'd accumulated in my other hobbies all last year (like my camera kit). I did have the Dynaudio BM5 and various headphones to console me and satisfy my audio needs.
I got a job a few months ago (hooray ... ish), unfortunately the g'ments I'll conceived plans for recovering NI from small/single person limited companies had destroyed my income stream; the majority of my clients were financial services, with the combined whammy of IR35, Brexit and that virus has meant it wasn't viable any more so I've had to withdraw my services and offerings. This is about audio, so I'll not mention it again.
I was itching to get back to decent audio reproduction. The purge has helped me re-focus. To this end I've procured an Aleph J amplifier (built by Laverda of this parish) and a fancy battery powered DAC (assembled by Mirek of this parish). I've yet to workout how to connect all up. I'm not sure if it'll be to my taste. On the speaker front I've gone small again, Ergo IX designed by James and built by ThEliz. I also indulged in a B&W sealed subwoofer with a 12" Peerless long throw woofer and internal 200W amp.
Well, we're up to date now. I've skipped over the walkpeople I've used and abused, the daft cars systems I've had, Dolby, B & C. Type IV cassette tapes, interconnects made of copper and after silver foil with ptfe insulation, I've digitised my CD collection, I've bought hi-res music. I've got the bits for an open-baffle system. I have two valve amplifiers, B4 pre, Music Angle (sic) pre and a smattering of B&O Ice modules that were ear marked for the open baffle system. I've also dabbled in Behringer DSP XO and filters.
The Ergo IX and Aleph J work very well together. The high and mids are very good, the bass is there but a little light, I suspect that's because I'm using them near field and the crossovers are designed with boundary reinforcement in mind. I plan to rehouse the battery powered DAC (it's driven by a Raspberry Pi and has a I2S reclocker etc), at the moment it looks like a science experiment. The Ergo IX could benefit from refinishing, but that doesn't affect the sounds obviously, I think that's why ThEliz left them as-is.
My thinking is that I get back to it before I can't enjoy it any more as my ears will deteriorate as I age. I've been on PFM for a good 20 years or more now, I've made great friends, enjoyed beers/wines with them, explored my other hobbies with them (like photography) seen people come and go. Some permanently, way before their expected time.
Well done for making this far with my ramblings.
Left out something very important; thank you to Tony for allowing this community to bloom and of course to the pinkfishers that make the community.
My grand father was a keen listener and buyer of hifi, he used to take me up and down Tottenham Court Road and to the more esoteric shops off the main strip. At this time Laskys sold the better mainstream gadgets. He had a whole host of audio gear, from reel-to-reel recorders, to Sony receivers with a valve front-end. I remember him telling me to be careful not to knock it. I suspect it was an ECC81/82/83.
Other oddities, binaural and quad systems. I remember it had an interesting phase effect. JVC used to tout it. He bought a big portable tape and radio system, they were commonly referred to as "ghetto blasters" - is that going to upset people these days? Whatever. I'm not changing history.
Anyhow, every time we visited him, he had a new gadget. Now I know GAS is hereditary ! It's also a communicable disease, as corresponding and discussing this subject with like-minded people just perpetuates this.
I went through a stage of spending more pocket money and weekend money on my own audio journey that has spanned 4 decades so far. I was a flat earther before I knew the term. I spent a significant amount of my student grant (remember those?) on a ex-demo Mission Cyrus 2 amplifier, new Arcam Alpha CD player and a pair of ex-demo two way bookshelf sized speakers, I can't remember which they were, could be Mission speakers, 70LE rings a bell. It was fed with Linn K20 speaker cable. I was introduced to the Guitar Shop by Jeff Beck by the shop.
I've skipped ripping out the guts from the decommed Grundig and wiring the oval speakers to a mono Philips cassette player to make it sound better before the whole unit was disposed of. I kept the speakers. I wished I kept the amplifier as well, but I didn't know any better.
The Mission system stayed with me for the next 3 decades, though the OP transistors went on the amp, the speakers were sold, but I've still have the Arca Alpha ! It does have an upgraded clock with fancy PSU. It still works well.
Many amps and speakers have come and gone. Speakers, many Missions, Tannoys concentric series with the funny shaped cabinets, that got sold to a chap in Sardinia or was it Corsica? Dynaudio 42 which I found harsh, but I sort of bought again in the form of BM5 mk3, but are better behaved, but that's probably down to me using them as near field monitors.
I've bought Wilmslow Audio LS3/5A tributes with Morel silk domes and some other woofer that I assembled in the far-east where I spent a few years working. The Mission Cyrus went with me and travelled the world. I was re-introduced to the world of valves. 300B, KT88, push-pull and singled-ended. People with huge Tannoy speakers that took up 40% of their living rooms. Some had scary looking 211 and 845 amps driven by EL34s. They looked dangerous, but sounded good.
I went through a Naim phase, then modified Naim phase which included Les Avondale kit. Some of which I assembled and some which remains as pcbs and parts. I went back to valves again in the form of the Unico amp then a few Chinese EL34, FU29 etc
A pair of very nice Magnepan Magneplanar also graced my living room, driven by a Sonneteer Orton. Loved it. The work front got dry, very dry for more than 12 months and I sold them along with the toys I'd accumulated in my other hobbies all last year (like my camera kit). I did have the Dynaudio BM5 and various headphones to console me and satisfy my audio needs.
I got a job a few months ago (hooray ... ish), unfortunately the g'ments I'll conceived plans for recovering NI from small/single person limited companies had destroyed my income stream; the majority of my clients were financial services, with the combined whammy of IR35, Brexit and that virus has meant it wasn't viable any more so I've had to withdraw my services and offerings. This is about audio, so I'll not mention it again.
I was itching to get back to decent audio reproduction. The purge has helped me re-focus. To this end I've procured an Aleph J amplifier (built by Laverda of this parish) and a fancy battery powered DAC (assembled by Mirek of this parish). I've yet to workout how to connect all up. I'm not sure if it'll be to my taste. On the speaker front I've gone small again, Ergo IX designed by James and built by ThEliz. I also indulged in a B&W sealed subwoofer with a 12" Peerless long throw woofer and internal 200W amp.
Well, we're up to date now. I've skipped over the walkpeople I've used and abused, the daft cars systems I've had, Dolby, B & C. Type IV cassette tapes, interconnects made of copper and after silver foil with ptfe insulation, I've digitised my CD collection, I've bought hi-res music. I've got the bits for an open-baffle system. I have two valve amplifiers, B4 pre, Music Angle (sic) pre and a smattering of B&O Ice modules that were ear marked for the open baffle system. I've also dabbled in Behringer DSP XO and filters.
The Ergo IX and Aleph J work very well together. The high and mids are very good, the bass is there but a little light, I suspect that's because I'm using them near field and the crossovers are designed with boundary reinforcement in mind. I plan to rehouse the battery powered DAC (it's driven by a Raspberry Pi and has a I2S reclocker etc), at the moment it looks like a science experiment. The Ergo IX could benefit from refinishing, but that doesn't affect the sounds obviously, I think that's why ThEliz left them as-is.
My thinking is that I get back to it before I can't enjoy it any more as my ears will deteriorate as I age. I've been on PFM for a good 20 years or more now, I've made great friends, enjoyed beers/wines with them, explored my other hobbies with them (like photography) seen people come and go. Some permanently, way before their expected time.
Well done for making this far with my ramblings.
Left out something very important; thank you to Tony for allowing this community to bloom and of course to the pinkfishers that make the community.
Last edited:
) . Imhofs ! Just remembered the emporium close to T.C.Rd. Corner. Bought a Pye system there at some stage; maybe 1964/5.