What made you love the SOUND of music, good Hifi.
Discussion
I have met many people who love music but couldn't give a toss about sound quality, including musicians, perhaps that's a bit strong but I'm sure you know what I mean.
What inspired you to spent loads of money on quirky British ( mostly ) kit, what drives you to use vinyl instead of a hard drive.
What I really want to know is, was there a system that blew you away, made you looks at normal stereos and think no thanks.
Mine was my Dad's 70s set up,
Armstrong 626 Receiver,
Thorens TD 166 mk11 Turntable.
Celestion Ditton 44 Speakers.
Listening to my Dad's Beatles albums as a kid was something else.
Over to you.
What inspired you to spent loads of money on quirky British ( mostly ) kit, what drives you to use vinyl instead of a hard drive.
What I really want to know is, was there a system that blew you away, made you looks at normal stereos and think no thanks.
Mine was my Dad's 70s set up,
Armstrong 626 Receiver,
Thorens TD 166 mk11 Turntable.
Celestion Ditton 44 Speakers.
Listening to my Dad's Beatles albums as a kid was something else.
Over to you.
For me it was going to my uncles's house in Edinburgh in the 70's.
He was a successful surgeon but never had any kids so he had plenty of disposable. He always had an interesting car (P5B, R 16GTX, early 320i), he did things that were unusual for the time such as driving to the South of France and he loved playing classical music on the first set of separates I'd ever seen. Of course the sound quality was so much better that the Fergueson music centres and so on that everyone else seemed to have at the time.
He definitely sewed some seeds there.
He was a successful surgeon but never had any kids so he had plenty of disposable. He always had an interesting car (P5B, R 16GTX, early 320i), he did things that were unusual for the time such as driving to the South of France and he loved playing classical music on the first set of separates I'd ever seen. Of course the sound quality was so much better that the Fergueson music centres and so on that everyone else seemed to have at the time.
He definitely sewed some seeds there.
Listening to a Meridian system one of my mates had a few years ago now (DSP 5500s) made me realise how bad my old 90s system was. Then I started visiting shops and auditioning kit. One set of Martin Logans and some Meridian source/ amplification duly purchased. It's still utterly brilliant to listen to - haven't found anything better yet. One small problem though - Mrs DJG thinks it's all too big and needs to be down sized!!
DavidJG said:
Listening to a Meridian system one of my mates had a few years ago now (DSP 5500s) made me realise how bad my old 90s system was. Then I started visiting shops and auditioning kit. One set of Martin Logans and some Meridian source/ amplification duly purchased. It's still utterly brilliant to listen to - haven't found anything better yet. One small problem though - Mrs DJG thinks it's all too big and needs to be down sized!!
My wife is exactly the same, what is it about women and stereos. Bloke in the house I shared when first moved to London who had a Linn t/t and amp and some Mission speakers. Played "Spirits in The Material World" by The Police. Instead of being a thumpy mess of sound there was suddenly amazing clarity. That listen has cost me quite a lot of money over the years.
Linn Sondek, lots of square boxes that said Quad and a pair of Electrostats - massive great vertical pillows made of wire - woke me up to hifi at 14. This was at a friend's dad's house, and my own parents' B&O setups never cut the mustard after that.
Some years later I managed to recreate some of that magic with recourse to Micromega, Naim and Shahinian.
Some years later I managed to recreate some of that magic with recourse to Micromega, Naim and Shahinian.
Crackie said:
Epiphany moment for me was at the Harrogate Hi-Fi show in 1978 listening to Another brick in the Wall Pt1. I can't remember the amp(s) but the speakers were Mission 770s with Linn LP12 / Grace707 front end.
+1Can't remember if it was 1978, but I do remember the LP12 & Another Brick in the Wall at Harrogate.
The first proper hifi I heard was at university back in '87. One of the lecturers had a room in college and had a bit of an 'open house' for students. He had a NAD CD player feeding a NAD 3020 used as preamp for a Quad 405 into a pair of Quad ESL 57s. The 2 tracks I remember most was "La Habanera" by Yello from "One Second" and "OGY" from "The Nightfly" by Donald Fagen.
It set me off on many years of HiFi buying and upgrades until I got a system that gave me the sound quality I remembered from Uni. Sadly, Mrs Seeker and a cat that likes to sharpen his claws on the furniture prevented me going down the Quad ESL route, so I went Meridian.
It set me off on many years of HiFi buying and upgrades until I got a system that gave me the sound quality I remembered from Uni. Sadly, Mrs Seeker and a cat that likes to sharpen his claws on the furniture prevented me going down the Quad ESL route, so I went Meridian.
Visited my wife's uncle who played some music on his stereo after I said it looked like an impressive system. It looked and sounded incredible.
When I went home I threw my £99 Matsui in the bin and wept for all detail I'd missed over the years listening to music.
Ok...I didn't weep but did chuck my stereo out and start looking for seperates.
When I went home I threw my £99 Matsui in the bin and wept for all detail I'd missed over the years listening to music.
Ok...I didn't weep but did chuck my stereo out and start looking for seperates.
combination of a few things for me;
played classical guitar since the age of 9 (35 years!), lead guitar in a few bands as a spotty teenager, so was exposed to live sound quite early on, and couple that with an inherrant love of electronics, wanted to try and capture that feeling.
Inherited a small amount of money from a relative (I was aged 15-16 ish), so decided to by some proper hifi - in came a pair of Mission 700 LE speakers, stands, rotel integrated amp and a Denon CD player.
Loved it.
give or take a fair few bits of kit change of the years I'm putting up with fully active Linn Isobariks, a raft of Rotel Power amps, pre amp, DACs, Meridian CD and some other bits and bobs.
Oh and I am blessed - I mentioned about changing the 'Briks for something smaller - the Mrs said no, she likes them !
(didn't tell her what I was thinking of swapping them for though ....
Still cant beat the power of live sounds though;
If I want to damage my hearing, I have an AFD-100 Marshall Head and a 4x12 Cab. Good job it's got power scaling - else I would be deaf !
played classical guitar since the age of 9 (35 years!), lead guitar in a few bands as a spotty teenager, so was exposed to live sound quite early on, and couple that with an inherrant love of electronics, wanted to try and capture that feeling.
Inherited a small amount of money from a relative (I was aged 15-16 ish), so decided to by some proper hifi - in came a pair of Mission 700 LE speakers, stands, rotel integrated amp and a Denon CD player.
Loved it.
give or take a fair few bits of kit change of the years I'm putting up with fully active Linn Isobariks, a raft of Rotel Power amps, pre amp, DACs, Meridian CD and some other bits and bobs.
Oh and I am blessed - I mentioned about changing the 'Briks for something smaller - the Mrs said no, she likes them !
(didn't tell her what I was thinking of swapping them for though ....
Still cant beat the power of live sounds though;
If I want to damage my hearing, I have an AFD-100 Marshall Head and a 4x12 Cab. Good job it's got power scaling - else I would be deaf !
StuntmanMike said:
I have met many people who love music but couldn't give a toss about sound quality, including musicians, perhaps that's a bit strong but I'm sure you know what I mean.
What inspired you to spent loads of money on quirky British ( mostly ) kit, what drives you to use vinyl instead of a hard drive.
What I really want to know is, was there a system that blew you away, made you looks at normal stereos and think no thanks.
Mine was my Dad's 70s set up,
Armstrong 626 Receiver,
Thorens TD 166 mk11 Turntable.
Celestion Ditton 44 Speakers.
Listening to my Dad's Beatles albums as a kid was something else.
Over to you.
How weird.... my Dad has had those speakers for decades, he still has them, i grew up with them... and I have always loved them!!What inspired you to spent loads of money on quirky British ( mostly ) kit, what drives you to use vinyl instead of a hard drive.
What I really want to know is, was there a system that blew you away, made you looks at normal stereos and think no thanks.
Mine was my Dad's 70s set up,
Armstrong 626 Receiver,
Thorens TD 166 mk11 Turntable.
Celestion Ditton 44 Speakers.
Listening to my Dad's Beatles albums as a kid was something else.
Over to you.
They were certainly a bench mark... - going on from that, it was a couple of state of the art setups in cars at cruises which also spurred me on.... and also an amazing demo in Rayleigh hi-fi of some M&K stuff.... always loved music
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