Greetings from Ireland
Hi
I'm a Canadian microbiologist who retired after 36 years of research in Germany in 2007 and retired a second time yesterday after 5 1/2 more years in Cork, Ireland. There's a very good chance that I'm moving to the UK in April to start up again and I'm looking forward to the next 3 months for finishing up writing some manuscripts.
Every other spare minute is used for HiFi and listening to music. I've been interested in music and HiFi since I was about 22. But that became less and less important with time for reasons that are unclear to me. In the end I couldn't be bothered to search through the stacks of CDs and only listened to one of the few that were on in front of the stack on the rare occasions when I turned on the stereo. Although records sounded better, they were even more of a bother to listen to, needing to go back to the stereo every 20 min or so.
And then about 2 1/2 years ago, I thought I could use digital streaming to make my CDs findable, which sparked a major wave of upgrading that is still in progress and a major wave of listening to new and old music that is ongoing.
A bit over a year ago, I thought I had reached digital streaming nirvana, with a Linn (KDS0) Renew DS a Conrad-Johnson LP66S valve amp and Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento speakers. And then I listened to Keith Jarrett's Koeln Concert on my Rega Planar 2 from the mid-70s with a Shure MM cartridge. After comparing several matched digital rips from contemporary CDs and vinyl, I not only rediscovered Pink Floyd (DSOTM) and Jan Garbarek (Magico) but also realised that I prefer vinyl sound. The first upgrade cycle resulted in a Notts Ace Space Deck with heavy upgrade, Bastin Wave Mechanic PSU, SME-IV and Dynavector XX-2. That was coupled with a custom-built valve phono stage made by Nick Gorham and a passive pre containing S&B transformers with remote control, also built by him. It also resulted in silver interconnects and silver rewiring of the SME arm as well as new speaker cables (neoMorpheus from the US).
As indicated, the upgrade cycle is not yet finished, although it would be nice to stop soon. I've just bought a used Verdier Nouvelle with an SME 3012R and an Ortofon 90th anniversary cartridge, none of which have even been shippped yet. And I found Art of Sound through a long thread on tonearm interconnects from last May. Unfortunately, my current AN-V interconnects have a DIN plug and the 3012 uses RCAs. Since I haven't yet decided what to do with the SME-IV, I'm currently trying to decide what tonearm IC I should buy.
My musical interests are catholic. Some of the best records I have are Grigoria Paniagua from the '70s and '80s playing a variety of music from originall Greek to early baroque. Or a recording of Tibetan bells from the early 1980's. I also love Carmina Burana and have recently bought the old Telarc recording. I've also gone mad about some recent Indie groups, including Sufjan Stevens, Castanets and Folk/Bluegrass/Country including Johnny Cash, Nickel Creek, Cowboy Junkies. And whatever category Dead Can Dance belongs to.
I could also write a whole post on how lousy modern vinyl tends to be, especially reissues, when compared to the originals. But this is already long enough.
Mark
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Originally Posted by prestonchipfryer
