Greetings from Cascadia

[TerryO]

If you're wondering where Cascadia is, please don't feel too frustrated as it's an imaginary grouping in the Pacific Northwest area, on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. It would include the states of Oregon, Washington, and the province of British Columbia. The organization of this geographical area is based not merely on proximity or climate, although they are similar, but actually on a mindset towards life in general. It is generally agreed among the Cascadians that we have more in common with each other than can be said of areas east of the mountains in either Canada or the US.

I'm mainly into diyaudio and building speakers, although I do have some off-the-shelf gear as well. I listen to mainly to Classical music, some Opera and to the dismay of normal people...Bagpipes!

About myself, there's really nothing too exciting or noteworthy. After serving an enlistment in the US Air Force, I attended the University of Washington doing my undergraduate and graduate work in History while working for the US Postal Service (just went over 42 years with them).

I have four children, the oldest daughter is the Manager of Claims for a Health Maintenance Organization, the second daughter is a Professor of Communications and my third daughter is in marketing. The youngest, our only boy, is 14 and wants to be a US Marine (at least this week). All of them were homeschooled, as the local public schools were and remain, IMHO, disgustingly substandard.

Other interests and hobbies include reading, painting, building and sailing wooden boats and woodworking.

My current system, which is always changing from week to week, consists of:

Prototype Well Tempered turntable, Grado "Silver" cartridge and a battery powered Hagtech "Bugle" phonostage.

Radio Shack CD 7300 deck (actually a good sounding piece)

Preamp is an SAE TWO PA10 (unmodified)

DIY Gainclone amp with custom PCBs designed by Kevin Haskins of Exodus Audio. I also have a Phase Linear 700 amplifier in mint condition.

Speakers include the Exodus Audio "Kepler" monitors (I assisted in the prototyping), Rosgaard DR-1 mini monitors (minor assistance with the series crossover) and the Hi-Tweek Black Box Nearfield Monitor (my own design using a heavily modified Radio Shack 40-1197 full, or more precisely, extended range driver.
I have also participated in the crossover voicing sessions of several commercial designs.

My interconnects are often homemade, although I find the AR brand available locally to be quite satisfactory. The speaker cables are always homemade, I am currently using (bad pun!) a version of the "White Lightening" cables based on 16 AWG "Utilitec" extension cords, purchased at the local Lowes Home Supply store.

I also have a lot more gear, including several turntables, receivers, cd players, preamp/linestages, cassette decks, equalizers, electronic crossovers, speakers and a fair amount of raw speaker drivers as well as parts for several amplifier projects.

Now that I've told you more than you probably ever wanted to know about myself, I'd like to say that I look forward to visiting this site and learning from the participants.

Best Regards,
Terry Olson (aka TerryO)

[Cotlake]

Hi Terry,

Welcome. it's always good to find another DIYer here. We're a bit thin on the ground

Anyway, enjoy your stay and if you're interested in a really good DIY site that others here belong to, have a look at http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php

Regards,

Greg

[TerryO]

Hi Terry,

Welcome. it's always good to find another DIYer here. We're a bit thin on the ground

Anyway, enjoy your stay and if you're interested in a really good DIY site that others here belong to, have a look at http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php

Regards,

Greg

Thanks Greg,

I'll take a look at that site. I really enjoy the DIY projects, nearly as much as the people that do them.

From my personal experience, the self-proclaimed "Audiophiles" can be somewhat interesting as a group, but the DIYers are much more down to earth and pleasant to be around, although with the exception of myself, they somehow seem to be...well, different.


Best Regards,
TerryO

[Spectral Morn]

Hi Terry


Welcome to AOS.

Nice in depth detailed intro well done. All you have to do for us (if you want) is post some photos of your audio system in the Gallery section of the forum.

I look forward to reading your posts etc.


Regards D S D L

[Alex_UK]

Yep, the perfect introductory post, and you sound very interesting TerryO - glad you came to our little corner of the virtual world to meet us, hope you like our mindset in general! (Pics would be nice, too, if you can manage some time - no idea what any of your stuff would look like!)

[TerryO]

Yep, the perfect introductory post, and you sound very interesting TerryO - glad you came to our little corner of the virtual world to meet us, hope you like our mindset in general! (Pics would be nice, too, if you can manage some time - no idea what any of your stuff would look like!)

Alex,

Thank you for the welcome. I would like to correct any misunderstandings about myself. While it's true that I know some very interesting people, I'm afraid that I'm not. I tend to be a completely colorless (US spelling), nondescript individual that is practically invisible. In fact, I'm exactly the same as everyone else!

I've never posted pictures as I'm not a computer guy, but there are pictures of some of my gear on various websites. If it's not against the rules, I could provide links or URLs to some of them. I certainly don't want to be seen as a "forum jumper!"

Best Regards,
Terry, "The Ordinary Olson"

[Marco]

Hi Terry,

A very warm welcome to our community on AoS

Like others have said - what a superb introduction!

The D.I.Y section of the forum (The Drawing Board) is actually pretty vibrant and there are many interesting projects discussed there on a regular basis.

Our 'main man' there, Leo, is in charge of that particular section of the forum and is a very pleasant guy to chat to and exchange ideas with, as are all our other resident D.I.Y-ers.

This is also a genuinely international site (although it's managed from the UK), as we have members from all parts of the world, and so hopefully there is less of a 'UK-centric' feel to it than some other UK-based audio forums, solely D.I.Y-based or otherwise.

Like others have said, I look forward to hopefully reading your many posts throughout the forum, and engaging in some interesting discussions with you.

Enjoy!

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hi Terry,

Like they said..........
Welcome to the Art of Sound.
Love your part of the world - I've had some good hikes on the Olympic Peninsula, got too much sand in my boots on the Oregon Dunes & stood in awe at the feet of your giant trees. You're lucky to be where you are.

Cheers

[TerryO]

Hi Terry,

Like they said..........
Welcome to the Art of Sound.
Love your part of the world - I've had some good hikes on the Olympic Peninsula, got too much sand in my boots on the Oregon Dunes & stood in awe at the feet of your giant trees. You're lucky to be where you are.

Cheers

THE Grand Wazoo ?

Sir,
It is indeed an honor to finally meet you.

I've spent a lot of time on the Peninsula, in fact my Father grew up there. He used to paddle his dugout up the river to the Quinault Indian Reservation to play with children his own age. Of the 12 children in his school, eight of them were from one family! There weren't any roads in those days and all supplies either came down the river in a dugout or twice a year on a barge run aground during high tide.

I don't know if you had the opportunity while you were here to try your hand at getting Razor Clams, it's a tradition among Northwesterners. Being a traditionalist, I only use a Clam Gun, leaving the Bazookas for tourists. The Dungeness Crabs are also fun to catch and taste pretty good as well.

Thanks for the welcome,
TerryO

[John]

Welcome Terry
I love to see some pictures of what you made