Hi,
I'm Geoff, and this is the story of my life.
I have always loved music and bought my first records in about 1962, firstly old rock and roll (Jerry Lee, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, etc), then Blues (Lightning Hopkins, Son House Memphis Slim, Muddy etc) which led me to Jazz (ODJB to Ayler) and later, in the early 70s I developed a love of Classical music, especially 20th century and opera.
The first time I heard the term hi-fi was in about 1971, when I replaced an old Dansette type record changer with a Garrard AP76, Shure M75EJ, Wharfdale amp and Linton speakers. Boy, I can still hear that wonderful sound.
I lived in London then and in 1974 I moved to Cornwall with a new wife and a new system – Pioneer PL12D (£45); Armstrong 621 (£76) and Kef R104ABs (£133). It was the thing in those days to pack the PL12D with plasticene to deaden resonances, and replace the Pioneer headshell with an AKG (magnesium alloy, I think) so that you could fit a Shure V15/3. I still have the old headshell, I don’t know why.
This system stayed with me until 1985 when I bought a Thorens TD321 with a Rega RB300; Ortofon MC10; Audiolab 3000A, Akai tuner and Spendor SP1s, and, later that year added my first CD player a Marantz CD65SE.
In 2008 I moved to a small house and was forced to downsize. The Spendors went off to Italy via eBay and were replaced with ATC SCM11s. And the Ortofon MC became a Rondo Red.
Then I bought a Roksan Kandy 2 to replace the Audiolab which I thought was getting old. But the Roksan needed an MC phono so I bought a Cambridge Audio RP640. Then the Marantz died and I bought a CA 640CD. But last October that started playing up and I bought a mint Marantz 6004 on eBay which pretty much perfected my CD listening. What an improvement.
And then, for a while, there was peace all around.
But, few weeks ago I was struck down with upgraditis, and, looking at my old Rega RB300, I thought, you need a re-wire and sent it off to Audio Origami. That was a very nice experience, and since it returned I haven’t listened to anything else except LPs (I refuse to use the word vynil let alone vynils). Everything sounded wonderful again.
But I still had upgraditis raging, and my eyes fell upon the phono stage. So I began to Google. And that led me to Jez Arkless. And that led me here.
Hi.