music enthusiast

[Pip Eastop]

Hi folks,
I'm a hifi nut, but I'm tired of worrying about equipment blowing up or catching fire so I've drifted away from my homemade valve amps and now use stuff I can leave switched on all the time and mostly play music from my computer/s.
I suppose I have two systems, both computer driven. One in one study and the other in ...my other study. Erm....
One set sings via a lovely pair of Harbeths - sorry I can't remember the model name (K6 or something like that) and they aren't made any more. They really are beautiful but may be slightly damaged from some howling valve amps I made and couldn't fix. The amps are Bantam Gold monoblocs, one for each speaker, and they are fed from a cheap Focusrite interface out of my desktop Mac. The sound is wonderful. i made the speaker cables myself out of miles of Cat5 cable, plaited up beautifully.
My other set is similar but the speakears are active ADM9.1 by AVI - with a subwoofer.
It's great -but not as good as the Harbeths' sound.

I also have a pair of Impulse H2 speakers. These are big and lovely - and have been restored (but my wife finds them unacceptably big and unstylish and I think they'll have to go).

My amps - I've some restored old Quad valve amps, the ones they made before switching to transistors. I've got some of those, too - not such a great sound, but a very iconic look, from the seventies.
Piles of CD players, cassette decks and a minidisk deck - all unused now. I've digitised my entired CD collection to FLAC.

I'm a musician by trade. A horn player. I like all kinds of music except Andrew Lloyd Weber and Harrison Birtwistle.

I've got a couple of lovely valve amps to sell and I might be persuaded to part with the Impulse H2 monsters. They weigh a ton and are currently rolled up in bubblewrap. I'm in Beckenham, Kent.

All the best, to all...
Pip

[jandl100]

Welcome to the forum, Pip.

You sound like a complete loon.

You'll fit in well.

I see you have made a slight typo in your post, though.
I've corrected it for you.

I also have a pair of Impulse H2 speakers. These are big and lovely - and have been restored (but my wife finds them unacceptably big and unstylish and I think theyshe'll have to go).

Seriously, though - a musician, an electrical engineer and a hifi lover.
Impressive, even if your valve amps do sometimes howl and catch fire.

[Pip Eastop]

Hi Jerry,
thanks for the welcome ..and the typo correction.
I can certainly see the sense in it.
I'll give it a try and get back to you.

I really can't accept the title "electrical engineer". My attempts at building amps were somewhat laughable. I needed a lot of help - and eventually my eyesight failed so I couldn't see where I was going with the soldering iron.

All the best,
Pip

[walpurgis]

Hello Philip. Welcome to AOS.

Sounds as though you've been having fun with your Hi-Fi. You're not the only one with piles of gear, quite a few of us are like that, me included.

If you have equipment to move on, our Private Exhibitions section is the place.

Tell us what future plans if any you may have for your system and feel free to join in the chat, everybody is friendly.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[vinyl]

A warm welcome to AoS Phillip

[Pip Eastop]

Thank you Geoff,
Most kind of you.
Pip

[Pip Eastop]

Much appreciated.
Pip