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Thread: Hello everyone, I am a new member

  1. #1
    Join Date: Mar 2018

    Location: Battle, East Sussex

    Posts: 162
    I'm Lee.

    Default Hello everyone, I am a new member

    Hi everyone,
    I have decided to join the forum after reading some posts for a while after researching a purchase of a Technics SL1200 MkII.
    I have been listening to music from the 1970s when we had a radio in our living room and I would listen to radio 1 before (primary) school and then as I grew older top of the pops in the 1980s in my teens. It wasn't until I was 16 that I really got into music and a band which was ULTRAVOX in 1983. This was followed by Big Country, Bryan Adams, and then Garry Moore when I was learning to pay electric lead guitar which followed into heavy rock, glam rock, melodic rock and AOR. I had a music centre that my parents bought me and I used to record my albums the first time I played them and listen to the tape for the car. As you can imagine the music centre sounded pretty awful on vinyl replay.

    When I started work in my second full time job as an engineer at 21 I would be in the staff room reading lots of What HiFi mags which was all turntable based before CD appeared. Eventually I was able to buy my first HiFi system at Seven Oaks Hifi in Seven Oaks. By then CD was here and I went armed with my What HiFi magazine looking to buy the award winners for that year. I was intent on buying a Philips CD850 which I think was the first bitstream player, a Mission Cyrus One amp and Cyrus 781SE Speakers. I ended up with a Marantz CD50SE (TD1541 16bit DAC) , Mission Cyrus Two amp (later bought a PSX second hand), and Musical Fidelity MC2 Rosewood Speakers on Partington Dreadnought stands, which along with the supra cable set me back nearly £1000 on my credit card which I paid off over 4 months. The HiFi journey had begun. To be honest though it was never great and a real disappointment. The music never sounded as good as the magazines used to write about, it was always fatiguing, and variable quality of recordings on CD. There was not even a thought of playing vinyl because of y music centre days.

    After many so called upgrades over the years, including various amps, speakers, CD players, DACs, cables interconnect - you know how it goes, following the main magazines advice I pretty much gave up. The Vinyl Knob was my downfall and I ended up spending quite a bit and amassing a collection of retro HiFi on eBay happened and suddenly there was all this access to vintage HiFi.

    I am glad to say that the HiFi internet forums helped me to see just how much the HiFi magazines were a vehicle to promote and sell HiFi and that many of the accessories which I had bought over the years were really snake oil.
    I finally started exploring vinyl after walking into a charity shop and finding so much vinyl, my thinking was I could buy an LP for hardly anything and if I didn’t like it I could just give it back as a donation. This meant I needed a TT so I started reading various forums and eventually ended up with a Thorens TD160B which I replinthed and added a Rega RB251 with end stub upgrade. I also purchased a Yamaha YP800 DD TT which I love and I have two Lenco projects that have been on a slow go for over 5 years as I had a stroke 4 ½ years ago.

    I am in the process of setting up my listening room again and have sold a lot of my collection, although there is still more to go. I have just bought a Technics SL1200 MK2 as a simple way to start listening to vinyl again and had it fully serviced and a new arm installed. I’m looking forward finally listening to music seriously again soon later this year when my energy allows me to.

    Regarding the user name Eldavanyar it’s taken from the Silmarillion, which is the prequel to Lord of the Rings. The Eldar were the first born Elves and the Vanyar are the fairest and most noble of the High Elves. I love J R Tolkien’s writing and the idea of the firstborn elves who were almost immortal and had travelled to the undying lands held a lot for me in my teenage years or teenage angst as I was trying to work out what my life and place in the world was all about, and the later search for the divine. Music is one way that helps connect us as we travel on that journey…..

    So looking forward to taking part in The Art of Sound forum now and again when time and energy allows
    It’s about the music
    70s Retro Yamaha YP800TT, CA1000Mk2, CT1010

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Surrey

    Posts: 7,103
    I'm Rob.

    Default

    Welcome Lee, what a great first post. Tell us what in addition to the Technics TT you are using at the moment.
    Buy Bose...And get your parking validated!.

    https://youtu.be/ZCBe7-6rw4M

    No Highs...No Lows....It Must Be Bose!

  3. #3
    Join Date: Mar 2018

    Location: Battle, East Sussex

    Posts: 162
    I'm Lee.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Puffin View Post
    Welcome Lee, what a great first post. Tell us what in addition to the Technics TT you are using at the moment.
    Thanks for the welcome

    The technics I had serviced by Richard Talmage at http://www.technics-service.co.uk who did a brilliant job. He had actually finished the comprehensive service and then I asked him to replace the tonearm with a new one which he did for me and was very accomodating and easy to deal with, so thanks Richard!

    With the technics I am going to be using an Angle Audio MM preamp or a Yaqin ms 12b phono stage into my EL34 Symphonic Audio Valve Amp which is hard wired point to point. I bought this in the late 2000's from a dealer in Hong Kong via ebay. I have yet to decide on a cartridge to use with the Technics, but have the following to choose from Shure M75ed typeII, Shure M95ed, Shure M97xe, Pickering v15 625e. I think I may also have a Nagoika MP100 as well to try.

    Speakers at the moment are some Monitor Audio Silver 2s which I bought recently and not listend to yet, and I hope the valves will be a good match helping to tame the aluminium 8" drivers. I am going to use Vann Damme Studio 2.5mm cable (not biwired) I have used Audioquest, QED, Supra, Cable Talk and others previously but will probably stick with Van Damme Studio Blue from now on as well as Van Damme interconnects.

    For CD duties I do have a Micromega Drive 3 and Dac 2 although I want to get them serviced first, so I am going to use FLAC files streamed to my Cambridge Audio Dac Magic Plus with its Wolfson DACs from either a WD Mycloud NAS or a Vortex Box v2.2 I built which is due a software upgrade. I may use a Raspberry Pi2b to stream from the WD NAS and feed into the Dac Magic or eventually the Micromega.

    The Lenco idler drive projects involve replinthing the GL75s with multilayer ply plinths, the big one is to be used with a Rega rb300 and the smaller one I will probably use the Lenco arm and keep it more original except for the plinth. That's the plan although I am thinking about a Jelco 750D but will have to sell some hifi first.

    I have just orderd assembled EAR 834 Phono Clone boards and would hope to get that up and running later in the year to compare, and a DIY CNC Phono stage by Hypnotoad from another forum (that's the problem with reading the various forums). My big problem is my eyesite after my stroke for soldering. Once i have decided on phono amp I will offload some of the others.

    I will set up a more retro system as well eventually which is all down to my energy levels, and it will probably be with my Yamaha YP800DD TT, Yamaha CA-1000MK2 amp, Yamaha CT-1010 Tuner and B&W DM14 Speakers which I would like to get recapped.

    Hope that's enough for now.
    It’s about the music
    70s Retro Yamaha YP800TT, CA1000Mk2, CT1010

  4. #4
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,848
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

    Default

    Excellent first post Lee and welcome to AoS.

    I think you will fit in very well here - we look forward to reading future posts.

    Enjoy the Forum
    Barry
    Barry

  5. #5
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

    Default

    Welcome to AoS
    Regards Neil

  6. #6
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

    Default

    Hello Lee. Welcome to AOS.

    Good intro there.

    You'll find vintage and classic Hi-Fi are very popular with members.

    Feel free to join in the chat.


    Enjoy the forum,
    Geoff.

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