G'day from sunny Surrey

[morris_minor]

Just thought I'd say hi to you folk.

I've been into music and hi-fi since around 1970, and had some, er, interesting pieces of kit over the years - maybe the most unusual being a Strathearn STM turntable: ingenious type of induction direct drive, crappy arm, so-so Stanton cartridge, and the build quality of a chocolate hairdryer. Strathearn was one of those Ulster startups along with DeLorean that got loads of government/EU money. Is is coincidence that DeLorean's were doomed as well?

I went on to get a B&O deck, then, as soon as I saw it, a Technics SL7 that I soon put a Shure V15LT in. (The power of the Hi-Fi press - I should have stuck with the P22, really). But I was a happy bunny. Maybe the audio mags hadn't quite got me to because I hadn't fallen hook line and sinker for the Linn Lp12! (Or perhaps I just couldn't afford it :lol: )

A change of circumstance meant that I let the SL7 go, but my vinyl was soon spinning on a Michell Mycro with a G1042. By now I had a sizeable CD collection, but they'd never really done it for me - failing eyesight made the booklet print ever harder to read, and cover art wasn't up to LP standards. So when I took the plunge and got a Slim Devices SB3 I was hooked into streaming audio. Months of ripping followed, as did a SB Duet, Boom, two Radios and - a Transporter. Back to being a happy bunny!

A "household accident", however saw my Mycro slide of the rack - dont ask :steam: - and after a battle with my house insurers, they paid up and I got a GyroSE / Tecnoarm / G1042. To go with this a Graham Slee Era V Gold phono stage came along, and all was right in the world.

However, I have a worsening muscle condition which makes manual cueing of records increasing difficult and I recently took the sad decision to sell the Gyro on fleabay. (Pics here for one more day (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130600167264?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_5413wt_1288)) .

So what to get for the vinyl. Remembering my old SL7, I bought one on eBay which has turned out really well - I'd forgotten how good they are. I got an LPGear Shibata tipped AT for it, and ran that in for a bit, and did some comparative 96/24 needledrops with the Gyro/1042 - to be really honest there was very little difference. I coded the files for my Squeezebox and I couldn't reliably tell them apart. Problem solved.

Searching for a place to service the Technics I came across Vantage audio, and a thread on this very forum from chris@panteg. So I'll be getting my SL7 down to Richard soon. But only after he's fettled my SL-Q1 that's on its way to him now from the eBay seller (£58! What a bargain :) ) That's both the living room and study systems sorted.

Doing a load of research lately has made me realise how well thought of the '80s Japanese direct drive table are (the higher end ones anyway). It's such a shame CD reared it's ugly head so soon after DD had been made to work so well, Linear Tracking was up and running well, and the lovely p-mount connector had been devised. I'd never thought about cartridge swapping on my Gyro as I couldn't be bothered to go through the re-alignment process. But now I already have an AT92E, LPGear Reference VS, Technics NOS EPC540, and a NOS Empire 1080LT. No doubt more to come! Any recommendations, anyone??

I'll post my impressions of the Vantaged Q1 in due course, plus some pics I expect.

Cheers,
Bob

[Puffin]

Hi Bob, Good to have another Surrey resident on-board. I happen to work in Guildford.

Oh and from one Bob to another...Welcome

Rob.

[morris_minor]

Thanks Bob!

I just popped back as I thought I'd put some words together about my musical tastes.

My musical education was formed by going to local concerts in Guildford when the Guildford Phil had the very wonderful Tod Handley as it's music director. Lots of 20th Cent British fare was programmed, as well as other modern stuff that just wouldn't get played anywhere else - Martinu's Epic of Gilgamesh, anyone?

So Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Walton, Finzi, Bax, Moeran, Howells, Tippett etc are firm favourites, as well as Nielsen, Stravinsky, Bartok, Ravel, Debussy. However I'm discovering earlier composers all the time, and have got back to guys like Guilaume De Machaut and the Ars Nova musicians.

Lest you get the impression that I'm solely a classical nut, jazz is a big part of my collection/listening, especially '60s Blue Note, and West Coast.

My first ever LP was the Beatles Hard Days Night, and I dragged my Mum along to see the film. All the other Beatles albums followed, but 70s/80s pop largely passed me by until recently until downloads became the normal way of buying music for me.

I've got into Afro-Cuban music, and stuff from Mali - indeed anything put out by the wonderful World Circuit label (their presentation of CDs is top notch IMO).

Hi res downloads of late have included lots of Scandinavian jazz from ECM and Ozella. Beady Belle from Norway is a firm favourite now. (As is Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell et al.)

As I write Ultravox's Rage In Eden is spinning on the SL7. Must get back to doing some work .. .. ..

[keiths]

Hi Bob - welcome to AoS :wave:

Have fun.

[snapper]

Hi Bob

A warm welcome to AOS from me.

[Thing Fish]

Welcome Bob...:wave:

[Alex_UK]

Hi from me too, Bob - welcome. Nice to see such eclectic music tastes.

Interesting colour on (your?) Moggie - not a "Busby" van is it? :eyebrows: (My dad had a white 2 door - "Betsey" - from around 1976 to 1982 - but it was a bit of a wreck and before they were classics.) Marco's wife uses a Traveller as her everyday car, I believe. Lovely old things. :)

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Bob.

Super tastes in music - there will be much overlap with that of other members here. :)

Enjoy the Forum

Regards

[morris_minor]

Thanks to all for the welcomes!

And no, Alex, it's not my moggie, just an image grabbed off the 'net sadly. But a car with character :)

[Reid Malenfant]

Thanks to all for the welcomes!
Have another ;) A warm welcome from me also Bob, I hope you enjoy your stay here :)

Bests to you!

[jazzpiano]

Welcome Bob from another newbie. Very well written, but hard to focus on, what with that lovely car pic. We get one little British car show in the park here each summer where I go to salivate and that's it.
On to the Music: I hope we get to discuss music at some point as my favorites are jazz and classical - and 20th c. British are one of the forms that really got the bug to bite.

Best,
Barry :cool:

[morris_minor]

Thanks Barry!

Re British music - Walton is a special favourite. Ever since I first heard his 1st Symphony at one of Tod Handley's concerts I've become obsessed by it, getting every recording of I can lay my hands on - about 20 so far. Armed with the score I (presumptuously!) dissect the performances to try and find perfection. It's perhaps telling that it's a young American conductor who IMHO gets closest - Andre Previn in 1966 with his new orchestra, the LSO.

Talking of the LSO, they came to christen the new local concert hall with Valery Gergiev and a young Russian pianist. Halfway through the first movement of Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto the lights failed in the hall and apart from some very dim emergency lighting over the auditorium it was virtually pitch black. But professional to the end they kept on playing. A few musicians whipped out mobile phones and placed them on their music stands to shed a little bit of light. Soon some stage hands came on with a few torches and the music continued to the end of the movement. What professionalism! While the orchestra relocated to the pub across the road the pianist gave an impromptu Chopin recital with Gergiev holding a torch for him over the keyboard. Not something Barbican audiences would have experienced.:lol:

The LSO's flute player wrote an entertaining blog post (http://lsoontour.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/bad-light-stops-play-eventually/) on the evening's fun and games.

Edit: if the link doesn't work go to the blog home page and locate link "Bad light stops play - eventually" . Can't seem to paste the right URL with my iPad :doh:

Try this (http://lsoontour.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/bad-light-stops-play-eventually/)

[jazzpiano]

Thank you for the Walton recommendation - he is one of the British composers I know little of. My fondest memories of record buying and new composer discoveries are from the 70s. I was exposed by a friend to Vaughan Williams via Boult's EMI recordings and later on my own discovered Barbirolli's great "Conducts English String Music" LP. Perhaps the most beautiful, intimate string playing I have ever heard. The 70s was a great period for myself - the "collectors", here at least, snubbed their noses at the music on Argo, late EMI, most Lyrita, etc. because it was not from the 50s, not old original pressings, not collectible enough... This was (and still is) a boon to the real music lover vs the label/matrix number collector. For $10 - $12 you could play and explore and I don't think there's anything more fun for the music lover than discovering great new music. This keeps the focus where it should be - on the music. I could go on but I'll just list a few of my favorite British composers for you (other than RVW): Britten, Finzi, Butterworth, Elgar.

Best,
Barry :)

[MaccaAu]

:) Hi Bob welcome to AOS, i ama newbie xD from Aussie land

[morris_minor]

:) Hi Bob welcome to AOS, i ama newbie xD from Aussie land
Hi Sam,

Thanks! You gotta love the web - I've put a few posts on an Aussie forum (stereo.net.au). It's good to get a perspective on things from other parts of the world; some things different, others very much the same!

Cheers,
Bob :cool:

[morris_minor]

Thank you for the Walton recommendation - he is one of the British composers I know little of. My fondest memories of record buying and new composer discoveries are from the 70s. I was exposed by a friend to Vaughan Williams via Boult's EMI recordings and later on my own discovered Barbirolli's great "Conducts English String Music" LP. Perhaps the most beautiful, intimate string playing I have ever heard. The 70s was a great period for myself - the "collectors", here at least, snubbed their noses at the music on Argo, late EMI, most Lyrita, etc. because it was not from the 50s, not old original pressings, not collectible enough... This was (and still is) a boon to the real music lover vs the label/matrix number collector. For $10 - $12 you could play and explore and I don't think there's anything more fun for the music lover than discovering great new music. This keeps the focus where it should be - on the music. I could go on but I'll just list a few of my favorite British composers for you (other than RVW): Britten, Finzi, Butterworth, Elgar.

Best,
Barry :)

If you like Elgar and Britten then Walton should be right up your street. He wasn't prolific, but put out some real gems. The oratorio Belshazzar's Feast is a brilliantly exciting piece (Walton's own recording with the Philharmonia, or Previn/LSO are IMHO best here). He composed some good film music for Olivier's Shakespeare films (eg Henry V), and then there's the Coronation Marches (outdoing Elgar in the pomp and circumstance stakes, as it were) and the chameleon of a piece "Facade". In its original form for reciter and small chamber group there's literally nothing like it!

I believe the Barbirolli English String music disc (ASD521) was the longest issue ever to remain at full price in the catalogue. I inherited a mono and stereo version from my Dad, bought the CD, and then splashed out on a 180gm Speakers Corner reissue - simply perfect music making. The RVW Tallis has never sounded better.

So much music .. so little time!

Cheers,
Bob

[jazzpiano]

G'Day Bob,

Just wanted to pop in and let you know that there is a separate Classical sub-forum under Musical Compositions - I think I'm the only one whose commented here recently.
Also, under Musical Compositions is a thread entitled 'Classical Music for People who Don't Like Classical Music'. Lastly, I am a big jazz fan, a little more-so than classical even. Just a few faves (the list would be huge) are: Gerry Mulligan, Bud Powell, Billie Holiday, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Rowles, Art Tatum... oh forget it, I gotta stop now, I can feel the list exploding in my head.

Best,
Barry

[jazzpiano]

Bob, I mis-posted. The "... for people who don't like classical music" thread is in the classical sub-forum.

~Barry

[morris_minor]

I did think this thread was going off topic :lol:

I'll post over the way soon.

Meanwhile am listening to Beady Belle from Norway. The first album "Home". Jazzy vocals, bit of electronica, a sitar, plus a good beat. Nice stuff :)

[MaccaAu]

Hi Sam,

Thanks! You gotta love the web - I've put a few posts on an Aussie forum (stereo.net.au). It's good to get a perspective on things from other parts of the world; some things different, others very much the same!

Cheers,
Bob :cool:

Hi Bob,
That is a good forum i am on that forum also haven been in awhile. I do love the web also, like today horribly humid and warm, yet in the UK would be getting close to winter. Uk ebay comes up with some good stuff, i got my Marantz cd player from there, it was already modded, and amazed me was sent DHL arrived in about 4 days ! :cool:

cheers
Sam