Hello from Geordieland!

[RichB]

Hi there AoS, thanks for having me aboard...

About me, late 30s, married bloke, financing my audio habits by scratching a living in the Civil Service, Bass Player in a couple of local bands (Newcastle upon Tyne area) a straight rock covers band and the other a Pink Floyd tribute.

Anyway, been messing around with audio stuff since i was a kid and after many years of distractions with i-things and mp3s etc rediscovered my love of 'proper hifi' resurected some of my old gear and spent some money on some new stuff too. Came across this forum when looking into various DACs and found plenty of good advice and knowledge here so thought i'd become part of the community

So... my gear, 3 systems running in the house at the moment...

Lounge - Arcam Solo Neo, Rega RS3, Chord Co Carnival Silverscreen Cables, an old Dell laptop (rarely used through the Neo), Samsung LCD.

Office/Man Cave - HP Slimline PC (Flac, Media Monkey), Beresford-TC 7520, Monster Interconnects, Pioneer A400 (Bought 20 years ago and cherished ever since), Mission 760SE (Same deal, biwired), Supra 32 speaker cable, Bandridge Banana Plugs etc.

Dining Room - Yamaha CRX-M170, Mission MX1, Supra cable.

My most recent purchase has been the Beresford TC-7520, just arrived today... couldnt wait to get it set up. Connected it to the PC and Pioneer amp to burn it in as they are always on. My God... talk about a shot in the arm for a vintage system! The missions are singing away like the last 20 year (5 house moves, and countless loud parties) have never happened. The Pioneer has got its balls back... i feel sorry for subjecting it to headphone outs for so long! My thinking was i'd eventually take the DAC to the Arcam in the other room for connecting the TV audio and laptop but at this rate I'll be buying another! What a fab product. I hear people raving about the Caiman and i cant image how good they must be as this is ruddy great.

Expect you'll see me around on any of the threads to do with this DAC, particularly those crazy mods and upgrades folk go for... all very interesting but for now I'll enjoy the huge improvement and let this thing settle in...

Cheers

Rich

[RichB]

would also add numerous hard drives to the list and a battered old pair of Beyerdynamic D100s. They serve me well when volumes have to be kept down.

[snapper]

Hi Richard

Welcome to the forum.

Great intro, but what music do you like?

[RichB]

Hi Snapper,

More a case of what i dont like really which is modern charty dance type music, dont do much hip/hop or rap, or banging trance

Obviously i love the Floyd and most progressive stuff, classic british rock stuff from the 60's, 70s. Listen to a lot of web radio and some DAB, Jazz Fm, Radio Paradise, Soma FM, Avro - Klassiek, Acoustic. (Hence why i acquired the Arcam Neo) it does these sources very well. Also like ambient stuff and folk, Vetiver, Vashti, Tunng that sort of thing.

Most recently I've been captivated by BBC Four's Transatlantic Sessions, having seen this live show several times at Celtic Connection. Julie Fowlis, Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain. With a bit of luck Santa Claus will bring these on DVD and I'll be happy boy.

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Richard, welcome to AoS :) Nice introduction, but as David said, what kind of music do you like? E2A:- I'm too late :doh:

I guess rock must be in there though :eyebrows:

Hope you enjoy your stay here, just keep an eye on your wallets contents :D

cheers :cool:

[Alex_UK]

Welcome from me too - we seem to have had a sudden influx of musicians and recording engineers - hopefully you'll all bring a bit of sanity and a different slant to some of the proceedings. :)

Glad the DAC is doing it for you - they are rather good.

Enjoy the forum Rich. :)

[Wilbur]

Welcome!! Durham coast here :wave:

[RichB]

Thanks for the welcome...

Good advice to be careful with one's wallet when it comes to the audio hobby, i like to have the best i can afford but seriously reckon that the best value and fun (after all its a hobby!) is found in the entry stuff from the serious brands, there's always something new coming along and i like to try different gear every so often.

Nice to hear others are enjoying the beresford, came back from a band practice and couldnt wait to get listening again. Thought occured to me i wonder what this would sound like plugged into a decent power amp using the variable outputs?

could be the makings of another 'quality on a budget' type project...

hello down there in Durham land, played loads of gigs down there so know the inside of far too many pub down that way.

[Wilbur]

Run a pub that has gigs last 2 Fridays of the month...Blues/Rock...maybe I know you :)