How did you get into this nonsense in the first place?

[Oldpinkman]

It was reading a post about a ferguson record player made me think. There are normal folk happy with ghetto-blasters music centres, and midi-system. We are a rare breed. My wife has just signed up - can't do the techie stuff, but now has a threshold of tolerance, and knows when what she's listening to is letting her down. So how did it all start for you?

Personally, I blame my parents. Both of them in their own way. Dad had a Bush radiogram. Ok - that's a music centre. But it was his pride and joy record player, he spent a relative fortune on (all his de-mob money). Solid walnut, 12" drive unit, valves - we're talking hifi inspite of the bakelite arm and autochanger.

But Mum was the real culprit - Another solid walnut Bush (careful smutties, this is my Mum we're talking about) - a radiogram - which was my radio in my bedroom until I was about 9. It had a separate record player - well turntable - which plugged in to the radiogram. Fitting in a case like a small suitcase, it was cream bakelite, idler wheel drive to a ringing steel enamelled platter, with a thin red ribbed rubber mat on it. So my first record player was a separates system with a valve amp. (Mind I had a valve Bush black & white TV at the time too. Anyone remember waiting for the dot to disappear?)

I bought Hot-Hits 10 - my first LP, and went round to a mate who had bought Tubular Bells, and knew a young "grown up" with a HiFi. Leak speakers and amps, forget the tt, ubiquitous SME 3009 and Shure V15-III, I couldnt believe music could sound like this. From there it was a trip to the hifi store, same front end but Lowther speakers, and I ended up with my GL75, Armstrong 525 Kef Concorde (and Koss K6 headphones, and an amstrad top loading cassette deck)

And then I heard a pair of quad electrostatics, and the world changed.

Ah - nostalgia's not what it used to be...

On the ferguson / nostalgia touch I couldn't help but notice that Funk Firm are now on the site of the original Ferguson factory in Newhaven.

[Gordon Steadman]

I had this little portable record player to play my new Beatles Help LP. Mono of course. So, as one does, I bought a little amplifier module, changed the cartridge for a stereo one, added another, no doubt non matching, speaker and.....voila stereo.

Then I heard a friend's system. 401/SME, Quad33/303 and Wharfdale Dovedales I think. It didn't sound quite the same as mine, so the chase was on. Fifty years on and I think I'm catching it.

[kenworthy100]

My interest started when my dad in 1980 bought his first what you might call proper hifi, Celestion Ditton 33, Pioneer PL112 with Shure m75 (i think), Sony STR v4l receiver, pioneer ct506 cassette deck. To that point we had had lo-fi with the ubiquitous music centre. I remember marvelling at the sound the big Celestions gave out and there commenced the journey.

A few years later I stumbled across a "proper" hifi shop and at the age of fourteen I withdrew all my savings and bought a Nad 3020, Dual CS505/2 and a pair of MS10's. Wow, there was no turning back, real music and vinyl albums started amassing everywhere much to the consternation of my mother who really couldn't understand the excitement.

My dad subsequently bought a secondhand quad 33/303 and Ariston I think RD80 turntable and replaced the Celestions with Spendor BC1's. Compact disk was evolving and a Phillips cd104 took pride of place, and that as they say was the start of an obsession which has had many highs and the occasional low.

[Oldpinkman]

Gordon

We must talk more!!! You live in France. I am planning to relocate to the Languedoc as soon as I can (probably at least 18 months away), but whilst I speak fluent French, and have worked a few weeks in France, I could do with getting to know a few ex-pats who know what its really like to live there.

[Firebottle]

We must talk more!!! You live in France.

Hi Richard, I'm in the middle of France, would be glad to give you any pointers. You've cracked the first hurdle if you are fluent in french :)

BTW Gordon's a good guy to know IMHO.

:cool:Alan

[Oldpinkman]

Hi Richard, I'm in the middle of France, would be glad to give you any pointers. You've cracked the first hurdle if you are fluent in french :)

BTW Gordon's a good guy to know IMHO.

:cool:Alan

Brilliant - thanks. Perhaps we can start an ex-pats in France hifi forum somewhere! love your signature - for all I wanted to tell people about my hifi I may change mine to one its reminded me of. There are a couple of great (maybe apocryphal) quotes for Thomas Beecham.

The first concerned a very nervous Jaqueline Du Pre struggling to play the Cello in his presence - "Madam, you have between your legs one of God's finest gifts to mankind, and all you can do is sit there and scratch it!"

The other - which reminded me of yours, was when he was asked why he never conducted Stockhausen. "Conducted Stockhausen? I believe I trod in some once"

[Gordon Steadman]

Gordon

We must talk more!!! You live in France. I am planning to relocate to the Languedoc as soon as I can (probably at least 18 months away), but whilst I speak fluent French, and have worked a few weeks in France, I could do with getting to know a few ex-pats who know what its really like to live there.

Hi Richard,

Any info, just fire away. Don't listen to that Firebottle bloke, he had the nerve to introduce me to an amplifier that made it necessary to change a system I have had for 25 years. What a nuisance:)

I am at a fair disadvantage here as the language seems to go in one ear and out the other. Strangely, I have a terrific French accent, being a natural mimic. Two or three words and you'd think I was French:lol:. I am fortunate that my wife is somewhat more conscientious than I am. I spend my spare moments listening to music. I tried with language tapes and CDs but they just send me to sleep. Anyway, I am much too old to learn new tricks and just enjoy the lifestyle, weather, food and wine (and Guinness when it is available at the local English bar!!:cool:

Alan (Firebottle) and I meet up occasionally and I'm sure you will be welcome when you are down here, although a bit far south!!! We all have spare bedrooms.

[Haselsh1]

I got into this nonsense in 1977 at which time I smashed myself to bits in a motorcycle crash. I was in hospital for six months so had plenty of time to take stock so I decided I would put together my first hi-fi system as soon as I got home. This quickly led to the Linn/Naim scenario and then all sorts of stuff. Of course it really all started with being born into a lifetime of being passionate about music. Thanks Mom and Dad.

[Frankyc2003]

It all started for me when my parents got me this thing...

http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz275/frankyc2003/il_fullxfull385051419_myj0_zps230ea123.jpg (http://s835.photobucket.com/user/frankyc2003/media/il_fullxfull385051419_myj0_zps230ea123.jpg.html)

I bought The Bugles 'Plastic Age' 45 with my first 5 francs coin!

While my parents were playing Charles Mingus, Bryan Ferry and Harry Bellafonte on something very close to this:

http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz275/frankyc2003/dualcs1226c_zps6a56e313.jpg (http://s835.photobucket.com/user/frankyc2003/media/dualcs1226c_zps6a56e313.jpg.html)

And then around 1984, my dad bough this (with a record player but without the CD player!):

http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz275/frankyc2003/1364981_111228120624_DSC01611_zps00e38813.jpg (http://s835.photobucket.com/user/frankyc2003/media/1364981_111228120624_DSC01611_zps00e38813.jpg.html )

And I remember spending hours cleaning records to make tape transfers with 'no pops'...
One of the speakers was behind the sofa, while the other was behind the TV, so I guess my Dad never worried about imaging and soundstaging...:scratch:

Then there is a long stream of Sony and Aiwa walkmans... And a long, long period where music wasn't a priority for me (which coincide funnily enough the the heydays of the small silver disc!)...

And it all started again about 5 or 6 years ago when my Girlfriend offered to get an old 'all in one' system from the 70s...

The bug had bitten again...
The rest is history...:ner:

[Puffin]

I became a DJ at the age of about 10 or 11. My sister was 3.5 years older than me and she was into Motown and The Beatles and other stuff (this is 1966ish). I was tasked with pushing the beautiful walnut HMV radiogram (a plaque of Nipper stuck to the underside of the hinged lid lined with lovely green felt) from it's home on the other side of the lounge, to the windows of the lounge on the 2nd floor of our Victorian terrace in Battersea, this is so that she and her mates could "Dance in the Street" (Martha's responsible of course!) I suppose this was the start as not long after I got a record player with built in speaker. Not happy with the sound, I removed the speaker and made a separate box for it....oh it sounded sooo much better;)

In the next few years I discovered Tottenham Court Road and Laskys and all the other Hifi shops up there and bought my first proper system an Eagle amp and a Garrard SP25mkII. I bought a pair of really cool white spherical speakers from a school mate who was loaded (I think they cost a fortune) but didn't sound too great. With the knowledge I have now it was probably because the speakers were way too good for the crap Eagle amp......

[shane]

When I was about three (1955, if you really want to know) Dad came home with a carcase of a cabinet-type HMV wind-up gramophone into which he had installed an ancient 4-speed garrard autochanger, a 10" speaker and a dangerous-looking thing at the back that glowed and hummed. Onto that he put his Dad's copy of Beethoven's 6th on five HMV 78s, followed by Big Noise From Winnetka by Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, and I was smitten.
KfFBdViZHzk
That was replaced by a Bush SRP31C, which ultimately ended up in my bedroom with a huge and beautiful Grundig table radio, but Nirvana came at the age of 16 when I went babysitting for a neighbour who had a Thorens TD124/SME3009/V15 II into a Leak Stereo 30 and Wharfedale Lintons (an oddly unbalanced system for the time, in retrospect. The front-end-is-all movement didn't get going for another 5 years) and a copy of that stereo sampler album with a Concorde wind-tunnel model on the cover (anyone remember that? What was it called?). Shortly after that I got a job in a Hi-Fi shop, and forty years later I'm still addicted.

[Rare Bird]

I had lots of crap when i was in grammar school but my first serious system that made me take it all serious loike was Thorens 'TD160' Super..Mayware 'Formula 4, Mk.3' Pick-Up arm..ADC '26' Cart..Quantum Electronics '102'/'402'/'207DA' Amp.. Castle Acoustics 'Howard' Mk.1 speekarse.

[Oldpinkman]

So much sounds so familiar. One of the pictures reminds me that in my teens I was alone during school days in the house in france where I was on french exchange. Cant remember the rest of the system but a pioneer pl12d turntable and genesis nursery crime and selling england by the pound were my company. Sue bought me a brand new pressing of nursery crime for my birthday in march. Must look out for selling england- and a pl12d

[DSJR]

I was born with 'it,' but really owe it all to one of these -

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/PRODPIC-483-1_zps254f8d4a.jpg (http://s132.photobucket.com/user/DSJR_photos/media/PRODPIC-483-1_zps254f8d4a.jpg.html)

(Auto) Deccalian 88 fitted with spindly legs and 'touchy-feely' Collaro Conquest auto deck - lovely. I have one awaiting collection and restoration. Who needs foo wires costing hundreds of quid - this is where it's really at folks :lol:

[Oldpinkman]

That's what my mums record player looked like - no legs, not quite as tall, no "stacking arm", same colour scheme!

[freefallrob]

It's my Dads fault!

One day he was messing about with platter mats (rubber/felt etc) and got me to listen (probably to Direstraits;)) to see if I could describe the differences, to my surprise I could, I think speaker cables came in to it somewhere too, solid core vs. multi strand!

[hal55]

I think it's in your genes. Failing that, blame Vacuum State preamp, EAR 509s, Heybrook 3s and a Linn running a $5000 (in the early 80s!) cartridge.

Hal55

[pjdowns]

I started out really in 1992 when I was 14 and when my father completed his MBA and as a reward upgrade his ageing system.

He past down to me a Yamaha CR600 receiver, Teac A400 cassette deck and 1 IMF ALS40 (the other had blown)

Shortly after that I received a pair of Wharfedale Diamond II Loudspeakers which I only recently parted with after having them in a number of 2nd systems.

P.

[trio leo]

It started in the 50's, I had a wind up gramophone in my bedroom with just a few 78's, "buttons and bows" comes to mind and Paul Anka's "Diana".
the volume control was 2 small doors on the front of the box.

next jump was a mobile phone size "transistor" radio with a single earpiece, it was fantastic in the early 60's.

later Dad had a Dansette and my 1st records were Honeybus "Can't let Maggie go", "Mony Mony", Jimmy James and the Shondels and Ottis Reading Dock of the bay, played them to death and for 6/-8d each (6 shillings and 8 old pence to you youngsters)

When I got to 17 I pushed the boat out and bought a Fidelity UA5 Music Centre, WOW!!! t/table, amp, radio, cassette with microphone and STEREO speakers, I was fascinated that a guitar was here, a drum was there and someone in the middle singing. loved it.

In the 70's I bought my 1st "system" Technics t/table, Technics amp and Wharfedale E30 speakers, £600 was a lot of money to me then.

I quickly moved on to a Dual 626 t/table, Naim 42/110 amp and Allison 3 speakers, I changed pieces of equipment as time went on and now I get stunning results from my system, which is 99% Vinyl. So far it has been a wonderful journey of musical experiences, I'm sure many of you have enjoyed the same.

regards Al

[jasonC]

i knew little about hifi,well nothing is a better way of putting it before.
i thought every one used midi systems.
i had one by sony that i lived with for many years and i never thought about replacing it as it was just a means to enjoy my music which i did,then one day in my early 20's i visited a friend who had an awia? mini system
and the bass(that's what i knew the sound as then,now i know it was just boom) that came from it opened my mind to different systems sounding different.
til then it never crossed my mind to upgrade unless my system broke because as said,they were all just a means to play my music.
so i went through mini systems but none hit the spot,even my friends system never as i bought the same model.
i then bought a real hifi system(in my mind), denon set up with gale bookshelves.
Then i bought a what hifi and box swapping became the norm.
for a long time hifi became about getting the perfect sound and less about enjoying music.
around 4 months ago i bought a naim 90 power amp and my friend kindly bought me as a gift a naim 92pre
he also gave me a revolver rebel turntable he was not using.
bought a nad c520 cd player, have them hooked to some wharfedale rm95 speakers though i did buy some
ae109 the otherday from another forum member.
i bought them as i wanted some castles but ended up with them.
so i will use them either in my set up or in my bedroom as i have a rotel amp that i got for £30 the other year.
sine owning the naim i have not looked at other amps as im happy with the sound and it dawned on my that the box
swapping had to stop and that i had stop enjoying music which is the real for a decent system after all.
i do not plan to do any more buying on the hifi front as i do not see the point.
my system to my ears sounds as good as any other system i have heard
and in my living room i think i have a good system.
if the ae do not add anything i will be happy to live with the 95rm
the rm95 are not small so hence my search for smaller floorstanders.
if the ae do not sound as good i will just live with the rm95 which will not be hard :)

[Idlewithnodrive]

When I was about three (1955, if you really want to know) Dad came home with a carcase of a cabinet-type HMV wind-up gramophone into which he had installed an ancient 4-speed garrard autochanger, a 10" speaker and a dangerous-looking thing at the back that glowed and hummed. Onto that he put his Dad's copy of Beethoven's 6th on five HMV 78s, followed by Big Noise From Winnetka by Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, and I was smitten.
KfFBdViZHzk
That was replaced by a Bush SRP31C, which ultimately ended up in my bedroom with a huge and beautiful Grundig table radio, but Nirvana came at the age of 16 when I went babysitting for a neighbour who had a Thorens TD124/SME3009/V15 II into a Leak Stereo 30 and Wharfedale Lintons (an oddly unbalanced system for the time, in retrospect. The front-end-is-all movement didn't get going for another 5 years) and a copy of that stereo sampler album with a Concorde wind-tunnel model on the cover (anyone remember that? What was it called?). Shortly after that I got a job in a Hi-Fi shop, and forty years later I'm still addicted.


Shane,

That is the most awesome thing I have seen.

That clip would have done it for me too :)

[navigator]

Mum said 'take this cake to Aunt Ida's' .I was 15 ish. Dad had a vast valve Bush wireless and a reel to reel 8'' tape deck playing Glenn Miller. I listened to banned radio caroline with a crystal set on army headphones. Anyway I stood cake in hand in rain banging on said Aunts door.
From a window oozed a jazz combo in full flow. Early 60's-mersey sound was my thing. But sh**-this was awesome sound!!
It rained some more I banged louder.Surely this wasn't Ida's thing? Went for the backdoor -in-sodden cake on table and opened the lounge door.
A solid wall of sound hit me Cousin Allen waved at a seat that throbbed under me as the 15'' celestions in 48'' transmission lines poured out the acoustic bass and placed a trumpet and sax in my lap. Shure v15 on garrard 401[modded deck and arm] Radford valves 30 amp cooker wire.
Addict mainlining the music juice ever since.
--Nuff said.

[navigator]

That LP wind tunnel pic ---was it STUDIO TWO?? compilation of brightly recorded instrumentals from orchestras with a bit of vocals
name....... errrrr........

[navigator]

Mum said 'take this cake to Aunt Ida's' .I was 15 ish. Dad had a vast valve Bush wireless and a reel to reel 8'' tape deck playing Glenn Miller. I listened to banned radio caroline with a crystal set on army headphones. Anyway I stood cake in hand in rain banging on said Aunts door.
From a window oozed a jazz combo in full flow. Early 60's-mersey sound was my thing. But sh**-this was awesome sound!!
It rained some more I banged louder.Surely this wasn't Ida's thing? Went for the backdoor -in-sodden cake on table and opened the lounge door.
A solid wall of sound hit me Cousin Allen waved at a seat that throbbed under me as the 15'' celestions in 48'' transmission lines poured out the acoustic bass and placed a trumpet and sax in my lap. Shure v15 on garrard 401[modded deck and arm] Radford valves 30 amp cooker wire.
Addict mainlining the music juice ever since.
--Nuff said.

[struth]

get yourselves a wind up gramophone and save some cash:eek:

and still got mine, plus a fancier model(a hmv)...play them all the time and that that machine gave me the impulse to get crackle free, large soundstage music....Now that I have it, I spend more time listening to crackly shellack:doh:

No pleasing some folk

[walpurgis]

I became interested in H-Fi as a kid, because my father said I shouldn't.

He was an electronics genius and headed the military side of the WW2 RAF radar research establishment at Cranwell. Alongside the civilian researchers/scientists, he and his staff helped to build our wartime radar defences.

Anyway, when I was young, probably about ten years old, I was browsing through piles of Wireless World magazines he had and found a fifties Hi-Fi mag. I asked him what Hi-Fi was and he said "oh, it's all nonsense, nothing to do with electronics".

Being inclined to rebel at anything 'the old man' said, I was immediately interested. I couldn't afford any Hi-Fi until I was about twenty though, so I just used to tinker with any old record player that came my way.

My first 'Hi-Fi', wasn't! It was total crap, a Garrard SP25 III with a Goldring G850 and an Amsturd 8000 II amp feeding a pair of EMI 450 elliptical drivers in homemade speaker boxes. Yuk!

The first proper Hi-Fi I bought was a Thorens TD150, with Audio Technica 1005 arm and ADC 10E Mk.IV cartridge. Amplified by a Ferrograph F307 integrated and driving a pair of Tannoy IIILZ speakers. I thought it all sounded marvellous.

And, it's all been expensively downhill ever since!

[User211]

Mum said 'take this cake to Aunt Ida's' .I was 15 ish. Dad had a vast valve Bush wireless and a reel to reel 8'' tape deck playing Glenn Miller. I listened to banned radio caroline with a crystal set on army headphones. Anyway I stood cake in hand in rain banging on said Aunts door.
From a window oozed a jazz combo in full flow. Early 60's-mersey sound was my thing. But sh**-this was awesome sound!!
It rained some more I banged louder.Surely this wasn't Ida's thing? Went for the backdoor -in-sodden cake on table and opened the lounge door.
A solid wall of sound hit me Cousin Allen waved at a seat that throbbed under me as the 15'' celestions in 48'' transmission lines poured out the acoustic bass and placed a trumpet and sax in my lap. Shure v15 on garrard 401[modded deck and arm] Radford valves 30 amp cooker wire.
Addict mainlining the music juice ever since.
--Nuff said.

:) quality post.

[Kember]

It was 1979 and I was 15. I was fighting my father over using his Hacker to play my albums - he did not approve of the Clash and the Ruts. I resolved to make myself independent.

I got a temporary job over the summer holidays cleaning at a foundry in Oxford. It was the hardest work I had (and have) ever experienced. I earned every penny of the £65 (I think) I got in my first wage packet.

That Saturday, the money burning a hole in my pocket, I bought an old Goldring Lenco 75 in a disastrous plinth, which had come out of the local BBC Radio station, for the princely sum of £10. I bought a Shure cartridge to fit in the arm with remainder. The next week I bought a Sony amp, tuner and speakers from a junk shop on the Cowley Road for £45 all in, including free bell wire. And I was set up. (IIRC, John Cleese advertised that Sony system as the end to spaghetti. For me it was the start!) My father then got ratty because I spent all my spare time in my room making an infernal din. My grandmother kindly bought me some headphones shortly afterwards.

After that, all my cash went on vinyl..and beer and fags - I was fifteen after all, and it was the 70s!

Thus began a journey, with much chopping and changing thereafter, which continues to this day.

And I can honestly say I never owned a music centre, nor a BSR turntable! Not many of my vintage can say that...:wheniwasaboy:

Peter

PS - I do kick myself for selling the GL75 in the early eighties. And for passing up the opportunity to snag a Tandberg reel-to-reel for a fiver from a language lab which going onto cassette.

[Ali Tait]

Mum said 'take this cake to Aunt Ida's' .I was 15 ish. Dad had a vast valve Bush wireless and a reel to reel 8'' tape deck playing Glenn Miller. I listened to banned radio caroline with a crystal set on army headphones. Anyway I stood cake in hand in rain banging on said Aunts door.
From a window oozed a jazz combo in full flow. Early 60's-mersey sound was my thing. But sh**-this was awesome sound!!
It rained some more I banged louder.Surely this wasn't Ida's thing? Went for the backdoor -in-sodden cake on table and opened the lounge door.
A solid wall of sound hit me Cousin Allen waved at a seat that throbbed under me as the 15'' celestions in 48'' transmission lines poured out the acoustic bass and placed a trumpet and sax in my lap. Shure v15 on garrard 401[modded deck and arm] Radford valves 30 amp cooker wire.
Addict mainlining the music juice ever since.
--Nuff said.

Brilliant.

[walpurgis]

The next week I bought a Sony amp, tuner and speakers from a junk shop on the Cowley Road for £45 all in, including free bell wire.

I knew the place. Two old girls used to run it. I bought all sorts of goodies from there!

[Kember]

I knew the place. Two old girls used to run it. I bought all sorts of goodies from there!

Geoff,

Indeed. A veritable palais de pishanto! :lol:

Back then, there were several totter merchants at the bottom of the Cowley Road and in St Clements, with some good stuff and a lot of crud. Looking back, I wonder if my Sony kit was fenced but I suppose it can't have been, as it sat in the widow for several weeks before I bought it...a bit too obvious.

The whole area was a bit sketchy in those days. It seems somehow appropriate that the two boozers (the Oranges and Lemons and the Greyhound) which put on John Otway's and Wild Willie Barrett's early gigs are there.

Peter

[navigator]

Ta to User211 and Ali Tait for appreciation.N.B.Cousin Allens speakers were hand crafted with 2.5 cm sand filled plywood walls by the way-a key idea then.
I'd like to add that my hifi trail [and trial] has been for accurate music rendition from affordable items rather than accumulating big name gear that I could never afford.
The highlight of my journey was this March successful demo at Scalford with a system cheaply designed for 2 minute listens-ie short visit punters.

[WOStantonCS100]

It was reading a post about a ferguson record player made me think. There are normal folk happy with ghetto-blasters music centres, and midi-system. We are a rare breed. My wife has just signed up - can't do the techie stuff, but now has a threshold of tolerance, and knows when what she's listening to is letting her down. So how did it all start for you?

I grew up listening to my father's 500ish LP collection and assorted tapes with a Stanton 881MKIIS(?) on a Technics SL-1400MK2 (he had a Garrard Lab 80 prior) and his open reel through a Fisher integrated and University Medallion loudspeakers (12" woofer, (level adjustable) 6" midrange, tweeter) situated for best performance as the focus of our living room. I didn't realize until much later that he had "done me in" for ever accepting crap sound... or crap music.