Hi :)

[mikeyb]

Hi,

just joined here, retiring in a couple of weeks so thought I'd join here to pass the time.

Currently getting back into HiFi after many years away from it and really enjoying my new ( to me ) system.

Thanks,

Mike.

[mr sneff]

Hi Mike, welcome to AOS and best wishes for a happy retirement! What is your new system and what do you like to listen to?

[mikeyb]

Hi Mike, welcome to AOS and best wishes for a happy retirement! What is your new system and what do you like to listen to?

Hi,

thanks, will be looking for a wee job as I am only 53 lol.

I joined HiFi Wigwam a few months back and went daft and splashed out on some s/h gear. I haven't had a hifi system in the house for over 20 years what with kids/work etc. So I though what the heck 'bout time I bought something I could listen to instead of my MP3 player ( Fiio X3 ) and headphones. We have a dedicated home cinema area in the lounge but it isn't ideal for music as we already have B& W M1 Movie system in there for the cinema so it needed to be a complete new system placed elsewhere in the house, so I figured might as well put it in the spare room where I have my gaming pc, although once I'd bought it my wife did like the look and sound of it and said that once we do the kitchen/dining room conversion it could go there but that isn't really practical as I spend most of my time in the gaming room during the day :) However it did mean that my sudden outburst of spending on gear was ok - I love my wife to bits and she keeps surprising me ever day with how generous and unselfish she is, maybe that's why we've been together since college in 1978 ;)

I probably did it all wrong as I was unable to audition any of the items I bought, but anyway I went in head first lol.

I really wanted to get back into vinyl ( all my fav music is from the 70's - Hawkwind/Sabbath/Purple/Rush/Tangerine Dream/Kraftwerk etc ), so vinyl holds special memories for me, not least because I had my record collection of around 150 LP's stolen in a house burglary in 1987 I think it was ( after this I switched to CD with the insurance money ). But looking back, boy did I lose some valuable LP's. I already owned some vinyl that I had bought for my daughter to listen to so at least I had some to kick off my new collection.

My first buy was Rega RP3 turntable with the RB303 Arm and SRM Tech Acrylic Platter ( came with TT ) from eBay at a decent price, I then managed to buy a Rega Elys 2 cart for it, so that was the vinyl sorted, I ran it through an old Rotel RA 920 amp and Misson MA73 floorstanders that I still had in the attic and it sounded pretty good, well, a lot better than I ever remembered it with CD anyway.

But I ( as usual ) wanted more :eyebrows:

I then saw a pair of Usher Audio X718's for sale and managed to do a deal for them along with SuperDreadnought stands, and within a couple of days I also bought a second hand Rega Brio-R ( I wanted remote control and it seemed to get pretty positive reviews), although this is ultimately just a stop gap to buying something a bit better to drive the Ushers, which are superb. I then added a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic to run my Fiio X3 and Ipad ( via Pure i20 Dock ) for streaming music and also from my PC and Internet, currently trialling Qobuz lossless streaming for 2 months and it's excellent.

So there you have it, my current system, all bought used and save myself a fortune.

Sources:

Rega RP3/RB303/Rega Elys 2
Fiio X3 DAP
Ipad 3
PC


Amp:

Rega Brio-R


Speakers:

Usher Audio x718
Cable Talk 3 cable
Partington Super Dreadnought Stands


DAC:

Cambridge Audio Dacmagic


Musical Tastes:

Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze, Free System Projekt, Carbon Based Lifeforms, in fact any Berlin School electronic, plus loads more......


Hope you're still awake lol.

Mike.

[mr sneff]

Hi Mike, funny how the bug gets you again :) I'm a big fan of some of the groups you mention, especially T Dream - saw them live a couple of times around the time of Stratosfear. Also I remember seeing Hawkwind live when Silver Machine was a hit. They were top of the bill and the support act was a band called Genesis, I wonder what became of them :)

[mikeyb]

Hi Mike, funny how the bug gets you again :) I'm a big fan of some of the groups you mention, especially T Dream - saw them live a couple of times around the time of Stratosfear. Also I remember seeing Hawkwind live when Silver Machine was a hit. They were top of the bill and the support act was a band called Genesis, I wonder what became of them :)

Hi,

yeah, strange eh?

Seen Hawkwind 3 times in the 70's superb :)

Lizzy were superb live, saw them at their peak a few times too as well as a good few others.

Mike.