Hello from North London!

[Audio Advent]

Haha Good start! Just rambled on introducing myself, accidentally clicked on the banner and lost my text.. :doh:

Hi all. Registered last year sometime but not actually participated yet, always find interesting stuff to read though.

I'm Sam and living in Hackey in North/East London. Have an odd mix of gear from the last 30 years of high-end hifi all bought secondhand from small ads and ebay: Threshold pre-amp, Meridian Monoblocks, Alphason turntable, no-frills Marantz 'pro' CD player although lacking a bit in the speaker department with some Yamaha NS635s (think domestic NS-10s but the next size up) but hoping to change that very soon! I still have love for the physical formats - CDs are so cheap, vinyl is well, just alluring - but find myself playing music more and more from my laptop or home studio PC, even radio. I discover most new music online so that's where it plays from until I like it so much I'll buy the vinyl or CD.

Musicwise, it sounds a cliche but I really do like a bit of everything! You can always find boring music in any genre but genres are rarely a boundary. I find myself listening a lot to modern electronica at this particular moment in time but there are so many music blogs posting up rare vinyl rips or reviewing music on bandcamp or some very good online music magazines and then the myriad of radio stations online, I could find myself listening to anything. A little overwhelming in some senses - today is definately music's heyday so far!

That seems a good note to finish my introduction on. I shall no doubt make my first contributions.. I can feel one coming on already.

[Eagle owl]

Hello and welcome Sam.

Geoff. :wave:

[struth]

Welcome Sam; Hope you get involved now that you have made that elusive first post. Any pics you have of your gear, we would like to see sometime over in the Gallery section.
Cheers Grant

[walpurgis]

Hi Sam. Welcome to AOS.

That's quite an unusual selection of equipment you have. I'd imagine it sounds pretty decent.

I like the idea of pairing the Threshold pre-amp with the Meridian monos. Not a combination I've heard, but I bet it works well.

Tell us what music you play.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[Audio Advent]

Maybe in time I'll start a thread in the gallery section, although I like to try to not get too deep into the gear! I spent 15 years fanatasising about what gear I'd have as a home studio, constantly changing my mind as I read about the next great thing... until I find I've bought bits here and there, never used them and not made any music. Gear lust is such a slippery slope. I try hard to focus on the music but it can be difficult I admit.

That said, my next bit of kit is going to be a super A/D D/A to double duties as both a home studio converter for recording music and playing digital via my hifi. Have spotted one from a studio although needs some saving and importing from the US.

The Threshold pre-amp was a bit 'hot' when I got it, as in too loud, so had to perform a modification to lower the gain for modern sources. Thankfully Nelson Pass the designer is on another forum and has set out instructions on how to do that. It sounds great and the Meridian 605s have always been well regarded. Sadly the Meridians are out of the system at the moment as one occasionally trips out and runs hotter than the other so going to eventually get them serviced. Currenly I'm using the power section of a Creek integrated. Have to admit that I love the chunky design of the Threshold as much as I do the sound. Have to spend a lot on modern gear to get that kind of quality construction new!

Two Geoffs in three posts!

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Sam,

Good introduction and an interesting choice of equipment: Threshold gear is well regarded for both build quality and sound quality. We would love to see some photographs of your system if you can manage it.

What are your tastes in music (apart from electronica)?

Enjoy the Forum

Regards
Barry

[Audio Advent]

Thanks

My taste is definately very broad - can happily listen to Bob Haris's more country oriented show on radio 2 or Radio 3 classical, Late Junction on Radio 3 too. Love a bit of american indie along the lines of Sonic Youth, modern R&B or hip hop, even sing along to Tailer Swift and Kiesza in the car. Love london pirate stations with house, grime, 80s black soul, dub. Get some local turkish radio stations too and listen to that! I probably could say that the AC/DC, Iron Maiden type of rock leaves me a bit cold - not musical or rythmically interesting enough for me. I'm also interested in film music and film sound design which I guess crosses into sound recording which is what a home studio is geared towards hopefully in the future (just mucking about at the moment).