mike1210
24-08-2009, 14:09
Hello,
I'm Mike from Cardiff (South Wales). Did a degree in electronics and was lucky enough in my year out to work in R&D in Panasonic in Cardiff. Left uni in 2002 and was having trouble getting a job in electronics so worked as a temp in an IT job. Soon realised I preferred IT to electronics (as a job anyways) but was low pay. Applied for a job in my University where I did my degree and luckily got the job. This is where I still am now as a development officer.
Got into music big time in 1995 when I started buying dance music on vinyl. In 1998 I got 2 sl1210's and a mixer. Never DJ'ed out just in my bedroom for fun to be honest. Around 2003 I lost interest in the mixing part and was worried about DJ carts wearing out my records even though I was careful. I bought a Goldring 1006 cart for my 1210 and couldnt believe the difference a Hi-Fi cart made to the sound. Couple of years later went up to the Goldring 1042. I currently own about 2000 dance singles and several vinyl albums mostly dance but some rock as well. I also have about 600 CD albums minly electronic, hip-hop and rock.
Couple of years ago my sl1210 was used for listening to tunes and recording them to my PC. At the time they were going into a Marantz amp for the phonostage and creative soundcard for recording.
I was about to buy a project xperience record player when I stumbled on the origin live website about modifying sl1210's. I was suprised they had an audiophile following as I always thought they would be frowned upon by audiophiles. It didnt help when magazines would always review the sl1210 with a DJ cart on it and mark it down for sound quality.....hardly fair.
My first mod was the Origin live silver arm. Very fiddly to fit to be honest and im still to be convinced about improvement in quality, maybe better midrange but........
After this I stumbled on the sound hi-fi website and couldn't believe how many mods they offered and the work that must have gone into all of it. First purchase from them was the mat and feet which improved things.
Liked the idea of an external power supply but wasn't sure if I would hear a difference. After speaking to collegues where I work who were happy with thier Lingo power supplies on the Lp12 I thought I would give it a go. I was glad I did, sound was much more open and exciting, couldn't believe the difference it made.
Then decided to buy a Trichord dino phonostage off ebay with plus power supply which was also an improvement over the marantz amp however the phonostage was overloading the soundcard even on quiet records. With this I bought the Focusrite Saffire sound card which has pre trim on the inputs. Recordings on my PC now sound much better (always recorded as wav files no compression). CD's are also ripped in Wav format using Exact Audio Copy
My main reason for recording them onto my PC is to be able to play them in the car on my ipod. I have an alpine head unit. Focal 165 KRX2 front speakers, Focal 165 VR's rear, Genesis 5 channel amp and Hertz 8" sub. Doors have been Dynamatted.
Thinking of trying a Jelco arm with the sl1210. I have a Denon DL-160 and Goldring 1042 carts.
One thing I would fix with the music indutry at the moment is tracks being recorded far too loud. Loading some of my recent CD's into Soundforge the clipping is awful. Thats it for now..... I imagine you are bored reading this by now lol
I'm Mike from Cardiff (South Wales). Did a degree in electronics and was lucky enough in my year out to work in R&D in Panasonic in Cardiff. Left uni in 2002 and was having trouble getting a job in electronics so worked as a temp in an IT job. Soon realised I preferred IT to electronics (as a job anyways) but was low pay. Applied for a job in my University where I did my degree and luckily got the job. This is where I still am now as a development officer.
Got into music big time in 1995 when I started buying dance music on vinyl. In 1998 I got 2 sl1210's and a mixer. Never DJ'ed out just in my bedroom for fun to be honest. Around 2003 I lost interest in the mixing part and was worried about DJ carts wearing out my records even though I was careful. I bought a Goldring 1006 cart for my 1210 and couldnt believe the difference a Hi-Fi cart made to the sound. Couple of years later went up to the Goldring 1042. I currently own about 2000 dance singles and several vinyl albums mostly dance but some rock as well. I also have about 600 CD albums minly electronic, hip-hop and rock.
Couple of years ago my sl1210 was used for listening to tunes and recording them to my PC. At the time they were going into a Marantz amp for the phonostage and creative soundcard for recording.
I was about to buy a project xperience record player when I stumbled on the origin live website about modifying sl1210's. I was suprised they had an audiophile following as I always thought they would be frowned upon by audiophiles. It didnt help when magazines would always review the sl1210 with a DJ cart on it and mark it down for sound quality.....hardly fair.
My first mod was the Origin live silver arm. Very fiddly to fit to be honest and im still to be convinced about improvement in quality, maybe better midrange but........
After this I stumbled on the sound hi-fi website and couldn't believe how many mods they offered and the work that must have gone into all of it. First purchase from them was the mat and feet which improved things.
Liked the idea of an external power supply but wasn't sure if I would hear a difference. After speaking to collegues where I work who were happy with thier Lingo power supplies on the Lp12 I thought I would give it a go. I was glad I did, sound was much more open and exciting, couldn't believe the difference it made.
Then decided to buy a Trichord dino phonostage off ebay with plus power supply which was also an improvement over the marantz amp however the phonostage was overloading the soundcard even on quiet records. With this I bought the Focusrite Saffire sound card which has pre trim on the inputs. Recordings on my PC now sound much better (always recorded as wav files no compression). CD's are also ripped in Wav format using Exact Audio Copy
My main reason for recording them onto my PC is to be able to play them in the car on my ipod. I have an alpine head unit. Focal 165 KRX2 front speakers, Focal 165 VR's rear, Genesis 5 channel amp and Hertz 8" sub. Doors have been Dynamatted.
Thinking of trying a Jelco arm with the sl1210. I have a Denon DL-160 and Goldring 1042 carts.
One thing I would fix with the music indutry at the moment is tracks being recorded far too loud. Loading some of my recent CD's into Soundforge the clipping is awful. Thats it for now..... I imagine you are bored reading this by now lol