Seaharrier
26-06-2015, 22:03
Hi Everyone – Joined a while back but have been very much in the background reading items of interest and thought I had better have a go at introducing myself.
First bit of ‘hi-fi’ which is a pretty loose description, was a Garrard autochanger supplied with a pair of ply speakers. Spent many a long hour listening to glam rock, Genesis, Queen, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy etc on this. Guess I was dissatisfied with the sound even at this early stage in my music/musical gear interest as I got rid of the supplied speakers and replaced them with a half decent Sony pair I saw in the window of RT Evans in Irvine (long gone now). Removed all the autochanger mechanism as well and can remember at the time feeling I had made a big improvement in the sound. A house move and a lot of odd job money saved up led to the purchase of a Technics SLB2 record deck, an Aiwa amp and an Aiwa cassette deck and retained the faithful Sony speakers. Lived with this system through the NWOBHM spending all my spare cash on LP’s – great days these in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Saving up grant money and still doing odd jobs gave me enough cash to buy the standard 80’s budget system of a Rotel RP630 record deck and RP820 amp with a pair of Wharfedale 506 speakers and added a Rotel rotary tuner to listen to the Radio Clyde live concert broadcasts - pics below.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/Student%20HiFi.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/Student%20HiFi.jpg.html)
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/img007%203.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/img007%203.jpg.html)
This system was used through my student years with only a few cartridge changes – Audio Technica AT110E to an A&R P77 then on to an AT ATF3, with a Phillips 16 bit CD player was added once I started to work full time. Once I was earning a decent amount of money I replaced the Rotel with a Pink Triangle LPT fitted with a Roksan Tabrizi arm, a Musical Fidelity B1, a Rotel digital tuner and a pair of Cyrus speakers. This lasted a few years before the ATF3 was replaced with an ATF5 and an Audiolab 8000A replaced the MF. An Audiolab 8000 power amp was then added to try and open out the sound a bit more and the Phillips CD was replaced by a Marantz CD63SE running through a Cambridge DAC. This was a fine sounding system, however a house move and change of décor had she who must be obeyed insist that the black hi-fi had to go as it didn’t fit with the new surroundings. With a heavy heart I sold off the Audiolab gear and boxed up all but the PT LPT into the loft. I managed to convince her that the Cyrus range would fit nicely into the new surroundings so put together a system with a CD8, a pre amp, a pair of Smart powers driving B&W CM1 speakers and a Cambridge phono stage. Added a streamate, a pxr power supply, a Project phono stage and headphone amp. Final addition was a Heed power supply for the LPT. I have a PT Export that I am currently working on fitted with another Roksan Tabrizi arm and an AT AT33 Cartridge – hopefully have this ready by the end of the summer.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/P1010641.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/P1010641.jpg.html)
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/DSC02123%202.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/DSC02123%202.jpg.html)
First bit of ‘hi-fi’ which is a pretty loose description, was a Garrard autochanger supplied with a pair of ply speakers. Spent many a long hour listening to glam rock, Genesis, Queen, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy etc on this. Guess I was dissatisfied with the sound even at this early stage in my music/musical gear interest as I got rid of the supplied speakers and replaced them with a half decent Sony pair I saw in the window of RT Evans in Irvine (long gone now). Removed all the autochanger mechanism as well and can remember at the time feeling I had made a big improvement in the sound. A house move and a lot of odd job money saved up led to the purchase of a Technics SLB2 record deck, an Aiwa amp and an Aiwa cassette deck and retained the faithful Sony speakers. Lived with this system through the NWOBHM spending all my spare cash on LP’s – great days these in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Saving up grant money and still doing odd jobs gave me enough cash to buy the standard 80’s budget system of a Rotel RP630 record deck and RP820 amp with a pair of Wharfedale 506 speakers and added a Rotel rotary tuner to listen to the Radio Clyde live concert broadcasts - pics below.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/Student%20HiFi.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/Student%20HiFi.jpg.html)
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/img007%203.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/img007%203.jpg.html)
This system was used through my student years with only a few cartridge changes – Audio Technica AT110E to an A&R P77 then on to an AT ATF3, with a Phillips 16 bit CD player was added once I started to work full time. Once I was earning a decent amount of money I replaced the Rotel with a Pink Triangle LPT fitted with a Roksan Tabrizi arm, a Musical Fidelity B1, a Rotel digital tuner and a pair of Cyrus speakers. This lasted a few years before the ATF3 was replaced with an ATF5 and an Audiolab 8000A replaced the MF. An Audiolab 8000 power amp was then added to try and open out the sound a bit more and the Phillips CD was replaced by a Marantz CD63SE running through a Cambridge DAC. This was a fine sounding system, however a house move and change of décor had she who must be obeyed insist that the black hi-fi had to go as it didn’t fit with the new surroundings. With a heavy heart I sold off the Audiolab gear and boxed up all but the PT LPT into the loft. I managed to convince her that the Cyrus range would fit nicely into the new surroundings so put together a system with a CD8, a pre amp, a pair of Smart powers driving B&W CM1 speakers and a Cambridge phono stage. Added a streamate, a pxr power supply, a Project phono stage and headphone amp. Final addition was a Heed power supply for the LPT. I have a PT Export that I am currently working on fitted with another Roksan Tabrizi arm and an AT AT33 Cartridge – hopefully have this ready by the end of the summer.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/P1010641.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/P1010641.jpg.html)
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff209/dart01magnum/DSC02123%202.jpg (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/dart01magnum/media/DSC02123%202.jpg.html)