Griffster
24-09-2009, 20:53
Hello all,
My name is Sean and I found The Art of Sound forums while trawling around the net, looking for info about a small number of people who had discovered the potential that could be unlocked from the Technics 1200/1210. I'd read David Price's first review and knew that this was something worth following up.....
But before all that, I'll tell you a little about me. I'm based in Surrey and work in Hampshire for a company that make the machine that punches holes in Blue ray stampers. I do buying, but it's not a huge company so we all muck in with whatever needs to be done. I haven't always worked here, but I've always been associated with Hi-Fi/audio/video at some point in my career.
I developed an interest in audio and Hi-Fi in my teens (I'm knocking on 41 now!) right around the time that Philips promised us perfect sound forever! :scratch:
So I did a paper round and other jobs to scrape the money together for a Philips CD200 top loader, an A&R A60 Integrated amp and a pair of bookshelf speakers (I can't for the life of me remember what). Soon I was playing with Linn Kans (Tin Kans!), ending up with one of the first pairs of Acoustic Energy AE1's (detailed and bloody fast, but hard work!), and stands and wire and stuff. I bought an Akai 4000DS from a friend's dad and started splicing tape, doing "remixes". (I still have the tapes but dread to think what they'd sound like today!). I got into recording too, so did a diploma in audio engineering when I was 19. I didn't pursue a career in engineering, but the Diploma did get me a job at Pioneer Hi-Fi, where I worked for 10 years.
Once I'd joined there, I quickly found myself upping the ante with my Hi-Fi, ending up with a PD91 an (legendary) A400 amp (Designed by Doug Randell) and a pair of Kef 105.3 (I loved those speakers!). Actually the Kefs were important because they demonstrated that Hi-Fi could be fun, and from then on I didn't really fuss too much with the nitty gritty of my Hi-Fi set up, I just enjoyed the music. When i bought my first house I sold my Hi-Fi and that's how things stayed for 15 years.
My musical tastes are broad, from Classical to full-on Techno and everything in between, but I've always loved music I could dance to and I was a product exec for Pioneer's fledgling Pro-Sound division. I was involved with the CDJ-500 and DJM-500 and subsequent products. We were selling a CD player into the clubs that was to replace the Technics 12xx and vinyl. To be honest, I never thought we could do that so didn't try to insult the club owners and DJ's by suggesting it. Oh how times have changed! The CD decks that Pioneer have just launched are incredible! I still go to some of the clubs and stay in touch with some of the DJ's, it's interesting to see that many of the most famous DJ's are now ditching Vinyl and going either CD or taking their Macs with them. Just when Vinyl is seeing a resurgence in the Hi-Fi market. We have the DJ's to thanks for keeping vinyl alive.
:gig:
And so I come full circle to the Technics SL1200. You see, I completely missed the whole Vinyl thing as a Hi-Fi buff, opting instead to go straight to CD's. What a shame! So here I am, with just a few records I've started collecting, and putting some pennies aside for a Techie and a cartridge. Don't get me wrong, I've always known that Vinyl is better than CD (cat duly dropped into Pigeon coop!) but never had the wherewithal or time to pursue it. When I found out we were expecting our baby I panicked, thinking that as I'd never have any money again, ever, that I better get a new system together quickly. So I now have a Quad front end..... 99CDP-2 (the digital inputs are grrrreat! - I stream using the optical connection on an Airport Express) a 99Pre and 909 power amp. The speakers are PMC OB1's (well, after those Kefs I couldn't possibly go back to small speakers again, could I? :eyebrows: ). That was a couple of years ago, and when my son was born I had to put everything out of reach. It all ended up in our bedroom, tucked away, to keep it from prying fingers. That was until a couple of months ago when I won a competition (and I never win anything!) for some Chord cables. So I asked if I could have speaker cables long enough to let me put the equipment in a cupboard, which they very kindly agreed to, and now I'm the very lucky owner of some lovely Chord Epic Twin cables, which are, as we speak, "running in" quite nicely, ta. :cool:
My system doesn't look very exciting (Quad stuff is not the prettiest model on the catwalk!) but I'll post a couple of snaps soon.
Anyway, enough of my boring waffle, I've lots more I could tell you about but I'll save that for another post. In the meantime, if I can be of assistance, please do ask. It looks like a nice friendly place here, well done chaps for setting up a good forum. :)
Cheers :cool:
Sean
My name is Sean and I found The Art of Sound forums while trawling around the net, looking for info about a small number of people who had discovered the potential that could be unlocked from the Technics 1200/1210. I'd read David Price's first review and knew that this was something worth following up.....
But before all that, I'll tell you a little about me. I'm based in Surrey and work in Hampshire for a company that make the machine that punches holes in Blue ray stampers. I do buying, but it's not a huge company so we all muck in with whatever needs to be done. I haven't always worked here, but I've always been associated with Hi-Fi/audio/video at some point in my career.
I developed an interest in audio and Hi-Fi in my teens (I'm knocking on 41 now!) right around the time that Philips promised us perfect sound forever! :scratch:
So I did a paper round and other jobs to scrape the money together for a Philips CD200 top loader, an A&R A60 Integrated amp and a pair of bookshelf speakers (I can't for the life of me remember what). Soon I was playing with Linn Kans (Tin Kans!), ending up with one of the first pairs of Acoustic Energy AE1's (detailed and bloody fast, but hard work!), and stands and wire and stuff. I bought an Akai 4000DS from a friend's dad and started splicing tape, doing "remixes". (I still have the tapes but dread to think what they'd sound like today!). I got into recording too, so did a diploma in audio engineering when I was 19. I didn't pursue a career in engineering, but the Diploma did get me a job at Pioneer Hi-Fi, where I worked for 10 years.
Once I'd joined there, I quickly found myself upping the ante with my Hi-Fi, ending up with a PD91 an (legendary) A400 amp (Designed by Doug Randell) and a pair of Kef 105.3 (I loved those speakers!). Actually the Kefs were important because they demonstrated that Hi-Fi could be fun, and from then on I didn't really fuss too much with the nitty gritty of my Hi-Fi set up, I just enjoyed the music. When i bought my first house I sold my Hi-Fi and that's how things stayed for 15 years.
My musical tastes are broad, from Classical to full-on Techno and everything in between, but I've always loved music I could dance to and I was a product exec for Pioneer's fledgling Pro-Sound division. I was involved with the CDJ-500 and DJM-500 and subsequent products. We were selling a CD player into the clubs that was to replace the Technics 12xx and vinyl. To be honest, I never thought we could do that so didn't try to insult the club owners and DJ's by suggesting it. Oh how times have changed! The CD decks that Pioneer have just launched are incredible! I still go to some of the clubs and stay in touch with some of the DJ's, it's interesting to see that many of the most famous DJ's are now ditching Vinyl and going either CD or taking their Macs with them. Just when Vinyl is seeing a resurgence in the Hi-Fi market. We have the DJ's to thanks for keeping vinyl alive.
:gig:
And so I come full circle to the Technics SL1200. You see, I completely missed the whole Vinyl thing as a Hi-Fi buff, opting instead to go straight to CD's. What a shame! So here I am, with just a few records I've started collecting, and putting some pennies aside for a Techie and a cartridge. Don't get me wrong, I've always known that Vinyl is better than CD (cat duly dropped into Pigeon coop!) but never had the wherewithal or time to pursue it. When I found out we were expecting our baby I panicked, thinking that as I'd never have any money again, ever, that I better get a new system together quickly. So I now have a Quad front end..... 99CDP-2 (the digital inputs are grrrreat! - I stream using the optical connection on an Airport Express) a 99Pre and 909 power amp. The speakers are PMC OB1's (well, after those Kefs I couldn't possibly go back to small speakers again, could I? :eyebrows: ). That was a couple of years ago, and when my son was born I had to put everything out of reach. It all ended up in our bedroom, tucked away, to keep it from prying fingers. That was until a couple of months ago when I won a competition (and I never win anything!) for some Chord cables. So I asked if I could have speaker cables long enough to let me put the equipment in a cupboard, which they very kindly agreed to, and now I'm the very lucky owner of some lovely Chord Epic Twin cables, which are, as we speak, "running in" quite nicely, ta. :cool:
My system doesn't look very exciting (Quad stuff is not the prettiest model on the catwalk!) but I'll post a couple of snaps soon.
Anyway, enough of my boring waffle, I've lots more I could tell you about but I'll save that for another post. In the meantime, if I can be of assistance, please do ask. It looks like a nice friendly place here, well done chaps for setting up a good forum. :)
Cheers :cool:
Sean