gartsa
02-02-2016, 18:37
Hello everybody. My name is Juhani. I live in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, as this region of Finland is nowadays called. My younger daughter-in-law once called me 'Gartsa' and my wife liked the name so much that she has called me that way since then - for a reason unknown to me. So I took 'gartsa' as my forum name here.
My Hi-Fi history:
I have been interested in hi-fi since my first Williamson 15 Watt tube amplifier that I built (with a little help from my father) sometimes in the 50s. Afterwards I have had various now classical hi-fi gadgets like Garrard 301, Ortofon 212 arm and CG25D cartridge. A little later in 60s came various Dual models with usually Shure carts. Then Thorens and SME 3009 and Shure V15 models, Mission arm and various affordable MC cartridges - and so on. Amps were Quad tube models and little later various transistor equipment, both commercial and custom made.
Speakers at that time (end of 50s) were mostly unremarkable - by todays standards at least - despite those well known names like Goodmans, Wharfedale, Stentorian, Peerless, Philips etc. I still have some of those units left somewhere here.
A little later KEF elements became available and the situation got better. I built several all KEF boxes, the best pair had TL enclosures with B139s for bass, B110 for middle and T27 tweeters plus Coles Super tweeters.
More up to date Seas, Dynaudio and Focal elements were used in boxes I built later. These were well planned and tested designs that are still working today and sounding better than many commercial models.
About my work, music and equipment:
Since the end of 50s, I worked professionally making music, on the road, clubs, festivals, restaurants, theatre and tv and radio studios, playing, leading, conducting, arranging, composing etc, from instrumental duo to large ensembles, even symphony orchestras. so I had less time for my hi-fi hobby. And when better times came I was mostly fascinated by synths and the possibilities the computers allowed. Hi-fi took the back seat until I had enough time to start really listening to the music again. Now for maybe 10-15 years I have had a system that has remained the same with just very few changes.
Basically it is a speaker system with active crossover. Musical Fidelity amp for the bass and Accuphase A-class for the mid/treble (passive x-over between mid and treble). Front end is a custom made preamp and Benchmark DAC2 HGC fed by a LogicSupply ML-300 Fanless i5 totally silent computer, Win7 Pro and a smallish Philips 17" monitor. All my CDs are ripped and saved as flacs in HDs. I have had a lot of records but when we moved to this smaller apartment I had to sell most of my jazz and blues/soul/rock/pop LPs and CDs. Only the classicals were retained. I now have too many CDs, maybe over 2000 and about 500-600 LPs. So all music I buy nowadays are mostly files, high definition if available.
I listen mostly to classical music. From medieval to contemporary avantgarde. My live music listening for several years have been restricted just to classical, orchestral and chamber music concerts. But also - still - some jazz, latin-jazz and blues from radio, though less of today's pop/rock. And I really don't want to listen to any pop singers of this country. I got really enough of that during my (too) many years on the road and studio.
Just a year ago I got very seriously ill. I spent three months in hospitals and my recovering phase lasted until last september or so. The illness suspended my Technics SL1200 II project. I had already acquired most of the upgrade parts but now they are still uninstalled. But as I feel now like my former self I'm sure the project will proceed.
I have gone through many phases of ideas for my preferred sound system but when a recording of a music performance I heard live sounds plausibly the same in my listening room, I hink I'm very near at least. And I can always verify it with recordings of my own music.
My Hi-Fi history:
I have been interested in hi-fi since my first Williamson 15 Watt tube amplifier that I built (with a little help from my father) sometimes in the 50s. Afterwards I have had various now classical hi-fi gadgets like Garrard 301, Ortofon 212 arm and CG25D cartridge. A little later in 60s came various Dual models with usually Shure carts. Then Thorens and SME 3009 and Shure V15 models, Mission arm and various affordable MC cartridges - and so on. Amps were Quad tube models and little later various transistor equipment, both commercial and custom made.
Speakers at that time (end of 50s) were mostly unremarkable - by todays standards at least - despite those well known names like Goodmans, Wharfedale, Stentorian, Peerless, Philips etc. I still have some of those units left somewhere here.
A little later KEF elements became available and the situation got better. I built several all KEF boxes, the best pair had TL enclosures with B139s for bass, B110 for middle and T27 tweeters plus Coles Super tweeters.
More up to date Seas, Dynaudio and Focal elements were used in boxes I built later. These were well planned and tested designs that are still working today and sounding better than many commercial models.
About my work, music and equipment:
Since the end of 50s, I worked professionally making music, on the road, clubs, festivals, restaurants, theatre and tv and radio studios, playing, leading, conducting, arranging, composing etc, from instrumental duo to large ensembles, even symphony orchestras. so I had less time for my hi-fi hobby. And when better times came I was mostly fascinated by synths and the possibilities the computers allowed. Hi-fi took the back seat until I had enough time to start really listening to the music again. Now for maybe 10-15 years I have had a system that has remained the same with just very few changes.
Basically it is a speaker system with active crossover. Musical Fidelity amp for the bass and Accuphase A-class for the mid/treble (passive x-over between mid and treble). Front end is a custom made preamp and Benchmark DAC2 HGC fed by a LogicSupply ML-300 Fanless i5 totally silent computer, Win7 Pro and a smallish Philips 17" monitor. All my CDs are ripped and saved as flacs in HDs. I have had a lot of records but when we moved to this smaller apartment I had to sell most of my jazz and blues/soul/rock/pop LPs and CDs. Only the classicals were retained. I now have too many CDs, maybe over 2000 and about 500-600 LPs. So all music I buy nowadays are mostly files, high definition if available.
I listen mostly to classical music. From medieval to contemporary avantgarde. My live music listening for several years have been restricted just to classical, orchestral and chamber music concerts. But also - still - some jazz, latin-jazz and blues from radio, though less of today's pop/rock. And I really don't want to listen to any pop singers of this country. I got really enough of that during my (too) many years on the road and studio.
Just a year ago I got very seriously ill. I spent three months in hospitals and my recovering phase lasted until last september or so. The illness suspended my Technics SL1200 II project. I had already acquired most of the upgrade parts but now they are still uninstalled. But as I feel now like my former self I'm sure the project will proceed.
I have gone through many phases of ideas for my preferred sound system but when a recording of a music performance I heard live sounds plausibly the same in my listening room, I hink I'm very near at least. And I can always verify it with recordings of my own music.