Greetings from rural NE Leicestershire

[TheFlash]

Hi,

I'm Nigel. Spent a few years on various forums, Zerogain until it faded away, then AVForums until I got bored and in recent years HifiWigwam where I am still active.

I have lived a few miles NE of Melton Mowbray for 30 years and am originally from Kendal in the Lakes where I got myself an apartment a couple of years ago. I therefore have two set-ups.

In our cottage, listening room = living room so space and aesthetics constrain things a tad but my system sounds lovely to my ears and apparently to many others. Arcam is at the heart of the electronics (A38 integrated, P38 power, CD23T, T32 DAB/FM tuner, iRDAC), Rega RP6 Fono II and Dynavector 10x5 handle the black stuff: all this resides in a 1950s? HMV mahogany gramophone cabinet. NAS and Squeezebox Duet on streaming duty, and everything is feeding on dedicated mains via Isotek GII. Speakers are ProAc D30R bi-wired with Townsend Isolda.

In Kendal, Arcam electronics again, A39 amp as I needed some oomph to drive my Celef LS8 (Stewart Tyler of ProAc side project, BBC LS3/5 style). Gyro SE, Origin Live Encounter arm, Ortofon 2M Black and Modwright-tweaked Jolida JD9 tube phono stage. REL Strata sub I can switch in and out, still experimenting with this.

Photos to follow. Looking forward to exploring the forum.

Nigel (TheFlash)

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Nigel.

Nice introduction. What are your tastes in music?

Looking forward to seeing the photos. :)

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

[Macca]

Hi Nigel, welcome to AoS.

Serious systems, man, look forward to seeing the pictures.

[jollyfix]

Hi Nigel welcome to AOS. Enjoy the forum.

[walpurgis]

Hello Nigel. Welcome to AOS.

You have arrived at a great forum. There are some very knowledgeable and friendly folk here.

Take a good look around and feel free to join in that chat.


Enjoy yourself,
Geoff.

[TheFlash]

Welcome to AoS Nigel.

Nice introduction. What are your tastes in music?

Looking forward to seeing the photos. :)

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

Thanks Barry. Eclectic taste from classical via jazz and soul to blues and rock (heavy and prog) from the old days… currently enjoying on Spotify (where I audition before buying if I like) Nadia Reid and Ibeyi. Listened this week on vinyl and CD to some Sibelius, Dave Brubeck, John Lee Hooker, John Martyn, John Metcalfe and Trentemoller… make of that what you will!

Nigel

[TheFlash]

Kendal kit:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/3e8211d19c2ef14e34b51933e79de4ff.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/9154bcd1b7f14ae4216cb177bf81a30d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/147dc17cb57493c492c6cf98d1fec25f.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[TheFlash]

Leicestershire kit, apols for poor lighting, crap camera on iPad.

Shows HMV cabinet closed and open. Darkest photo is of slim shelves behind the cabinet for headphones and X-CANS headphone amp, Squeezebox and iRDAC each with Custom Cables power supplies. Down side of cabinet is the Isotek.

It's basically a stealth system!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/c6bbcb714cc0c65804da064b7680a6bc.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/c8abb8ee2da1dfeca810554eaa3cb21d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/c7e959238006fbbeeab2ed81744ac5ec.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/bcac4b9180f10d920e16ea8392b2bfd0.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/dde204dfe58c6089ce3bc6dfdcdffd63.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170311/8e1df18fb3d103548674482518bbe17d.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Zoidburg]

A couple of very nice looking systems you have there, welcome to the forum too!

[TheFlash]

Thanks everyone. Nice place you have here.

[Macca]

The 'stealth' cabinet is cool.

[TheFlash]

The 'stealth' cabinet is cool.

Thanks Macca; t'is fitting for our 1870's cottage certainly, though I'd love to have a dedicated listening room where aesthetics were not such a constraint. I wish the cabinet was all down to skill and judgement but we came across it in an antique centre in Leicester 20+ years ago and it just seemed right. I think it's an HMV 163 and I've not seen another come up for sale. I got a carpenter/joiner friend to knock up some strangely profiled batons for the glass shelves to sit on - he thought I was mad by the way. All the items sit on Audiophile Base isolation platforms on these shelves. It's a bit tight but it works. I removed the back panel and braced the corners with L brackets for airflow though the solid states don't kick out anything like what I tube setup would.

It's "only" Arcam but I like the neutral sound of their kit and it is completely pampered to get the very best out of it - isolation platforms, Isotek filter, dedicated mains, LAT AC-2 power cables with Furutech bits and bobs, Nordost Blue Heaven LS interconnects and Townsend Isolda speaker cables. It works for me.

[Macca]

IME all tradesmen think we are crazy. And friends, family, work colleagues, and so on. A cross we have to bear.

I had noticed the attention to detail btw ;)

[HackneyRF]

Welcome Nigel.
Two great looking set ups there.

Cheers

Loz