Spirit Crusher
22-04-2020, 19:14
Hi there,
I'm Stefan from Belgium, and I'm really happy to be part of it. This forum looks to be the one I was looking for. I'm already member on the another British forums (pink & wigwam), but from what I see, The Art of Sound looks to be the chosen one. I'm not so much into the modern sound, I love valves, and quite recently I jumped into the vinyl world. Still a lot to learn about this, as a newbie I am.
My history as audiophile is quite short, but I tried to pass quickly some steps. Till November 2013 I never had an amplifier in my life, and I was already on my forties. Better late than never... At the time I bought a complete audio system, used of course, like 99% of my investments in this hobby. Or addiction. I bought it because I liked the look of the speakers (Genesis III). Still have the old McIntosh MCD7009 cd-player, included in that system. After one year I bought my first tube component (Manley Snapper monos), and after that the madness started. Completely crazy now with the tube components, and even more with the valves. What started in the beginning with "I'll buy only two pairs to do some tube rolling", became later a pretty nice collection. The Snapper's were replaced by the VTL MB-250 Signature monos. The Genesis gone and the Harbeth M40.1 arrived. What a speaker! Unfortunately, my living room was not the best home for them. And, from a tube lover, I'm absolutely sure the big Harbeth's need a lot of power, from the SS side. To do justice, you need much more than 50W. Meanwhile I had also the Totem Mani 2. Unbelievable what these "boxes" can deliver! Sold everything, and in the last 2 years my system completely changed, slowly-slowly. In 2018 bought my first turntable, a VPI Scout. Quickly replaced by a Clearaudio Performance SE. In the shoot-out, on the same system with the same cartridge (Clearaudio Maestro Wood), the Scout was put to the ground. As I'm really a novice on the vinyl world, the tests were done to a friend of mine. He has a small audio shop, selling Dynavector (cart's and phono), Project turntables and some other stuff, on the cheap side (by costs). After all these adventures, my rig today looks like: McIntosh MCD7009, Nottingham Analogue Dais, Graham Phantom, AMR PH-77, NAF 845SE and Shindo Petite Latour replica. Still looking to buy a good MC cart. Really liked the Dyna carts listened to my friend, especially the Karat 17DX. A little bit too expensive. I read a lot also about the newest Audio Technica models, especially the ART 7&9. I think I'll ask some advices on the forum, to see what could be the better option. The time will tell.
I listened to a lot of music, 6 hours a day at least. My main system is mostly for the weekend auditions. During the week I listen to a Flemish radio station. My tastes: classical mostly, but a lot of jazz too, vocals and some other weird stuff. I started in the 90's as a metal guy. Still listen quite a lot, making festivals and gigs. But my main system is not for this kind of music. The heavy-metal sounds better on my Creative desktop speakers.
So, this is the long-short story about my audio journey. Sorry for this quite long post. And also sorry for my writing mistakes. I never had English in the school, and not even in an official class or something like that. The heavy-metal helped me a lot with this. Thank you for the music!
All the best from Belgium,
Stefan.
I'm Stefan from Belgium, and I'm really happy to be part of it. This forum looks to be the one I was looking for. I'm already member on the another British forums (pink & wigwam), but from what I see, The Art of Sound looks to be the chosen one. I'm not so much into the modern sound, I love valves, and quite recently I jumped into the vinyl world. Still a lot to learn about this, as a newbie I am.
My history as audiophile is quite short, but I tried to pass quickly some steps. Till November 2013 I never had an amplifier in my life, and I was already on my forties. Better late than never... At the time I bought a complete audio system, used of course, like 99% of my investments in this hobby. Or addiction. I bought it because I liked the look of the speakers (Genesis III). Still have the old McIntosh MCD7009 cd-player, included in that system. After one year I bought my first tube component (Manley Snapper monos), and after that the madness started. Completely crazy now with the tube components, and even more with the valves. What started in the beginning with "I'll buy only two pairs to do some tube rolling", became later a pretty nice collection. The Snapper's were replaced by the VTL MB-250 Signature monos. The Genesis gone and the Harbeth M40.1 arrived. What a speaker! Unfortunately, my living room was not the best home for them. And, from a tube lover, I'm absolutely sure the big Harbeth's need a lot of power, from the SS side. To do justice, you need much more than 50W. Meanwhile I had also the Totem Mani 2. Unbelievable what these "boxes" can deliver! Sold everything, and in the last 2 years my system completely changed, slowly-slowly. In 2018 bought my first turntable, a VPI Scout. Quickly replaced by a Clearaudio Performance SE. In the shoot-out, on the same system with the same cartridge (Clearaudio Maestro Wood), the Scout was put to the ground. As I'm really a novice on the vinyl world, the tests were done to a friend of mine. He has a small audio shop, selling Dynavector (cart's and phono), Project turntables and some other stuff, on the cheap side (by costs). After all these adventures, my rig today looks like: McIntosh MCD7009, Nottingham Analogue Dais, Graham Phantom, AMR PH-77, NAF 845SE and Shindo Petite Latour replica. Still looking to buy a good MC cart. Really liked the Dyna carts listened to my friend, especially the Karat 17DX. A little bit too expensive. I read a lot also about the newest Audio Technica models, especially the ART 7&9. I think I'll ask some advices on the forum, to see what could be the better option. The time will tell.
I listened to a lot of music, 6 hours a day at least. My main system is mostly for the weekend auditions. During the week I listen to a Flemish radio station. My tastes: classical mostly, but a lot of jazz too, vocals and some other weird stuff. I started in the 90's as a metal guy. Still listen quite a lot, making festivals and gigs. But my main system is not for this kind of music. The heavy-metal sounds better on my Creative desktop speakers.
So, this is the long-short story about my audio journey. Sorry for this quite long post. And also sorry for my writing mistakes. I never had English in the school, and not even in an official class or something like that. The heavy-metal helped me a lot with this. Thank you for the music!
All the best from Belgium,
Stefan.