Just Saying Hello

[Thermionic]

Hi everyone and greetings to all.

Having lurked for a while I thought I should at least introduce myself, but I don’t expect to be posting much as there seems to be far too many knowledgeable people here already!

I suppose I have been playing with audio off and on since the mid 1960s when as a kid I was given a very bad tape recorder one Christmas. That started the rot to better sound, and I have often reflected that if my dad had given me the very best Ferrograph in the first place it would have saved me (and him) a lot of money...

My interest in sound took me briefly to a small 4 track recording studio in the London suburbs where I got to learn the front end of a U87, the art of soldering an XLR3 and how to make tea for a brass band. That didn’t last long and for the rest of my career I wired medical electronics and worked in various offices, building a fairly eclectic audio system as and when funds permitted. I developed a taste for obsolete (cos it was cheap) professional video equipment and also became a radio amateur, but have rather lost interest in that lately.

Retired and recently married I have rather more time now indulge hobbies health permitting. Mostly inclining to vintage things (both analog and digital) I am lucky to have a wife that encourages my acquisition of the odd decrepit bauble. I even taught her how to lace the Nagra and solder a phono plug, but no comments about newly weds please...

It’s a nice site you have here, hope you don’t mind me continuing to lurk on the side.

[Spectral Morn]

Welcome to AOS :)

Have fun and enjoy the forum and please feel free to post. I am sure we can learn as much from you as you can us.

Can you add your first name to your very impressive signature.

Wow you have some major bits there.... Marantz CD12 I would love one of those but they sell imho for too much these days considering their age and lack of spare parts. Nagra niceeeeeeeeeeeee :) Yamaha CT7000 :) I have still to get one of these for my tuner collection, sometime......

Please post some photos of your wonderful set up in the Gallery part of the forum.

What kind of music do you like ?


Regards D S D L

[Jonboy]

Hello and welcome, some nice bits of kit there some of which i have in the past owned, some i still own and also some i would like to own in the future.

Nice to see another Sussex member :)

[Spence]

Greetings from another Sussex lad.

Enjoy..

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hi Gino,
Nice mix of old & new.
Welcome from another (ex)Sussex lad!

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Gino.

Some interesting and very eviable kit you have there: a Decca DAC, Nagra T, Stax headphones etc. etc. Yummy! Please may we have some photos?

What are your tastes in music? Don't be shy - we listen to anything and everything here.

When I joined, said that I would most likely 'lurk' and only make the occasional posts. I think you will find some of the discussions we have here will encourage you to make your own contribution. I hope so.

Welcome again

Regards

[Thermionic]

Thank you for the welcome and the kind words gentlemen.:)

First name added, and I will put a few pictures in the gallery once I learn how.

Yes it a fairly odd mix of bits and pieces, I have had the Quad IIs the longest (since 67) and once I had paired them up with the 57s some 20 years later I rather came to a halt. Being handy with a soldering iron and knowing a bit about Ohm’s law helped me do the odd tweak and keep things going, but I certainly don’t have ‘golden ears’.

While having played with digits along the way, I still enjoy analogue tape machines (got a few others lurking about as well) and I spent some time recently properly lining up the big Nag with some Dolby As to use with the Yamaha tuner. I am not much of a subjectivist but feel that there should be a sensible balance between objective measurement and what one’s (hopefully experienced) ears tell us.

My taste in music is a mixture of mainstream ‘straight ahead’ jazz and fairly standard classical music; Mozart, Bach etc. I like the clean simplicity of piano, bass, and drums and the complex depth of an orchestra, and try to get to concerts as often as we can. I think the likes of Dudley Moore all those years ago on television started my taste for witty and melodic Jazz and these days I seek out the likes of Dave Newton, Gareth Williams, Geoff Eales and singers such as Claire Martin, Tina Mae, and Claire Teal. But sadly they seem not often to be found in Sussex!

So for me Quad’s old strap line: ‘for the closest approach to the original sound’ still pretty much applies.

Cheers,