Phil M-W
05-08-2026, 22:31
I'm Phil. I've been retired for about 7 years. I was an electronics design engineer, Until I became a project manager, mostly analogue but some digital and microprocessor stuff, initially Intel but later on PIC Micro. I have done some high level languages, but I prefer assembly language.
I have 2 systems, one in the lounge and one in the upstairs workshop. The one in the lounge starts with a Thorens TD150 mkII, which I bought in 1974. I upgraded the arm to a Linn Basik LVV and fitted it with a V15 type 2. I fitted a DC servo motor to this some time in the last 30 or 40 years. There is a Denon DR-M33HX cassette deck and a Philips N7300 reel to reel. There's also a Philips CD670 CD player and a Pioneer F-77L tuner. Typically I design and build my own amplifiers and pre-amplifiers. The pre-amp in the lounge, for want of a better description is called version 3 and it's about 40 years old and the power amp is, unusually for me, made up of 2 ILP HY248s with 2 very large power supplies. It's in a 2 inch high chassis (same height as the pre-amp) and it weighs a lot. Speakers are IMF ALS40 mkII, which I've had from new.
The system in the workshop has another Thorens TD150 mkII fitted with a fixed headshell SME 3009 and an M95ED cartridge, a TEAC X1000R reel to reel, a Sony TC-K661S cassette deck, a Technics ST-Z55L, an SMSL PL100 CD player. The pre-amp is my original version 1, it's about 55 years old and it has had some updates (there was a version 2, but it didn't make the grade). I'm part way through building the version 4. The main power amplifier is about revision 5 of my original design. The original design was built a few months after the version 1 pre-amp. The pre-amps have a headphone amp incorporated in them because when I was young I couldn't afford speakers, which is why the power amp came later ( I used to borrow speakers). It is supplemented by a sub-woofer amplifier which is about revision 8 of the same design with a 4 pole LPF in front of it. Speakers upstairs are a pair of IMF ALS40mkIIa with an EMI 14 x 9 inch elliptical being used as a sub-woofer, which I'm trying to get a cabinet built for. The workshop is a bit small and with the ALS40s in there, it is a bit crowded. On the plus side this means my ears are sufficiently close to the sub, in what is sometimes called the near field, that the contribution it makes isn't being completely lost. It will be better when it's in a cabinet, I'll be able to reclaim my workbench, because at the moment I can't listen to music and work at the same time. As I mentioned I use headphones and I have 3 pairs, 2 pairs of 1984 or so Beyer Dynamic DT880 Monitors one of which I've had to replace the drivers in with DT990 drivers from the same era, more musical than the unmodified monitors, which tend to be clinical and revealing and a pair of STAX Lambda Nova electrostatics.
Hope I haven't bored you.
I have 2 systems, one in the lounge and one in the upstairs workshop. The one in the lounge starts with a Thorens TD150 mkII, which I bought in 1974. I upgraded the arm to a Linn Basik LVV and fitted it with a V15 type 2. I fitted a DC servo motor to this some time in the last 30 or 40 years. There is a Denon DR-M33HX cassette deck and a Philips N7300 reel to reel. There's also a Philips CD670 CD player and a Pioneer F-77L tuner. Typically I design and build my own amplifiers and pre-amplifiers. The pre-amp in the lounge, for want of a better description is called version 3 and it's about 40 years old and the power amp is, unusually for me, made up of 2 ILP HY248s with 2 very large power supplies. It's in a 2 inch high chassis (same height as the pre-amp) and it weighs a lot. Speakers are IMF ALS40 mkII, which I've had from new.
The system in the workshop has another Thorens TD150 mkII fitted with a fixed headshell SME 3009 and an M95ED cartridge, a TEAC X1000R reel to reel, a Sony TC-K661S cassette deck, a Technics ST-Z55L, an SMSL PL100 CD player. The pre-amp is my original version 1, it's about 55 years old and it has had some updates (there was a version 2, but it didn't make the grade). I'm part way through building the version 4. The main power amplifier is about revision 5 of my original design. The original design was built a few months after the version 1 pre-amp. The pre-amps have a headphone amp incorporated in them because when I was young I couldn't afford speakers, which is why the power amp came later ( I used to borrow speakers). It is supplemented by a sub-woofer amplifier which is about revision 8 of the same design with a 4 pole LPF in front of it. Speakers upstairs are a pair of IMF ALS40mkIIa with an EMI 14 x 9 inch elliptical being used as a sub-woofer, which I'm trying to get a cabinet built for. The workshop is a bit small and with the ALS40s in there, it is a bit crowded. On the plus side this means my ears are sufficiently close to the sub, in what is sometimes called the near field, that the contribution it makes isn't being completely lost. It will be better when it's in a cabinet, I'll be able to reclaim my workbench, because at the moment I can't listen to music and work at the same time. As I mentioned I use headphones and I have 3 pairs, 2 pairs of 1984 or so Beyer Dynamic DT880 Monitors one of which I've had to replace the drivers in with DT990 drivers from the same era, more musical than the unmodified monitors, which tend to be clinical and revealing and a pair of STAX Lambda Nova electrostatics.
Hope I haven't bored you.