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JimC
06-02-2011, 15:17
Hi all,

i have stumbled across this Forum and thought i'd give it a whirl.

I'm James from Berkshire in the UK. 42 and have been repairing domestic electronics for all my working life (so far!), 21 years. I am a Hi-Fi 'nut' but the company i work for has had to diversify and we now mainly repair Flat Screens. The mainsteam buying public don't seem to be interested in decent Audio reproduction any longer.:(

I have made my own Amps, semiconductor ones at first but have started on Valves in recent years. It has been a bit of a steep learning curve for me as we learned on 'Hybrid' T.V.'s at college but the lecturers did not delve too deeply into the glowing glass bottles as in 1986-88 they considered them to be ''.........dead technology.......''.

My current system is:-
Home made T/T (Pioneer Direct Drive Motor, Rega R200 Arm and Denon DL-304 Cartridge)
Home made Valve Phono EQ Amp (Using ECC82's (maybe a strange choice but i like its sound)) fed from an Ortofon T-30 Step-Up Transformer.
CD Replay is from a Pioneer PD-73 fed into a Nakamichi (In-Car!) DAC-101 (TDA1541's!!).
Current Amps i switch between two, a Home Made 'Mullard 3-3' and a Home Made Single-Ended Amp using EL33's driven by EF86's, the circuit basd upon the 3-3 but 'tweaked' to accomodate the EL33's.
Rega ELA MK1 Speakers (Surprisingly easily driven even from 3 Watts!).

I like most types of music from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to Russian Orthodox Church Choral Music.

Well, that'll do for now, i look forward to 'getting to know' all of you and to carry on learning about this great hobby (read obsession!) of ours!

Regards,

James.

Trickie_Dickie
06-02-2011, 15:34
Hi Jim, welcome to the site from a newbie also in Berkshire (during the week).
Pictures of your home brew kit will be more than welcome on here. I've been here a couple of months or so and found it very interesting, hope you do too. :cool:

Reid Malenfant
06-02-2011, 15:37
Hi Jim, welcome to AoS chap, excellent introduction :) Nothing like making your own kit if you are capable of doing so, i enjoy the very same myself ;)

Sounds like you'll fit in here a treat, get stuck in & i hope you enjoy your stay :wave:

Jonboy
06-02-2011, 19:24
Hi Jim/James and welcome, pics posted in the Gallery very welcome of your homebrew stuff, i've got a couple of Mullard amps myself they make a very nice sound and use ecl 86's

Mothman
06-02-2011, 19:57
Hi James from another Bershire resident, welcome to the forum.

Alex_UK
06-02-2011, 21:27
Hi James, one of the most intriguing introduction posts I've read in a long while, and I'm not even a DIYer or valve guy! (Yet) Look forward to some photos if you can manage and reading your contributions.

Welcome aboard, enjoy the trip.

JimC
07-02-2011, 07:41
Thanks for the welcome folks.

I will try and upload some piccies this evening.

James.

MartinT
07-02-2011, 09:51
Welcome James, from an ex-Berkshire resident (now just down the road in Hampshire). A man after my own heart, all my early hi-fi was self-made and I miss that element of the hobby. Intrigued as to where you got the Pioneer DD drive from, I made a deck many years ago from a Matsushita DD motor advertised in the back of Electronics Today.