I can't believe I have been a member on AOS for nearly 10 years and I have not noticed the opportunity to put all my Audio related ramblings regarding my system in one place. Sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees and you get immersed in forum posts and forget where you are. Although I would hardly say I am the most disciplined forum subscriber.
I decided at the beginning of this year to try a few different things regarding my interest in hifi, one of which was to nearly ditch all forums altogether and go off in another direction which I am working at currently. This little project is much more complicated and involved so it needs more time but it is an objective for 2023.
AOS has been an interesting forum and my first introduction to Internet forums I think back in 2013-2014. I must say a lot has changed since then probably for all of us as the world has changed considerably. Familiar faces have come and gone and a lot of the old HIFI arguments, sorry discussions seem to have run to a conclusion. I pop on here regularly and it is good to see there are still a good few folk I have met and many I have spoken too over the years still here even though some have wondered off to gain enlightenment elsewhere:lol:
I am still very much engaged in this Hobby but I must admit I don't take it quite as seriously as I did when I first started. Sometimes I feel I have reached a situation with my system that makes me feel it is now exactly where I want it to be as it delivers a very good performance across many music genres and always engages me as a listener and captures that magic that can be found in a lot of the recordings I have. The system connects me to the music extremely well and as I listen for 2-3 hours each evening I am reluctant to change anything too dramatically as my hifi fiddling over the years has taught me many of the changes in equipment I have made have resulted in a sideways move.
I was lucky when I first put my system together in that I chose components and equipment that just happened to work well together and system synergy resulted probably by accident. I have learnt along the way to my cost that because a component maybe very good in its own right it does not necessarily mean it will work in my system and this includes some surprises along the way where I though an amplifier upgrade from the same manufacture would be an easy win! Of course many folk on this forum know this but when I started back in 2014 I knew very little about putting together a great sounding system and then tweaking it to get the best out of it.
So today at the beginning of the New Year I have decided to write and photograph my Audiofool ramblings and put most of them here in the gallery. I may switch back and forth between the past, present and future but hopefully it will allow me to have a concise repository of the equipment I am using and have used in the past. I will start with my current system and then work around around this going back over other equipment I have tried which will include cartridges, turntables, amplifiers, digital equipment and many ancillary bits and bobs.
My current "lash up" is very similar to my 2015 system although there have been a few major changes due to the room size which now measure 23 x 9 x 12. I have replaced the Spender SP2s with the Hero GT702 speakers which are from a German manufacture. They attracted me because of their soft dome tweeter and Kraft paper cones and because I purchased them in lock down I was unable to hear a pair before buying but luckily they worked out fine. The important thing was that they were able to deliver a convincing performance in a room this size where as the Spendors were just lost. I do have plans for even bigger and hopefully better speakers in the future but the Hecos will do for now.
My current listening room.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...50fe93f6_b.jpgFC32795E-6259-4A81-8C6F-D0245899AAC6_1_201_a by , on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9c9c5197_b.jpg67B72E96-C2AA-459D-8B4E-506721F8E2B8_1_201_a by , on Flickr
Certain aspects of the room may not look ideal but I have changed things around considerably and this has produced the best acoustic result even with the sofa between the speakers. It does not actually impact the treble or midrange as the driver units are above the level of the sofa. I am working on more room acoustics, specifically first reflection points which will be added in the near future.
I will continue detailing my system and the equipment I am using currently with new up to date photographs later.