Hello from south Bristol UK
In 1958 my old dad set up his first stereo system - Lenco TT, Tripletone pre and 15W monoblocs, great big built in corner speakers with Whafedale drivers and sand filled baffles - and I have been hooked ever since! These days I am a Decca/Radford junkie and the current system comprises a custom built TT (not by me) viz: Decca Supergold (re-tipped by the late lamented Garrott brothers) in a chunky one-off unipivot tonearm, very nicely engineered (again - not by me), with an externally driven Garrard 401 platter in a seriously hefty concrete plinth. Then it's Radford all the way (well this is Bristol, after all!) SC24 pre-amp, Renaissance STA 35 (Woodside), Studio 90 transmission lines, Radford (Woodside) CD player.
However, I also love to hear what people heard throughout the history of recorded music. So I have a variety of players from very early through to the 70s - Deccas from the 'Trench' gramophone to the extraordinary SG188 of 1958, a 40s Columbia rim drive, Philips' minimalist 'umbrella spindle' autochanger from the 60s, all (I think) of the cartridges Decca made etc. I can't resist something odd that I have never heard. Some I keep - some I restore and sell. Claim to fame? The root and branch restoration of a legendary Decca Stereo Deccola (1959) now resident in Japan, where I believe they sacrifice small mammals to it before switching on!!
The username comes from the fact that I spent about 20 years teaching people to ride horses in our trail riding centre in the Welsh mountains. Jobs that actually supplied me with enough money to live on included - analytical organic chemist, AVA and theatre technician, offset litho printer, secondary teacher, education consultant (ESOL) and college lecturer - now retired.
