Hello from Slough

[Phil M-W]

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.

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Phil.

Excellent introduction! It's always good to have Members here who design and use their own equipment. Sadly I'm not one of them, the best I can do is to copy and build other people's designs. My first speakers used Wharfedale RS8DD drivers in a 1.5cu ft distributed rear-ported enclosure, again a Wharefedale design.

You have some nice tape machines as well. So what are your tastes in music - what do you play on all that lovely equipment of yours?

Welcome again and enjoy the Forum.
Barry

[Macca]

Welcome to the forum Phil.

[Marco]

Hi Phil,

Welcome to AoS, and like Barry says, a great introduction!

Hang around and tell us what you think on a number of subjects - we're a friendly lot

Marco.

[Phil M-W]

Thanks for the welcome guys.
As far as musical tastes go, I can't say I have a particular genre that I prefer. As a 60s and 70s child and teenager, I was quite heavily influenced by what was around at the time, so rock, prog rock, heavy metal and there is more modern stuff that I like. I wasn't keen on most pop at the time, though there were exceptions. As I've aged, I supposed I've mellowed into more Jazz, blues and classical, although I don't cope well with freeform jazz and although I listen to more classical and recognise a number of pieces when I hear them, I'm not familiar enough with them to be able name them or the composers. A couple of the CDs I do play a lot are Older, by George Michael and Turn back the clock by Johnny Hates Jazz, mostly late at night (or rather early in the morning) with the lights off on headphones so as not to get QRM from the XYL. I am an inactive radio amateur, any one who was or is, should get the reference (and for those who wren't. QRM = man made interference and XYL = ex young lady i.e. wife), but when I get the opportunity, I listen on the speakers, mostly in the workshop, with the sub and the accoustics in that room, it's just much more involving. I've owned the first pair of IMFs since the early 80s and I am still impressed with them, which is why I bought the second pair.

[Barry]

So, as you might say - "best 73".

[Phil M-W]

well it wouldn't be 66s!

[Pigmy Pony]

Sounds like we got ourselves a convoy

[Barry]

well it wouldn't be 66s!

We don't know you well enough to say "88". But I expect your YXL does.

[Phil M-W]

You're right, I did mean 88s, my excuse is I'm getting old and it's an awful long time since I did cw, or even been on air.