Where did it all start for you? The music and hi-fi thing I mean.

[Reid Malenfant]

That's quite a bit of amplification for back in the day Steve Nice going

[MartinT]

I can still hear the strains of Silver Machine by Hawkwind as I powered up the strobe light

Now that's proper. I had the hair to do it justice then, too.

[Snoopdog]

Now that's proper. I had the hair to do it justice then, too.

I had a medley of favourites that I used to play back to back to give the strobe a workout.

Silver Machine, Frankenstein - Edgar Winter, You ain't seen nothing yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive, This Flight Tonight - Nazareth, Polecat Woman - Three Man Army and then slowing it down with Radar Love - Golden Earring and Hold your head up - Argent

[Snoopdog]

That's quite a bit of amplification for back in the day Steve Nice going

Simms Watts and then H/H Reid

[nat8808]

It began with a deserted diner. A man too long without sleep. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy!..............

Oh no. That was "The Invaders" - a Quinn Martin production

For me, my hi fi odyssey began way back in 1970. My parents bought me an Alba autochanger record player which had two controls - Volume and tone!

Within a year or so I progressed to a Pye 'Black Box' stereo system with smiked glass lid and seperate bass and treble controls.

I had collected loads of records by then and somehow it led me into the disco business in the early seventies.

I had a mobile disco which I called "Hot Wax Sound System". I painted a hardboard logo with dayglow colours (I think it formed part of my GCE Art submission) and once illuminated by an ultraviolet tube it formed the centrepiece of my light show (+ bubble wheel, sound to light converter and strobe)





I had twin BSR decks (an alternative to the ubiquitous Garrard SP25's of the time) 500 watts of amplification and some nice twin 15" speaker cabs!

I flogged it all in 1976 and purchased what I suppose was my first 'proper' hi fi - Technics Direct Drive tt, Technics SU3500 integrated amp and Tannoy Cheviot speakers. I also had a Technics cassette deck.

The long upgrade path had commenced and aural dissatisfaction gave way to the acquisition of a Linn Sondek LP12 with Grace/Supex, Meridian 101/103D amplification and a pair of Nightingale speakers.

In due course, the Meridan was upgraded to 105S and the speakers swapped for Linn Isobarik DMS.

Various arms/cartridges came and went on the LP12 including Mission 774, Syrinx PU2/3 until finally I arrived at the Ittok/Asak combo.

In 1981 I went active with the purchase of a Linn Isobarik PMS system from Subjective Audio (Howard Popeck). A collaboartion with Meridian that included 6 X 105S power amps with dedicated electronic x-overs for the Isobariks.

Apart from a change to an Oracle turntable, that system pretty much stayed stable until 1987 when I went back to Subjective Audio for an Oxford Acoustics Crystal reference turntable (recently the subject of a stimulating thread from Peter), SMEV/Koetsu Red. The Meridian 101 pre was exchanged for an Audio Research SP9 and the following year (1988) the Isobarik active system went and in came an Aragon 4004 american muscle amp (designed by Dan D'Agostino and dubbed "The poor man's Krell") with a pair of TDL Monitor transmission line speakers on the end.

I was pretty much content with that system until 2003 when in a mad flurry of expenditure, I started upgrading again until I arrived at my present system.

I hate to think what I have spent over the years but it is a lot!

Oh well. You can't take it with you I suppose!

Ah, I've come across your little website in the past..

That girl in the photos thinks your cool.. Is that her boyfriend having to stand in between?

[nat8808]

My story is fairly gear-based I'm afraid.

I always like the clunkyness and feel of my Dad's Aiwa deck and Yamaha receiver (nice heavy dial and clunky switches) but music wasn't big in my family home appart from the radio perhaps..

At school though, a couple of friends' dads were into hi-fi. One was a collector of older gear from boot sales and I was always jealous of all the gear, hi-fi and studio gear, that my friend picked up. I just like the new toy aspect of all the old gear plus he listened to a lot of music.

The other friend was actually Howard Popeck's son so hearing those M1s turned all the way up showed me what hifi could do! Mainly live albums (that his son played) came alive although I was always a bit on edge because of the volume, thinking someone would come round and complain. The gear on Howard's shelves facinated me too, especially the Nakamichi pre-amp he had at the time. All of it had been left on for about 23 years at the time - never ever switched off, never ever therefore failed.

Got into Ebay around 2001 and from there my knowledge of hifi grew and grew. It's only because of the internet that I've been able to persue it as a kind of hobby.

Now I'm swamped with stuff and often don't get to just sit and listen to music because there's too much hifi around distracting me. I'm trying to get rid of most of it, slowly.. err, think I'm addicted.

[biggzy]

Christmas 1996 i got my first CD lol, it was Huge Hits 97, that was the same christmas i had an aiwa all in one also, the bloke who lived next door gave me some Gale bookshelf speakers to use with it, sounded lots better, but i wanted more, went through quite a few all in one systems until i decided to buy my first proper hi-fi.

Started reading What hi-fi mag also, so then came new Phono leads, speaker wire etc etc.

My first proper hi-fi cost me i think £2000 and included:

Technics SU-A900mk3 Integrated Amp.
Technics SL-PD670D CD Player.
Technics SJ-MD100 Minidisc Deck.
Technics ST-GT350L Tuner. (not 100% sure on this)
Technics RS-BX501 Tape Deck.
Technics SB-M500 Floorstanding Speakers.

Also some expensive interconnects etc, cant remember what they was, the system sounded great, had it for around a year n half and sold it for £700, missed it alot and regret selling it, so started again a year after and built a new Technics system:

Technics SU-A909 Pre/Power Amp.
Technics SL-PS7 CD Player.
Technics SJ-MD150 MD Deck.
Eltax Liberty 5+ Floorstanders.

Again i loved it, but slowly found i wasn't using it much, so i sold it again.

Didnt have any decent hi-fi then, just another cheap all in one.

Now 8 years later im back, i bought from ebay these:

Technics SU-A700mk3 Amp.
Technics SL-PS670D CD Player.
Technics SJ-MD100 MD Deck.
Eltax Wave Mini Speakers.

Now i had this for the bedroom as i have got a Sony STR-DH810 / BDP-S360 for the main room, but the Technics was too big, so just finished selling back on ebay and got myself a Teac A-H300 Reference Amp, and still looking for a matching CD player and MD recorder along with some Tannoy Mercury V1's.

Lesson learnt, never have Technics again lol, even if i do love there kit.

This is a repost that i originally posted in the new thread, and decided to put it here also.

Thanks for reading,
Adam.

[colinB]

I always thought Technics gear looked great. The gold lettering and curved matt black cases.

I got into it after visiting the The End night club in London which had a particularly good system.
I ended up with a Cambridge audio /Gale system bought from Richer sounds which strangely enough was opposite said club.

[Jac Hawk]

Well i entered the world in 1970, by 1973 i had started my facination with hifi, my mum tells me i wrecked about 10 of my dads cartridges that year, the turntable slowly got higher and higher and further out of reach, i just wanted it more, by the mid 78 my dad gave me his old TT cant remember what it was, a leak 30 amp and a set of wharfdale speakers, that was me hook line and sinker.

[slate]

I guess that the first step was when I was 9-10; transistor radios and other electronics had to be taken apart and put back together.

Then music came into the picture; but the two wasn't really connected until when 18 a classmate invited me home to help out dragging speakers.

His parents was into classic music and had a Denon setup... something like a PRA 1000/ POA 2000 and a big Denon turntable.
I do not recall what speakers they had; but the new ones were a JM Lab set, Trapez-X and da da B&W DM7 Mark II... the DM7 was the clear winner... it was an awakening for me.

As a student money was non existent so I built myself... a Hiraga Class A clone. pre-amp TOP of the Range from Elektor 86, a subwoofer with a electronic filter from Elektor. It was combined with set of Stax ESTA 4U that I came by on a sale....

Then for many years there was only time to sporadic immercement.