Future plans?

[Marco]

If you're happy then fair enough. I just don't think I could handle anyone being 'in charge' of me again. I like the freedom.

It's nice to be able to take days off when you feel like it or work though the night if necessary to get a particular job done and then keep all the profit (minus bills) for yourself

These days though I take it much easier than I used to. Quality of life and the time to do what I want is ultimately much more important to me than income, particularly now that I no longer have a mortgage to pay

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Yeah, you see my only real pleasure is work, and I do really run the day to day stuff at work. I can take days off, I can work through the night (although there's no real need) and I get a good wedge of the profits anyway. I don't have all the hassle to go with it though.

I'd love to take it easier but I'm not at the stage in life where I can unfortunately. As well as having to rent down this way (a feckin' fortune), I'm still paying the debts off from the last house which my ex-fiancee is living in cost free and trying to sort out another house purchase from scratch - not something I thought I'd have to do in my early thirties having already bought and fully paid off a house!

And it's a LOT more expensive down here for everything than most other places in the country - and I mean everything, right down to food. So hence not ploughing cash into another upgrade.

[Marco]

I know, mate. Everything is a rip-off down there. It's one of the reasons why I'd never live down south - that and the general 'rat race', the horrendous traffic, and they way people in general don't have time for each other.

I know folk that have to get up at 5am every morning to commute into London for 8.30am. They then don't leave the office until sometimes 7pm, and get home after 10pm - five, sometimes six days a week. Ok, they're earning almost into six-figure salaries, but what's the point if you have no time to enjoy it? Then they're mortgaged up to the hilt (big mortgages because property is so expensive) with little prospect of clearing it off until they're 60.

F*ck that. That's no life.

And London is bloody filthy, too, especially the Underground.

Give me the fresh air, the green hills and the countryside, and the traffic-free roads of North Wales any day!

Marco.

[Mike]

These days though I take it much easier than I used to. Quality of life and the time to do what I want is ultimately much more important to me than income, particularly now that I no longer have a mortgage to pay

Grrrrrrrrr.....

I think I migth turn up at Doncaster just so I can insert valves into you!

[Marco]

Hehe... A really big pointy one with an exceptionally jagged top?

Believe me, I had to work like a f*cker to achieve it.

Marco.

[jandl100]

My future plans tend to be driven by what happens to come along on eBay or the various used kit sites, or in the magazine adverts.

I might be on the lookout for a nice valve pre-amp, and then I spot an eBay auction for a pair of active speakers that takes my fancy ..... this happened quite recently! Great fun - you never know what's going to happen next

Well, OK, I admit it - I bought the active speakers and a valve pre - a lovely combo.

[anthonyTD]

I know, mate. Everything is a rip-off down there. It's one of the reasons why I'd never live down south - that and the general 'rat race', the horrendous traffic, and they way people in general don't have time for each other.

I know folk that have to get up at 5am every morning to commute into London for 8.30am. They then don't leave the office until sometimes 7pm, and get home after 10pm - five, sometimes six days a week. Ok, they're earning almost into six-figure salaries, but what's the point if you have no time to enjoy it? Then they're mortgaged up to the hilt (big mortgages because property is so expensive) with little prospect of clearing it off until they're 60.

F*ck that. That's no life.

And London is bloody filthy, too, especially the Underground.

Give me the fresh air, the green hills and the countryside, and the traffic-free roads of North Wales any day!

Marco.

south wales can be quite nice too, [so i am told]
lots of bloody steep hills though.....

[jcbrum]

Ahh, you can't beat a sunset over Dudley Gas Works.

or the gentle dawn glow of a blast furnace behind the foundry, making the sky like pink oyster shells.

or the comforting rhythmic tremble of a drop forge to lull you to sleep.

and then the shift hooter at the Brewery, to waken you refreshed,

by living in the bosom of the Black Country.

[MartinT]

I had stopped for a while but I'm now looking to upgrade my preamp from excellent to world class. Considering part/ex on my current Pass Labs X-1 for a new XP-20.

[SPS]

i'm going though a stage of constant kit up grade, i'm on with my 4th pair of speakers this year
(.. as in Diy)... each time showing improvements.. well in my view...
there is some quite big improvements over my baffles that i made in january for the wigwam show, hopefully i will have my latest speakers at next years show..
a week or so should see them finished and working...

when i've done with the speakers, i quite fancy building a 300b amp, and i need to rebuild the px25 amp, as it gets too hot for me, the old 300b valves are on the lines of the globe px25's sound wise, hopefully a touch better..?

for the last few years i've been going to build a phono amp...still on the 'to do' list
i've been lucky with a little more spare cash since the morgage has gone..
on of the advantages of old age.... along with cheaper car and bike insurance

the more i learn, i find more directions in hifi that i want to try

I'm a bit of a collector,as many of you know, i have bought around a dozen vintage valve amps this year, one from 1932 in working order, and quite a few speakers and valves, but nothing touches the diy stuff in my eyes.. except some of the early stuff.

The instructions on the 1932 amp under the 'loudspeakers' section read ...
'the speakers recomended for use with this amplifier are the heavy duty moving coil or large horn speakers, on no account should the smaller cheaper moving coils speakers be used even though it is quite often claimed that these will handle considerable output, their efficency at such outputs is sometimes very low,and the quality of reproduction poor,
a poor speaker will completly ruin the reproduction and will result in dimished volume'

nothing much has changed since then really,

with regards efficiency, the 5 watt model was suitable for dance halls that could handle 400 people

once one get used to speakers without lots of artifical 'boom', and of reasonable high efficency, there's no going back.. its nice to see the big tannoys in vogue around here.


cheers
steve