[panash]

I'm always lost and feel a bit uncomfortable when asked to talk about myself; after all who'd be interested in knowing anything about me? But here goes, in for a penny, in for a pound as they say.

I'm a retired analogue integrated circuit/radio (RFIC) design engineer who's interest in audio was fired by listening to Waldo de los Rios's arrangement of Mozart's 40th on a pair of Stax Electrostatic headphones. They were absolutely astonishing.

My mainstay speakers have been a pair of LS3/5a's plus a B139 in various home made cabinets as a SW.

I finally concluded that HiFi as a hobby died after the introduction of CD's as they were perfection, I hated and still hate vinyl with a vengence.  One could watch a partical of dust travel from one side of the room onto this shiny insulated disc that had aquired a charged voltage of 25KV after being pulled out of its sleeve.  And I could never get past the third playing of 'Rumours' without hearing the grooves starting to wear.

I'd always wanted to aquire a pair of floorstanders as they would match the room space better so with £6 I purchased locally a pair of Misson 733's found on eBay with the dreaded cone disintegration and replaced them with the the Monacor SPM 165/8 as it is a form/fit but unfortunately not functional equivalent.  They were/are shite to say the least and I couldn't pass them on so I've lived with them until discovering that there are now pretty solid techniques and software to do something about them and I'm like a kid in a candy store with it.

Since this is an introduction I'll post my experiences with the 733's elsewhere but I would like to highly praise Danny & GR Research's methodical approach. Everyone else seems to adopt an attitude toward top end equipment which is akin to writing horoscopes. The notable exception being  Marius Tanasescu  from AudioJudgement.com. Between the two I feel pretty well resourced.

I'll be using REW and VirtuixCAD to experiment with for now and use really cheap components to learn my trade as it were. You can do a lot of re-tries with very little money this way and possibly go for the ultimate design later. Unforunately trans-Atlantic shipping costs are more than I'm willing to pay so I'll probably be asking for recommendations that I can procure locally.  I'd love to do a '3/5a' buster for next to nothing with air core inductors etc. maybe using Peerless drivers.

Tatty bye for now as the Americans expect the Brits to use.

Paul

[FullRangeMan]

Welcome to AC 

[Phil A]

Welcome!

[ArthurDent]

Cheers & Welcome to AC Paul   

[kd4ylq]

Welcome to Audio Circle. It's good to hear from somebody who has perhaps a different slant on things because of the different environment they have been brought up in and live in. I have always wondered if the UK has an active audio collector community; maybe even some of whom look for trades of desirable gear with Americans to broaden their collection and horizons (yes, packing, shipping & insurance are certainly barriers to deal with). Enjoy the discourse you read here and don't get sucked into controversial semantic debates with those you disagree with. Persuasion is an art, but not everyone will agree with you or be persuaded, so don't let that dim the light on your joy. I look forward to reading your posts! Cheery Bye! 

[JLM]

Welcome! And thanks for the introduction.

My first serious loudspeakers were LS3/5a clones from the 70's.  Still a believer in monitors.  Assembled Hafler pre/power amp and transmission line bass kits in 1980, and commissioned single driver floor standing transmission line loudspeakers in 2004.  But would never consider DIY anything audio wise, have too much respect for "real" designers like JBL, Dynaudio, and the like who have state of the art testing gear/facilities and staff with hundreds of years of experience in pushing the state of the art. 

These days CD and higher quality streaming is the preferred route for convenient access to millions of albums.  And active monitors are gaining popularity for their inherent advantages.  Buchardt A500 is a striking example of what can be done along those lines.  I've owned a couple of active 2-way monitors and greatly enjoyed them.  But my commissioned loudspeakers serve me quite well, driven by compact reasonably affordable Temple Audio mono-blocks that come from the UK.