Hello everyone!
I sincerely hope that my participation here will be of some benefit to others while I learn from those more experienced than myself. My educational background is in Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E) with electronics circuit design major. My work experience has been in both analog and digital design. I have worked mostly in government contracting with experience in pro audio system design and radar system design and test. I have always had a love for music and have trained as a pianist and a drummer. My first experience with High Fidelity home audio was watching my father (who is a rocket scientist that worked under Werner Von Braun on the Apollo space program). He had a Fisher 500 receiver with AR2A speakers, a Garrard type A turntable, and an Ampex reel to reel deck. I spent many nights listening with my father on that system. It wasn't until I visited my father's best friend who had a brand new system that sounded better than anything I had heard before. This system was a Marantz 4270 receiver, a Dual 1229 turntable with a Shure M95ED cartridge and a set of Bose 901 series 2 speakers. Olivia Newton-John sounded so great through that system. The bug bit me right then. So, at age 15, I started building myself a system. By the age of 16, I had a Pioneer SX-980 receiver, a Technics SL-7 turntable with Shure V15LT cartridge, Pioneer CT-F1250 cassette deck, and a pair of Advent A3s. That system brought me untold amounts of joy for many years. In college, I was able to land a job building the sound room at my local Service Merchandise department store. I also befriended the manager of the local high end audio store and spent many hours there listening to systems I could only dream of owning at the time. A lot of time has passed since those days, but I did manage to keep all my original system and I even have that Marantz 4270 that my dad's best friend gave me not long ago. Since then, I have designed and installed A/V systems for federal courthouses, built the speakers for the band I was in, and even designed some one-off matrix mixers for special government applications. Until a few years ago, I had not paid much attention to the high-end audio market. Mostly because the Hi-Fi specialty stores had all but disappeared and other priorities, family, kids, work,etc. were taking all my time. Well, now I'm back. I'm glad I kept all my vinyl, because I have a renewed interest in home audio. I believe the industry is coming back with the resurgence of vinyl and the new lossless digital formats. It's great to see all the new direct marketing companies making speakers and electronics. One thing hasn't changed, though. This hobby is just as confusing as ever and just as full of misinformation and marketing hype as ever. I truly believe that system synergy is the most important aspect of a stereo system.
So, why am I here? I hope to learn from other's experiences with their systems, new equipment and technologies (although physics has not changed) that are available today. I also hope to use the knowledge and expertise shared by others to build a satisfying system to MY ears. I have hit many dead ends over the past 3 years since I started following the hobby again. This is a work in progress (isn't it always?). Here is a partial listing of my current equipment:
Vintage Denon System:
PRA-1000 Preamp
POA-1500 Power Amp
My "separates" system:
Emotiva XSP-1 Preamp
Emotiva USP-1 Preamp
Emotiva XDA-2 DAC
Onkyo SACD/DVD-A Player
Technics SL-1200M5G w/Denon DL-301mkII cartridge and sometimes Audio Technica AT-150MLX (several other vintage cartridges in rotation)
Crown XLS-1500 Amplifier
Crown XLS-2000 Amplifier
Thiel CS3.5 Speakers w/eq
Pioneer "Champagne Series" system:
SX-8 Receiver
PL-L800 turntable
RG-9 Dynamic processor
CT-8R Cassette Deck
Running through some Dynadio tower speakers
And other treasured pieces not currently serving duty, but looking good: Pioneer SX-980, Yamaha CR-1020, Pioneer SX-D7000 (NOS), Marantz 4270, and dad's Fisher 500.
Well, that's my introduction. I hope that I will be able to contribute to this fine forum and learn while I am here.
Cheers,
Davdi
