Hello I'm new.
I was in conversation recently with a friend, discussing the notion of
tempus fugit in life and later I applied it to my experiences in 'hi-fi'. The latter can be said to have started with my mother's opinion of a friend's stereogram ("lovely sound") when I was a kid. Thus, early opinions on how music sounded coming out of a box were measured against this 'lovely' sound....
...until i became a 6th-former (I'm from the UK...) and we had a small record deck with its own speakers in the Common Room. During this period I discovered a wide variety of rock, jazz, west coast etc etc music, played at distortion-inducing levels (during lunch periods) and thus found a new yardstick to measure what sounded 'good'. Serious badgering of a parent eventually resulted in possessing my own version of this 'system' - a simple Garrard record deck that could stack up singles if I so wished. I didn't, so I removed it
- LPs only, bought with odd-job cash.
Then I went to college and my adventures in hi-fi VERY QUICKLY led me down a black hole (imagine a movie scene where you're lost in a vortex lined with LP covers, containing a myriad of hi-fi components, 'tweaks', a tangle of earthing cables and Russ Andrews catalogues) and I have emerged from it, 45 years later, it into a land which is seemingly populated by one tribe of people that can swear that things like 'audio-quality' fuses and bits of M'pingo wood to lift their cables off the floor (cables that are so expensive I actually cried when I saw some prices) can improve the listening experience, and another tribe that can scientifically prove that it's all poo and kit can be simply joined together by thin mains cable...
I must slightly digress here and state from the outset that ALL my adventures in hi-fi are what this forum would call 'lo-fi'. Sorry. I NEVER had the folding money to buy stuff from the other end. I even got into short-term financial trouble on a couple of occasions by purchasing relatively expensive (for me) speakers (my fave component) using plastic. I have had far too many LP decks, cartridges, tape players (even an El-cassette), tuners, amps/receivers and speakers (
) to list or even remember. I have tried some tweaks (star earthing, bullet plugs, de-oxit etc) but shied away from green CD pens, stones, crystals and metal bricks, and bits of M'pingo wood.
This means that I shall (probably) forever wander this strange (but exciting) land as a JUNIOR MEMBER, but Hey- that's ok, I appreciate the level of knowledge present here and I learn something every time I open a topic.
I currently listen to CDs mainly, through a 25 year-old Marantz CD50SE, via either a Leak Stereo 20 tube amp / Point One pre-amp combo from ~1960, or an upgraded and re-capp'd Rotel RA-610, into a pair of 2" Bandor full-range speakers housed in the boxes from an unwanted pair of JVCs, with the lower frequencies provided by a pair of old B&W subwoofers, one per channel.
I was inspired to join this forum after being bounced around odd websites during my search for other peoples' experiences using Full Range Speakers, and this after accidentally bumping into a youtube video demonstrating a guy's little Bandors. Suitably intrigued I sourced a pair from the Interweb very cheaply and installed them into some suitable boxes:
I must say that I find the music from these components is smile inducing. Those of you who have systems I am in awe of (I've seen the pictures...) are probably thinking "Poor thing - he knows nothing". But it's probably better that way.
