[jcrane]

Hello everyone,
My name is Jamie and I  am new to the area and 2 ch. I have been into hometheater for 10+ years and am starting to venture into 2 channel. I am orginally from NE Missouri, but spent the past ten years in the Navy and moved to Pontoon Beach IL when I got out to take a job with BOC Gases, a cryogenic liquid N2. O2 and Argon plant. I was an Electronincs Tech on board Submarines (communications) and I am now a Operations Tech with BOC.
I am just setting up a small two channel system now so I am trying to learn as much as possible about everything out there.
My starter system consists of an old Rotel int amp, Onix CD-88 CD player and a pair of Rocket ELT LRS bookshelf speakers with homemade cables.
After seeing the photo gallery, I realize that I am far from being a peer to the many here (I have never even heard a tube amp before), but I hope I can learn something from each and every one of you. I know have something to strive for!
Looking forward to meeting some of you soon, at the next gtg if possible (I work shift work at the moment), and gaining from your vast experience.

Thanks for your time

[Mike D]

Jamie

Welcome!!!  

This is a fun group a friends.  Do you know any of the cryo people here in St. Louis?

 

[Scott F.]

Hiya Jamie,

Welcome abaord!

No worries about never hearing a tube amp before. You'll get plenty of exposure with our group

[steve k]

Welcome to the Gas gang, Jamie. Hope to see you at the next meet. We're still trying to take Tim up on his offer to open the doors of his stereo shop after hours for the next meet. Are you listening Tim????

You'll hear everything in tubes in our group from SET to Push/Pull and everything in between including Willie's homebrew amps. Lately there's been interest in a lot of the low cost digital amps for fun too. With your background sounds we'll have a thing or two to learn from you too.
steve k.

[DeadFish]

Hey Jamie!
I too live on the 'dark side' of the river, just up the road from you in Collinsville.  Yes, you will be bound to pick up a few things on everything from the likes of us.  From your background, I'm sure you have things to offer to everyone else, as well!   I'm relatively new committing to tubes, but still cling like glue to my solidstate Bryston gear that keeps coming out of the closet, so you can have it both ways.  For me, it is just what sounds best with what.
Most certainly, the more the merrier, it is just tough getting us all in the same place at the same time.  
Looking forward to your input!

Regards,
DeadFish

[sturgus]

Hey Jamie,
Glad you found us. You don't have to worry about not ever hearing a tube amp. We got them all over the place I think Scott even has a few in the downstairs Head .     You may even get tired of all us tube Sirens trying seduce you in to coming to the darkside I hope you can make it to the next session look forward to meeting you.
Sturgus

[bmed]

Welcome aboard!  I'd dare say there are more of us on the "East side" in this group these days.   Hope to see you at the next get-to-gether.

Brad

[jcrane]

Thanks for the replies!
I may come across as an Onix/Rocket fan as I bought a small HT system from them and later won a raffle for a 5500 dollar HT speaker setup. So I follow that company pretty close. I am open minded though and am really excited about hearing some tube setups. I am also interested in DIY amp and pre-amp setups.
I picked up a Sonic T amp, use it with some JBL N24 speakers and my laptop for portable music. The Sonic is pretty amazing.

I am open to conversion to the "dark" side as tubes and vinyl are two of my top interests at the moment.
I have a broad range of music I listen to including classical, rock, country and jazz/blues.

I am currently digging Widespread Panic, Morphine and rediscovering Uncle Tupelo (from days gone by). Other bands of high interest include Phish, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Yellow Card and the wonderful JJ Cale.

I do not know any of the Cryo people in St louis, as we actually produce the Nitrogen and Oxygen and distribute it via pipeline to Conoco Phillips or via truck to area customers. Our Nitrogen and Oxygen are FDA approved food grade gas so it can be used for food or medical use. We do supply Cee Kay, Prax Air, Air Products and Air Liquide with some of there product so if any of the cryo companies you are thinking of get product from them then I do have a hand in the production!

I will try and be at the next session as I am excited about hearing some new equipment!

thanks

[electricbear]

Hi Jamie, welcome to the dark side. As the guys indicated you'll soon be engulfed in the warm glow of tubes. I'm trying to get an event sorted out at the store sometime in the next couple of weeks ( before the rest of the guys hang me up by some unmentionable part of my anatomy) . I'll keep everyone posted about a date.

[Scott F.]

....... We got them all over the place I think Scott even has a few in the downstairs Head .   .....  

shhhhhhh!!!! You're going to make me look weird  

Speaking of too many toys and WAY too much time to obsess, I just yanked my patio system apart and installed some new gear. The old system was a Spectro Acoustics pre, one of those el-cheapo Audio Source amps, a Denon 5 disc changer and a pair of Niles OS-10 outdoor speakers that I bought from electricbear (Tim).

The old pre was driving me nuts because it had a channel that kept dropping out. Well, tonight I'd had enough. I went downstairs and grabbed my old Rotel 981 and the Lazarus tubed pre and stuffed it into the entertainment center. Believe it or not, this thing doesn't sound half bad. It almost images! I wish I could do something about the speaker placement (they're about 12 feet apart) but I'm stuck because of the deck.

But thats not the worst of it. Saturday I started bebuilding my old HH Scott 299 integrated just so I could have pure tubes on the deck    I still have to finish installing the mains caps and I have to dig into the pre-amp section and replace those caps (those are a be-atch to get to). When I'm done, it should sound pretty darned good for a (nearly) 50 year old amp.

Can anyone spell o-b-s-e-s-s-e-d ?