I have been thinking over the past few days as I tweaked, fiddled, listened and enjoyed my hifi and its music, it has been a pleasure over the past couple of years to take this journy of discovery.
Wher did it all start . . . 1964, when I met the youg lady who would eventualy become my dear wife. Kathy had a couple of uncles, uncle Jim and uncle Sid, they were both into their music, Sid was more into the hifi side, Quad, Garad, Lowther, Uncle Jim was more the music man, never mind the hifi, he had a HMV radio gram, autochange and ceramic cartridge, remember them?
I used to look forward to my visits to their homes. 1968 , We got married, new home, furiture etc, the first luxury, no not a TV, that was 5 years later! . . . A record player, a Bush with an active plug in stereo speaker unit . . . I thought it was the bees knees, sitll with the ceramic cartridge, but it had a dimond needle . . . oh yes :dance:
This early hifi interest probably accounts for my tast in music, Sid was a jazz fan, Uncle Jim prefered big bands and country music. I moved on, the Bush record player gave way to seperates, from Dual, Marantz and NAD with a big pair of 3 way Scott speakers.
Then I met Dave Wren at Ralett Audio, this was the big change in my hifi life, he introduced me to the finer point of music and hifi. Proac Tablet speakers, Michell Focus TT, Dynavector 10X MC cartridge. I fell in love with valves, at the same time as I started working on speaker stands, stand in those days were ugly, looking more like electricity pylons with out the arms, very wife unfriendly!!!
It took 4 years to get the first Foundation Classic stand working the way I wanted, Dave Wren heard the verious incarnations, untill one day the final offereing . . . with his encouragement the rest is history. I move on from NAD to EAR 509 amps, a Townsend Rock turn table and eventialy an Ortofon SPU cartridge (denuded). Many differeant speakers passed my way, but the standards were Rogers LS35a. It all stoped in 1995, Kathy, who was the other half of Foundation audio, the back room kid, the female steady to my over enthusiastic youthfulness, she passed away . . . Production, ideas, all dried up, life was a haze, Foundation Audio was sold!
. . . . the present, I was diging in the loft found a came across a couple of boxes with CD's in. A spark? . . . played some on the computer, then by chance, re aquainted my self with old friend Dave Wren . . . more help and encouragement of a more domestic kind, a lot of hifi water has passed me by. Again the rest is history, I found 3 more boxes in the loft, no idea what was in them . . . some of my old audiophile and favourit records . . . in a fit back when?!! I had destroyed a very large part of my record collection, but for some reason, I had kept these, around 300?
You have seen me drag myself back into the world of hifi, hard sometimes, but finaly one is happy to 'be back'. My love of analogue and valves retained, one has not played a CD for many months.
As this started, 'I was sitting thinking' . . . I was also fiddling as is my want. Where I started again 2 years back, to where I am now, its a long way in terms of sound quality. One was thinking, a new arm coming in January, one has made outragouse changes, often against advise, to a basic Rega TT. One continuasly travels back in time in the mind to my previous life, trying to compare how it was then to now, and yet, how can one compare the audiophile and the business based system then, to the simple low cost system one has now as an ex audiophile?
I spent yesterday, on a retro kick, phisicaly revisiting some of the changes I have made, acrylic platter, damping ring, platter mat, acylic platter mat, glass platter, verious mats and the final change; headshell mass, which its self is temorary but works remakably well, £20 worth doing far more than all those fancy cable have ever done for me, fortunatly I did dot have to buy the cables.
I cant see any way forward after the new Audiomods arm, with out a fundimental and majour system change . . . the essance of my system now, it has been upgraded in small hits, the new tone arm is the biggest spend in one lump that I have made. I dont realy want to comit any more funds, I think I have spent enough on hifi in 48 years
Musicaly very satifying, the upgrading has in its self been a pleasure with frustrations on the way. I know what I think the new arm will bring??? it will put the cherry on the cake, my quest to recreate my old 80's sound will hopfully be realised . . . although I do have a couple of final, final tweakes up my sleeve . . . you cant keep a habitual tweaker down . . . :cheer:
Any one else have hifi memories going back to the good old days . . . ?
CJSF
Wher did it all start . . . 1964, when I met the youg lady who would eventualy become my dear wife. Kathy had a couple of uncles, uncle Jim and uncle Sid, they were both into their music, Sid was more into the hifi side, Quad, Garad, Lowther, Uncle Jim was more the music man, never mind the hifi, he had a HMV radio gram, autochange and ceramic cartridge, remember them?
I used to look forward to my visits to their homes. 1968 , We got married, new home, furiture etc, the first luxury, no not a TV, that was 5 years later! . . . A record player, a Bush with an active plug in stereo speaker unit . . . I thought it was the bees knees, sitll with the ceramic cartridge, but it had a dimond needle . . . oh yes :dance:
This early hifi interest probably accounts for my tast in music, Sid was a jazz fan, Uncle Jim prefered big bands and country music. I moved on, the Bush record player gave way to seperates, from Dual, Marantz and NAD with a big pair of 3 way Scott speakers.
Then I met Dave Wren at Ralett Audio, this was the big change in my hifi life, he introduced me to the finer point of music and hifi. Proac Tablet speakers, Michell Focus TT, Dynavector 10X MC cartridge. I fell in love with valves, at the same time as I started working on speaker stands, stand in those days were ugly, looking more like electricity pylons with out the arms, very wife unfriendly!!!
It took 4 years to get the first Foundation Classic stand working the way I wanted, Dave Wren heard the verious incarnations, untill one day the final offereing . . . with his encouragement the rest is history. I move on from NAD to EAR 509 amps, a Townsend Rock turn table and eventialy an Ortofon SPU cartridge (denuded). Many differeant speakers passed my way, but the standards were Rogers LS35a. It all stoped in 1995, Kathy, who was the other half of Foundation audio, the back room kid, the female steady to my over enthusiastic youthfulness, she passed away . . . Production, ideas, all dried up, life was a haze, Foundation Audio was sold!
. . . . the present, I was diging in the loft found a came across a couple of boxes with CD's in. A spark? . . . played some on the computer, then by chance, re aquainted my self with old friend Dave Wren . . . more help and encouragement of a more domestic kind, a lot of hifi water has passed me by. Again the rest is history, I found 3 more boxes in the loft, no idea what was in them . . . some of my old audiophile and favourit records . . . in a fit back when?!! I had destroyed a very large part of my record collection, but for some reason, I had kept these, around 300?
You have seen me drag myself back into the world of hifi, hard sometimes, but finaly one is happy to 'be back'. My love of analogue and valves retained, one has not played a CD for many months.
As this started, 'I was sitting thinking' . . . I was also fiddling as is my want. Where I started again 2 years back, to where I am now, its a long way in terms of sound quality. One was thinking, a new arm coming in January, one has made outragouse changes, often against advise, to a basic Rega TT. One continuasly travels back in time in the mind to my previous life, trying to compare how it was then to now, and yet, how can one compare the audiophile and the business based system then, to the simple low cost system one has now as an ex audiophile?
I spent yesterday, on a retro kick, phisicaly revisiting some of the changes I have made, acrylic platter, damping ring, platter mat, acylic platter mat, glass platter, verious mats and the final change; headshell mass, which its self is temorary but works remakably well, £20 worth doing far more than all those fancy cable have ever done for me, fortunatly I did dot have to buy the cables.
I cant see any way forward after the new Audiomods arm, with out a fundimental and majour system change . . . the essance of my system now, it has been upgraded in small hits, the new tone arm is the biggest spend in one lump that I have made. I dont realy want to comit any more funds, I think I have spent enough on hifi in 48 years
Musicaly very satifying, the upgrading has in its self been a pleasure with frustrations on the way. I know what I think the new arm will bring??? it will put the cherry on the cake, my quest to recreate my old 80's sound will hopfully be realised . . . although I do have a couple of final, final tweakes up my sleeve . . . you cant keep a habitual tweaker down . . . :cheer:
Any one else have hifi memories going back to the good old days . . . ?
CJSF
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