dnewma04
08-02-2007, 10:32 AM
Hello,
The name is Dave and I've been a member for a couple of years after lurking for a year or two. My background in audio started with a fascination of car audio where I had a number of systems in various cars which started off in the usual way, buying crap equipment and progressively I moved up into the spending WAY too much to have the "best" of everything I could get my hands on. Right around that time, I started reading some speaker building books for design tips for subwoofers and found myself paying more attention to the other articles. Soon I was building speakers, buying measuring equipment and selling off my high dollar car audio stuff in favor of drivers avaialble to DIYers. It wasn't long after that when I started building home speakers starting with a few small 2 way speakers.
Speaker building/crossover design is probably where I am able to participate with the most expertise, I suppose.
I am just starting to get into making some tube amps with another couple of members, not because I expect to find my sonic nirvana, but because they are fun, and relatively easy to understand. I haven't yet heard the tube amp that made me believe, but who knows, I suppose it could still happen.
I have a problem that many here share and its probably the most detrimental to my marriage is that I am a complete scrounger. I visit thrifts often, scour craigslist like a hawk, and will occasionally hit a garage sale or two. The result is that I have a basement full of primarily crap but a few gems here and there. My wife is a saint for putting up with me, and my daughter is a chubby little angel and obviously the cutest girl in the world, even if Squidward and Ray Wagner claim their daughters are.
I am into vintage audio, but also enjoy a lot of new technologies/equipment and I am slowly but surely starting to understand the merits of analog. At the same time, i'm probably one of the few people here who is 100% fully behind the potential that multichannel music offers.
Lastly, I can come across like an asshole if you don't know my sense of humor. It's rather rare that I really mean to offend someone, but it's been known to happen. I am a huge fan of sarcasm and people who use it, but can understand that it's not easily recognized in text form. So, if I offend you in anyway, feel free to PM me and tell me to fuck off, it wouldn't be the first time but don't hold grudges because I was probably not meaning anything by it. I'm always up for a good debate. I've also got fairly strong POVs on audio reproduction and tend to be willing to attempt to back it up. Some people are content to just listen and enjoy, but I like to understand why things happen and for whatever reason that tends to offend people.
I have enjoyed my time here for the most part, and nearly everyone I have talked to, chatted with, or met in person has been nothing but nice/gracious.
My system in it's most current iteration uses the following:
Main Audio System:
Kenwood KA-9800 Int Amp
Kenwood KT-9900 tuner
Sony SACD player (don't recall the model)
Sony MD player
Oracle Delphi MkIII/Sumiko FT-3/Ortofon 510mkII
Oracle Delphi MkII/SME-V/Vandenhul Two Cart (soon to be delivered)
McIntosh MC-2100 (x2)
Epicure 400+ (which replaced some recently shipped off NS-1000X)
Technics RS-1506 Reel to Reel
Bedroom System:
Nakamichi System One
Dynaco A-25 with add on Realistic Electrostat 3s to supplement the top end that is missing on the early A-25s
Living room:
Harman Kardon AVR-85MkII
EPI 400s
Pioneer CS-05s
DIY Center Channel
Adire Shiva Subwoofer in a critically damped sealed enclosure with EV AP2600A amplifier.
Technics SL-3350 TT
RGR model IV preamp
Denon DCD-1520
ADS CD3
Garage:
Fisher 500 Mono receiver
EV Sentry IIs
Luxman CDP
Harman Kardon HK3500 cassette player
Vintage/Tube system:
Fisher 500B
soon to be built DIY 2 ways using an Altec 511 horn with a 808-8A compression driver with a new diaphragm that isn't awful like the original and some Usher 15PA 15" drivers.
(eventually) DIY amps (2 sets, one a 12w PP set of monoblocks and the other pair will be some 40-45w PP class A tube monoblocks)
I'll probably use a Crown FM1 for a tuner temporarily and maybe move the denon CDP to this system.
So, to sum it all up.
Likes:
Family/Friends
Audio
Curmudgeons/Sarcastic people
Craigslist
dislikes:
Audio equipment that sounds like a bag of cats
Audio Elitists
Deception (by companies and/or individuals)
Perpetuating audio mythology
The name is Dave and I've been a member for a couple of years after lurking for a year or two. My background in audio started with a fascination of car audio where I had a number of systems in various cars which started off in the usual way, buying crap equipment and progressively I moved up into the spending WAY too much to have the "best" of everything I could get my hands on. Right around that time, I started reading some speaker building books for design tips for subwoofers and found myself paying more attention to the other articles. Soon I was building speakers, buying measuring equipment and selling off my high dollar car audio stuff in favor of drivers avaialble to DIYers. It wasn't long after that when I started building home speakers starting with a few small 2 way speakers.
Speaker building/crossover design is probably where I am able to participate with the most expertise, I suppose.
I am just starting to get into making some tube amps with another couple of members, not because I expect to find my sonic nirvana, but because they are fun, and relatively easy to understand. I haven't yet heard the tube amp that made me believe, but who knows, I suppose it could still happen.
I have a problem that many here share and its probably the most detrimental to my marriage is that I am a complete scrounger. I visit thrifts often, scour craigslist like a hawk, and will occasionally hit a garage sale or two. The result is that I have a basement full of primarily crap but a few gems here and there. My wife is a saint for putting up with me, and my daughter is a chubby little angel and obviously the cutest girl in the world, even if Squidward and Ray Wagner claim their daughters are.
I am into vintage audio, but also enjoy a lot of new technologies/equipment and I am slowly but surely starting to understand the merits of analog. At the same time, i'm probably one of the few people here who is 100% fully behind the potential that multichannel music offers.
Lastly, I can come across like an asshole if you don't know my sense of humor. It's rather rare that I really mean to offend someone, but it's been known to happen. I am a huge fan of sarcasm and people who use it, but can understand that it's not easily recognized in text form. So, if I offend you in anyway, feel free to PM me and tell me to fuck off, it wouldn't be the first time but don't hold grudges because I was probably not meaning anything by it. I'm always up for a good debate. I've also got fairly strong POVs on audio reproduction and tend to be willing to attempt to back it up. Some people are content to just listen and enjoy, but I like to understand why things happen and for whatever reason that tends to offend people.
I have enjoyed my time here for the most part, and nearly everyone I have talked to, chatted with, or met in person has been nothing but nice/gracious.
My system in it's most current iteration uses the following:
Main Audio System:
Kenwood KA-9800 Int Amp
Kenwood KT-9900 tuner
Sony SACD player (don't recall the model)
Sony MD player
Oracle Delphi MkIII/Sumiko FT-3/Ortofon 510mkII
Oracle Delphi MkII/SME-V/Vandenhul Two Cart (soon to be delivered)
McIntosh MC-2100 (x2)
Epicure 400+ (which replaced some recently shipped off NS-1000X)
Technics RS-1506 Reel to Reel
Bedroom System:
Nakamichi System One
Dynaco A-25 with add on Realistic Electrostat 3s to supplement the top end that is missing on the early A-25s
Living room:
Harman Kardon AVR-85MkII
EPI 400s
Pioneer CS-05s
DIY Center Channel
Adire Shiva Subwoofer in a critically damped sealed enclosure with EV AP2600A amplifier.
Technics SL-3350 TT
RGR model IV preamp
Denon DCD-1520
ADS CD3
Garage:
Fisher 500 Mono receiver
EV Sentry IIs
Luxman CDP
Harman Kardon HK3500 cassette player
Vintage/Tube system:
Fisher 500B
soon to be built DIY 2 ways using an Altec 511 horn with a 808-8A compression driver with a new diaphragm that isn't awful like the original and some Usher 15PA 15" drivers.
(eventually) DIY amps (2 sets, one a 12w PP set of monoblocks and the other pair will be some 40-45w PP class A tube monoblocks)
I'll probably use a Crown FM1 for a tuner temporarily and maybe move the denon CDP to this system.
So, to sum it all up.
Likes:
Family/Friends
Audio
Curmudgeons/Sarcastic people
Craigslist
dislikes:
Audio equipment that sounds like a bag of cats
Audio Elitists
Deception (by companies and/or individuals)
Perpetuating audio mythology