Charivari
08-04-2007, 07:23 PM
I got the impression that maybe a re-introduction would be in order and seeing the absence of names that once were familiar and many new who are active, a reintroduction seemed to be a good idea. Fortunately, I’m already intimately familiar with the introduction forum concept.
I'm basically a NOS member. An oldish member, yet new again after having been in storage for a year or so.
I’ll avoid the bad habit of a long drawn out life story, but suffice it to say, I’ve been around electronics and music since birth and such has spurred my interest in audio. I literally grew up in my father’s marine electronics repair business with a cardboard box from a radar as a bassinette and my father taking me out on boats in a car seat. For the first decade of my life, I spent more time at the shop or out on the boats than at home. Such was still mostly the same case for more years after. As such, I could probably still rebuild a Wood Freeman autopilot blind folded, though I don't think I’d be as willing now to crawl through bilge water to install a rudder angle indicator or solder up a radar cable wedged upside down into a bulkhead or hanging off a mast.
I’m the one on the left of the fathometer with a screwdriver in hand:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c301/jpvanson/Misc%20Audioa/Apprentice.jpg
Fortunately, my father recognized my interest in electronics and eventually gave me my own workbench in the back to do the small repairs I was capable of and experiment in electronics with junk units. I learned a lot that way even if my occasional failure earned me the nickname “Smokey” due to my father sighting me leaving the backroom in controlled panic while smoke from some toasted component or other wafted out with me.
For the music portion, I had the good fortune of being born into a musical family. Everyone but me in the household could play an instrument and sing pretty well. Combine that with regular local outdoor performances and it’d be safe to say that I was raised on music, live music. I didn’t really take interest in recorded music nor had the means to do so outside of a junk used walkman and cassettes until I was much older. I only really discovered the audio reproduction hobby until a few years ago when I found a beat up pair of Magnepan MG-Is at the local Goodwill, hooked them up to my seldom used garage sale stereo, and realized that recorded music could be almost as moving as the real thing. As such from my upbringing, my audio preferences are tainted towards wanting clear, undistorted, and realistically reproduced sound as opposed to a more euphonic approach.
Due to this, my approach to audio tends to be bass ackwards of the norm and I have certainly taken more than my fair share of flack for it at various places. Yet, I’m happy with the results and that’s satisfying enough. Just a couple of weeks back, a friend of mine (a recovering audiophile) gave my latest system iteration a hearty listen. He came to visit for a couple of hours and ended up camped out on my couch in the listening position for the remainder of the day, late into the night, and most of the next day spinning favorite albums. My friend noted that by all rights my system should sound lousy, yet he declared it the best sound he’s heard and that he could be very happy with it (picky bastard, so that was quite the compliment). So, despite it all, it seems I’m not totally deluding myself.
Anyways, Kelly (kfa888) made an off hand comment about me sometime back that seems very apt and summarizes my taste in music. He declared that I am “a picky f#@%er who likes goofy music.” I can’t disagree with it. I love the odd stuff and rarely the baby boomer music that dominates audio forums. ‘80s punk rock songs sung in the bossa nova fashion by French accented females? Check. Balkans Gypsy hip-hop fusion? Got it, love it. Didgeridoo electronica? Yep. Funk fusion played on marching band instruments and a banjo? Where there’s a tuba, there’s a party!
Currently, I’m working on fine tuning my 6' tall true ribbon/planar-magnetic Frankenstein speakers and enjoying the music all the more.
Well, that was boring. Ah well, there it is.
- JP
I'm basically a NOS member. An oldish member, yet new again after having been in storage for a year or so.
I’ll avoid the bad habit of a long drawn out life story, but suffice it to say, I’ve been around electronics and music since birth and such has spurred my interest in audio. I literally grew up in my father’s marine electronics repair business with a cardboard box from a radar as a bassinette and my father taking me out on boats in a car seat. For the first decade of my life, I spent more time at the shop or out on the boats than at home. Such was still mostly the same case for more years after. As such, I could probably still rebuild a Wood Freeman autopilot blind folded, though I don't think I’d be as willing now to crawl through bilge water to install a rudder angle indicator or solder up a radar cable wedged upside down into a bulkhead or hanging off a mast.
I’m the one on the left of the fathometer with a screwdriver in hand:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c301/jpvanson/Misc%20Audioa/Apprentice.jpg
Fortunately, my father recognized my interest in electronics and eventually gave me my own workbench in the back to do the small repairs I was capable of and experiment in electronics with junk units. I learned a lot that way even if my occasional failure earned me the nickname “Smokey” due to my father sighting me leaving the backroom in controlled panic while smoke from some toasted component or other wafted out with me.
For the music portion, I had the good fortune of being born into a musical family. Everyone but me in the household could play an instrument and sing pretty well. Combine that with regular local outdoor performances and it’d be safe to say that I was raised on music, live music. I didn’t really take interest in recorded music nor had the means to do so outside of a junk used walkman and cassettes until I was much older. I only really discovered the audio reproduction hobby until a few years ago when I found a beat up pair of Magnepan MG-Is at the local Goodwill, hooked them up to my seldom used garage sale stereo, and realized that recorded music could be almost as moving as the real thing. As such from my upbringing, my audio preferences are tainted towards wanting clear, undistorted, and realistically reproduced sound as opposed to a more euphonic approach.
Due to this, my approach to audio tends to be bass ackwards of the norm and I have certainly taken more than my fair share of flack for it at various places. Yet, I’m happy with the results and that’s satisfying enough. Just a couple of weeks back, a friend of mine (a recovering audiophile) gave my latest system iteration a hearty listen. He came to visit for a couple of hours and ended up camped out on my couch in the listening position for the remainder of the day, late into the night, and most of the next day spinning favorite albums. My friend noted that by all rights my system should sound lousy, yet he declared it the best sound he’s heard and that he could be very happy with it (picky bastard, so that was quite the compliment). So, despite it all, it seems I’m not totally deluding myself.
Anyways, Kelly (kfa888) made an off hand comment about me sometime back that seems very apt and summarizes my taste in music. He declared that I am “a picky f#@%er who likes goofy music.” I can’t disagree with it. I love the odd stuff and rarely the baby boomer music that dominates audio forums. ‘80s punk rock songs sung in the bossa nova fashion by French accented females? Check. Balkans Gypsy hip-hop fusion? Got it, love it. Didgeridoo electronica? Yep. Funk fusion played on marching band instruments and a banjo? Where there’s a tuba, there’s a party!
Currently, I’m working on fine tuning my 6' tall true ribbon/planar-magnetic Frankenstein speakers and enjoying the music all the more.
Well, that was boring. Ah well, there it is.
- JP