I Cried Today

His memory will be a blessing. 

I’ve known bigkidz over 22 years, he called me and mentioned his post here.

I told him the biggest part of audio is "humanity and good memories"

He emphatically agreed amongst others here also.

Things in life can get taken for granted, not realizing when one day a person is gone, it’s forever 💔

Lost my audio buddy 6 years ago.  Big loss I definitely understand. 

Thank you for posting this, and caring. It says a lot about the the person you are.  God bless you both.

@bigkidz Thanks, I needed that.

 

Tuches me, personally ... because my plan is to leave my system to my two adult daughters when I say Sayanara!  

That's also the reason I've had to work so hard to aquire two of everything in my system. 

Ha ha ha ha 

What a cool experience, that you got to connect with that guy like that. That kind of stuff is what makes the world go around.

 

@qjm101 +1 on your great memories with your old man. Mine died two days before Thanksgiving last year at 86. He had such a good life, but boy was he ready to go.

I’m so grateful for the great memories.

This is great! With all of the political and other divisions between us we are reminded that are all just trying to live the best life that we can. We are all part of the human family upon this iron rock hurtling through the universe. Godspeed John!

I wish this forum allowed 'likes' or 'thumbs-up'. This thread would get as many as I was allowed to give.

Thanks for a letting me share in your sadness, your joy and your love of music.

Wow! What a great post.

I come on all these forums and read. I always feel like there is so much hatred towards each other and our differences. I just wanted to say it is very refreshing to read something like this. It takes away just a little of my anger towards humanity. We need a lot more like this.

May God rest his soul. And may the family have piece and lots of great memories. 

Thank for sharing.

God Bless

Thank you for sharing such a heartfelt story. 

I hope his son appreciates the pre amp

Finished cancer treatment in September. It's difficult to face. I can tell you first hand your care and compassion was appreciated facing the uncertainty.

What an amazing tribute. Thank you very much for sharing.

That gift will carry memories that his son will surely treasure for the rest of his life. 

Thanks for sharing that touching story.

@bigkidz 

First class post. Thank you for sharing. 

Other responders, first class too for staying on the main topic of the sentiment expressed. Very refreshing. God bless to all. 

It is good to share such thoughts/feelings. It gives more value and sense to our life. 

Beautiful story. Bless you so for sharing this.

Lovely post, may John's memory be a blessing to his family and friends, and thanks to you to everyone here as well :)

Thanks for sharing. Very moving and refreshing to the heart.

Yes, God is very good. 

Thank you for the beautiful story and stirring tribute to a life well lived.  There are several things I love about being in the audio business.  The first, is that I am helping people bring music into their lives and into their homes.  Music is one of the most beautiful of God's gifts to us as humans.  Music has the power to heal, to lift, and to bring joy.  And the machines we purvey enrich our lives as a result.  Second, are the wonderful people I have met along the way.  Whether it's industry colleagues or customers, I have met folks who will forever be friends.  These individuals have been and will continue to be sources of inspiration and goodness.

Sure, high end audio products can cost a lot of money and could be considered as excess by some.  But if a person has the means, the passion, or the priority to obtain these technological marvels it can be a worthy place to put your hard-earned resources.  There are a lot worse things you could spend your money on!  I'm grateful every day for the blessing of music in my life.  And grateful for the machines that allow me to experience it.      

Thanks for sharing.

God be with you thanks for shering your story.

bigkidz

 

A nice tribute to John (R.I.P.). We all lose some one close to us from Cancer.

 

Happy Listening!

Beautiful moving story too .... Thanks to you and to the OP  ...

I’m coming in late on this thread, having read the Op’s message on the digest. I hope bigkidz sees this, since it’s a bit closer to what happened in his life.

My friend Dave lived in PA very close to the Mason-Dixon Line. An eclectic dude, one of his interests in life was music, including playing trumpet in a local band in the mid-sixties. During that period, still in high school, he built both the Dynaco PAS pre-amp and Stereo 70 amp kits. A few years later, we all danced in front of them in the early 70’s.

Fast forward to half a dozen years back. Advanced prostate cancer and fast weakening of his body. The Dynaco stuff sat on a shelf in his house, not having been powered on for 30 years. He had a “better” setup in the room, decent 2010’s mainline items. While helping to care for him at intervals, I convinced him to let me see if I could if I could get this important part of our earlier lives functioning again. I wanted most of all for him to hear the tunes close to the way we heard them in our twenties.

I sent the Dynaco items to Joe Curcio “The Dynaco Doctor “, out in Washington state. Joe made them better than they were in the first place. However,  I wasn’t quick enough. My friend Dave died before he could hear the sublime 60’s tube sound available to anyone with a soldering iron, the ability to follow directions, and the willingness to try something they’d never done.

I miss my friend, but I can still connect the Dynaco pair from time to time. They still sound great, and every track has just a little more feeling, if you know what I mean.

My father just died yesterday at the age of 92. I grew up listening to his 78’s and I still love old jazz to this day.

Thank you.

@qjm101

my condolescences for your loss

we should all strive for a well lived life of 92 years

listening to music can bring back to us such fond memories and thoughts of loved ones, family, friends, great performers

it is truly the magic of what results from this little hobby of ours done right... frank sinatra or tony bennett, young, vigorous, so full of life, performing right in front of us...

be well

 

Growing up, my uncle played jazz on the stereo in his workshop and in the car on trips to New England.

It’s a driver of my life-long love for music. A step on the journey to so many hours learning from you all about how to get better sound. Thank you for that.

My uncle died in 2015.

His dad taught woodworking to high schoolers. Supposedly the Adirondack Chair is his design, but that’s not confirmed. We have furniture he built all over the house. A bedroom set made of Wormy Chestnut that’s now extinct. I imagine him shaping the wood with his hand tools that are up in the attic now. Granddad died a year before I was born.

My dad died a few years ago. He always wanted to make things perfect. He got the best score in the country on the “hands” part of the entry exam to dental school. Such careful attention to the details. Rest in peace.

Lots of great thoughts from you all about what it all means. The quality of experience resonates with me. For my family too, I think. Being fully present with well reproduced music is part of that for me. Appreciate you all being a part, too.

Good reminder for us not to be so selfish and to do something for someone else.

Thanks

Thank you for taking the time to write and post that.

Thank you for sharing these kind words and emotions!!!

Blessings to Johns family and to you Bigkidz, you obviously feel loss and a hole that you can fill with the memories of the time that John and you shared. It’s refreshing to see a post of this nature and I thank you for providing an opportunity to take pause and realize that our lives a brief moment on this earth. But eternity awaits us that choose to embrace it.

Thanks for sharing your story!  

Lets all Celebrate a Life Worth Living. Peace and love to you and his family.I just listened to Wish You Were Here, and thought of us all here.

Very nice tribute.  I hope we can all make someone smile today.  RIP Mr. Hoffman.

Very touching. You know as I have gotten older when I hear about someone passing, even people I didn’t know and have never and would never meet, it gives me much more pause these days. Even reading this and hearing if John’s passing touches me. Maybe it’s because it makes us realize our own mortality, maybe it’s because it’s a reminder of how precious, and yet so very delicate life is. I’ve lost many people close to me and I think of most of them almost daily, but I also feel a deep sense of sadness when I hear about those who I did not know passing…

 

@jjss49  so very true, less greed indeed. Greed is a silent killer not just of those who have it, but for those around them as well.

@bigkidz

Sorry for your loss.

As a servicer of (mostly) vintage audio gear, I can attest to the strong emotional connection between the gear and their owners. I can count, literally, dozens of occasions were grown up adults have been brought to tears when "dad’s stereo" came back to life, a deceased brother’s cassette deck lit up, made that weird clicking sound, started the reels turning, meters bouncing, and played music. Again. Receiving a hug from a customer is more rewarding than merely processing a credit card. I can also validate the humanity embedded in all of us. Now and then we need a wakeup call to remind us of the common links and connections we share. We ARE more connected than divided.

Each and every one of us here should pat ourselves on the back for acknowledging our links and connections on this forum. Well done. And, thanks to the OP for reminding us.

R.I.P  John. ❤️

Thanks for sharing. It is so nice to hear nice stories about nice people nowadays. Like the one with the 300,000 people in DC supporting Israel without one single arrest. We all should be civil to eachother.

God bless you for your kindness and tender heart toward your fellow man. 

Namaste'

Thank you for sharing.  

I believe that this is our mission.  To pass on the joy of music experience in the home to the next generation.   

RIP, John!

Thanks for your post

what a great gift Mr. Hoffman left his son 

@bigkidz ...Thank you for sharing your thoughts & feelings on John, and I'd wager a guess we've all had some 'brush' with mortality in some fashion on these pages.

It's when it edges closer to one as we approach the 'last lift of the cart off the LP', it gets ones' attention...

"It's weird being the same age as old people.", as expressed on a t-shirt some of us probably should wear...depending upon how one considers that reality....
I'm certainly subject to that, but still feel healthy enough to challenge infinity...😏

Yeah...Right....You can fool yourself, but you can't fool fate.

Upon similar lines, that occurred to me, on this site, awhile back....

One of us approached me in a PM, "...out of the blue, in the western skies..."

"Would you be interested in a preamp? I've two that I'd like to gift you with...your choice."   (Either/both beyond my means, then & even now...of course, I responded "Uh...sure....)

That's why I now own a Parasound C2, and we began an off-A'Gon relationship for an enjoyable span of emails.  Trading tales, histories, the occasional 'behind the pages' snide and support of what was about that evening' (The names will remain a mystery we will both take to the Beyond...)

He beat me to that destination...S4 cancer....the emails vagued, then stopped.

...................................................................................................................................

In that way-too-brief span, he sent as well a dbx and an ESS xover, the latter since we both shared a fondness for the Heil amts'; the second, somewhat rare of late....

It was admitted that the 'better items' were to be to his son and others, but thought I'd 'enjoy them and give 'em a proper home...'

I've certainly tried and will continue...

But, just before the messages stopped, one of the last stated:

"This is one I don't want you to get all misty-ass over....but I want you to enjoy them as much as we do....'K?"

I saw my spouse accept the parcel from our FedEx driver and heard him say

"Kinda heavy for something so small...."  and I knew Exactly what the final gift was.

...................................................................................................................................

Next response...the only I could stay within the desire stated...

"Ok...but you can fill  the *blank* in anyway...I'll just sit stunned and grateful...;)"

...............................................................................................................................

One of the kindest and generous person I've never met, and will never have the pleasure of doing so... and an fellow audiophile with so much in common with...

Life is not fair.  It never extends any guarantee of such, of course, but....*wtf/over*

So...Y'all...if I post something like this, as silly and apparently 'cutesy' as it may seem...

I've my reasons......but hoping Jerry has gotten to hear... 

whatever it may be....RIP, good friend....

...even my spouse wouldn't gift me those... 😔

Nice post. Thanks for keeping it real. 

@bigkidz 

Thanks for the story and being who you are!

 

@thecarpathian +1

@bigkidz Thank you for sharing.

Beautiful. I'm trying to do the same with my sons. The relationships we develop in this crazy love for audio equipment are something special. God bless you and John's family and sorry for your loss, sir.

Thank you for sharing. 

The son will appreciate the amplifiers and his father's love and thoughtfulness.  Your work will be a part of his life for years to come.

It’s nice to know there are still people out there who care. More and more people seem to be losing faith and some even turn to Satan. In these challenging times, it is important to believe.