Who R U?

I am a 50 year old environmental contractor, married living in the South and raised in the Northeast who has loved music since I can remember. There was my great Aunt Hilda and her husband Rudy who always played piano duets when we visited. But it was Rudy who captivated me at 5 or 6 years old with his most engrossing (to me) rendition of List's Hungarian Raphsody #2. Everytime we visited I requested that he play it and it was the beginning of my love affair with Classical music in general and the piano in particular. I played various instruments throughout primary and secondary school starting at age 9 including clarinet, flute and saxophone. The school system had a fantastic music program which ended for me when I attended a parochial high school. My interest in playing waned at that point because it was like starting over again. My parents both loved music. Dad was an amateur singer that always sang at our big family get togethers. He was involved in local musical theatre and charity events and was always in the church choir often as a soloist. I wasn’t blessed with his voice, unfortunately. Musical tastes have expanded through the years. I really enjoy all types of music from rock to blues to jazz and of course classical. I have been to numerous concerts over the years and still enjoy them. Even attended Woodstock for 1 day in 1969. My wife doesn’t share my enthusiasm for rock so most concerts these days are classical only. Got my first system for college, a Scott integrated, dynaco speakers, garrard turntable. It was warm and wonderful, I couldn’t have wanted for more at the time. I stumbled into the high end in 1984. Heard about a shop that sold good stereo that was better than McIntosh, WOW! It was an eye opener for me. More importantly it brought back to me the beauty of music reproduction through tube electronics after a hiatus from the Scott days. Since that time I have owned for a brief time solid state electronics before going to tubes for good in the early 1990’s. I have always considered myself a music enthusiast more than an audiophile. I think I have over the past few years made the transition to audiophile through my relentless upgrading that has realized a quantum improvement in well reproduced audio in my home. I am living the good life and the music has NEVER sounded better. Thanks to Audiogon and all you great audio enthusiasts for helping me with the journey. This site makes it that much more fun. Best to you all!

for some time now. Being Canadian we have somewhat limited exposure to some products out there but for the most part we do get a good cross section of great components. Had Bryston gear for 12 years now (various preamps & amps) and have now started using a Rogue 66 preamp. My first foray into tubes has been an enjoyable one although I still think my Bryston 4BST does the job for my 1.5 Maggies. A believer in getting better than manufacturer supplied cables but I think there is a limit, at least to my ears there is. Had the same system for 10 years(mostly because I travel alot for work) but in the last year changed all components. Have a modest HT application but 2 channel is where my heart lies. Sometimes late at night I think of either giving up the 2 channel completely (as I do not have a dedicated listening area) and either getting a downsized system for the livingroom or making my HT system better. I wish I had made this decision before I got ill with the upgrade bug! Personally - presently live in Western Canada but grew up in Montreal, work in the Railroad industry, divorced with 2 kids (18 & 8) and have been in a good (have found out that nothing is ever perfect) relationship with a woman with 2 older kids (one of which is getting into audio on a limited basis due to $$$). Have bought and sold on Audiogon a few times and have learned quite a bit here in terms of products and theory. Enjoy the discussions and hope to offer more opinions as my audio education increases...

My name is Jeff, and I'm 42 yrs old. I live in Hawaii and have 2 teenage sons. I work as a Detective in the Honolulu Police Department, and have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice administration. My wife is an operating room nurse for a local hospital. My wife and I both have careers which can sometimes be filled with very tense, stressful situations. However, my interest in audio as a hobby provides moments of relaxation and pleasure which balances everything out. My wife finds escape in her hobby of sewing. I've always been interested in audio since childhood. During high school in the 70's, my friends and I would always gather at someone's house to listen to phono records. It was only in 1994 that I got back into audio by purchasing a home theater system consisting of a denon receiver, Mirage M7si speakers, velodyne subwoofer, and a denon laser disc player. Since then, I've added a adcom cd player, adcom amp, msb link III, and a rega planar 2. I'm planning on eventually having a separate home theater system and 2 channel music system to optimize the music sound quality. Anyone out there interested in corresponding, feel free to email me at jbrchl@aol.com.

I've been reading this site with a passion for about 8 weeks but have never made a post. Although I feel I should introduce myself as I feel almost "voyer like" as I keenly read all the postings in this section. My name is Steve Dougherty and live in Calgary Alberta. At 47 im right in the thick of bulding my systems. I schedule flight crew for canadain airlines and have been doing so for too long. Some of my best memories of my teens are listening to my best friend's father's stereo on friday nights. Great big Tannoys,lancasters I think, powered tubes of some sort. Ever since I longed for a system of my own. I shopped for years but could not afford what my ears said I deserved. I had lousy stuff until 1990 when I moved from Montreal to here and my roommate reintroduced me to hifi. The first system was the little maggies with rotel 40w a side. The early cd players weren't so good but I concentrated building a cd collection. I just loved the maggies and could not figure why everyone in the office didn't have these. Well I got married shortly after and we had 2 girls right away. I was sure glad I had the stuff I did because the money for upgrades disappeared. Believe it or not I sold the maggies when my first girl was 2 because we live in a samll house and she was tipping them over. I bought some bookshelf kefs and thought I was happy. Well my life was too busy too know better. For the next 6 years every pennie went to building my wife's buisness, an ad agency, so guess what I listened to. I still built up the cd s , though,to well over 400 and thats not including all the trade ins. Let me digress here to my Cds. In 1990 when I started I had not a single title. So when I started my collection I felt I had to have all the oldies I liked growing up. It didn't click that I might not really lile that stuff any more. Also there seemed to be lots of changes going on in my life and the discs I bought the year before weren't really getting played any more. So every time my tastes expanded or changed another 50 or so cd's would find there way home. Sometimes they were hidden in the sock drawer. Anyways the buisness is now 17 employees and does pretty well. So guess whos playing catch up. My speakers were first with Paradigms ref studio 80s v2 I chose these over the 100s because of a more 2 way like sound. Then I bought a Anthem mca 2 for power. The Anthem Pre 2 is on order. I also bought a pricey paradign /dennon home theatre system. The plan is when we move to a bigger house in the spring then home theater will go downstais for the kids along with the studo 80s and mca 2. I think then I'll match the pre 2 with an amp 2 and perhaps maggies 1.6qr or the Oskar speakers with the Heil tweters that have been talked about so much in UHF magazine. Living in Canada we are restricted with the currency difference of late. I dont think most of you relize a 1,000 dollar us product on this site costs us 1550 canadian. I mention this because if you live close to the border near a major center you can save a fortune buying canadian made hifi with US bucks. My local dealer sells lots to customers from montana who drive up. Its a lot cheaper than buying the same product in the US because usually a importer or distributor lays a margin on the product.This works especially for who live close to montreal ,toronto or vancouver where there is a big hifi following. My current musical tates are classical,latin jazz and i have a big collection of acapella I just love the harmonie of voices by them selves. I also like mowtown but try to find a quality recording. Latest cd to come home is Armandos fire by Oscar Lopez on the Narada world lable. Pet peve is audio reviewers who use the word bloom in their decsriptions.Bloom is what happens in my garden in springtime not what grows out of my tweeters. A note to all of you who, like me, have a spouse who does not share your passion. It works if you encourage her to have her hobbie and you invest equal amounts. My wife has horses. Thanks to all of you who do post your thoughts and expertise here. I' learning a ton. Cheers steve

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