Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2017 1:31:02 GMT
A few thoughts I’ve been having over the last few months about “HiFi”. My journey into sound started when I was about 10 years old in 1965 when I was introduced to the blues at the age of 10. My dad had just got his first set up (Garrard TT, Armstrong amp, a Sony Reel to Reel that was a chassis model just in a cardboard box and a speaker, it was mono, made by one of my brothers friends). My father had a mate who was an engineer who was encouraging him to get involved with stereo. But on a good day had the technical expertise of a bowl of cold custard. He told me not to touch his kit then when he got a new Thorens TT he tried to twist the wire round the plug pins to connect it to the mains. This was it the days of 15amp un fused plugs, I still remember the flash and bang, the smell of burning then the almighty bang in the cupboard under the stairs as the 64 amp house main fuse exploded. After that he got me to put the plugs on for him.
Still fascinated by the kit he kept upgrading and with the typical alpha male attitude, he still did not me touching his kit, unless of course I was fixing it for him. He did at this point give me the cash to buy an Ultra record player,which I converted to stereo with the help of a book from Babani Press and built a pair of speakers with a design book from Gilbert Briggs. OK so we have set the scene, father and son both upgrading kit, but here comes the difference, he was into the kit and ended up with a great system TD 124, SME 3009 Quad 303,33,FM2 Sandberg R2R, Richard Allan Pavane speakers. He got to what was probably the state of the art for the time and then stopped. He then stopped listening to music and the hifi went into a store room for around 40 years, then without me knowing, he sold it. I asked him at one point if he still had it and he said”No HiFi is a neurosis and I’m glad I’m cured of it”.
My path has been different and I realised why, he spent his time listening to the kit, while I adopted the approach of listening to the music. I look at the system as a window into the sound, my first record player was a dirty window with curtains and blocked a lot of detail. Many systems did in those days, I can remember by brother with his ear to the tv speaker listening to bands on Ready, Steady GO, calling out the words of the song to my mum, who was taking them down in shorthand, so he could sing them with his band. The thing is, these days I can hear every word, because I have gone down the path of opening the windows, till now I can’t really hear a system , just music. As things have progressed, I liken it to opening the curtain, then first cleaning then opening and then finally removing the widow altogether.
I guess what this comes down to is that what I have concentrated on has been information retrieval, trying to get more and more of the music from the disc, file, tape or what have you. It’s been an interesting journey as technologies have waxed and wained. I have to admit, I have little time for Bose equipment, but something Amar Bose once said I find interesting. He claimed that we hit a peak of our acoustic knowledge in the late 50s/early 60s and then threw knowledge away relying on formulae to design audio, rather than our ears, which I agree with.
Just my thoughts on sound and music reproduction. I will add to the system in the future, if it gives me more access to music.
Still fascinated by the kit he kept upgrading and with the typical alpha male attitude, he still did not me touching his kit, unless of course I was fixing it for him. He did at this point give me the cash to buy an Ultra record player,which I converted to stereo with the help of a book from Babani Press and built a pair of speakers with a design book from Gilbert Briggs. OK so we have set the scene, father and son both upgrading kit, but here comes the difference, he was into the kit and ended up with a great system TD 124, SME 3009 Quad 303,33,FM2 Sandberg R2R, Richard Allan Pavane speakers. He got to what was probably the state of the art for the time and then stopped. He then stopped listening to music and the hifi went into a store room for around 40 years, then without me knowing, he sold it. I asked him at one point if he still had it and he said”No HiFi is a neurosis and I’m glad I’m cured of it”.
My path has been different and I realised why, he spent his time listening to the kit, while I adopted the approach of listening to the music. I look at the system as a window into the sound, my first record player was a dirty window with curtains and blocked a lot of detail. Many systems did in those days, I can remember by brother with his ear to the tv speaker listening to bands on Ready, Steady GO, calling out the words of the song to my mum, who was taking them down in shorthand, so he could sing them with his band. The thing is, these days I can hear every word, because I have gone down the path of opening the windows, till now I can’t really hear a system , just music. As things have progressed, I liken it to opening the curtain, then first cleaning then opening and then finally removing the widow altogether.
I guess what this comes down to is that what I have concentrated on has been information retrieval, trying to get more and more of the music from the disc, file, tape or what have you. It’s been an interesting journey as technologies have waxed and wained. I have to admit, I have little time for Bose equipment, but something Amar Bose once said I find interesting. He claimed that we hit a peak of our acoustic knowledge in the late 50s/early 60s and then threw knowledge away relying on formulae to design audio, rather than our ears, which I agree with.
Just my thoughts on sound and music reproduction. I will add to the system in the future, if it gives me more access to music.