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Post by liffy99 on Dec 5, 2019 14:32:24 GMT
EPISODE 1 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . . . well about 1970 methinks, my source of musical nirvana consisted of Dad’s radiogram. Don’t ask me what it was, apart from big, heavy and covered in walnut veneer. But then again it did play 78s ! Sadly my very first LP purchase around this time was Great Western Movie Themes on Music for Pleasure, bought at Woollies for an undisclosed pre-decimal sum. I had a lot of growing up to do. So, whilst my younger sister was starting to explore the world of pop music - yuk, what were all those awful lyrics bleating on about - lurv as far as I could tell - I started to delve into the repertoire of classical composition. And after many paper rounds (well actually as a bike-borne grocery delivery executive) splurged on my first piece of electronica . . . a Grundig TK149 reel to reel tape recorder. The microphone of which I dutifully stuck in front of the radiogram to tape records borrowed from my local library (that’s a building holding lots of books that people could take away just in case you were wondering).
Life was good for a few months but, eventually, common sense, along with a better understanding of blackmail, got the better of me and I finally persuaded the ol’ man to join the 20th century. Something a bit more modern was to come . . . . 1973, Laskys in Tottenham Court Road - the undoing of many an impoverished young lad. With nose pressed against window for several weeks it was time to drag the folks along. Listening test ? Don’t be silly - it was case of point at something and get a box. So, after a little drawing in of the purse strings by Mum, we walked away with; A pair of Leak Sandwich 250 loudspeakers, A Leak Delta 30 amplifier (with transistors, not valves - wow) and. A Lenco GL75 with the ubiquitous Goldring G800 cartridge. Do you ever get the feeling that there are some things you should never have let go ? Oh my, life had changed for ever. Suddenly I sort of understood stereo, and soundstage and depth, and frequency response as well as tracing distortion, badly maintained records, having too many wires and furniture being in the way. But I was a happy chappy - conducting some of the world greatest orchestras in the dim lighting of the living room. In many ways I think this may have been the time when HiFi-based music was at its most enjoyable. Such was the leap in quality from the venerable radiogram I was in clover for the next couple of years.
And then the upgrading bug started to bite . . . . the next gripping instalment next week - hold on to your bodices . . . .
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Post by MartinT on Dec 5, 2019 14:41:00 GMT
Great blog post! That GL75 was a good deck at the time, a friend of mine had one when I was around 16 and it gave us some memorable musical experiences. Leak Sandwich speakers, too.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time in Laskys and Lindair listening to dream systems in those days.
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Post by John on Dec 5, 2019 15:24:13 GMT
Had GL75 that I was hoping to restore with a slate plinth I asked London Sound to do it up for me a year later I took it back without them doing any work to it. Never got it running but sold it to Vic of TransFi
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 5, 2019 15:33:19 GMT
EPISODE 2 Why oh why did we scrap the Delta 30 ? That’s the trouble with choosing on specs. With a massive 30W/channel, the Goodmans 90 receiver (tuner/amplifier in those days) was twice as powerful as the Leak, so it must be a step up, right ? Plus it also had radio and lots more, very plasticky, buttons to play with. Sadly it sounded worse but it came with one huge saving grace . . . the ability to tune into the revered John Peel 10pm radio show. Yes, my sister had earlier weened me away from classical music just when prog rock really started to get going, as well as the early days of punk. Armed with a pair of Wharfedale Isodynamic headphones, weekday nights were a curse for my long-suffering parents. Sitting on the kitchen stool, air-drumming to my favourite tracks, I never realised just what a racket I was making. Yarooo ! Sadly, I’m convinced I buggered my hearing in these early years and have been much more wary pf ‘phones ever since. My right ear has always been noticeable poorer since.
During a clandestine party one night (folks were out but were not happy when they came back) I had driven things too far and one of the speakers capitulated, sporting a blown tweeter. Good job I was about to disappear off to Uni - Sussex - one of the dens of left wing iniquity along with other ‘red bricks’ of the time. Mind you, Brighton was a hoot. Like any self respecting student, tooled up with the biggest cheque seen in his life (remember grants - eat your hearts out you whippersnappers), a large proportion was soon spent at Jeffries HiFi store. Not that what was purchased would win many awards. But hey, in a 3m square room with thin walls, what did people expect. So, I will have to own up to; A pair of Wharfedale Dentons (had to be small enough to fit in the windowsill),
A Goldring G102 turntable - I can’t remember the cartridge - it may well have had a sharpened pin for the sounds it produced, and
A Ferrograph F307 amplification unit. Mk 2 mind. As you might imagine, this all sounded pretty, well, dreadful. The speakers, and the windows behind them, were clearly unhappy, the deck was little more than a platter to spin things around on (lit candles looked pretty cool), and the amp was so soft and woolly what little bass there was just emerged in a comforting marshmallow splurge. The Eagles sounded OK on it though. And then I met ‘handsome Dick’ - who wasn’t, but did own some much nicer gear - an Audio Research belt drive turntable, Quad 11 valve amps and Kef 104ab loudspeakers. In a flat twice the size of my room. I felt so, so ashamed . . . .
In the next gripping episode - will Hotel California escape unscathed, will the Dentons give out before the windows . . . all will be revealed
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2019 16:07:28 GMT
Great name for a blog thread and so far an interesting journey.
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Post by petea on Dec 5, 2019 17:26:09 GMT
Another riveting episode - it feels like Friday night!
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Post by jandl100 on Dec 5, 2019 17:48:29 GMT
Acoustic Research rather than Audio Research turntable, I suspect. An EB101, I'll wager. Good blog.
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Post by ChrisB on Dec 6, 2019 0:54:21 GMT
Acoustic Research rather than Audio Research turntable, I suspect. An EB101, I'll wager. Good blog. I would agree with you on the first count Jerry but not the second. I think we're talking about a time a good bit before the EB101.
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 6, 2019 14:05:06 GMT
Yep -AR of the famous range of loudspeakers. Sorry. Dick also had their 60w stereo amp (but preferred the Quads). Can’t remember the turntable model but I think it was viewed as the cheaper alternative to the Linn back in the mid seventies.
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Post by jandl100 on Dec 7, 2019 5:40:13 GMT
A strange and rather sad title for the thread. I've enjoyed my own ongoing hifi journey with few, if any, significant regrets.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2019 19:35:25 GMT
Interesting and informative journey through your audio adventures Iffy
I must admit, I do not go through these stages in my early life, my first system was a Wadia/Krell/Wilson system in 1996, first big mistake remove Krell and Wilson keep Wadia and music states to imitate life.
Nice insight into your audio through life.
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Post by MartinT on Dec 8, 2019 3:10:32 GMT
my first system was a Wadia/Krell/Wilson system in 1996 Boggle!
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Post by jandl100 on Dec 8, 2019 7:09:41 GMT
my first system was a Wadia/Krell/Wilson system in 1996 Boggle! So you were in your 30s when interest in hifi started, Tony? Interesting! I bet most here started in their teens. Still, that's a subject for a different thread.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2019 7:35:56 GMT
Hi Jerry
No up until that point I had built my own equipment, a friend introduced to what he called proper sound lol around that time Have played in a band since 82 so music has always been at heart of my interest plenty of other items of interest which in those times were more prevalent
In those days life was quite polar opposite (different company, different Avenue of work and other lifetime ago) we had over 200 employees on the books
Different days, different mentality
Back to the OP for the next installment
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 10, 2019 10:46:14 GMT
EPISODE 3
By this time my interest in a geography degree was waning fast, much like my bank balance. It was time to work for a living so I made what was one of several HUGE mistakes in my lifetime. Dropping out of Uni. At the time I felt some relief and was soon able to stand the occasional round for my impoverished, studying friends courtesy of my very first real job - a computer operator working shifts for Unilever in Burgess Hill. Armed with a regular pay check I was back on the upgrade trail and, in short order, ditched everything to acquire some new spiffy toys - one of the first Rega Planar 2s with a Stanton 681EE installed in its Acos derived arm, a Cambridge P110 amp (looked very low and sleek all in black) and a brace of Monitor Audio MA4s. But the novelty of a regular wage packet was soon overshadowed by the monotony of the job - the only upside of working shifts was the ability to get back to Brighton in the daytime and sleep on the beach. Well, at least for a while until the pebbles dug in.
The Rega was a huge step forward - so basic, simple, but effective. No it didn't quite have the performance of Handsome Dick's AR suspended deck, but it wasn't that far off to my ears. The Cambridge was quite nice - seemed to cope without murmur and drove the speakers more than adequately (and later ones). I think the only thing I didn't like about is was the poor quality of the rotary controls. A case of style over substance perhaps. Looking back, the MA4s were clearly the best speakers I had owned yet, even though now I would find them rather slow and woolly, with poorly extended upper registers and rather loose bass. Musical tastes were changing too - prog rock still featured strongly and I managed to see both the Floyd at Empire Hall, Wembley and Yes at the QPR stadium (and vividly remember John Bonham's solo at a Wembley Zep gig playing with his bare hands - wow). On a smaller scale Brighton had plenty to offer and Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Wreckless Eric and the rest of the crew that shared the Stiff record label became firm favourites (even though a less than sober 'Wreckless' did manage to urinate on my shoes in the gents - ah well, the heady days of punk I guess).
Over the next few months though, being less involved in the whole student thing, I started to drift away - back to London in fact (should have stayed in Brighton - damn) and took my prize possessions with me.
In the next gripping instalment - more space, different technology and a discovery of 'modern jazz' . . . and John Martyn
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Post by MartinT on Dec 10, 2019 11:04:00 GMT
Those MA4s look strangely 'over-cabbed' for the size of the drivers.
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 10, 2019 13:44:51 GMT
Nor were they the last word in inertness 😏
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 11, 2019 17:37:02 GMT
EPISODE 4
For over a year, no further changes were made as moving between flat shares didn’t really allow the space or possibility to do much at all. Jobs came and went until a small (very small) inheritance from Gran allowed me to put a tentative foot on the property ladder - albeit a shared tenancy arrangement with a housing association. So a move to my palace - a one bed flat in Ealing Broadway was easily accomplished and soon thereafter my thoughts again began to stray to more music. Looking back it seems funny now that, here I was, in the midst of Thatcher’s most successful years, that it didn’t bother me - an arch socialist (mostly of the armchair variety). As they say, if only I knew then what I know now.
The good thing about my Victorian conversion was that I did have a nice big lounge, with a high ceiling. Furniture at the time was minimal and I probably enjoyed the most audio elbow room I have ever had (oh, for a dedicated room now . . . ). Anyway, onwards with the moosic (and some dalliance with new wave and 80s electro-pop) and voila; Quad 57s with a Quantum 102/202 pre-power combo. The deck remained in service. The Quads were a minor revelation - so much more clarity, a real talking point for visitors and I was happy, even if I had to forgo a skiing trip to afford them. I had them on Quadropod stands.
Sure, they didn't have much in the way of bass, although the MA4s did not go much lower, but I was bowled over listening to Sting's The Blue Turtles' and modern jazz from John Abercrombie and pals.
After a couple of years though, the Quantum power amp decided to let go and it was not really worth getting it repaired. As an interim I picked up a little Onix amp on a jaunt back to Brighton. Surprisingly this sounded even better than the Quantum. Perhaps it was just better synergy with the notoriously odd load of the 57s but hey, it was plenty good enough and nicely built.
I stayed in Ealing for several years (wish I had kept the flat - would probably have earned me more than working for many years !) and in the late eighties upped sticks and followed a job move to Newbury, and back to renting. At least it was a whole house this time.
And thus started a long lasting love affair with panel dipoles . . .
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2019 17:46:18 GMT
Those OA21s are nice little amps, have just refurbish one for a customer, musical and deliver long term listening appreciation as well.
Much better than any Naim item from that class
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Post by petea on Dec 11, 2019 19:53:15 GMT
Thanks, I'm enjoying this. I still have a number of Onix amps and like them very much.
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