Share your audio history
Posted by: John Schmidt on 14 August 2000
1974: I buy my first stereo at the age of 17, together with my younger brother: AR turntable with Shure M95 (I think) cartridge, Concord 250 receiver, a Sony cassette deck and Dynaco A25 speakers. Except for the cassette deck, all of these are still functioning in the possession of various family members.
1975: I'm leaving for university and have to buy another turntable since the AR "officially" belongs to my brother. I find an ad in the newspaper for a Thorens TD165 with Shure V15 cartridge. The seller has only the turntable, which he's getting rid of because he needs the money. He informs me that he bought the turntable first, because it's the most important part of the system. I purchase the turntable, and leave chuckling to myself that this oddball doesn't know, as everyone who's anyone knows, that the speakers are the most important part of the system -- after all, they are the transducers that turn electrical impulses into music. (Digression: It still amazes me that for so long I never considered the obvious parallel argument - the cartridge/turntable is also a transducer that turns vibrations into electrical signals).
1977: I have some cash burning a hole in my pocket thanks to lucrative summer employment and decide to upgrade the stereo. Speakers are still on my mind. I buy a pair of KEF Calindas and give the Dynacos to my parents. I still have enough money to buy a new receiver: Technics something or other with a cool 85 W per channel!
1981: I've graduated, gotten married, worked for two years and am on the verge of returning to graduate school. I've been getting annoyed with my KEF Calindas, because I've fried the T-27 tweeter twice. I blame the speakers, not even thinking that the amp might be to blame (Geesh!, am I slow on the uptake, or what?) As a last fling before returning to student habits, I buy yet another set of speakers, this time Boston Acoustics A200s. I'm seduced by the claim of a revolutionary design that reproduces the ideal of an infinite baffle - drivers mounted in a wall so edge diffraction is eliminated (these speakers stand about 1 metre high, ½ metre wide and only about 18 cm deep). Oh, yes, they sounded good too.
1982: After a year, we still haven't been able to sell the KEFs and decide to go to London Audio (the other London, in Canada) to see if we can trade them for something. First off, the salesman tries to convince us to keep the KEFs and sell the Bostons, but we're not having any of it. My wife turns out to a shrewder negotiator than me, and makes a deal to trade the speakers for a Grace F9E cartridge, servicing of the turntable, a Mission Isoplat, and a Music Mat turntable mat. While we're waiting for the turntable to be serviced, we wander into a listening room and get our first taste of Naim amplifiers. They're driving Quad ESLs and sound like nothing we've ever heard before!
1985: We succumb to the siren call of "perfect sound" and buy a CD player, a Mission DAD 7000. I find myself thinking a lot about that odd-looking, but great sounding Naim amplifier, especially since a friend has just bought a Nait. I discover that a small high-end audio shop has been trying to make a go of it in Sarnia, the small city where I'm living with my wife on weekends while finishing graduate school in London. As we walk into the place, I hear the saxophone lick from Dire Straits "Your Latest Trick" playing with almost scary realism. The system is LP-12, Krell amplification and Rogers LS-6s They carry Naim, and we arrange to borrow a Nait for a home demo. After about two seconds it's obvious that this unassuming, 14 W/channel black box utterly demolishes the 85 W/channel Technics receiver! At about $800, the Nait seems like a bargain, but things are just starting to get interesting. While I'm in London the following week, I phone London Audio to see if I can get a better deal. They have a second-hand 42/110 pre/power combo for about $1200. I call my wife that night, and we agree that this is an even better value. But it's not over yet. The next day my wife returns the borrowed Nait to the shop in Sarnia, and tells them that although we love it, we've found a better value with used separates. He says "I think I have something even better for you". One of the partners is selling his 32/SNAPS/250 system, price: $2500. It's more than three times as much money as we intended to spend, but after a home demo we both agree that this is as close as we've ever come to finding a truly once-in-lifetime opportunity. We buy it.
1986: The 32.5 upgrade and Hicap become available and we buy both. I defend my thesis, we move to suburban Montreal, I start a real job, our first child is born, we buy a house. Discretionary income becomes a theoretical concept discussed by financial planners, and stereo upgrades come to a screeching halt.
1999: Our Mission CD player expires early in the year. There's no music in the house for several months, since the turntable was banished to a closet many years ago (It was impossible to keep small children from running around the room and setting the tone arm a-dancing). At the end of the year we decide we can handle the purchase of a budget player, but approach it with trepidation - over the years we listened to budget players with giant-killer reputations and were not impressed. The first player we audition, the Marantz 63SE, confirms our worst suspicions - utterly boring and lifeless. However, we're pleasantly surprised by the Cambridge Audio CD4 and CD4 SE. We take them for a home demo and they still sound good. We take the CD4 SE.
2000: After much consideration of the commentary on the Naim forum, I decide to get the Hicap and 250 serviced and recapped. Sheeeeeeee-it!! Straight back in the system there is a stunning improvement, even without the recommended 100 hour break-in period. Rhythm is more convincing and precise, voices are clearer, instrumental timbres are richer. At under $500, this has to be the best value upgrade possible. If your Naim amps or power supplies are more than ten years old and haven't been serviced - run, don't walk, to the nearest authorized dealer and have this done. Strangely, the CD4 SE is more fun to listen to, even though the limitations of a budget source are even more obvious.
So that's it for now. "Source first" has finally sunk in, and I wait patiently for the day I afford a source (Naim, I hope) that can do justice to the amp.
John Schmidt
"95% of everything is crud" - Theodore Sturgeon
My introduction to 'real' HiFi was through a friend at school, who often played various pieces of music in morning assembly, preceded by a brief talk on the history / content of what was about to be played.
He used to bring with him an amplifier made by some company called Creek Audio, which, with it's lack of buttons, tone controls or flashing lights 'obviously' wasn't going to be as good as the Technics / Sony etc. equipment that I was familiar with. His arguments on how these features didn't matter and were even detrimental to the sound were lost on someone who preferred to believe the convincing arguments displayed in
the Japanese audio catalogues.
Having left school some years later and decided that my first earnings were to be spent on a decent HiFi I started to read some of the magazines, coming across an very different magazine, 'The Flat Response'. In the doctrine according to Chris Frankland, all Japanese audio was junk, and the only way to hear your records was to buy an LP12 and Naim amplification.
Bearing in mind I could buy any of the Japanese equipment stocked in the shop I worked at for trade price, it would take some convincing to spend my hard-earned pennies elsewhere. Nonetheless I decided I owed it to myself to find out what all the fuss was about, and proceeded to venture into enemy territory (much to the surprise / disgust of my work colleagues).
Walking into the den of alchemy that was my local BADA dealer, and after some discussion with the salesperson (by strange coincidence the aforementioned friend from my school days), it
was decided I should listen to a Rega Planar 3, a Nytech amplifier (remember them?) and speakers I don't remember (I'd already decided that I would buy some Mordaunt-Short speakers from my own place of work to allow more funds for front-ends).
To say I was impressed would be an understatement, my collection of heavy metal was played better than I had ever heard it. I decided to buy the Rega, a Linn Basik cartridge and a second hand Nytech amp. A pair of Morduant Short MS20's followed, bought from my place of work.
Whilst in the dem. I was asked 'If I wanted to listen to an LP12' to which I foolishly answered yes. A clever salesman ploy that you should all be wary of - even after months of new musical discoveries with my Rega, the memory of that LP12 lingered.
I soon wanted a tape deck to go with the system, and after various very cheap decks, decided to buy myself the classic Walkman WM-D6C as it was available through work for the trade price of £150, I still have this unit some 14 years later. It was a revelation, but it soon made me realise that tapes become useless as primary sources of music, since source upgrades make the old tapes less listenable. I only ever use tape for the car now.
That LP12 sound was still niggling me, and after an advert by my local dealer that interest free credit was available I took out my first loan, for the princely sum of £250 + approx £250 deposit for a black LP12 / Basik Arm and a Linn K9. A friend of mine bought the Rega, and still uses it to this day.
Now we were rocking and my musical collection, already expanded by Rega from my limited Heavy Metal collection to various pop / blues / jazz took an even greater leap. Regular lunchtime trips into town resulted in most of my disposable income going on records, usually from the collection of Rock albums reviewed by Malcolm Steward, in what was now HiFi Review magazine. I liked the fact that only worthwhile music was reviewed, and valuable copy space was not used slagging off poor albums (the competition was slagged off instead!).
The indoctrination was starting to work now, and the offer of a second hand Nait1 from aforementioned school friend was snapped up. WOW! how is it a tiny amplifier with some 14W/ch could produce such a sound? Another record colection rediscovery and I wanted more.
After more saving I decided my next LP12 service would add a Linn Ittok and a K18 cartridge, which resulted in my first dealer disappointment. Having paid the new price for the Ittok, I returned home to find dirty phono connectors on the arm cable. Further investigation revealed nut marks on the headshell where a Troika had been fitted. I was livid to think that I had been sold a used arm as I had saved hard to buy it, and was on the dealers doorstep the next morning. I was told the arm was from display and hadn't been used, but the trust had been lost. A new Ittok and cartridge was fitted (whilst I watched) and I resolved never to visit the dealer again.
The next LP12 service was taken to another dealer, but the usual improvement in sound that results from this wasn't forthcoming and so another dealer lost my business (I later found they had packed out an area between the top plate of the LP12 and the plinth with cardboard to stop the top plate rattling). Soon after this they went bust and I bought some cheap Hi-Fi at a liquidation auction for my partner Barbara to use in her flat.
Going back on my golden rule of never giving business to people I feel have ripped me off, I returned to my original dealer, as the alternatives required too much travel and inconvenience. I was informed about the Cirkus upgrade and Trampolinn but decided to go with Cirkus / new baseboard instead, as I had reservations about the Tramp.
Having gone as far as I could afford with the front end, I decided to buy some better speakers. After trying some Epos ES11's (which didn't work in my room) I settled on the more expensive, but much better Linn Kans - once I got these home I knew they weren't going back, even though it was more than I had budgeted for.
Having moved in with Barbara, and bought our own house, Hi-Fi upgrades seemed more distant, but whilst searching through Loot for used cars I came across a reasonably priced Nait3, and by now I was yearning primarily for more inputs to cope with the Linn, a tuner, cheap CD player, tape deck and TV audio.
A quick trip to Croydon with Barbara and we came home with a Nait3. The greater power, convenience and better sound was a worthwhile improvement for the modest cost.
The next LP12 service resulted in an enforced upgrade, as Linn decided they would no longer make stylii for the K18 and mine was worn out. This meant a downgrade to a K9 stylus or the tempting proposition of a moving coil, an option now available as the Nait3 has seperate phono boards.
Despite reservations about running costs of moving coils, and a desire for a reasonable CD replay system, I decided my vinyl was worth the investment in a Linn Klyde MC. When I returned home I wished I had gone MC years before and several of those all day sessions with albums littering the floor ensued.
The next stage was to investigate CD players, as vinyl was becoming harder to source, but I soon realised I needed to spend a lot of money to get close to my LP12. Linn's Mimik (I hated it) and Naim's CD3 (musical, but not good enough) were tried at home, but when a realised several thousand pounds needed spending I looked to cheaper interim solutions.
After a mad bit of pricing in my local Richer Sounds, I bought a Marantz CD63 KISig, which was listenable, even if it was boring and lacking musicality - at £250 there was nothing I could find better on the market. With funds still being saved for a good CD source, I've tried the unusual route of modifying the Marantz with a low-jitter master clock, resulting in a total trasformation of the player. I can now listen to it for extended periods, without the desire for a lump of black plastic. It will do the job until the funds build up - something that is all too slow now I have a 15 month old son, and the need for another new(er) car recently!
The arrival of baby son also resulted in the fitting of a Trampolinn, as the LP12 had to be moved from a floor stand to a wall shelf, as I didn't fancy the chances of my Klyde suffering an onslaught with the little ones toys. The target wall shelf resulted in a degradation that I wasn't happy about, but the Tramp has reduced its effect substantially.
There's still a long way to go, and I succumbed for a second time to the salesman's trick, 'We've got an SBL active system set up in the dem room (Linn LP12 Lingo / Ekos / Troika / Pre-amp? / 4x135's / SBL's) - would you like a listen'. The temptation was too much and I spent a fantastic afternoon listening to the best recorded music I've ever heard from a HiFi system.
I will get there, eventually 
.
Andy.
P.S. Does anyone else out there have young children who seem take an interest in music? My son has been exposed to music in the house from before birth, and often stops what he is doing, makes his way over to the optimum stereo listening position and gazes at the HiFi for the duration of a single track, before disappearing in the direction of this toys.
He's seems to be particularly enjoying the Prom season at the moment, as I've been using it to expand my very limited knowledge of classical music - he'll sit on my lap in the 'Hi-fi chair' and apparently listen quietly for some time during the pre-bed wind down!
Andrew L. Weekes
alweekes@audiophile.com