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Sold a testicle.
It could be a second mortgage or going without real food for weeks. What is the most extreme thing you've done in service to your audiophile habit?
The most extreme thing (so far) has been the replacement of my beloved KEF 105 Series 2 speakers by a pair of Wilson Audio Grand Slamm X-2 speakers. But the crowning glory came a week later when a pair of Transparent Audio Reference 2239 XL speaker cables arrived, connecting to a pair of Krell 650M monoblock amplifers. The result is like heaven suddenly opening in front of you. A forever unforgettable experience that I still enjoy today.
Have just spent three hours organizing and rerouting all the cables hanging out the back of my computer and associated stereo, using hooks and string under my desk so that no cables are touching at all—closest gap is 25mm. I think it sounds cleaner and more organic, and that's all that matters, isn't it ?
We still get wide audio bandwidth transmissions in Australia, using the NRSCA curve, and you need a wide-band audio AM receiver to benefit from it. The two stations I bother with are in mono only, but it is still worth it. I strung a 60' long wire antenna to drive my rebuilt valve receiver harder. I added an antenna tuner—a tapped coil over a ferrite rod and a vane capacitor, so the random length wire can become resonant at 666kHz or at 846kHz. The antenna runs from my house to a a neighbor's house. From my TV and FM antenna mast through a second mast on my block and then to their chimney. The ropes are UV resistant—we used eggshell insulators and a lightning arrestor in the twin ribbon down-lead. One side is active, the other is the shield, and the output from the arrestor is earthed to rods in the earth.
Waited overnight to be one of the first in line at a record store going-out-of-business sale while in college, back in 1974, I think it was. Picked up British import copies of many pre-DSOTM Pink Floyd albums at ridiculously low prices, among other things.
Been retired now for about five years, and still have a paper route so that I have the extra dollars to splurge on way-out audio gear. My latest project is to run all my gear on battery-power. I am collecting as many as 23 12V lead batteries to have enough voltage for my single-ended 45 tube amp. Even the bias voltages is done with batteries. You might think this way out, but eliminating all AC voltage and rectification pulses from the amp works.
My twin sons were born in 1994, just when the RCA Living Stereo reissues were released. Despite the impact of double formula and diapers on the budget, I bought as many of the Doggies that I could, including almost all of the titles on the TAS Superlist. And when my older son, three at the time, trashed my cartridge under the watchful eyes of the babysitter, I took a deep breath, and emptied the piggy bank on a Lyra Lydian. The first of the batch that I listened to was Symphony Fantastique (LSC-1900). The sound was ravishing. I had never hear massed strings reproduced like that, and have never looked back since then.