rmeyer52
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What gave you the bug?
JSBach
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What gave me the bug? Learning to play the pipe organ and the desperate attempt to duplicate its richness and majesty at home. Still not quite there yet but I'm getting close after decades of insane struggle.

rmeyer52
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Let me know what you wind up with..any system that could reproduce a pipe organ must be really good

JSBach
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Quote:
Let me know what you wind up with..any system that could reproduce a pipe organ must be really good


The closest I've heard in any system was a top MBL set-up. A little beyond my budget though and ugly as hell.
I get almost as good an approach with a V.P.I Synchronous Drive System: V.P.I. HRX turntable: JMW 12.4 arms x 2 ( cartridges pre-mounted) resting on heavy slate on top of Soundesign damped steel rack standing on a stone floor: Garrot

dbowker
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I think I was born with it or something! We had nuthin' in my parents house for music when I was growing up until I started asking for stuff (and then saving and scraping for upgrades).

I started trying to tweak better performance out of my first stereo system, an all-in-one receiver/dual tape/turntable system from Sears. This was about age 13. Before that I had a first gen portable with headphones from Panasonic that actually sounded pretty good- way better than the Sony Walkman of the time.

It's never stopped from there, though I haven't really changed much in my listening room in the last year or so. I love what I have and it's nice to spend that money on music itself instead of hardware!

commsysman
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When I was in high school (1958), my grandmother gave me a TV/AM/FM phonograph console; it had a separate tuner, TV chassis, record changer, and amplifier chassis in one big (mono, of course) cabinet.

The amplifier used two 6V6 output tubes and put out about 20 watts. I started going to the Long Beach, CA, public library and checking out records, and then a discount store opened and I started buying those "Living Stereo" and other LPs (and installed a Shure stereo LP cartridge, wired for mono).

Then I tore out the speaker panel, and made a new one out of 3/4" plywood so I could install a University "Wolverine" 12-inch coaxial speaker; hot stuff!!

Scott Radio Supply in Long Beach had a second-floor loft where they displayed the latest hi-fi gear from Eico, Harmon-Kardon, Fisher, Dynakit, and Marantz and H.H, Scott. I went there almost every week and drooled, until finally I could afford an Eico kit ultralinear amplifier with huge power and output transformers and 6L6 output tubes.

And then in a the 1960s...A Harmon-Kardon stereo amplifier and tuner and University S80 speakers, and a Roberts reel-to-reel tape deck! I still have a 1968 Allied Electronics catalog that shows all of the above brands of components, plus reel-to-reel tape decks (over 40 of them) from Ampex, Wollensak, Sony, Roberts, Crown, Concord, and Aiwa.

linden518
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When I was a kid in Korea, my dad bought this huge box set of Deutsches Gramophone LPs, one of those deals that covered all the periods and composers in a listener-friendly repertoire set? Came in impressive boxes and had booklets that were perfect for a kid diving into the music for the first time. Really worshipped the music I heard and the info that I read... I don't even remember what his TT was, it wasn't anything special. But he sat me on his lap and we listened to the classics every night: the beginning of my Sentimental Education.

commsysman
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I have lots of pipe organ recordings and love to play them; especially E. Power Biggs (a lot of his stuff has never come out on CD, but I have many old LPs).

Ever hear "Cincinnati Fats" by Dick Hyman? (Fats Waller played on a restored theater organ). Good stuff.

JoeE SP9
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I heard Melody and Percussion for Two Pianos by Ronnie Aldrich. It is an old London FFRR recording. I sat on the floor centered on my parents Sears Silvertone console stereo. It sounded more like a real piano than any recorded music I'd ever heard. I was instantly hooked. This was sometime around 1963/64. I bought my first piece of gear in 1967 while in the service. It was a Fisher KX-90 kit amplifier. Since then it has been a very interesting journey. I'm now listening to tube driven stats. I have a copy of that old London recording. I still play it once in a while. Melody And Percussion For Two Pianos London SP44007

That original exposure had a lot to do with my sound preferences. I settled on stats because they do pianos better than anything else I've had a opportunity to listen to. I realize this is a completely subjective opinion. My ears are the ones I must satisfy.

JSBach
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Quote:
I have lots of pipe organ recordings and love to play them; especially E. Power Biggs (a lot of his stuff has never come out on CD, but I have many old LPs).
Quote:

Yes, my aim is to have the complete E Power Biggs LP collection.


Quote:
Ever hear "Cincinnati Fats" by Dick Hyman? (Fats Waller played on a restored theater organ). Good stuff.

No, and much as I enjoy Fats Waller I HATE theartre organs . You'll find most like me who have learnt on pipe organs also hate the things. As a child ( I started learning to play the pipe organ at 6) I was known to run screaming out of the theatre when the Whurlitzer came up through the stage floor. Snobbish I know, but that's me.

ncdrawl
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well, once, Oberdorfer overload/drunken haze in the red light district of Frankfurt a case of mistaken gender.

and once in Rotterdam, thought I had something but turned out to be jock itch. Pretty gal,she was, but it all worked out. never saw her again after the weekend tryst

the hearing bug?

hearing bluegrass all around my house(all my people play instruments) and my dad's old records... first time I saw a full choral/symphony piece I knew I had to sing..been chasing the sound ever since, on both sides of the baton.

JSBach
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well, once, Oberdorfer overload/drunken haze in the red light district of Frankfurt a case of mistaken gender.


Well then NC, I hope that taught you not to appear in public in drag!

ncdrawl
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God Almighty, id be an ugly woman. Been there, done that. Probably the ugliest male in drag the world has ever seen.



Quote:

Quote:
well, once, Oberdorfer overload/drunken haze in the red light district of Frankfurt a case of mistaken gender.


Well then NC, I hope that taught you not to appear in public in drag!

BillB
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Quote:

Quote:


The closest I've heard in any system was a top MBL set-up. A little beyond my budget though and ugly as hell.
I get almost as good an approach with a V.P.I Synchronous Drive System: V.P.I. HRX turntable: JMW 12.4 arms x 2 ( cartridges pre-mounted) resting on heavy slate on top of Soundesign damped steel rack standing on a stone floor: Garrot

BillB
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Hearing a church stereo - in the chapel, a pair of KLH speakers. Just modest ones, don't know the model. They made musicians sound close to "life-size". Way better than our GE home stereo. A few years later I built Heathkit amps, listened thru Koss headphones for a year or two until I could save up for Advent speakers.

JSBach
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Quote:


Quote:


YuMMMM! I'll take you as you are without the frock NC...oh I forgot, you're a Baptist.

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Sort of a confluence of things.

1) The home Magnavox would get quite congested with any 'realistic' volume level. I'm sure most of us are familiar with the sound of vintage furniture sourced sound consoles trying to get dynamics right without turning it into hash.

So, a search for clean dynamics.

2) LP's sounded better than forty fives. So, a hierarchy of fidelity became evident.

3) A buddy whose dad had put a Dual table and modded electonics in his family's console.

4) Strolling into an audiophile shop on Sierra Street while my mom shopped next door.

5) An early girlfriend whose dad had a McIntosh and B&W set-up in his basement, and she liked to play tunes while...you know.

6) Taking some AR's of the era to Boy Scout Camp and setting up a rig on the dock for night canoing.

It all added up to some inherent desires that were followed by happenstance exposures to better Fi...until there became an admixture of tunes, gear, and memes getting implanted into my beanie brian.

I think I can re-experience the actual emotions of events that took place in musical contexts through life, too, so it makes sense to me to honor them by preserving them in the highest fidelity in either the past or the present.

ncdrawl
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Quote:
Sort of a confluence of things.

1) The home Magnavox would get quite congested with any 'realistic' volume level. I'm sure most of us are familiar with the sound of vintage furniture sourced sound consoles trying to get dynamics right without turning it into hash.

So, a search for clean dynamics.

2) LP's sounded better than forty fives. So, a hierarchy of fidelity became evident.

3) A buddy whose dad had put a Dual table and modded electonics in his family's console.

4) Strolling into an audiophile shop on Sierra Street while my mom shopped next door.

5) An early girlfriend whose dad had a McIntosh and B&W set-up in his basement, and she liked to play tunes while...you know.

6) Taking some AR's of the era to Boy Scout Camp and setting up a rig on the dock for night canoing.

It all added up to some inherent desires that were followed by happenstance exposures to better Fi...until there became an admixture of tunes, gear, and memes getting implanted into my beanie brian.

I think I can re-experience the actual emotions of events that took place in musical contexts through life, too, so it makes sense to me to honor them by preserving them in the highest fidelity in either the past or the present.

My grandaddy still has his old Stereo Console(Zenith Tube something or other from the 40s) and although he has had to take it in for tune-ups, he listens to it daily, refuses to get anything else. Those things have a certain sound, for sure.

What are ARs? Sorry, im just a youngun

absolutepitch
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Not to speak for Buddha, but I think the ARs he refers to are Acoustic Research speakers. AR made acoustic suspension designs, invented by Edgar Villchur (spelling?).

As for the bug, I listened to my dad's 78's collection when I was a kid. I sounded fine, like the AM radio.

Then we got a Sears monophonic "hi-fi" with 4-speed record changer and a two-tube amp and small speakers, all in an approximately 2'x3' console with a tilt-up lid. I listened to that for many years. Seemed a bit better than radio or 78's

Then, I went to my parents friend's house, and there was a Fisher receiver driving KLH 17's. That clearly sounded better. I got really curious, but had no way to investigate on my own.

After I got to college, I started to look at audio. Seems like a lot of people started with a Garrad or Dual turntable and some sort of received with JBLs or house-brand speakers. I started with a Dual TT, Kenwood receiver and later went the Dynaco kit route (student days with little money), and built my own speakers.

Buddha
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Yuppers, those AR's!

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1985 or 86 my older brother came home from college for the summer with an Adcom GFP-1A preamp and GFA-2 power amp set up with Large Advent speakers. He bought a CD player right after he got home. His first two CD? The Best of Queen (which was an import from England) and The Best of Missing Person. I remember listening to all his obscure college rock that summer while riding around in his Pontiac Fiero with the windows down, one of his favorites was a little band called R.E.M. Whatever happened to them? I was only 9 but that's when I became an audiophile. As soon as he went back to school I began begging my parent to, "get a stereo like Jimmy's." They never did of course. Years later my brother gave me the Adcom as my first amp when I went away to school. It's still in the closet.

absolutepitch
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The AR3's were quite a sensation when first introduced, I'd heard. I have heard them some years later at some store that I can't remember where. They did sound pretty smooth and had deep bass.

JSBach
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Quote:

Quote:

Quote:


The closest I've heard in any system was a top MBL set-up. A little beyond my budget though and ugly as hell.
I get almost as good an approach with a V.P.I Synchronous Drive System: V.P.I. HRX turntable: JMW 12.4 arms x 2 ( cartridges pre-mounted) resting on heavy slate on top of Soundesign damped steel rack standing on a stone floor: Garrot

clarets2
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My Dad's rig that inspired me was a Pioneer PL12D TT, Pioneer receiver and KEF Cadenzas. I used it more than he did until I came home with a hot off the Press "New Boots and Panties" by Ian Dury, cued it up, dropped the needle, took my seat, only to have my Gran walk in to hear "Arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks" at about 105db.

The need to spend my savings on my own gear was born.

First purchase was a Rotel receiver with all my savings. Built a couple of speakers with my Grandad and that was it for 6 months. Goldring TT and Wharfedale bookshelves followed.

My next splurge took me to a NAD 3020, Dual CS505 TT and Linn Index speakers. Linn has won more than it's fair share since then....

JSBach
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Quote:
.........."New Boots and Panties" by Ian Dury, cued it up, dropped the needle, took my seat, only to have my Gran walk in to hear "Arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks" at about 105db.


105db on KEF Cadenzas would have been a painful experience for your Gran even if the lyrics had been from the Methodist hymn book.

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105db on KEF Cadenzas would have been a painful experience for your Gran even if the lyrics had been from the Methodist hymn book.

Nah, most Grannies are deaf. 105db is just about right Had the volume been below 90 db she might not have even noticed.

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