Let’s go with the Readers Digest version. I was smitten with the audio affliction thanks to my father who never bought an audio system because none of them sounded like real music. But every Sunday like clockwork, we would listen to the live classical music station broadcast from Lincoln Center in NYC.
Fast forward to college where the audio (high-end audio was yet to come) affliction became a chronic disease thanks to one friend who worked in Tech Hi Fi (and used to bring the equipment back to his dorm room to listen to) and another friend who made money on the side selling used audio gear. My main claim to audio fame in college was my nonstop playing of David Bowie, Mott the Hoople and Lou Reed on my liitle KLH changer! (though the first three LPs ever bought in HS were Led Zepellin 2, Jethro Tull Benefit and Black Sabbath Masters of Reality.)
It was all downhill after that. After graduation from College in 1976, was wandering around Greenwich Village and came across the now long gone (gone the way of most of the audio and record stores sadly in NYC) high-end audio store Audio Exchange. This was my first real introduction to high-end audio. In this store was sound coming out of speakers like I had never heard before. And in retrospect, that was a pretty darn good system though don’t remember the specific gear: Tube electronics were from ARC, turntable was from Linn and speakers were Quads estats. And sitting on the shelf, and soon to accompany me home, was a copy of Issue 18 of the then fledgling magazine, TAS. I must admit my head was swimming with names of audio equipment that had never heard of before.
But it was not really until 1980 that I owned my first –and how glorious it sounded at the time – high end audio system comprised of Dahlquist DQ10s (and had auditioned quite a few speakers and came down to the Dollies and the Vandy 2As), modded Hafler DH200 amp and 101 and the Rega/JVC 7045 arm/Grace F9E cartridge hooked together with MC speaker cables and some MF1 Super Litz IC cables.
A quick reality check is in order here. The Super Litz MF1 cost the then unheard of price of $40/meter. I thought I needed my head examined by I forked over the cash (Yes, they did make a difference!). Not quite sure what that would buy one today
Those ss pieces were soon to be replaced after a friend one day brought over his AA POOGED Dynaco PAS-3 preamplifier complete with its own separate outboard power supply. The reaction after hearing my first piece of tube gear was immediate: where did all that music come from? The next day, went down to Stereo Exchange, sold the 101 and bought a used cj PV5, soon to be joined by a cj MV75A-1. And I’ve never looked back since!
In the intervening years, many piece of gear and speakers have passed through the system and I’ll unabashedly admit a predilection to tube gear, analog, dipoles or estats and analog, both tape and black vinyl variety. Currently, I have about 8-9000 LPs comprising a wide variety of musical genres including rock, jazz, classical, and world music. I eventually also hope to put together a library of about 70-100 15 ips/2 track master/TP/other dubs – and am well on the way!
In the audio world, I’ve belonged to several different clubs including the New Jersey Audio Society and the Westchester Audio Society. I’ve put together two magazines, Issue 1 of The Audiophile Voice and Ultimate Audio and wrote for a handful of others including TAS, Sounds Like…, Audio Adventure/Play, Inner Ear Report and one of two others (and I’ve also written some training and nutrition articles for the likes of Mens Fitness and Musclemag in addition to about 30 scientific publications in the area of cancer research, specifically the use of radiation and/or drugs and their mechanisms of action, for Rx).
In my down time, you can probably find me in the gym training my clients or training for my masters level Olympic Weightlifting events. This year hope to set PRs of 65 K in the snatch and 100 K in the Clean and Jerk.
That’s it in a nutshell!
Fast forward to college where the audio (high-end audio was yet to come) affliction became a chronic disease thanks to one friend who worked in Tech Hi Fi (and used to bring the equipment back to his dorm room to listen to) and another friend who made money on the side selling used audio gear. My main claim to audio fame in college was my nonstop playing of David Bowie, Mott the Hoople and Lou Reed on my liitle KLH changer! (though the first three LPs ever bought in HS were Led Zepellin 2, Jethro Tull Benefit and Black Sabbath Masters of Reality.)
It was all downhill after that. After graduation from College in 1976, was wandering around Greenwich Village and came across the now long gone (gone the way of most of the audio and record stores sadly in NYC) high-end audio store Audio Exchange. This was my first real introduction to high-end audio. In this store was sound coming out of speakers like I had never heard before. And in retrospect, that was a pretty darn good system though don’t remember the specific gear: Tube electronics were from ARC, turntable was from Linn and speakers were Quads estats. And sitting on the shelf, and soon to accompany me home, was a copy of Issue 18 of the then fledgling magazine, TAS. I must admit my head was swimming with names of audio equipment that had never heard of before.
But it was not really until 1980 that I owned my first –and how glorious it sounded at the time – high end audio system comprised of Dahlquist DQ10s (and had auditioned quite a few speakers and came down to the Dollies and the Vandy 2As), modded Hafler DH200 amp and 101 and the Rega/JVC 7045 arm/Grace F9E cartridge hooked together with MC speaker cables and some MF1 Super Litz IC cables.
A quick reality check is in order here. The Super Litz MF1 cost the then unheard of price of $40/meter. I thought I needed my head examined by I forked over the cash (Yes, they did make a difference!). Not quite sure what that would buy one today
Those ss pieces were soon to be replaced after a friend one day brought over his AA POOGED Dynaco PAS-3 preamplifier complete with its own separate outboard power supply. The reaction after hearing my first piece of tube gear was immediate: where did all that music come from? The next day, went down to Stereo Exchange, sold the 101 and bought a used cj PV5, soon to be joined by a cj MV75A-1. And I’ve never looked back since!
In the intervening years, many piece of gear and speakers have passed through the system and I’ll unabashedly admit a predilection to tube gear, analog, dipoles or estats and analog, both tape and black vinyl variety. Currently, I have about 8-9000 LPs comprising a wide variety of musical genres including rock, jazz, classical, and world music. I eventually also hope to put together a library of about 70-100 15 ips/2 track master/TP/other dubs – and am well on the way!
In the audio world, I’ve belonged to several different clubs including the New Jersey Audio Society and the Westchester Audio Society. I’ve put together two magazines, Issue 1 of The Audiophile Voice and Ultimate Audio and wrote for a handful of others including TAS, Sounds Like…, Audio Adventure/Play, Inner Ear Report and one of two others (and I’ve also written some training and nutrition articles for the likes of Mens Fitness and Musclemag in addition to about 30 scientific publications in the area of cancer research, specifically the use of radiation and/or drugs and their mechanisms of action, for Rx).
In my down time, you can probably find me in the gym training my clients or training for my masters level Olympic Weightlifting events. This year hope to set PRs of 65 K in the snatch and 100 K in the Clean and Jerk.
That’s it in a nutshell!