Just returned from a 3K mile journey through 12 states in the SE USA. Had a lot of time in the car alone to think about my audio journey and why I ended up where I have.
As with many people I've spoken to, our fathers were what passed for audiophiles back in the 50s and 60s. My memories were of music at supper and being able to leave the table to flip the record. Sitting in front of the huge speakers listening to the Railroad Sounds and the Power and Majesty in wonder. Peter and the Wolf and Puff the Magic Dragon were also favorites as well as much of his Classical library that blossomed to over 6K records. It was almost beside the point that I found out later that dad had driven up to Hope, AK, and spoken with Paul Klipsch about designing some speakers and having them made by a company nearby. He also had a full suite of McIntosh electronics and an LP-12 that I still have today.
I re-entered the picture when I came up to NY for grad school, and he decided to reactivate his system after a pause while he and my mom put three kids through college. At the time(1989) I was unaware of how lucky I was to have chosen NYC as a place to end up, but I began exploring options for a new system. First, we upgraded the LP-12 with at Ears Nova, then we sold the Mac gear and bought an Ayre amp and preamp from Mike Hobson at his place on Duane St. Then we returned to Ear Nova for a demo pair of Shahinian Diapason speakers. Along the way, I became a flat earther and had a Nait 1/LP-12/ Kan system, eventually ending up with active LK-100s driving Keilidhs. Besides the addition of an Ayre SACD player, that's the way his system remained for over two decades. Mine on the other hand, saw a complete pivot.
A burst pipe in my Brooklyn apartment decided to spray my entire system with rainwater, and live electronics and water just don't mix! Insurance paid me pennies, and I went on the hunt for a new system. Too many stories from that search to recount in this post but I will get to them eventually. Suffice it to say that I ended up meeting a lot of people that I call friends to this day. That search brought an itch to the front that had been in the back of my head since I walked into Fi as a poor grad student. "Tubes were unreliable devices that needed to be replaced and tweaked too much to enjoy the music." Pretty sure I am paraphrasing my thoughts at the time. While I may have been correct, they sounded damned good but were out of reach for a poor grad student who had just borrowed $$$ from his dad to buy a system.
Scratching that itch led me down a path that I am still wandering today and led me to OMA and Fleetwood Sound. Hopefully, I will have pictures of my set-up, which is again in transition because of my recent acquisition of the DeVille speakers. Hopefully, I can engage the community here to discuss your journey and where you want to go in the future. Just as my Devilles are still breaking in, this forum is hopefully hatching some interesting discussion about the people and owners of Fleetwood and OMA equipment.
Beau
As with many people I've spoken to, our fathers were what passed for audiophiles back in the 50s and 60s. My memories were of music at supper and being able to leave the table to flip the record. Sitting in front of the huge speakers listening to the Railroad Sounds and the Power and Majesty in wonder. Peter and the Wolf and Puff the Magic Dragon were also favorites as well as much of his Classical library that blossomed to over 6K records. It was almost beside the point that I found out later that dad had driven up to Hope, AK, and spoken with Paul Klipsch about designing some speakers and having them made by a company nearby. He also had a full suite of McIntosh electronics and an LP-12 that I still have today.
I re-entered the picture when I came up to NY for grad school, and he decided to reactivate his system after a pause while he and my mom put three kids through college. At the time(1989) I was unaware of how lucky I was to have chosen NYC as a place to end up, but I began exploring options for a new system. First, we upgraded the LP-12 with at Ears Nova, then we sold the Mac gear and bought an Ayre amp and preamp from Mike Hobson at his place on Duane St. Then we returned to Ear Nova for a demo pair of Shahinian Diapason speakers. Along the way, I became a flat earther and had a Nait 1/LP-12/ Kan system, eventually ending up with active LK-100s driving Keilidhs. Besides the addition of an Ayre SACD player, that's the way his system remained for over two decades. Mine on the other hand, saw a complete pivot.
A burst pipe in my Brooklyn apartment decided to spray my entire system with rainwater, and live electronics and water just don't mix! Insurance paid me pennies, and I went on the hunt for a new system. Too many stories from that search to recount in this post but I will get to them eventually. Suffice it to say that I ended up meeting a lot of people that I call friends to this day. That search brought an itch to the front that had been in the back of my head since I walked into Fi as a poor grad student. "Tubes were unreliable devices that needed to be replaced and tweaked too much to enjoy the music." Pretty sure I am paraphrasing my thoughts at the time. While I may have been correct, they sounded damned good but were out of reach for a poor grad student who had just borrowed $$$ from his dad to buy a system.
Scratching that itch led me down a path that I am still wandering today and led me to OMA and Fleetwood Sound. Hopefully, I will have pictures of my set-up, which is again in transition because of my recent acquisition of the DeVille speakers. Hopefully, I can engage the community here to discuss your journey and where you want to go in the future. Just as my Devilles are still breaking in, this forum is hopefully hatching some interesting discussion about the people and owners of Fleetwood and OMA equipment.
Beau
