The first 40 years...
Nattlorden is a cheerful engineer (M.Sc. Computer Science & Engineering) from southern Sweden.
[The early years]
Last time I wrote a presentation such as this I wrote "My Hifi-interest started in college - about the time when I stated buying a little more records.", but that's a partial truth.
My first contact with hifi is through the DIY-world, when I help my father prime his home builds (more about this below) and at that point I was as short as they were tall - so I would have been 3-4 years old. There's evidence of this if my parents super-8 rolls are still alive. I learned quite early to play on dad's stereo, at first only the cassette deck but later also vinyl (a fully automatic Dual is a great thing when you're little!). Know I already then had ideas on how I wanted sound to be, as I know I was moving bass/treble slides and dolby buttons for different music. In principle I grew up on ABBA, Elvis & Frank Sinatra as that was the best parts of my parents' records.
Later on I got my own little travel vinyl player in red plastic and my own first single that wasn't a kids' record was something I'd heard at the neighbour kid's (10 years my senior) place: Sweet - Fox on the run
[School Days]
The music interest got stared more seriously in 7th grade when I started listening to metal; Accept, Black Sabbath, Helloween and such, but the session as a metalhead got cut short as with the next year came Alphaville's "Sounds like a melody" and turned everything upside down. Somewhere at this point I got a stereo-rack (Sanyo) for Christmas present that my Dad imported from Holland - with a "first generation" CD-player (16-bit, no oversampling). This actually wasn't integrated with the rest but a late addition in the same design that they'd rushed out. I remember going to the music shop to buy my first CD and the store had two (2) of them. Fortunately one of them was something I wanted: Thompson Twins.
Don't mess with Doctor Dream o-o-o-o-AH o-o o-AH... After having fiddled around with the speakers belonging to the kid and a pair of Dad's old 70's radio speakers in all kind of strange set-ups for a year of so, Dad suggested we'd build the same kind of Michelson Voight-horns as he had. First iteration of these had a Forstex broadband element crossed to a tiny tweeter very high in frequency, probably up around 7kHz.
What transpired was of course that the Sanyo-amp didn't sound very great with these speakers so a while later it was back to the store and buy a real integrated amp, an NAD 3100PE. ( I actually wanted the 3400, but there were limits to what my parents' would agree to. ) A big improvement of course and then later the CD-player and cassette-deck got the similar upgrade. ( The finiansing of this is quite a fun story that I may write later on). Back at square one having gone around the block, the speaker elements had to go and was replaced with a Seas woofer and a Vifa tweeter. Kept the horns for a long time, but when I started on my cinema and there where no one in the used gear market that wanted then, they finally went to the dump site. Had some fun idea to try a Manger element in them, but that won't ever happen now.
[1995 - out in the employed world]
Well, back on track: during the time passed I've finished University and started working.. And arrived in the 3rd largest town in Sweden with all it's hifi-stores. One was rather new and had inherited the stock of the previous owner and they had some odd flat speakers in the innermost room that I eventually had the guts to ask to listen too and the session with Maggies (MG1.4) with Acurus electronics soon had me hooked. After saving some money and haggling quite a lot I got the for about $500 (which actually was less than I sold them for quite a few years later).
About the same time I read about NHT SuperZero in Stereophile and had a local store to get a pair for me. Used these and the maggies interleaved before bringing them to work as comp speakers where I got the store more customers by arranging a group buy. I myself got three more for home theatre plus an NHT sub. (Much later on I got two more on the used market for 7.1 HT)
In the end, the Sunfire proved troublesome blowing up on me twice and tripping the breakers quite a lot more. Don't think it was designed to be turned off actually. After the final repair a friend in need of extreme power at low impedances bought it and kept it running and it has been trouble free since... (If I remember correctly his speakers were a pair of large REL Studio 1 or 2.)
After spending many hours listening for a replacement I went for the Holfi Power-8, which I today can say is the most colours amp I've ever had, but my taste was different back then. I also got myself a locally built very low noice preamp - probably just as good as the one I use today, but it did not amplify the signal enough for today's use, but I run it as a headphone amp at work. The designer of the preamp also had a Pio PD-S-06 for sale which had gotten rave magazine reviews and I think an EISA-award too, so I picket that up a while later when I got a slight tweak of my own thinking done to the preamp.
[2000]
Started thinking I heard a noice from one of the Maggies now and then and the hunt for a replacement began. Audiovector was a contender. Von Schweikert had been a favourite, but the company (VSR) went belly-up due to water damage at the factory... Today he's back with a new company,so perhaps one should've dared... Marten Design was a new interesting upstart... but when I heard the Canton Digital 1.1 I was sold. A bit much for my budget after having built a house with my girlfriend of the time and then separated. Cost-wise a disaster, but I had no isse rearranging the livingroom to give them the best placement.
I did believe there was more to extract... Some more power for dynamics... Upsampling dac for more details... Better cable... Cleaner power. Things I thought of as possible improvements, but not of any great importance, more of something that could be done if I ran into a good deal some day. Put my money into my whisky collection instead...
[Autumn of 2003]
Somewhere around here I found my main forum on the net. Had been in the hot air at another forum before that got cancelled and then I took a break. I have always been opinionated and a strong debater (and with a relentless drive to teach), but I was less knowing back then in several ways, so I definitely had my fights and really hadn't start questioning the validity of what was written in the hifi magazines.
The turning point for me was a thread regarding how much power you actually need to reproduce a dynamic transient in the music. It struck me that what my ears thought to be excessive volume could be the amp running out of power instead. The math is easy and that my 100W amp wasn't enough was glaringly obvious. But it had to be tested of course.
GamuT D-200 was an alternative with twice the power and that had always performed well wherever I'd heard it, but it was very expensive. On the forum NAD 208 was a heated topic, but they didn't make it any more, nor the 218. S200 was still around and reported to be identical to 218 and also to a Gryphon(!) model. Local store had one to borrow, but told me it was also on it's way out. Brought one home to try and the hypothesis seemed to hold... Ears didn't "ring" when the volume was turned up. The amp was mostly fine, but sounded a bit synthetic on some instruments (compared to the colored Holfi), so I didn't buy it, but the lesson had been learned. The calculations also pointed to 200W not being enough, rather you needed a
lot more...
[Early 2004]
After harbouring these thoughts for a while... And additional reads on the forum about the NAD 208... I decided to try and get one. It seems without risk as there would be people queueing to take it off my hands if I didn't like it. Having made up my mind, it wasn't so hard. One guy managed to find two and indicated he only needed one, so I made him an offer he couldn't refuse - and I had my 208.
My fears about it - as I had once heard it and labelled it as "ice cold" - did not have any merit. Either my taste had changed or something else had been wrong that time, because the amp was absolutely wonderful.
And if this much power had this result, how would two bridged ones be? So on with the hunter's cap again and with some time and effort I could find another.
Then I also had a fun visit from some forum guys that wrote a short article on the visit.
Now I was having fun hunting gear, and the same people who had been talking about the 208 were also talking about an old Swedish preamp named Sentec SC-9, so I got one of them too.
The difference was hair thin this time. It had more amplification, so I could play louder using it and that's what kept in in my set-up.
Also found the two used NHT SuperZeroes. Didn't have a home theatre amp that could do 7.1 at the time, but planned getting one later so best pick the speakers when the opportunity arose...
[November 2004]
Three quarter of a year later, there's a Pioneer demo day and it didn't turn out better than blowing that month's salary...
That I was to go to 7.1 in the home theatre had only been a question of time and now it became a Pioneer VSX-2014i Silver. My old crappy H/K DVD-player had not been behaving well lately so I took a Pioneer DV668-AV-S as well. Which also was a top ranked machine on the forum - as a CD-player(!). Tested it in the stereo before it was off to film duty and it had quite another calm and control. Pity it wasn't to be used there.
Around here I also decided to try building a pair of Ino piP from a kit. Didn't know anything about them and actually I had had quite a few heated debates with their designer on the forums before. Normally you have to go to Stockholm for a demo before buying them, but I found myself a 'pimp'. I needed a project and if nothing else, they could be used with the computer, they weren't more expensive than I could risk it ($4-500).
Not thinking that highly of them, I didn't do any major job in design, so I just painted them in a kind of british racing green, now also known as 'Nightlord Green'.
What happened was that which wasn't supposed to happen. My chin had to be picked up from the floor as these miniscule boxes played just as well as the twelve times more expensive Canton Digitals. Not straight away, but once the harshness of the tweeter had disappeared.
Used them side by side for a longer period and the Cantons turned more into audience for every day. No one visiting ever thought the small ones were playing though, they all "knew" it had to be the big ones.
[Summer 2005]
On the forum there's a topic started about a group buy of NHT 1259-(sub)woofers, so I start reading up on the LTS bass modules designed around them. I realize it's not such a big chance I will tuck myself into a car and drive to Stockholm a couple of times to buy my otherwise preferred Ino bass modules, so this felt like a budget version as the LTS dimensioning also was done by Ingvar Öhman of Ino. The price on the woofers got good as we were many interested and I had just enough money on the bank to do something a bit bigger. The build article about the B4 model sounded good, so getting 8 elements felt good. Overkill is always fun... exemplary low distortion with so many element, possibility to go for closed cabinets and in there... only pluses in my book. The minus what that someone tried stealing my car so it ended up in the workshop for a month just at this time. Made up my mind in the nick of time and the elements were to be picked up in Gothenburg the 11th of July. Manage to pick an overcast day to drive up so I didn't boil them going back in my then "Sauna-auto" (no AC).
...a nice little head of speaker elements...
Then I had to get hold of MDF. I calculated different combinations and also tested what it would be in one inch MDF. Since I wanted full ceiling height on 4 boxes, then the height of them should be just shy of 2 feet. The width I kept as in the build article and then it turned out with nice even measurement in 1". Internal volume got .2 litres bigger, but with some stiffeners inside it ought to be the same. Thanks to a friend I got the MDF pre-cut at a quite ok price and later on the fall I tested the car suspension to it's fullest picking it up.
...The I had a long period of illness, I probably bore the first signs of mononucleosis when I brought them home. Then a stomach flu and the year about ended before I got any further...
[December 2005]
Found an add on a NAD 218 and the guy was within driving distance, so I decided to go check it out and not risk shipping it. I had recently got a new car, so it was nice with a little longer drive too. Increased my focus on used gear ads to find a second one as well.
[January 2006]
Started at full speed going out to buy all the equipment I needed to build the boxes and started the day after. The cabinets too a month and then it was into the putty marshes...
[March 2006]
Caught a 2nd NAD 218 through the forum which arrived in the middle of the month in a GIGANTIC box with UPS. Hooked it up to the Canton Digitals and played both Yello and Bo Linde with a big smile. Couldn't find the issue I've previously written about the S200. Marginal difference between the models, or had I grown accustomed to a different kind of sound now?
[June 2006]
Time to bring in the first bass modules... Of course there was trouble at once, both power and antenna outlets of course hard to be where the basses were going.
Well, they aren't leaving so I just cut the drywall and extended the cables...
The bass was deep, dry and very detailed. And this from the first pair?? I could have lived happily with the two, but it was extra fun to know there were 6 "overkill-boxes" going in on top of them.
I got three stories up before the project ground to a halt. Perhaps to some degree that the sound with six modules were amazing and the difference going from four to six hadn't been very dramatic. Another reason was that the last two were the first two I made and they weren't as good as the rest so they would need a lot of grinding before painting them.
[June 2007]
One channel in one of the 218:s have gone. Went to the local NAD representative and had it sent for reairs. Had been thinking to start up with the last two modules, but that motivation was therefore lost. Have put up a fence across the living room to keep small kids fingers away. It could have been our son's fascination with the on/off button that broke it. Have started using Squeezebox and got quite addicted to it.
[January 2008]
Long weekend of building at home, had found a TV bench I could use. Assembled that and put the cables in the tv-room into cable channels.
It was good to have this done, don't want to know how long there had been cables around, but when all things aren't in place it can be hard to get motivated.
[June 2008]
Got the garage cleaned out from a few things not supposed to be there, then I realized it wasn't one but two years the boxes had been sitting there so I went at them.
On the 29th the family was out so I rolled them in and then called Dad to help me with "the Big Lift" (that didn't turn out as tough as I'd figured).
The listening impression was good and positive - but the best win this time was that the two bass amps now ran with identical loads. Unstrained bass reproduction would probably a good way to put it.
[ Spring/Summer 2009 ]
World financial crisis... and hit the plasma-TV department of Pioneer hard. The awaited 10th gen plasma won't go into production. As I can't see anything getting close to Pioneer in any foreseeable future I rushed to buy a 50" G9 while I still could.
The image is, as expected, sensational. And then it has to be run a few hundred hours before it can be calibrated... and then the autumn darkness will be here for better possibilities to do so. The most sensational is probably that it copes well with old VHS-tapes. Most flatsceens suck
XXXXXXXXX on antenna signals.
If all goes well, this TV will get me through to the next paradigm shift... 3D-tv or videowall... whatever gets here first...
[Summer/late summer 2010]
The children have used the old Xbox to watch DVDs through and finally it gave up, timing rather good as the day before I saw a 668 on the used market.
Another thing that broke was one of the tweeters in the piP:s, of course discovered during a demo. Post office manage to misplace the return (got it returned to me 2 years later!!) but Ingvar took my word for it and sent me a new one anyway.
Had a bad period here - also my Xbox 360 and the heat-sensor on my bathtub broke.
On the other had, that had saved me some luck for later when a fellow member at 'my' Swedish forum put up his non-assembled Ino system for sale and I acted fast enough.
I finished the 6 a2 surround speakers first, but the didn't at this point get their proper placement.
Precisely at the end of September I had also the i28:s ready
Another good thing that happened was that I finally had the ISF-calibration done on the TV. My verdict is... if you get an advanced TV or PJ - take the cost to have a pro calibrate it for you, it's worth it!
[Autumn 2010]
During the autumn I managed to get hold of an Infra plug-in card for the bass module crossover and then I finally got the ULF boosted so I finally found out what the basses can do. Extremely cool! Now the limitation is moved to the house... how much vibrations I dare give it before something breaks...
[Christmas 2011]
Strange rerun... The guy I bought the big kit from had bought a pair on unique pi60s in stone (later getting the official branding pi60s-s, as you can now order this form of cabinet directly from Ino Audio - same man making them of course) but due to financial reasons he had to part from them again. Having met the stone-man myself and learned what a thoroughly decent and infinitely likeable guy he is, I was a bit sad to see them embark onto the used market and possibly end up some unknown place where we never hear from again. It made me very uncomfortable. Didn't have a place to use them myself, but to put them in the office, so I decided to go for it and a snowy Christmas day we moved them to my office. Bought the whole kit too - a Rotel 1090 and a Holographic PRE-25 preamp. I think I sold stocks at a peak, so it didn't hurt as much as it could have. But this is a once-a-lifetime thing to do... something you just have to do... almost as if guided...
[Spring 2011]
Had good success in adding to the home theatre in the TV room, first I found a single iP to run as center and then an additional two a2 to complete the surround to a 3+1+1+3 setup.
Borrowed an XTZ measurement kit and have measured and tuned the cr80s and Infra filters to get better curves. It's definitely not easy. Tried bringing in some insulation and putting here and there temporarily, but really saw no changes in the curves from that.
[Summer 2011]
Having had some off problems with the receiver over a few years every time it's been totally without power then it finally didn't start even if I had it powerless for two weeks - 3-4 days had been enough previously. Spent some weeks surfing on the latest greatest and then tried four candidates at home(Marantz, Integra, Denon & Pioneer) and in the end, for cleverness and budget, a Pioneer LX-72.
The alternative in Denon 4311 had apart from it's double price also brought with it buying an Audyssey Pro-kit and then try to get some special speakers mad for full 11.2, so much better to stay at 7.1. ( Must've been ill... was doing rational thinking about this.
)
[Late summer/Autumn 2011]
Having given the TV room a substantial list in speakers and amplification and I had the elements for four Ino bass modules lying around in the garage (came in the i28/a2-purchase) it was time to do something about it. The biggest challenge was milling the element flat to the baffels, so I ended up having to import some jigs across the Atlantic.
Have also finally after a number of years built proper dampening walls in the living room.
