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Some information about me, my music and my system...
(Feel free to skip to the hopefully interesting My System section below.)
Me
----
Long-time audiophile, walked into my first audio salon in 1972 and learned that my I could enhance my experience of recorded music to a degree I never imagined. I was lucky enough to bring home my first hi-fi components (briefly described below) not too long after, after my first experience with the financial sacrifices required. Pleasure and pain... :-)
Dropped out of the chase for a decade or two, missing the digital disaster and rejoining when my first audio buddy, by then a hi-fi dealer, told me I might be able to enjoy a cd-Source system (again, briefly described below).
Later, when another high school buddy chided me for not having a record collection, I got back into analog. My system today is primarily analog.
My Music
------------
Music has been important for just about as long as I can remember. Was an ametuer musician early on and had fun pulling groups to play together in my adolescence ("The Sixties"). Performance was left behind long ago but my hi-fi hobby has supplied much of that pleasure and excitement since. I do believe in Music First and am an audiophile who first selects a recording based on music and performance and then selects the best available source of that recording. I only own a few "demonstration recordings". (That turned out to be a problem recently when I was having some equipment installed and the installer wanted to play a familiar reference.)
Started with popular rock as a child in the late Fifties, had my mind blown at the age of thirteen by the psychelic explosion of 1966 and expanded into the Jazz of Miles and Coltrane in my early teens. I also started listening in the unknown Classical world at that time and my listening now is about 80% Classical.
My System
--------------
1970's - Highlights
Speakers - Magneplaner IIIa
Analog - Transcriptors turntable with Vestigial tonearm
Electronics - modified Dynaco tube preamp and amps
Yes, As a young adult just starting out, I had to eat cheaply and "defer" as much bill paying as possible, but..
See photo of the Transcriptors. I've owned and seen some absolutely beautiful turntables (e.g. owned RedPoint Audio Model D in Red, seen DaVinci Audio Gabriel in Red) but isn't the Transcriptors the most eye catching? Didn't actually function all that well but you could space out just staring at it as it played... (or was that those "Sixties" again?)
1999 - Return to (Digital Hi-Fi)
CD Player - Linn CD12
Speakers - NOLA
Electronics - Conrad-Johnson and VAC
I credit the CD12 as the device that persuaded me that it was worth having a system in the CD world. My introduction to state-of-the-art industrial design. I remember hearing the first CD playing while I was still in another room getting a cup of coffee. Music, again!
Today - My Current System
Speakers - Magico S7
Room Treatments - RPG (40 pieces)
Electronics - D'Agostino Momentum
Analog - TechDas Air Force Two turntable, SAT tonearm, Lyra Etna SL cartridge
Today I am enjoying a system that is playing records with a fidelity I've never experienced in my home before. The DAG arrived first, then the Magico and, last month, the entire analog system was installed.
Since I had the turntable, tonearm and cartridge professionally installed all at once, i'm not sure I can distinguish with certainty which component of the record playing system deserves how much of the credit. Certainly, the AF2 sited on a sturdy rack spiked to the cement slab is providing a solid, relatively immobile and unresonant foundation upon which a wonderful vacuum hold-down platter is being rotated with great precision. The new SL version of the Etna is probable responsible for transforming those grooves with a fidelity I haven't heard before.
However, I'm wondering if it isn't the SAT tonearm that hasn't made the biggest difference for me, at least more of a difference than tonearm changes I've experienced in my past. You can see in the picture that the massive, industrial precision appearance of the TechDas is matched by the appearance of the SAT. The engineering papers at the manufacturer's site reveal this is a very serious attempt to advance tonearm design. For example, carbon fiber of course has been used for tonearms before but not to the degree the material's potential qualities are realized in the SAT. Industry leading levels of specific stiffness resulting from multiple layers of CF in the armwand and headshell are perhaps the most important advancement of the SAT but there are a number of special features, like the huge bearings that are adjustable onsite, that all contribute to the goal of providing the most stable platform possible for a cartridge.
However, I'm no engineer so enough guessing as to why the SAT has made such an improvement in the sound of my system. I can state without fear of contradiction that the introduction of my entire new analog rig has made a much bigger improvement in the overall sound quality of my system than any other upgrade ever has. For me, there have been no negatives, only positives to this change.
One important note; For a number of reasons, the installation of the TechDas, SAT and Lyra was performed completely by my dealer, Maier Shadi of the Audio Salon. While I played assistant and listened and learned through the 12 hour effort, both TechDas and SAT want their dealers to perform their installations. Maier has worked extensively with SAT's Marc Gomez and that training and experience were invaluable during my installation. The system sounded fantastic with the very first record we played. This was the first time I had a dealer install equipment for me, but I'm thinking that's the way I want to go from now on.
So, that's my story. If you've read through all that, thanks for listening!
- Mike
(Feel free to skip to the hopefully interesting My System section below.)
Me
----
Long-time audiophile, walked into my first audio salon in 1972 and learned that my I could enhance my experience of recorded music to a degree I never imagined. I was lucky enough to bring home my first hi-fi components (briefly described below) not too long after, after my first experience with the financial sacrifices required. Pleasure and pain... :-)
Dropped out of the chase for a decade or two, missing the digital disaster and rejoining when my first audio buddy, by then a hi-fi dealer, told me I might be able to enjoy a cd-Source system (again, briefly described below).
Later, when another high school buddy chided me for not having a record collection, I got back into analog. My system today is primarily analog.
My Music
------------
Music has been important for just about as long as I can remember. Was an ametuer musician early on and had fun pulling groups to play together in my adolescence ("The Sixties"). Performance was left behind long ago but my hi-fi hobby has supplied much of that pleasure and excitement since. I do believe in Music First and am an audiophile who first selects a recording based on music and performance and then selects the best available source of that recording. I only own a few "demonstration recordings". (That turned out to be a problem recently when I was having some equipment installed and the installer wanted to play a familiar reference.)
Started with popular rock as a child in the late Fifties, had my mind blown at the age of thirteen by the psychelic explosion of 1966 and expanded into the Jazz of Miles and Coltrane in my early teens. I also started listening in the unknown Classical world at that time and my listening now is about 80% Classical.
My System
--------------
1970's - Highlights
Speakers - Magneplaner IIIa
Analog - Transcriptors turntable with Vestigial tonearm
Electronics - modified Dynaco tube preamp and amps
Yes, As a young adult just starting out, I had to eat cheaply and "defer" as much bill paying as possible, but..
See photo of the Transcriptors. I've owned and seen some absolutely beautiful turntables (e.g. owned RedPoint Audio Model D in Red, seen DaVinci Audio Gabriel in Red) but isn't the Transcriptors the most eye catching? Didn't actually function all that well but you could space out just staring at it as it played... (or was that those "Sixties" again?)
1999 - Return to (Digital Hi-Fi)
CD Player - Linn CD12
Speakers - NOLA
Electronics - Conrad-Johnson and VAC
I credit the CD12 as the device that persuaded me that it was worth having a system in the CD world. My introduction to state-of-the-art industrial design. I remember hearing the first CD playing while I was still in another room getting a cup of coffee. Music, again!
Today - My Current System
Speakers - Magico S7
Room Treatments - RPG (40 pieces)
Electronics - D'Agostino Momentum
Analog - TechDas Air Force Two turntable, SAT tonearm, Lyra Etna SL cartridge
Today I am enjoying a system that is playing records with a fidelity I've never experienced in my home before. The DAG arrived first, then the Magico and, last month, the entire analog system was installed.
Since I had the turntable, tonearm and cartridge professionally installed all at once, i'm not sure I can distinguish with certainty which component of the record playing system deserves how much of the credit. Certainly, the AF2 sited on a sturdy rack spiked to the cement slab is providing a solid, relatively immobile and unresonant foundation upon which a wonderful vacuum hold-down platter is being rotated with great precision. The new SL version of the Etna is probable responsible for transforming those grooves with a fidelity I haven't heard before.
However, I'm wondering if it isn't the SAT tonearm that hasn't made the biggest difference for me, at least more of a difference than tonearm changes I've experienced in my past. You can see in the picture that the massive, industrial precision appearance of the TechDas is matched by the appearance of the SAT. The engineering papers at the manufacturer's site reveal this is a very serious attempt to advance tonearm design. For example, carbon fiber of course has been used for tonearms before but not to the degree the material's potential qualities are realized in the SAT. Industry leading levels of specific stiffness resulting from multiple layers of CF in the armwand and headshell are perhaps the most important advancement of the SAT but there are a number of special features, like the huge bearings that are adjustable onsite, that all contribute to the goal of providing the most stable platform possible for a cartridge.
However, I'm no engineer so enough guessing as to why the SAT has made such an improvement in the sound of my system. I can state without fear of contradiction that the introduction of my entire new analog rig has made a much bigger improvement in the overall sound quality of my system than any other upgrade ever has. For me, there have been no negatives, only positives to this change.
One important note; For a number of reasons, the installation of the TechDas, SAT and Lyra was performed completely by my dealer, Maier Shadi of the Audio Salon. While I played assistant and listened and learned through the 12 hour effort, both TechDas and SAT want their dealers to perform their installations. Maier has worked extensively with SAT's Marc Gomez and that training and experience were invaluable during my installation. The system sounded fantastic with the very first record we played. This was the first time I had a dealer install equipment for me, but I'm thinking that's the way I want to go from now on.
So, that's my story. If you've read through all that, thanks for listening!
- Mike
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