Who R U?

Snook2, it ofter seems to me that "geek" is in the eyes of the beholder(s) who give you that 'deer in the headlights' stare as you wax poetic about soundstaging, imaging and minute gradations of coloring. I'm 38, a VP of product mgmt. for an online financial company, also a Pastor in my church and a classically trained studio musician (pianist & electronic keyboards). Married & two sons. Born and raised in SF Bay Area (San Mateo, went to UC Berkeley, now live in East Bay). I was brought up from a very young age around music, have always had a love for and a desire to create it. The joy of creating music and playing with other musicians (esp. jazz and improvised music) superseded the pursuit of reproducing music for me, until just recently. Have typically spent large amounts of cash on musical instruments (synthesizers, etc.) and very little on audio gear, being content with the Yamaha R5 / Technics TT / Infinity speakers we bought when we first got married 14 years ago. However, the Hafler & Genelec monitors I use in the studio (and this site) started my dissatisfaction w/ my home system, so I bought a used pair of Von Schweikert minis. HHB CD recorder soon replaced my Sony CD carosel. Now Carl Eber has whetted my appetite for Magnepan's, VTL, and a starter TT like a Basis or something. My musical tastes are rather eclectic, embracing everything from Rachmaninoff to Sex Pistols to John Coltrane to Bach to Eno to musique concrete to Hendrix to Pat Metheny to King Crimson, and more than one "audiophile" shop here in the SF Bay Area has told me they didn't have speakers that would really do well with everything I want to throw at them. We'll see. BTW, this is a very valuable and insightful thread and so far is thankfully free of flames and posturing. Keep it going!

Hi everyone, I'm 48, sell new Cadillac's for Don Massey and have been in to Audio since I was a kid. A good friend of mine had a Magnavox console stereo (really his folks) and we used to listen to the Venture's on it. What great sound that thing had. Because of that, we started to play the guitar, which I still play today. So now, 36 years later I find myself collecting older Pioneer gear and listing to cd's as apposed to albums. I have a small collection of Pioneer gear, SX-626 (two of them), SX-650, SX-1500TD, SX-980, SX-1250 (two of them), SX-D7000, Series 20 A-27, the infamous SX-1980 and A-88X. I listen to all of them from time to time. Right now I have the SX-D7000 hooked up to Infinity SM-225's (I run two pair hooked in parallel). Source is a Sony DVP 7700 and a Monarchy 22-A D/A converter With a Velodyne CT-120 sub for bass. Not a bad setup. Excellent soundstage and detail. I have gotten a lot of good info. from Audiogon. If anyone has any questions about the older Pioneer gear, I will be more than happy to answer them, if I can. Mike

Snook2, how people appear in print and via the net are sometimes VERY different than how they are in person. Many people take advantage of either being completely anonymous or others not knowing them in person to produce an alter ego or portray themselves as something they really aren't but would hope to be. Having said that, all you have to do is attend an audio convention to see what most audiophiles "look like". Most are middle aged men that wear glasses / contacts and could stand to loose a few pounds. I know that this is a very vague generalization at best, but at least most of these guys bathe on a regular basis. Now if you want to see "REAL" geeks, go to a large ham radio convention. You'll get to see some of the strangest creatures on the planet that rarely venture outside of their own house. They live their lives via the airwaves and are many times complete outcasts from society. Since they don't do a lot of "face to face" communicating, they see little need to bathe or learn how to match clothes appropriately. The funny part is that i enjoy both hobbies and bear NO resemblance to what anybody would think of as being a typical audiophile or radio nut. Most people that look at me would think i'm closer to being a criminal or a thug : ) Sean >

Sean- I had high hopes this thread would be free of ignorance and put downs.But I see its been invaded and Im sure its all down hill from hear.I ask my fellow "geeks"to ignore this stooge and continue the mature dialog.P.S. anyone have any tape for my glasses?

Hi guys, I am glad to get to know some of you whom I read comments from. Specially Craig (Garfish) who has saved me from spending too much money on the Analog gear. My name is Mohamed Youssif; I was born in Egypt 1960. B.Sc. in telecommunications engineering and have been working with satellite telecommunications since I graduated in 1983 and immigrated to the US. Got my citizenship and lived in the Washington DC Metropolitan area for 13 years. My hobby started when I was a teen playing drums and singing. My first stereo I bough in 1979 when I used to go to London every summer to work for McDonald’s and then buy stereo and come back to Egypt when school years started. My friends used to get very excited when they know that I am traveling because they know that I will be selling my old stereo. Now I work for Teledesic - (the Internet in the Sky) project of Craig McCow and Bill Gates- as Regional General Manager for the Middle-East and North Africa based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Now I have lots of equipments that is mix between what I brought with me from the US and what I purchased locally. So I have a mix of 110 volt and 220v equipment. However, I am currently purging the 110v equipment. It is a challenge but I am getting there.