Who R U?

I am 57, and fell in love with music when I was about 11 years old. I remember the old tube radio we had, and the challenge of trying to tune it for best sound (guess I was a tweak then too). My degree is in fine art, I worked for a number of years after college graduation for LTV Aerospace, illustrating the fuel systems of fighter planes. This was as close to a career in art as I could find at the time. Then, in 1965, to be near music, my other passion, I took a position as salesman for a high end audio store in the Dallas, Ft. Worth area. At least this way I could enjoy music even if it meant being poor. I learned more than I thought possible from an old recording engineer who worked beside me each day. And remarkably, my enthusiasm made me the best salesman the store had ever had. This store and the three that followed, exposed me to almost every brand name audio product ever discussed at this site. And finally, to expand beyond retail audio sales, I accepted an offer to be the factory representative and tech support person for a number of high end audio manufacturers. They included Infinity, Sennheiser, MB of Germany, Ampex, JBL, Crown and Yamaha. My experience grew again, but I tired of the constant road trips to the five states that I covered. During this time I always took my camera, as it had always been another (art) passion. Constantly taking pictures of equipment, people and the scenic views out of my car window, during the long road trips. Then one day, during a sales calls to one of my customers (an audio store in Dallas in 1972), I recognized a fellow graduate from my college. He had stayed with his art career, and was the creative director for a Dallas advertising agency. After reviewing my photography efforts, surprisingly, he hired me on the spot. I worked at his agency until I was stolen away to do photography for Neiman Marcus, and later I earned a photography retainer with Southland Corp. that provided a consistent monthly income with only the requirement to "be available." This allowed me to evolve into a self employed, freelance photographer. I have been self supportive in photography for 26 years and currently do advertising photography for a number of companies, including Interstate Battery (race cars, and product), Exxon/Mobil, Quest Medical, Bank of America, Redman Industries, Southwest Airlines, and others. Did I manage to make photography fit with my passion for audio? Yes, I currently do, or have done the advertising photography for Atmasphere, Audioquest, Purist Audio, PSE, Counterpoint, Soundlab, Essence, Musical Fidelity, Aesthetix, Benz, Basis, Graham, Sound Anchor, McCormack, and others. I have several pages with my images in almost every issue of Absolute Sound and Ultimate Audio each month. I often see equipment (and HEAR it) before the public knows it is becoming available. Add to this, I have somehow managed to keep the same beautiful female married to me since 1972, this, in spite of my absolute passion for this hobby. We have a wonderful son, who is now 14 years old, and musically at least, is following in my footsteps. I also host a group of audiophile friends here in Dallas that meet at my home every Tuesday night for music. This has been every Tuesday, almost without fail, for 23 years! I have learned almost as much from the visitors I share listening with, as I did in the audio "business." These friends include audiophiles who are as varied in their experiences and tastes, as the postings here at Audiogon represent. Our testing and exchanging equipment, sharing software and open comments has allowed me to stay in touch with my hobby in an active way, rather than isolating myself with only my one point of reference. It sometimes helps me in posting my comments, as I see many sides of the issues that come to light here. Best to you all!

My turn. I'm a 44 y/o man who could stand to lose a few pounds. Boy do I fit into a group. I am an orthpedic surgeon specializing in spinal surgery. I have invented a couple of implants which has helped fuel a newfound passion for music and an old one for fast cars. I have spent the past year putting together a new sytem. I originally started with home theater, but have now graduated to a separate but combined system. I have used this site extensively to learn and to buy everything from amps to speakers. My wife puts up with my obsessions very good-naturedly, but my 5 children (aged 3-11) take up a LOT of my time.We are at a lucky time, where the music is good, the equipment is stupendous (compared to my college system of a Sansui amp with a Rega turntable and Advent speakers)and the sources are finally catching up. David

David, maybe you could shed some light on what it takes to put together a good "combined but separate" HT & 2 Channel system. Maybe start another thread. I've wanted to do this, cause the cost of having two good systems plus decent video is getting to be a lot to carry. Thanks, Michael

hi swampwalker, there are more & more preamps that offer dedicated h-t proccessor outputs - when ewe select this output, your main preamp defaults all its controls to the processor, so ewe can use the processor's volume control, etc, to run *all* the speakers. the rest of the time, the two main audio speakers don't see any of the processor electronics - ewe have the two main speakers driven by the preamp, & the surround speakers connected to the processor. preamps i knoew about that do this are made by linn, sonic-frontiers, vtl. i'm sure there are others. doug

Doug is completely correct. I bought a Rowland Coherence preamp that has a bypass input that defaults volume control to the theater processor. another way to ay that is that it has unity gain. funvtionally, when I listen to music the HT is completely out of the loop.When tha HT is going, i must choose the bypass circuit and the HT processor treats the main spaeakers as it's own front channels.David