Who R U?

29 years of age, living in DC and working for a development agency that markets subsidized health products in "developing nations." I'm regularly traveling on the Congo, or developing malaria in some far off corner of the universe. I was a Peace Corps volunteer near the city of Timbuktu from 95-99. Development salaries, as you may know, are less than stellar, so I prefer gear that delivers bang for the buck. Right now I'm running a pair of Dyna St70s on Vandersteen 2ces. I use a solid state preamp. I find that this combination of solid state top and tubes bottom is rarely chosen, but I like it much better than the other way around. I have yet to find a solid state amp that gives me the crystal clear midrange and highs that tubes offer. When I listen to a tube pre coupled with solid state amps, I inevitably hear only the glare or transistor haze. However, I don't like using tube pre amps with the tubes because the sound gets too soft and tube preamps can be noisy. Bass? using the Svetlanas I get plenty enough to piss off my neighbors...especially using the Vandys. I wonder how many other audiophiles opt for this type of combination.... No kids no wife, just my tubes and Sarah Brightman keeps me warm at night for now. Besides tubes allow me to Heat my Home with Music during these cold winter months!!

I've hesitated to enter this thread for some time now, but here goes. I'm 44 y.o., live in Milwaukee, WI, a registered nurse at a local hospital (read: limited income!), divorced abou 2 years, have a 4 y.o. son who lives with me part-time and is the "bestest son in the whole wide world." I got the stereo bug back in college when I heard my buddy's Marantz 2270 on a pair of Klipsch Heresy's. In the next couple of years, while both o us where still in school, we combined our systems: single Quad ESL's, Hartley 24" sub, Quad electronics, Rega TT base, modified Rabco tonearm, and Decca MC cart. When we went our separate ways, my system tooka big dive. The Quads and sub were his. I ended up with a pair of Vandy 2a's, kept the , driven by some older Van Alstine Dyna stuff, bought a cheap CDP back in the late 80's. I was never able to do anything with the stereo until after the divorce due to the usual wife factor. Have gone thru a buch of equipment in the past 2 years, including some NAD separates on Klipsch Chorus's, then some ARC tube pre/SS power on ADS L1530's,to now: all Spectral/MIT on some custom (NOT kit) Focal driver speakers. Am just entering into tweaking. I was a music lover from an early age, started playing the piano at age 9, switched to clarinet at 11, added bass clarinet, flute, and bari sax in high school. I was never good enough to pursue playing past the HS level however. I am in the process of self-educating myself on classical, doing much reading and listening. I primarily listen to classical, acoustic jazz and some fusion, and still get the urge to crank up some late 60's to mid-70's stuff like EL&P, Rush, and the Who once in a while. I tend to be on the detail end of the spectrum right now with regard to my audio tastes, as evidenced by the equipment I own. BUT, I have the greatest respect for those individuals who are into tubes/vinyl. I used to be a fanatic with my old TT, had just about every VTA setting memorized for my LP's. I haven't heard any really good tube gear, like the big monoblocks from VTL, ARC, etc. The only tube gear I am familiar with is the older stuff from Dynaco, and actually owned an old ARC D50f1b amp for awhile. Living in Milwaukee means having todrive to other cities to listen to high-end stuff; Milwaukee is a hgh-end audio wasteland for the most part. I stumbled upon this site about 1 year ago. In some of my earlier posts, I was just a tad vociferous about a certain dealer (who shall remain unnamed) with whom I had a less than favorable experience. However, I believe that, rather than becoming too personal, it is far better to be diplomatic and attempt to distance myself from the fray evidenced in some posts on this site. Well, enough pontificating. All I can say is Thank heavens for Audiogon! I have made many successful transactions here, have learned a great deal from reading these posts, and hope to do more of the same in the future. Phewww.

BenCampbell, what area of chemistry do you work in? Nice to have some brothers on the site. Have to say I moved to IT at the end of last year. Spent at least half of my time programming the equipment to run my experiments, create/update spreadsheets, and write report. Didn't like the fact that the computer guys were making 3X as much as me. Also didn't like the big multinationals continuing to devour my company, and rip it apart(Lucas Varity - now TRW, etc.) Quick joke, "Why do the English drink their beer warm? Lucas electrics". So you know the old saying, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". So here I am programming for a big company in Philadelphia, PA. Hope you continue to post!

My turn , I'm 26 yrs old, an Electronic Tradesman , working as an Electronics Tester for BAE Systems in Adelaide, Australia. I'm single with no kids. I've been into music for most of my life, thanks Ma! Pretty much I like all music except Country, and (c)rap. I've only been into this Audiophile thing for about 2 years. Even then I don't think I would be classed as an Audiophile, more a bloke who enjoys his music and learning ways to improve my listening pleasure. I guess mostly I'm a DIY person (speakerwise). I'm also into Roadbikes , Cars (and car audio yeh I Know it sounds crappy just loud) and seeing live bands( mostly South OZ metal acts, my girlfriend is dragging me out of the shed to see them). I'm looking to upgrade my Amp's and CD player soonish in the search for perfect Audio, But will I find it? I might find my perfect Audio sound but I bet some of you out there would hear it and want to tweak it to bits. Being Australian I think I'm easily satisfied(or is that amused). Thats who I am. Tim.

Hey Tim.warhurst@ nice to know you Aussies are there. I know that New Zeland and Australia are about as close as New york and L.A. but your a hell of a lot closer than Minneapolis to the Kiwi's. Try out the Plinus amps or even the integrated amp they have. I had the SA100 prior to my Aloia, really clean class A or AB and not at all electronic sound. I think the have some of the best bang for the buck out there. Good luck, and thanks for a great Olympics! J.D.