Well my real name is Jimmy and I'm a 41 yr old sprinklerfitter. I'm the superintendent of a large fire protection contractor in Ohio. My wife works with me, although on the admin side. She is wonderful with putting up with my ridiculous obsessions, whether it's hot pepper growing, breeding exotic snakes, hackin my bike up every winter, or this new sick obsession I have with REAL audio. Read on you'll know what I mean.I grew up lower middle class I guess. my dad was a drug addict who didn't spend much time with me or my brother. What he did do was have music playing all the time. Tull, Zeppelin, Who etc.The first system I remember was a Marantz 2226, junk turntable, and a set of RTR speakers with the tweeters missing. It ruled. When the old man got his sh!t together and got a real job, got off the dope, and bought a house, there was no room for the stereo, so it went in my room. A couple of years of resentment and my dad and I are now best friends and when he comes over we still listen to good music. He's been clean 25+ yrs now. I got rid of the speakers and saved my money to get some American Acoustic speakers. The saleslady said "people are buying these, they're better than Bose". I said "whats Bose?". When I graduated high school in '87 my parents gave me a Pioneer PDM60 cd player. My best friend still uses it daily. Later that year I went in the Army and got a fat bonus. I rushed out and bought a Yamaha mx 600, a Carver ct7 pre, and a pair of Kenwood mv5 monitors. I had no idea what ohms were, what impedence was, or anything else. I had one speaker on top of the locker and one on the floor. Soundstaging and imaging were lacking, but it was loud as hell!! I blew the Yamaha up and replaced it with a Carver TFM 24. I had no idea what or who Carver was, but it looked cool. When I got out of the Army in '91 the Kenwoods were too big for my apt. so a pair of Infinity ss2004 became my new speakers. Jammed 'em right up against the wall, you know, for better bass! That's around the time I became a sprinklerfitter. I had that rig until last year when I discovered this site. I'm happy with the set-up I have now but I know I can do much better. A 15'x21' room is going into the basement this winter. Thats when, as one agon member told me, the commercial will go and the Cadillac will come in. As far as the Marantz 2226, last year my mom called and told me I still had some stuff in their garage. I went over and bigger than life the Marantz was there in a box. Been there since '87 when I went in the Army. Cleaned up, new parts, and now it resides in my bedroom with a Marantz cd5001.
