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AUDIOPHILE OR JUST CRAZY ?

FELLAS,
I have been building and putting together systems since the sixties when I build my first health kit FM tuner ! Yes it was a father and son project my dad got me for my 11th birthday in 1967 .I have been in pursuit of the best sound system ever since, thanks to my dad who had the loudest HIFI in the neighborhood ! None of the neighbors ever complained ! i could mow the yard and hear Elvis, playing at the same time ! I have spent fortunes, in audio equipment ever since my first job .I was that kid who could spend all day at the audio superstore, looking watching listening to the systems in the speaker audition room ! The audio stores are far and few in-between these days, but here is my problem ! In the early nineties i purchased an Onkyo Grand Integra M-508 power Amp @ 225 wpc and a Onkyo P-308 pre amplifier .Went solid state, got my first R2R pioneer 909  audio reverse and a Thorens td 166 mkii turntable with a shure mm cartridge ! A Nakamichi dual Cassette deck , oh yes ! I forgot to mention my Klipsch Cornwall speakers with 15 in woofers and horns ! I was on top of the world ! None of my friends or family could touch the sound that came from that system !  
In the early 2000, i felt last decade, and got back into the tubes, with Conrad Johnson ! Since 2004 I have spent over $45,00.00 k on nothing but the best equipment money can buy ! I am still not as Thrilled as I was over Thirty years ago !
discussed , I sold everything for penny's on the dollar ! Everything except my old Onkyo m-508 and p-308, an old ADC graphic EQ , kept my old AR turntable one of Eric's Sound of the wood, and my klipsch  La Sacla's ALL Vintage Audio old ass equipment and I am the happiest i have ever been ! It is music to my years after spend $$$$$$ and never being satisfied !!!! Am I crazy or what ? I call myself EXPERIANCED ! 

128x128geurds
justmetoo's avatar
justmetoo
381 posts
 
Well, I'd also say you NOT crazy, at all - but very lucky your sound memory is not based on some 60s battery driven transistor radio, or equally sad, some 60s black and white (neither black nor white really) television, watching out for the English pop 'revolution'. Beatles et al. 

I did, - so I might be lucky in that sense, as ANYTHING hifi I than owned was absolute trash by today's standards. Junk - period. 

My present system is between 15 to 20+ years old, all vintage hi-end by now (see my system page) and with some degree of tweaking, jolly, bloody fine for a long time yet to come. 

Yet... People taking note of my music passion, quietly think that I AM crazy 🤪 
Michélle 🇿🇦 
russbutton's avatar
russbutton
438 posts
 
Get RID of the ADC graphic EQ. Really. Send it off to electronics recycling. If your speakers need that to get sound you want, you have the wrong speakers. But then, the Klipsch LaScala was intended as a PA speaker. No decent low end to speak of either and an edgy mid-range to boot. Other than that...

So you unloaded everything and are left with this? The Onkyo gear is OK. If the AR table is serving you adequately, then fine. I hope you’ve changed out the tone arm. A lot of people made that change.

But for speakers, there are so many, many better choices available. Your power amp has enough sheer muscle that it can drive anything. I have no idea what budget you might have, but these Avalon Acoustics Opus loudspeakers would make you happy in a way you haven’t felt in decades.

If "getting your hands dirty" in audio is fun for you, then I’d encourage you to consider the SEAS Thor kit from Madisound. By the end of the project, you’d have dropped about $2500 and would have something similar to the $13,000 Joseph Audio Perspective 2.

One more thing.  I'm as old as you are.  I built a Heathkit AJ-14 FM tuner back in my junior college days, then Dynaco kits when I went off to UC Berkeley.  Built Hafler kits later.   When I bought my first record, Lyndon Johnson was president.  You really can do a lot better than the La Scala.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,052 posts
 
OP, you use far too many exclamation points.   
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,195 posts
 


« Syntax and rethoric are the clothes the beggar or the rich, the healthy or the sick take when they wrote their words; ignoring that veiling a part of ourself with our language, we also unveil another part of ourself using it... Language is the best hiding place and the most open one for us to be seen at the same time. »- Anonymus Smith
geurds's avatar
geurds OP
11 posts
 
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAS SPOKEN ! I AM CONSIDERING SOME OF YOUR POINTS ! I AM NOT DEAF, BUT AM GOING BLIND ! HENCE, ALL CAPS ! I LOVE BUYING S#IT AND TRYING S#IT ! MY REAL PROBLEM IS CHASING THE DREAM, AND WISHING i HAD THE FUNDS i HAVE NOW VS. HOW HARD i HAD TO WORK THEN, TO GET THE BEST OF TIMES !
ALL THE BEST MY AUDIOPHILE BROTHERS AND SISTERS !
BLESSINGS TO THE NEW YEAR !
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