Who Were Your Mentors

A cousin, John Nichols, in the mid-70s.  His gear was strictly Pioneer. Spec series amps, 909 r2r, tuner, equalizer, even a 1000 oscilloscope. Bose 901s. But the piece that really got me was his B&O 4004 turntable. Even with its drawbacks it sounded amazing and seemed a freak of nature. I was a pre-teen with a Craig composite unit, so it was thrilling to take a new album to John’s and listen to it “properly”. I now have my own listening room with high end stuff. I always thank John for his influence.

Blake Hovecar. Met in 2017 when I started back into this pastime.
Blake's tips included:

-Patience pays off.
-Trust your ears.
-There is no "Best' of anything. It is all a compromise.
-Rooms/setup count as much as gear.
-Nothing trumps a great recording
-ignore these forums.

Okay I have failed on at least one of his tips!

Other.....Herb Reichert....reviewer/writer/painter/ a gentleman. Aside from the late Art Dudley, there is no better. 
I have zero friends or family into audio, I am a solo weirdo....

My Father got me started in Audio when I was about 7 or 8 earlier than that when I got into Astronomy aged 4 or 5!!

My main mentors later on include Malcolm Jones from KEF and latterly Falcon Acoustics before he retired a number of years ago.

Malcolm really helped me when I started building my own self designed loudspeakers from about aged 13, a bit later when aged about 15-16 he taught me a great deal more about crossover design and bass alignments, this when we used to meet together at Astronomical society meetings near Norwich.

He became a good friend as a result of our two common interests and I then helped him with telescopes!! Which I designed and built more then than now..

Then from the mid-80s when at college, I can add Martin Colloms, and Chris Bryant when I started getting real serious with designing more of my own loudspeakers, writing and research.

Simon

Sal D’Amico

Wow! That’s a name I haven’t heard in quite a while. Interesting character to say the least 😂