25+ years ago. Sitting at a picnic table behind a well known hifi shop where the owner and a British elder (magician) were recapping torn up Eico’s and Marantz 8B’s, while customers perused $30K CD Transports (remember them?) inside. We sort of chilled out and had some laughs. Hit it off I guess.
One thing led to another as we all became more friends with the same sarcastic twisted humor. Not sure I actually went into the shop that much, We were all jazz LP collectors. Kind of like the "after school gang" hanging.
So, eventually -- with their help, and fair - not rip off artists. They ran the same stuff at home.
Original Quad ESL 57’s
Marantz 8B restored to spec - man, that amp was/is sublime
Eico monos fully recapped running NOS you know what EL84’s
Sonic Frontiers, or maybe Anthem - right when one became the other -- tube pre with the cage ripped off. That was a finicky beast - I hated dealing with that thing.
Merrill Heirloom/Merch Dp6/Koetsu (insert wood type for that era). Someone came in and traded this $4000 now used analogue rig toward a Krell transport.
The owner called me and said do you want this? I said how much, he said "$750, It’s not perfect cosmetically, I don’t want to deal with it." I said fine with me. There was small dent in the Heirloom lead platter ring clamp, and some pitting on the Merch arm. Who cares. I know now he was throwing me a bone.
MIT cables used.
I don’t remember the rest.
However, I do remember John Coltrane standing right in front of me while an original pressing of Giant Steps played on this rig, and it scared the living crap out of me - not small holographic sweet spot, no, actually his 6" 4 self in front me. Must be as the Quads are angled up, and the room was perfectly wide, whatever voodoo was going on - it happened more than once.
Maybe it was the pot :) Not the amplifier kind ha.
Anyway, had to dump all of it when kids started running around everywhere and f-ing things up, not to mention ungrounded vintage voltage that could actually kill someone. Ended up with an LFD/Spendor kit many years ago still in action.
I have surrendered to the fact that I heard the sublime (for me), and that is good enough.
It was a time and place, with comrades in arms, at a certain age, doing our thing, loving music first, and whatever voodoo my hifi buddies did with those magic caps, transistors, and whatever else we were smoking.