Who R U?

I'm 33 years old and have been at this for a LONG time. My father was into the old British gear and I've played with everything under the sun. From HUGE B&Ws, Krells, Linn LP-12, etc. I moved to a tiny appartment when we moved into the Big City (Toronto--that's as big as it gets in the Great White North) and changed to a correspondingly tiny system. The system was based around a Naim Nait integrated and Linn SARA Isobariks. With this system, I have been in a 10 year hiatus. I've since moved into larger place and recently, I lusted after more sound... Rayhall sold me his Plinius SA-100 Mark III (GREAT GREAT amp, if you're looking) for a good price and I'm now off to the races. Listening to better sound and more music. Next on the list is a good pre. On the personal front, I'm married and run a consultancy business that provides technology based business solutions to mostly larger companies.

Hi, My name is Mark Johnson and I'm just starting to re-visit my amateur audiophile days (I'm now 40 years old) I still have my ESS satellite system with sub (mid-seventies) but I've lost the preamp/crossover that powered them (see wtb ad) they didn't make too many of these speaker systems and ESS has not been any help so I'm hoping someone in here may help. Thanx, MJ

I'm 43, single, one (3) year old boy. Artist living in the midwest. Just completerd the Columbus marathon on sunday (I'm enjoying some down time now). Been an audiophile seen I was 18, music lover since 65'. Other hobbies I enjoy when not listening to music, fumbling with the stereo or training, include mountain biking, flyfishing and of course revisiting my childhood-spending time with my son. Mike

I am a 50 year old environmental contractor, married living in the South and raised in the Northeast who has loved music since I can remember. There was my great Aunt Hilda and her husband Rudy who always played piano duets when we visited. But it was Rudy who captivated me at 5 or 6 years old with his most engrossing (to me) rendition of List's Hungarian Raphsody #2. Everytime we visited I requested that he play it and it was the beginning of my love affair with Classical music in general and the piano in particular. I played various instruments throughout primary and secondary school starting at age 9 including clarinet, flute and saxophone. The school system had a fantastic music program which ended for me when I attended a parochial high school. My interest in playing waned at that point because it was like starting over again. My parents both loved music. Dad was an amateur singer that always sang at our big family get togethers. He was involved in local musical theatre and charity events and was always in the church choir often as a soloist. I wasn’t blessed with his voice, unfortunately. Musical tastes have expanded through the years. I really enjoy all types of music from rock to blues to jazz and of course classical. I have been to numerous concerts over the years and still enjoy them. Even attended Woodstock for 1 day in 1969. My wife doesn’t share my enthusiasm for rock so most concerts these days are classical only. Got my first system for college, a Scott integrated, dynaco speakers, garrard turntable. It was warm and wonderful, I couldn’t have wanted for more at the time. I stumbled into the high end in 1984. Heard about a shop that sold good stereo that was better than McIntosh, WOW! It was an eye opener for me. More importantly it brought back to me the beauty of music reproduction through tube electronics after a hiatus from the Scott days. Since that time I have owned for a brief time solid state electronics before going to tubes for good in the early 1990’s. I have always considered myself a music enthusiast more than an audiophile. I think I have over the past few years made the transition to audiophile through my relentless upgrading that has realized a quantum improvement in well reproduced audio in my home. I am living the good life and the music has NEVER sounded better. Thanks to Audiogon and all you great audio enthusiasts for helping me with the journey. This site makes it that much more fun. Best to you all!

for some time now. Being Canadian we have somewhat limited exposure to some products out there but for the most part we do get a good cross section of great components. Had Bryston gear for 12 years now (various preamps & amps) and have now started using a Rogue 66 preamp. My first foray into tubes has been an enjoyable one although I still think my Bryston 4BST does the job for my 1.5 Maggies. A believer in getting better than manufacturer supplied cables but I think there is a limit, at least to my ears there is. Had the same system for 10 years(mostly because I travel alot for work) but in the last year changed all components. Have a modest HT application but 2 channel is where my heart lies. Sometimes late at night I think of either giving up the 2 channel completely (as I do not have a dedicated listening area) and either getting a downsized system for the livingroom or making my HT system better. I wish I had made this decision before I got ill with the upgrade bug! Personally - presently live in Western Canada but grew up in Montreal, work in the Railroad industry, divorced with 2 kids (18 & 8) and have been in a good (have found out that nothing is ever perfect) relationship with a woman with 2 older kids (one of which is getting into audio on a limited basis due to $$$). Have bought and sold on Audiogon a few times and have learned quite a bit here in terms of products and theory. Enjoy the discussions and hope to offer more opinions as my audio education increases...