I've hesitated to enter this thread for some time now, but here goes. I'm 44 y.o., live in Milwaukee, WI, a registered nurse at a local hospital (read: limited income!), divorced abou 2 years, have a 4 y.o. son who lives with me part-time and is the "bestest son in the whole wide world." I got the stereo bug back in college when I heard my buddy's Marantz 2270 on a pair of Klipsch Heresy's. In the next couple of years, while both o us where still in school, we combined our systems: single Quad ESL's, Hartley 24" sub, Quad electronics, Rega TT base, modified Rabco tonearm, and Decca MC cart. When we went our separate ways, my system tooka big dive. The Quads and sub were his. I ended up with a pair of Vandy 2a's, kept the , driven by some older Van Alstine Dyna stuff, bought a cheap CDP back in the late 80's. I was never able to do anything with the stereo until after the divorce due to the usual wife factor. Have gone thru a buch of equipment in the past 2 years, including some NAD separates on Klipsch Chorus's, then some ARC tube pre/SS power on ADS L1530's,to now: all Spectral/MIT on some custom (NOT kit) Focal driver speakers. Am just entering into tweaking. I was a music lover from an early age, started playing the piano at age 9, switched to clarinet at 11, added bass clarinet, flute, and bari sax in high school. I was never good enough to pursue playing past the HS level however. I am in the process of self-educating myself on classical, doing much reading and listening. I primarily listen to classical, acoustic jazz and some fusion, and still get the urge to crank up some late 60's to mid-70's stuff like EL&P, Rush, and the Who once in a while. I tend to be on the detail end of the spectrum right now with regard to my audio tastes, as evidenced by the equipment I own. BUT, I have the greatest respect for those individuals who are into tubes/vinyl. I used to be a fanatic with my old TT, had just about every VTA setting memorized for my LP's. I haven't heard any really good tube gear, like the big monoblocks from VTL, ARC, etc. The only tube gear I am familiar with is the older stuff from Dynaco, and actually owned an old ARC D50f1b amp for awhile. Living in Milwaukee means having todrive to other cities to listen to high-end stuff; Milwaukee is a hgh-end audio wasteland for the most part. I stumbled upon this site about 1 year ago. In some of my earlier posts, I was just a tad vociferous about a certain dealer (who shall remain unnamed) with whom I had a less than favorable experience. However, I believe that, rather than becoming too personal, it is far better to be diplomatic and attempt to distance myself from the fray evidenced in some posts on this site. Well, enough pontificating. All I can say is Thank heavens for Audiogon! I have made many successful transactions here, have learned a great deal from reading these posts, and hope to do more of the same in the future. Phewww.
