Who R U?

Wow, lots of people talking. Its nice to see who's behind the @. My name is Pete and I am 34. I am married and have a 3yrs old daughter, "O" I forgot to mention a very understanding wife. I've been in the military for 14 yrs, started in the USAF, then the USCG and now in the USANG(air national guard fulltime), my job is military police. I also own a couple apartments, which I ventured into 5 yrs ago. Hell who could afford this stuff on just military pay. Been many places and into music since I listened to "bye bye miss american pie" when I was about six. I played sax for 2 yrs, love the sound of the sax but I gave it up, honestly I sucked at it. At age 11 I owned a pioneer system and was into all kinds of music. Knew I would eventually own separates just picky up until 2 yrs ago when I heard some ML aerius i. Which I do love for the speed. I listen to Dire straights, jethro tull, eagles, rock, jazz, female and male vocals, mozart, and everyday I find something else that moves me. Recently took interest in 3 blind mice, gertz/go something or other, and cowboy junkies. Always looking for something new. So I guess I listen to what moves me. Hobbies include this crazily over priced hobbie, cars and snowmobiling. As far as this hobbie goes, I don't claim to no much about it, but I know what I like and if I can't addition it I usually won't buy it. I do support my local dealer, but I do believe their interest lie else were. Though its hard to know all equip.. Yes I do say whats on my mind, that's me.

My equip is ML aerius i, DC-1, bat vk200, b&k amp forgot model # but its a 3 channel for rear(paradigm stylus) and center is ML cinima, pioneer elite DV-07 301cd/dvd, niles ipc 12(dealer said I need one, now I know I could have upgrade the breakers in the box and been better off), nht sub sw2pi great sub for the price, but looking for more now. Looking to get a bat pre to better my 2 channel. Really bat 3i, vk200, ml, pioneer cd(I found surenergy here, for me any how) transparent music wave thru out, except the interconnects betw the dc and bat is rca to balanced from analsyst plus. Dealer told me the analsyst would sound better than the transparent, well I say you should have saved me the money and sold me the analsyst first. Sorry alittle excited there. And thats about it. Looking for a little help here. Thinking of the vmps subs and marchland xcross over. If anyone has any knowledge of this e-mail me at pcc67@mediaone.net I'll try to keep the question short, but probably not. See ya, have fun audio friends. Love this site, some of you really know what your doing and I appreciate all the help I have received. Thanx Pete

Nice to meet all of you. I'm audiogon member msw26, a 43-year-old, single guy with no children living "uptown" in NYC with over 1600 CDs. I work in the computer field for a brokerage firm on the weekends and am pursuing an M.A. in statistical sociology at one of the local colleges during the week. I recently replaced my old Yamaha reciever (given to my cousin, an over-educated, under-employed academic, and her partner) with an amplifier, pre-amplifier and tuner.

The old system had two pairs of bookshelf speakers (Infinity and Paradigm, also with cousin). I wasn't attempting to emulate "surround sound." It was modeled more on the old Bose "direct reflecting" idea that non-destructive signals from several directions would sound superior over a larger listening space than a more "focused" sound originating from only two speakers. I first noticed this benefit when an old college roommate (another amateur audio enthusiast who continues to build his own speakers) and I combined our separate stereos in a small college apartment. Unfortunately, I still live in a small (Manhattan) apartment and really don't have the space to arrange all my possessions around a designated "listening" area with only two speakers. At any rate, the old system (now with the cousin) sounded better when arranged with the "diffused" approach than with the "focused" approach, so I tried to replicate this design using better equipment. This may or may not have been a mistake. I'm still playing with it.

Largely on the audiogon website, I've purchased mostly used equipment and begun to assemble my first real "hi-fi" system (or at least, something approaching it) at a significant discount: a Krell KAV-500 amplifier, (I know it's intended for home theater, but the ancient wiring in my pre-war apartment building really can't support the four monoblocks I'd prefer) a Pass Labs X-0 preamplifier, (2 sets of balanced outputs. When I leave NYC, hopefully I'll own a house where I can have the four monoblocks and long XLR interconnections) and again, two pairs of bookshelf loudspeakers: (1) Sonus Faber Extremas (2) Dynaudio Confidence 3. (I know many audiophiles will think these are a little light on the lower end, but this actually allows me to play music louder in my apartment building without bothering my neighbors!) DH Labs Q-10 speaker cables (internally bi-wired for the Sonus Fabers) and Air Matrix interconnects thoughout.

Currently, I'm looking to replace the ancient CD Onkyo player (circa 1987) with an HBB 850 Plus CD recorder. My tentative upgrade path is to eventually add AES/EBU connections to both an MSB Platinum DAC and a Perpetual Technologies P-1A, the latter for its upsampling and jitter reduction capabilities. After that, perhaps a PS Audio P300 to regulate the power for the pre-amp, CDR, P-1A and DAC. Eventually, I'll add another CD transport so I can actually copy an out-of-print CD or two!

While the 100 watt-per-channel Krell KAV-500 doesn't struggle to drive these two demanding pairs of speakers, it doesn't exactly overpower them, either. Purchased used, the amplifier did not come with all the documentation, although one line of text in one document suggested that if I remove one channel, the power distributed to the remaining four channels will increase. Krell has not been overly responsive to this owner of a piece of used equipment that don't even make any longer, (I think) and I'm loath to damage the thing while trying to "improve" the system, but I toy with the idea. If anyone has any idea, about this or anything else, please feel free to contact me directly: msw26@columbia.edu

Take care,
Mike Watkins

Hi everyone. I've been asking myself the question for most of my 51 years. I'm a retired pension actuary. Yeah, I know, the most boring guys in the world! Well, considering I'm a residential landlord on Long Island, I've got bad and worse covered. Happy that we're married 22 years, we have three children; 12,17,19 who remind us regularly we just here to see them through life.

I re-found music and beauty in my life this past year when I retired. I am astonished how I'm captivated by the presence of music. I built a two-channel system in the living room and an 11-seat theater in the den. The two channel is Levinson/Levinson, Resolution Audio/Dunlavy/PS Audio and the theater is Citation/Citation/Proceed/Panasonic DVD/Hitachi HDTV/with theater seats.

Our family loves the presence of the music now throughout our lives.

Our older son is an electrical engineering major and is into car audio about one tick lower than my interest. His ability is a little smaller than his interest.

We live in northern Westchester County, here in NY.

Other than the expensive nature of this illness, it causes me to seek out additional cd vendors and live concerts I never realized that I needed. I am truly grateful for the added dimension and tranquility audio is/has given to me.

I also want to thank those who have taken the time and interest to help me learn the little I know in order to put the systems together. Thanks. Bill

hey lakefrontroad, tell yer son - i'm into car-audio too - nuttin' like the wail of the 3-litre alfa v6 in my daily-driver at 6.5k rpms! and, w/a commute of 45 miles each way, there's lotsa time for music! :>)

regards, doug

ps-no radio in my daily-driver - *that* kinda music can wait 'til i get home... ;~)