It never ends....


Well, I went down to the local dealer for their Memorial Day sale. Did not really intend to buy anything; maybe just avail myself of their wonderful offer to accept at 100% trade-in for speakers bought there, so I brought the sales slip for the Aerius' I bought there in Dec 00 "just in case" something there caught my fancy. Wouldn't ya know it, the Ascents were just waiting my arrival. Could be the end of the story, but ohhhhhhhhhh no.

So, I'm standing there with the sales slip for the Aerius' that are sitting in my house getting ready to "do the deal" and the salesman says "Geez Mitch, bet those Areius would sound great in your home theater" (which is all Klipsch right now). The wheels start to turn in my head..."I got this huge refund from Uncle Sam and all I did with it was pay off bills (mostly stereo stuff), I'm starting a new job in 2 months that will just about double my salary, there is no "Mrs Mitch" at home to bitch (man, do I love that rhyme, although the previous two Mrs Mitchell's weren't to crazy about it) at me if I do this...heck...I ought to be a bit self-indulgent and just skip the trade in and buy the Ascents out-right..."

Did just that. So now for my home theater I also need the "Bat Wing" M/L center channel and some M/L surrounds...of course, with this quality speaker, I'll need to scrap the Technics Dolby 5.1 reciever for a whole bunch of Levinson, BAT, C/J, Proceed or Anthem stuff...

You know, it never ends...no matter what you have, you always want better. Complacency breeds mediocrity...

I can still remember (faintly at best) my first Radio Shack stereo...do any of you remember your first stereo?

Anxiously awaiting the delivery of my Ascents (with the custom made side panels of course...)...

Mitch
128x128vermonter
My first "stereo" was a Midas under-dash FM/8-track that I bolted under a bookshelf in my bedroom. Also on the bookshelf were a pair of non-descript 6x9 speakers in home-made particle board boxes. The system was powered by an old 12-volt battery/trickle charger directly below my room in the basement.

I upgraded the system a few months later with a quad unit and a couple more speakers. Laying with my head at the foot of the bed put my ears roughly in the center of the four speakers. Frankenstein (Edgar Winter Group, not Mary Shelley's) never sounded so good...

RLW
Hey Vermonter,

I can totally understand your purchases!

Especially since my tax refunds also went to paying off my debt from residency and stereo stuff...

I'm single, and fortunately for me, my girlfriend understands (or at least tolerates, as long as she gets vacations/jewelry etc....) my stereo purchases! I wonder sometimes, since the new jewelry cost me almost as much as the subwoofer....are we really avoiding the WAF??

Oh well, I love the system, and she fortunately has my brother to compare to (who's got fortunes in equipment sitting in the boxes waiting for over a year for his house to be done!) so she's fairly forgiving!

BTW: My first stereo was a Pioneer Amp (65 wpc) with a Technics linear tracking turntable, Rotel tuner (surprisingly still in my system!) and Akai deck, I think the speakers were homemade, it was loud, that's all I remember of it! I guess it's like anything else, the more you experience, the better your taste becomes!

Happy listening!
GROUNDHOG DAY. 35 or so years ago my first system consisted of some speakers and a Marantz 7 and an 8B. I thought it was the cats butt. Been thru DOZENS of amps since then. Last week I bought an 8B after hearing one at a friends house. The price has gone up a bit however. My first one was less than $300.00 and I can't even afford a 7 anymore. NEVER ENDS.
Vermonter, start with a good digital cable, do the long speaker cable runs later. Harmonic Tech Cyberlink Platinum, or Acoustic Zen MC2 come to mind. If system is bright at all, try MC2, if neutral, try H.Tech.
Bob (aka snooker)

Born in Burlington (oh so many years ago)--moved around a bit, then returned to Vt (Northfield) as a 7th grader. Whole family is still in the state...I am the wandering one of the clan. I leave for Bosnia in 2 months to rebuild everything we bombed during the war...gonna be a hoot!

There is a user on the site (PCC) from around Portsmouth NH who seems to have a good line on stereo shops in that area if you are interested in a road trip...he must have good taste 'cuz he has M/L Aerius's as well...

You know, when ever I made a large, kind of impulse, purchase in the past, I'd inevitably get buyer's remorse (jeez, that was alot of money you did not need to be spending right now...). What is starting to scare the heck outta me is that when I've got some obscenely expensive cables headed my way, or some speakers that are gonna be really nice (but cost alotta coin), I don't have buyer's remorse--I just sit with my nose pressed to the window waiting for the big blue USPS or big brown UPS truck to pull up in my driveway (stole that thought from someone else on the site). Kind of a stereohponic pavlovian response. This is gonna be expensive...

Mitch