Post by Moz on Dec 18, 2007 6:57:09 GMT 7
Share your stories here. Let me start off with my story:
I had been an audio buff since my school days - building speaker designs from Popular Mechanics and Electronic enthusiast, tearing apart my mini-components etc. I guess my dad's love for music had rubbed off on me. He wasn't an audiophile. he was more a music lover and would play a lot of his LPs on his National stereophonic console.
In the late 80's I was running a pro-audio outfit setting up sound, lights and video for live concerts, conferences, discos and the like. In the early 90's I started with a simple NAD integrated , Sony first gen CDP and several bookshelf speakers like Wharfedales, B&Ws but maintained a DIY'd stander based on the d'Appolito design.
I sold the audio gear I had sometime in the mid-90's. From then on, I would do consulting for friends and clients who were building music rooms and home theaters.
Later in 2000, I was with a mobile techie group when a fellow member (Arnoldc) started getting into audio and needed some advise. I had been off audio for several years but I rediscovered my love for it as I went around the shops with Arnold in his hunt.
This led me to go on my own hunt to set up a basic system. I had then a Pioneer stable platter player (PDS705 I think) which I mated with an Audio Alchemy DAC that a client gave me after we had upgraded his system.
A few weeks later I got a pre-owned Italian made ss amp (the brand escapes me at the moment).
I went from shop to shop lugging around my amp as I demo'd a lineup of speakers.
None of them pulled my hearstrings and I did not want to rush buying anything. After office hours I would sometimes drop by Rene Rivo's shop and just listen to the CD's he was selling.
His shop is full of audio stuff and sometimes you just can't tell what's playing. During that time, he had been playing music through a small black unobtrusive looking speaker in one corner.
One day when I had run out of options, I asked Rene what was playing and he said an LS3/5A. I must admit I did not know much about this speaker then. I asked rene if I could bring it home and try it out overnight.
I wasn't really that excited about it and it turns out that there was a thunderstorm just before I decided to hook it up. I waited an hour for the storm to pass and loaded my first CD. As the music flowed out I could only mutter words of the 4-letter variety..s**t, holy s**t etc.
When I first heard it, I was hooked. The LS3/5A did not play
especially loud but I loved its tonality, musicality and the imaging was just mind boggling.
I had to stop because of the lighting storm so I texted Rene (it was
about 11 P.M.) asking for another day's extension to which he
replied.."No problem because I know you won't return it." The rest as
they say is history...
I had been an audio buff since my school days - building speaker designs from Popular Mechanics and Electronic enthusiast, tearing apart my mini-components etc. I guess my dad's love for music had rubbed off on me. He wasn't an audiophile. he was more a music lover and would play a lot of his LPs on his National stereophonic console.
In the late 80's I was running a pro-audio outfit setting up sound, lights and video for live concerts, conferences, discos and the like. In the early 90's I started with a simple NAD integrated , Sony first gen CDP and several bookshelf speakers like Wharfedales, B&Ws but maintained a DIY'd stander based on the d'Appolito design.
I sold the audio gear I had sometime in the mid-90's. From then on, I would do consulting for friends and clients who were building music rooms and home theaters.
Later in 2000, I was with a mobile techie group when a fellow member (Arnoldc) started getting into audio and needed some advise. I had been off audio for several years but I rediscovered my love for it as I went around the shops with Arnold in his hunt.
This led me to go on my own hunt to set up a basic system. I had then a Pioneer stable platter player (PDS705 I think) which I mated with an Audio Alchemy DAC that a client gave me after we had upgraded his system.
A few weeks later I got a pre-owned Italian made ss amp (the brand escapes me at the moment).
I went from shop to shop lugging around my amp as I demo'd a lineup of speakers.
None of them pulled my hearstrings and I did not want to rush buying anything. After office hours I would sometimes drop by Rene Rivo's shop and just listen to the CD's he was selling.
His shop is full of audio stuff and sometimes you just can't tell what's playing. During that time, he had been playing music through a small black unobtrusive looking speaker in one corner.
One day when I had run out of options, I asked Rene what was playing and he said an LS3/5A. I must admit I did not know much about this speaker then. I asked rene if I could bring it home and try it out overnight.
I wasn't really that excited about it and it turns out that there was a thunderstorm just before I decided to hook it up. I waited an hour for the storm to pass and loaded my first CD. As the music flowed out I could only mutter words of the 4-letter variety..s**t, holy s**t etc.
When I first heard it, I was hooked. The LS3/5A did not play
especially loud but I loved its tonality, musicality and the imaging was just mind boggling.
I had to stop because of the lighting storm so I texted Rene (it was
about 11 P.M.) asking for another day's extension to which he
replied.."No problem because I know you won't return it." The rest as
they say is history...