My audiophile
Corner.
I have been an
audiophile since
the early 1970's.
Back in the day, I ran an Audio Transcriptors turntable with a Dynaco PAT V preamplifier, Soundcraftsmen 2012 equalizer, a Marantz 240 Power Amp, Akai 1730DSS "Quadraphonic" open reel tape deck, a Pioneer Tuner, and Jantzen electrostatic speakers. SEE BELOW!
My current audio equipment is a combination of traditional analog and modern digital sources amplifed by 1950's style tube technology. I have a Shanling tube preamp stage CD deck, Meixing tube preamplifier, Mitchell Technodec turntable with a Ortophon Red cartridge, Teac reel deck, Akai Gxc65d Cassette deck, dual Shanling SP80 tube monoblock amplifiers, tube headphone amps, lots of custom ultra low distortion silver wire cables, and Swans high efficiency speakers.
I also drive, in parallel, dual 15" Klipsch powered sub-woofers through my Denon 7.1 suround sound reciever.
All the Chinese tubes have been repalced with American or British NOS GE and Mullard tubes.
To me, there is nothing quite as engaging as listening to a vinyl record on a nice turntable.
Here are some photos of my current equipment.
While we are on the subject of music,
here are mytop 20 favorite Clasical Rock
recording artists:
1) Beatles
2) Pink Floyd
3) Led Zeppelin
4) The Doors
5) Jimi Hendrix
6) Queen
7) Yes
8) The Who
9) Supertramp
10) Santana
11) Emerson Lake & Palmer
12) Beach Boys
13) Moody Blues
14) Rolling Stones
15) ZZ Top
16) Sting and The Police
17) David Bowie
18) Electric Light Orchestra
19) Bruce Springsteen
20) George Thorogood
In addition to Classsical Rock, I love 80's alternative from bands such as Talking Heads and Devo.
I enjoy solo artists like Tom Jones and Leonard Cohen. I listen to quite a bit of classic blues from BB King, John Lee Hooker, Leadbelly, and Muddy Waters. And who doesn't love the flamenco sound of the Gipsy Kings? (Who I have seen 3 times in concert).
I have a great fondness for Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and especially like HMS Pinafore. I also enjoy clasical composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, Handel and Bach.
Last but not least, I come from a strong Scottish heritage and grew up listening to bagpipes. My father was a piper, and I very much enjoy Highland pipes and drums.
We Will Rock You
Austin, TX
10/24/2019
Our home-office sound system.
For our home office area, we have a tube based stereo radio called the TESSLOR. 100% 50's style
tube electronics, but brand new technology.
What a cool little radio with that special
sweet and fat tube sound. We often tune in
SPOTIFY or Sirius XM on an iPad and stream
it wirelessly to the auxiliary RCA inputs of
this radio through an APPLE TV unit coupled
to a digital to analog converter. Check out
the "Magic Eye" channel tuner!
It's great fun to listen to recorded old time radio broadcasts, or vintage Christmas music from Bing Crosby over this softly glowing beauty.
My Vintage Tube Radio
In our kitchen, we have a number of 1950's appliances on display, including my other tube radio - a 1953 Crosley "Dashboard" AM radio. It still works OK, but picks up a bit of an AC humm. Probably a weak tube or leaky capacitor. I will get it serviced one of these days.
A very neat display piece that brings you back to the days.
My vintage Audio gear. (ca 1973)
Man, do I wish I had kept some of it.
