Hi Guys,
First, I'd like to thank Steve and Amir for opening up this sub forum for me.
I suppose my obsession to music and audio gear started back in 1980 on my 2nd birthday. Santa brought me a Fisher Price record player. My first records were AC/DC's Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, And Led Zeppelin 1 & 2. I think I had them worn out by the time I was 3. Sometime around then my aunt gave me all of her old 45's of classic rock from the 60's. CCR, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones etc was what I remember listening to over and over.
Stereo's and big speakers were something I was always drawn to. Whenever my parent's took me to someone's house, first thing I would do is check out their audio system. I've also always been interested in how things work. I don't think there was a toy that had a motor in it I didn't take apart. I was more interested in seeing the motor function out of the toy, than in the toy. I suppose my first experience with modding audio gear was around 8 years old. I dismantled an 80's ghetto blaster, and taped the raw drivers to my bedposts. This is when I discovered how much bass was lost running drivers in free air. But at the same time there was a purity to the sound due to the plastic box not contributing to the sound.
Fast forward to 1989, my father (Who I didn't live with) bought a new system with Klipschorns powered by the best Harman/Kardon gear available at the time. Every time I went to visit, I cranked up that system to deafening levels. In 1990 I started working during the summers at my Grandfather's stair building shop. I learned many things about woodworking. In 1992 @ the age of 14, I bought my first audio system of my own. It consisted of a used Harman/Kardon Integrated amp, Pioneer CD player, and JBL bookshelf speakers. The amp came from a garage sale, CD player new from an audio store, and JBL's from a pawn shop. It actually sounded half decent at the time. I used to bring it around to all my friends places for parties and listening. All my friends at the time were into the same classic rock I was into as well. It was also around this time I got my first subscription to Stereo review. In 1993 I moved up to Stereophile, and The Absolute sound. I one of the highlights of the month for me was when these magazines arrived in the mail box. I read every detail from front to back including the AD's.
Sometime in 1994 I seen an ad for Madisound speaker kits in the back of Stereophile if I recall correctly. I called them up and got them to send me a package of all of their offerings. When the package arrived, I was blown away with all of the quality drivers and kits. This is when I knew buying commercial speakers would be a thing of the past for me. I really started getting obsessed with speakers after this. I wrote every speaker manufacturer I could find and got them to send me brochures on their speakers. I studied every type of joinery technique, wood, composite material I could find. I was constantly in the local high end shops drooling over the systems. I ordered some Focal 5.25" doped paper coned midbasses to replace my JBL midwoofers in my bookshelf speakers. They sounded wonderful. Next with money from working at grampa's shop, I upgraded my amp to a used Sumo Andromeda III, a circa 1980 Apt Holman preamp, and Marantz CD 63SE
http://www.stereophile.com/content/...mo-andromeda-iii-may-1996#ALApTJRCLfRFdzvL.97
http://kenrockwell.com/audio/apt/holman-preamplifier.htm
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/cd63e.html
This was quite a big step up from the HK/Pioneer gear.
In 1995 I discovered there was a local dealer of Focal drivers in my city. I used to take the bus to his place and drool over his speakers. I decided to build my first set of bookshelf speakers shortly after using I believe the Focal 6K415 midwoofer, and Dynaudio E28 soft dome tweeter. At the time I just bought a Radio Shack SPL meter, and used a test tone CD, and plotted down measurements on a chart to get a frequency response curve. I started out using circuits based on theoretical circuits generated by a rudimentary software called Topbox. For there I would just use trial and error to get them to sound good. This worked out surprisingly good, and that speaker ended up holding it's own with the popular commercial designs at the time such as the Totem Mani 2. Eventually I bought the Clio PCI card based measurement system. After a couple years of building cabinets by hand, I decided to start farming out the material milling to a local cabinet shop with a big CNC machine. This was in 2000. I came up with a 2.5 way floor standing system using Dual paper coned Axon 6S1 7" midwoofers, and the LPG 26T tweeter. This was an exceptional sounding speaker for the price and I sold quite a few pairs. I built a pile of other 1 off's during the course of the 15 years since.
I guess I'm leaving out the part where I started working on drilling rigs in the oilfield in 1997. This took up the majority of my time. So the audio was always more on a hobby level. I did quite a few other things in between like import BMW's from southern California to Canada to resell. So I never got very serious about entering the commercial market with any products. I started making amps back in 2007 using Hypex amp modules, and have been tinkering with preamps, volume controls, and DAC's ever since as well. In 2010 I started a Directional drilling Consulting company, and spent 200+ days a year in remote areas of Northern Canada. Things really nosedived in this sector last winter when the price of oil plunged. So I decided this will be a great time to get finally serious with audio, and tackle some projects I've had in the works for many years.
So currently I'm working on a SOTA active speaker system. Another project is a stand alone 2 channel streamer/DAC/amp combo unit. I have teams in 6 countries working on different parts of the system. But I'm hoping to have the 2 channel combo unit ready early in the new year.
There's a bunch of details missing, but good enough. I have some things to do so just gonna have to leave it here.
Anyways my goal with this sub forum is to discuss technology I believe in, as well as dispel misconceptions in the world of high end audio. Hopefully the topics discussed will help the readers obtain better sound in their homes for their hard earned dollars.
Thanks,
Blizzard
First, I'd like to thank Steve and Amir for opening up this sub forum for me.
I suppose my obsession to music and audio gear started back in 1980 on my 2nd birthday. Santa brought me a Fisher Price record player. My first records were AC/DC's Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, And Led Zeppelin 1 & 2. I think I had them worn out by the time I was 3. Sometime around then my aunt gave me all of her old 45's of classic rock from the 60's. CCR, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones etc was what I remember listening to over and over.
Stereo's and big speakers were something I was always drawn to. Whenever my parent's took me to someone's house, first thing I would do is check out their audio system. I've also always been interested in how things work. I don't think there was a toy that had a motor in it I didn't take apart. I was more interested in seeing the motor function out of the toy, than in the toy. I suppose my first experience with modding audio gear was around 8 years old. I dismantled an 80's ghetto blaster, and taped the raw drivers to my bedposts. This is when I discovered how much bass was lost running drivers in free air. But at the same time there was a purity to the sound due to the plastic box not contributing to the sound.
Fast forward to 1989, my father (Who I didn't live with) bought a new system with Klipschorns powered by the best Harman/Kardon gear available at the time. Every time I went to visit, I cranked up that system to deafening levels. In 1990 I started working during the summers at my Grandfather's stair building shop. I learned many things about woodworking. In 1992 @ the age of 14, I bought my first audio system of my own. It consisted of a used Harman/Kardon Integrated amp, Pioneer CD player, and JBL bookshelf speakers. The amp came from a garage sale, CD player new from an audio store, and JBL's from a pawn shop. It actually sounded half decent at the time. I used to bring it around to all my friends places for parties and listening. All my friends at the time were into the same classic rock I was into as well. It was also around this time I got my first subscription to Stereo review. In 1993 I moved up to Stereophile, and The Absolute sound. I one of the highlights of the month for me was when these magazines arrived in the mail box. I read every detail from front to back including the AD's.
Sometime in 1994 I seen an ad for Madisound speaker kits in the back of Stereophile if I recall correctly. I called them up and got them to send me a package of all of their offerings. When the package arrived, I was blown away with all of the quality drivers and kits. This is when I knew buying commercial speakers would be a thing of the past for me. I really started getting obsessed with speakers after this. I wrote every speaker manufacturer I could find and got them to send me brochures on their speakers. I studied every type of joinery technique, wood, composite material I could find. I was constantly in the local high end shops drooling over the systems. I ordered some Focal 5.25" doped paper coned midbasses to replace my JBL midwoofers in my bookshelf speakers. They sounded wonderful. Next with money from working at grampa's shop, I upgraded my amp to a used Sumo Andromeda III, a circa 1980 Apt Holman preamp, and Marantz CD 63SE
http://www.stereophile.com/content/...mo-andromeda-iii-may-1996#ALApTJRCLfRFdzvL.97
http://kenrockwell.com/audio/apt/holman-preamplifier.htm
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/cd63e.html
This was quite a big step up from the HK/Pioneer gear.
In 1995 I discovered there was a local dealer of Focal drivers in my city. I used to take the bus to his place and drool over his speakers. I decided to build my first set of bookshelf speakers shortly after using I believe the Focal 6K415 midwoofer, and Dynaudio E28 soft dome tweeter. At the time I just bought a Radio Shack SPL meter, and used a test tone CD, and plotted down measurements on a chart to get a frequency response curve. I started out using circuits based on theoretical circuits generated by a rudimentary software called Topbox. For there I would just use trial and error to get them to sound good. This worked out surprisingly good, and that speaker ended up holding it's own with the popular commercial designs at the time such as the Totem Mani 2. Eventually I bought the Clio PCI card based measurement system. After a couple years of building cabinets by hand, I decided to start farming out the material milling to a local cabinet shop with a big CNC machine. This was in 2000. I came up with a 2.5 way floor standing system using Dual paper coned Axon 6S1 7" midwoofers, and the LPG 26T tweeter. This was an exceptional sounding speaker for the price and I sold quite a few pairs. I built a pile of other 1 off's during the course of the 15 years since.
I guess I'm leaving out the part where I started working on drilling rigs in the oilfield in 1997. This took up the majority of my time. So the audio was always more on a hobby level. I did quite a few other things in between like import BMW's from southern California to Canada to resell. So I never got very serious about entering the commercial market with any products. I started making amps back in 2007 using Hypex amp modules, and have been tinkering with preamps, volume controls, and DAC's ever since as well. In 2010 I started a Directional drilling Consulting company, and spent 200+ days a year in remote areas of Northern Canada. Things really nosedived in this sector last winter when the price of oil plunged. So I decided this will be a great time to get finally serious with audio, and tackle some projects I've had in the works for many years.
So currently I'm working on a SOTA active speaker system. Another project is a stand alone 2 channel streamer/DAC/amp combo unit. I have teams in 6 countries working on different parts of the system. But I'm hoping to have the 2 channel combo unit ready early in the new year.
There's a bunch of details missing, but good enough. I have some things to do so just gonna have to leave it here.
Anyways my goal with this sub forum is to discuss technology I believe in, as well as dispel misconceptions in the world of high end audio. Hopefully the topics discussed will help the readers obtain better sound in their homes for their hard earned dollars.
Thanks,
Blizzard
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