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It is not so important where one
starts out in life but where one finishes. Starting to get heavily
addicted to the Hi-Fi lifestyle from a toddler what possible hope did I
have at being a 'normal' Sony Mini-System type guy...? NONE.
Constantly being encouraged by my
enthusiastic Hi-Fi obsessed father to experiment with different
equipment configurations and being trained to isolate the differences in
each component with regard to major changes in soundstage, sound
coloration and frequency separation at every waking moment.
I continually
look back on my younger days spent with my father, listening together to his
extensive vinyl collection till the small hours of each morning in my
early childhood with total awe and amazement. As young children go I was
no exception, and was always full of questions about what things did and
how they worked. Never once do I recall him turning to me to say that he was too busy
or he didn't have the time to explain things to me. When he was busy he
found the time, when he was tired he found the energy and when he was
distracted he found the patience.
Nothing mattered
except the music, time & space stood still when we we totally consumed
with the fantastic sound of those great albums.
Each and everyday learning more
and more about electronics and being continually challenged with the
latest technological developments of the day. Looking back upon
everything it is staggering to see how far have we all progressed.
I highly recommend this approach
to all parents out there that are looking for a healthy and educational
activity that both parents and children can actively participate in
together. Involving young children in this fantastic quest of sonic
perfection has many more rewards both sonically and emotionally then you
may first ever think possible.
Taking over my father's Hi-Fi
business (Dr Hi-Fi House Calls) in 1995, I have been immersed and
committed to this delightful industry for as long as I can remember;
from childhood through to today.
In my later years I was heavily
influenced by a close friend who I have known since I could crawl and
who is an eccentric Electronic Engineer and as luck would have it is
extremely experienced with vacuum tube based audio products. I first
remember my father taking me into his Hi-Fi shop when I was a young boy
to say hello and have a chat on a Saturday morning (life moved more
slowly back then) and apart from being scared out of my pants by his
freaky personality I was totally floored with all the equipment he had
on hand. It was the world's best toy store for me as a young kid to
explore and look through.
Years latter this same fellow felt
sorry for me and my system. He gave me a good quality valve amplifier to take home and play with for the weekend with the words, "Do
you want to hear some real music now James...?". Needless to say I never
gave it back to him and I'm sure he knew that well before he lent it to
me. He's one smart guy. This man had long ago mastered the essential art
of public relations down to a tee. He knew he could have told me the
'Facts' 1000 times over but things have a much stronger impact when you
discover them yourself. No man likes to feel that he is being sold
something or told to do something, myself included. We all much prefer
to feel that we are buying of our own accord or acting on our own free
will.
Knowing what I do today, I remember
being so upset with myself at the time from when I first heard an old
valve amplifier (my jaw dropped to the floor, I was stunned)
from wasting so many years which can never be recovered at any price
from listening to such inferior rubbish I wished heaven & earth someone
had shown me a higher path earlier. It was a bitter sweet lesson learned
at 'The School of Hard Knocks' which I will remember all my life. Often
the lessons hardest learned in life are the ones least forgotten.
This has now become my main system. Just finished my little weekend project. As do many of us today, I spend a considerable amount of
time in front of my computer each day answering all your e-mails and performing
other tasks. I just wasn't using my Reference System # 2 enough to justify only
having one system.
Therefore I have developed a second Reference System for
music in my office. Just to make the working day fly-by a little
faster it is amazing what can be achieved even in very confined spaces. I'm not
kidding when I say 'confined space'; try a 2.6m x 3.6m office.
So I have proven for a Reference System you do NOT have
to have a massive purpose built room with the ultimate in sound acoustics to
create a very pleasing listening experience.
Hooked up to my Laptop in addition to the Wadia 170i
which is my main source component, the systems also doubles as a computer
speaker system for multi-media requirements.
If using your computer/Hi-Fi system for serious audio
performance I strongly recommend using an external music server (in my case a
Wadia 170i) rather than your computer as the source. No loss of Audio will be
the advantage if you have to Restart or you are using other demanding
programs at the same time. Ripping all your music to your computer in Apple
Lossless format then using the Wadia 170i into a good DAC gives you a great
starting point for a compact system configuration.
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