Why Highdudgeon? Really, because I love opera and it is a wonderfully archaic word. Think of Wotan skulking across the sage, dragging a spear, wearing a hat with pointy horns, and actually trying to be serious and indignant. Anyway, it is a word I like.
My name is George. As a disclaimer, I am very pround to be a Slim Devices retailer. My immediate plans, in fact, are to carry this business to Europe and to help place SD products with high-end dealers in central and southern Europe. I am moving to Italy (the Venetto) with my family, where my wife will practice medicine at a hospital in Vicenza, some 45 miles from Venice. We have already been there this fall on a house-hunting mission and I had a wonderful time demonstrating the Transporter on a system that included Sonus Faber Stradivarius speakers. Awesome. I am in my early forties. My educational background is in history and physics, at the graduate level, but fortune (in the sense of accident) led my to the IT industry in my lates 20s. This allowed me to upgrade my first "serious" system -- on a college student's budget -- which consisted of a Thorens 'table, NAD integrated amp, Nakamichi tape deck (remember those?), and B&W bookshelf speakers. The next move up was to an ARC D-100 amp, ARC SP9 Mk II preamp (marvelous device), I suddenly can't remember the CD player, and Canton speakers. I've been interested in audio from an early age, being an avid music collector, musician, and lover of live music. I had been exposed to some excellent systems in my youth. My bought my first system with savings from a summer job after my freshman year in college. From there, it was a slippery slope. Tubes (Quad, ARC, McIntosh, Cary), solid state (Plinius, NAD, ARC, McIntosh, Bel Canto -- twice -- Nuforce, Bryston, Carver, and probably a few others); electrostatics, floorstanders, monitors; CD players, universal players, SB3, Transporter. Expensive cables (Acoustic Zen Satoris, Oval 9's,s etc.) and inexpensive cables (Blue Jeans Cables now, and Apogee Wyde Eyed for digital...I guess that's not so cheap). EQ devices (Rane, Behringer, Z-Systems). Various DACs. Probably the most expensive system I have had in my house was the following: Harbeth Monitor 40s (incidentally, among the handful of very best amps I have ever heard, at any price), McIntosh MC-501s (a vanity purchase; I traded down); Squeeze Box 3 and Lavry DA10. Because of our move, large speakers are not an option -- my new room is too small. I have "downgraded" to Harbeth Monitor 30s, backed up by the same ACI Force subs. The subs are in the corders and the speakers are set up per Allison rules. I am running a Transporter directly into a paid of Bel Canto Ref 1000. The Bel Cantos replaced the Nuforces...I just had too many issues with that company and have had problems with the things. The BC's are probably 99% as good as any amp needs to be. They're up there with the MC-402. The MC-402 sounds exactly like the MC-501s. Stereophile compared the MC-501s to $30K+ Halcros as being pretty much the same. Why a switching amp? Because they are small and runn on US and European voltage. Ditto for the Transporter! Plug for Audio Concepts: they will retrofit the amps on my subs for 220/240 for free. Anyway, this is hardly the best system on the planet and, thanks to the very wonderful but admittedly small monitors, it lacks the body of a system with true full-range speakers (of comparable quality, of course). Audio philosophy: My rule of thumb is to spend more money on tickets to live music and on CDs than I do home audio. To begin with, I have two small children and, quite honestly, my listening time at home is limited (somehow, they have yet to damage anything...that amazes me every day). Having gone through as much equipment as I have, knowing as my audiophiles as I do, and having a background in the sciences (I was even managing editor of a psychology journal whilst in grad school...managing as in I did all the dirty work for the academic editor) leads me to believe in the value of double-blind testing. You need to work with one or more friends or family members to do this, of course. Ideally, you should have a few listeners, too, but that is not necessary. I don't do this all the time, of course, but it is fun to do. Educational, too. On the other hand, I am very much a subjectivist, too. This is about enjoyment, right? I really dig and believe in fine solid state amps for their accuracy. However, I have a pair of McIntosh MC-275s. They are NOT on the same level of accuracy as an SS amp and you can immediately hear this. They are wonderfully warm and rich, though, and I love them for that. My reasons are purely emotional. Above all, my philosophy is simply to have fun, enjoy the hobby, and remember that it is all about enjoying music. That is why I enjoy the Sb3 and Transporter so much and why I believe in Slim Devices. Their products heighten my ability to enjoy music in a way that suits my technical interests and basic desires: it is flexible, open-source (I'm waiting for Inguz for Mac!), and allows unlimited access to my music collection while reproducing it with uncompromised quality. I just think these guys are smart as hell and on the bleeding edge. This is not marketing hype; this is how I feel. -- highdudgeon Relax. It's about the music. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ highdudgeon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2195 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
