My hi-fi journey PART 1

In the 70's I purchased a Pye tuner with built in cassette deck and bookshelf speakers from Hardmans radio store in the Chester pecinct. No vinyl at this point and making up my own compilation tapes from the radio.

I could hear the sonic  limitations and purchased my Yamaha 820 receiver from the same store. Would have liked the 1020 or 2020 model but these would not fit on my shelf!

Now the power output was too big for my Pye speakers so I took a trip to Wimslow audio to audition the British Tangent RS4 speakers which had been positively reviewed against the Kef 103 speakers.

I auditioned the Tangent TM1 and RS4 speakers whilst listening to the Izitso LP by Cat Stevens. The RS4 won and I was now hooked on vinyl. The LP and speakers came home with me.

I was now short of a turntable. Loved the look of the Linn Sondek LP12 but it was too expensive so purchased the Thorens TD145 MK2 which had a similar design and build quality. Reviewed many cartridge write ups and eventually settled on the Ortofon VMS20E.

I now had a decent sounding setup and started to build up my record collection. I however missed making up my own compilation tapes and metal tape decks had just been marketed and Hardmans had a demo Aiwa 6900 mk1 FeCr for sale . This was the next purchase to make my system complete.

I tried to introduce a son to vinyl and bought a used Thorens TD160 for him. He used it for a while but did not get the bug and gave it back to me. I have incorporated this into my system also as this is fitted with an Ortofon OM30 Supreme cartridge

    CONTINUED

I bought a used Yamaha CR400 receiver for spares since I suffered a power transistor failure on the CR820

I also bought a used Thorens TD150 for spares.

A friend was disposing of an Armstrong 625 receiver which I purchased and experimented with for a while but it lacked in power and presence and was sold on..I must stop buying random pieces of equipment.

Now I was building up quite a collection of LP'S and singles from various sources. I will talk about this later.

I saw a newspaper advertisement for a pair of B&W 802 speakers for £50. The chap selling said that his wife did not like them and he bought a small stacking system to replace his seperates. He also sold me his QUAD 405 amplifier and QUAD 44 preamp.

I moved the B&W speakers into another room,, run new speaker cables in and installed a speaker selection switch in the Quad output circuit which would enable me to select a combination of speakers and rooms.

The QUAD 405 eveloped a hum and needed attention so I sold it and purchased a QUAD 405-2 instead which I still use today.

I always liked the appearance of the Transcriptor hydraulic reference turntable and took the plunge. I travelled 150 miles to pick it up. It was fitted with an SME 3009 arm which I had always admired.

I was lucky to find several NOS Ortofon moving coil cartridges for sale on Ebay. They were the MC25FL, MC10, 20 AND 30 Supreme. I experimented with them on the transcriptor and settled on the MC30

The Quad 44 preamp had a mm input card only but I managed to source a mc input card which I replaced the radio input card with. I could now connect mm or mc cartridges to the Quad system.

Why have two systems and 2 rooms?

System 1 is located in the living room with soft furnishing, good speaker placement and good room acoustics. The Tangent speakers create a very spacious soundscape and the listening position is good.

System 2 is located in the dining room with laminate flooring and is a more reverby environment. I have installed both Transcriptor and Thorens TD160 decks next to the Quad amplifier to give me a turntable choice.

TO BE CONTINUED

My AIWA cassette deck started to play up and I spent several weeks trying to fix it to no avail so it was sold on for spares.

I picked up a Tandberg 301 cassette deck to play around with. It gave quite good results but was put into storage and fell into disrepair.

The moral here is never store vintage electronic equipment away for future use as deterioration always occurs.

Setting up and maintaining the turntables is an interesting part of the vinyl adventure as is the selection, care and cleaning of the records.

I have bought records from all sources new and pre-owned and cleaning the record surface properly is very important to give the best listening experience and to protect the stylus. Very dirty examples would be cleaned using a damp tissue finishing with a Permastat spray and buffed with the felt pad.I have used Permastat from the 1970's to this day and treated records exhibit no static charge whatsoever hence no dust collection. Clean examples can be brushed with a carbon fibre pad such as the Hunt unit shown in the picture.

As for off deck stylus cleaning I use the AT ultrasonic cleaner.On deck squirrel hair sweep brushes compliment my setup but are rarely used.

I collected over 2000 albums and 1000 singles and in time realised that only half of these were my real favourites and in my regular playing cupboard so disposed of half the collection.

How and when did I discover my favourite artists and tracks? I have been listening to music for 60 years and my taste has changed over time 

TO BE CONTINUED