watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Hi, my name is watchnerd, and I'm a recovering audiophile.
It started with my 'problem' in high school when I made moonshine in the woods (I grew up in a rural area full of redwood trees and pot farmers) to sell to my fellow students in order to fund more metal oxide tapes so I could tape Top 40 off the radio and use those to dub mix tapes, using a Sharp dual cassette boombox to get chicks.
When I figured out only the skankier chicks would trade favors for of the flesh for mix tapes, I switched from playing trombone in marching band to playing a Gibson Flying V electric bass in a rock / funk / jazz fusion band with my friends. Playing electric bass definitely got more booty in my pocket, but they weren't any less skanky, just more attractive.
In college, at first I was on a more righteous path. I majored in applied physics, with a senior thesis in digital signal processing. But I blew some of my scholarship money on a Denon receiver and dated a big-boobed tall girl for longer than I should have because she let me use her big ass 8" Yamaha speakers in my dorm room -- if I broke up with her, I'd have get new speakers...
I first got exposed to the hardcore stuff at The Audible Difference in Palo Alto, which was a short trip from my dorm room. This was the late 80's and customers would offer you some coke (rude not to share) if you popped by while they were listening to demos of Apogee Scintillas or Infinity IRS V systems. I could only afford copies of Stereophile and that stupid green CD Stoplight pen in the entire store. But I got to listen to a lot of nice gear at a young age and the sales guys were always helpful in indoctrinating a future addict / customer...
I used to take my girlfriend to the library to "study", but it was really to either read copies of The Absolute Sound they had there or get some action in the aisles, whichever was on the menu. Sometimes both.
The first time I really got blown away by a speaker system was the Carver Amazing Loudspeaker. I put on the Telarc 1812 Overture recording, cranked it up, fast forwarded to the canon shots, smiled like a stupefied idiot, then got kicked out of the store.
I took a year off college to intern for NASA at their Moffet Field lab (now Google-owned), build speakers from scratch, and tube amps. My first pair were 2-way floorstanders using a SEAS P17REX (can't believe I remember that model number) and cost me $200 in parts...
...which I funded by having a 2nd job as a pizza delivery driver and learned the art of selling 'surplus' pizzas to stoners who had the munchies.
I then studied for a year at Kyoto University via an exchange program. Officially I was studying more physics, math, etc and Japanese. Unofficially, I was studying the Japanese high end scene with its horns and tubes, playing amateur night gigs in Japanese jazz clubs (this time with an acoustic bass), getting more girl action than I knew what to do with, scavenging electronic towns for recording gear, and making my first field recording using the magic of DAT (which I funded by giving paid "English lessons" to Japanese co-eds, paid for by daddy...).
1995-2002 was a blur, the Internet, got into software industry (started off doing network level packet decoding), lived in Santa Monica, Singapore, Japan again, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Israel. Napster came along, and I partook and I inhaled. I was too mobile to have a sizeable rig, but I had some NHT Super Zeros and they were fucking awesome. Grunge happened.
Somehwhere in the midst of all this I saw Ray Charles and Dave Brubeck at the Hollywood bowl, Gary Burton and Chick Corea at UCLA, McCoy Tyner at The Jazz Bakery, and Seiji Ozawa at the Giant Golden Turd.
2002, came back to the US, moved back to the SF Bay Area. Got my first pair of electrostats, used Martin Logan Sequels with SL3 panel upgrades. I still have them.
Went to Burning Man for a couple of years. Sold my acoustic bass, bought a Fender Special Jazzmaster.
2004 started getting into open source and Linux and learning about computer-based audio by dealing with compression codecs and their kernel interaction. Got married that year. Bought my first set of Dynaudio powered monitors, the BM6A for my very first DAW.
2005-2007: Spent a lot time and money on hifi gear that didn't make a difference and I no longer have. Some Rotel stuff, some PSB speakers, various subwoofers. Nothing wrong with any of them, but they didn't really move the needle. Just wasted time and money. Wasted even more money on collecting SACD.
2007-2009: The Lost Years, no recording, just work, marriage and World of Warcraft. Joined Head-fi, at first so I could get better sound while killing monsters online. I kid you not. I was a tauren shaman.
Got to level 80 and learned a lot about different headphones.
2010-(until this year): Got involved in "peer to peer file sharing". Became an Elite Torrent Master. If you don't know what that is, you're better off not knowing.
2011: Got back into recording, started volunteering as an assistant recording engineer for the local symphony (and now several local jazz clubs). Spent almost nothing on hifi, blew thousands on microphones and interfaces, instead.
2012: Got a Tektronix MD0300 from a guy who lost all his money playing online poker. I met him at the cannabis dispensary. Paid $500 for it.
2013: Got another pair of Martin Logans, their little 'budget oriented' Electromotion ESL
2014: Got into tube rolling. Holy christ was that a neurotic adventure, and pricey. I would have been better off spending the money on weed.
Also got my end-game turntable that year:
2015: Got my miniDSP OpenDRC-DI. Decided spending big money on speakers was beyond stupid until I solve for my room.
2016:
Helped out on some awesome recordings from the SF Jazz Collective:
Starting making music Roon Bridge streamers using Linux and Raspberry Pi:
And for Christmas I just got a new Marshall bass amp:
So now it's time to go practice the 'Theme Song to Barney Miller' again. I'm still not as good as she is:
It started with my 'problem' in high school when I made moonshine in the woods (I grew up in a rural area full of redwood trees and pot farmers) to sell to my fellow students in order to fund more metal oxide tapes so I could tape Top 40 off the radio and use those to dub mix tapes, using a Sharp dual cassette boombox to get chicks.
When I figured out only the skankier chicks would trade favors for of the flesh for mix tapes, I switched from playing trombone in marching band to playing a Gibson Flying V electric bass in a rock / funk / jazz fusion band with my friends. Playing electric bass definitely got more booty in my pocket, but they weren't any less skanky, just more attractive.
In college, at first I was on a more righteous path. I majored in applied physics, with a senior thesis in digital signal processing. But I blew some of my scholarship money on a Denon receiver and dated a big-boobed tall girl for longer than I should have because she let me use her big ass 8" Yamaha speakers in my dorm room -- if I broke up with her, I'd have get new speakers...
I first got exposed to the hardcore stuff at The Audible Difference in Palo Alto, which was a short trip from my dorm room. This was the late 80's and customers would offer you some coke (rude not to share) if you popped by while they were listening to demos of Apogee Scintillas or Infinity IRS V systems. I could only afford copies of Stereophile and that stupid green CD Stoplight pen in the entire store. But I got to listen to a lot of nice gear at a young age and the sales guys were always helpful in indoctrinating a future addict / customer...
I used to take my girlfriend to the library to "study", but it was really to either read copies of The Absolute Sound they had there or get some action in the aisles, whichever was on the menu. Sometimes both.
The first time I really got blown away by a speaker system was the Carver Amazing Loudspeaker. I put on the Telarc 1812 Overture recording, cranked it up, fast forwarded to the canon shots, smiled like a stupefied idiot, then got kicked out of the store.
I took a year off college to intern for NASA at their Moffet Field lab (now Google-owned), build speakers from scratch, and tube amps. My first pair were 2-way floorstanders using a SEAS P17REX (can't believe I remember that model number) and cost me $200 in parts...
...which I funded by having a 2nd job as a pizza delivery driver and learned the art of selling 'surplus' pizzas to stoners who had the munchies.
I then studied for a year at Kyoto University via an exchange program. Officially I was studying more physics, math, etc and Japanese. Unofficially, I was studying the Japanese high end scene with its horns and tubes, playing amateur night gigs in Japanese jazz clubs (this time with an acoustic bass), getting more girl action than I knew what to do with, scavenging electronic towns for recording gear, and making my first field recording using the magic of DAT (which I funded by giving paid "English lessons" to Japanese co-eds, paid for by daddy...).
1995-2002 was a blur, the Internet, got into software industry (started off doing network level packet decoding), lived in Santa Monica, Singapore, Japan again, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Israel. Napster came along, and I partook and I inhaled. I was too mobile to have a sizeable rig, but I had some NHT Super Zeros and they were fucking awesome. Grunge happened.
Somehwhere in the midst of all this I saw Ray Charles and Dave Brubeck at the Hollywood bowl, Gary Burton and Chick Corea at UCLA, McCoy Tyner at The Jazz Bakery, and Seiji Ozawa at the Giant Golden Turd.
2002, came back to the US, moved back to the SF Bay Area. Got my first pair of electrostats, used Martin Logan Sequels with SL3 panel upgrades. I still have them.
Went to Burning Man for a couple of years. Sold my acoustic bass, bought a Fender Special Jazzmaster.
2004 started getting into open source and Linux and learning about computer-based audio by dealing with compression codecs and their kernel interaction. Got married that year. Bought my first set of Dynaudio powered monitors, the BM6A for my very first DAW.
2005-2007: Spent a lot time and money on hifi gear that didn't make a difference and I no longer have. Some Rotel stuff, some PSB speakers, various subwoofers. Nothing wrong with any of them, but they didn't really move the needle. Just wasted time and money. Wasted even more money on collecting SACD.
2007-2009: The Lost Years, no recording, just work, marriage and World of Warcraft. Joined Head-fi, at first so I could get better sound while killing monsters online. I kid you not. I was a tauren shaman.
Got to level 80 and learned a lot about different headphones.
2010-(until this year): Got involved in "peer to peer file sharing". Became an Elite Torrent Master. If you don't know what that is, you're better off not knowing.
2011: Got back into recording, started volunteering as an assistant recording engineer for the local symphony (and now several local jazz clubs). Spent almost nothing on hifi, blew thousands on microphones and interfaces, instead.
2012: Got a Tektronix MD0300 from a guy who lost all his money playing online poker. I met him at the cannabis dispensary. Paid $500 for it.
2013: Got another pair of Martin Logans, their little 'budget oriented' Electromotion ESL
2014: Got into tube rolling. Holy christ was that a neurotic adventure, and pricey. I would have been better off spending the money on weed.
Also got my end-game turntable that year:
2015: Got my miniDSP OpenDRC-DI. Decided spending big money on speakers was beyond stupid until I solve for my room.
2016:
Helped out on some awesome recordings from the SF Jazz Collective:
Starting making music Roon Bridge streamers using Linux and Raspberry Pi:
And for Christmas I just got a new Marshall bass amp:
So now it's time to go practice the 'Theme Song to Barney Miller' again. I'm still not as good as she is:
Talking about a sheltered life I lived compared to him.
