I figured that since I had spent a couple of hundred hours reading posts on this forum I might as well join.
I'm a typical audio enthusiast: Too old to hear most of the top octave, too foolish to spend money wisely, too into equipment to care about music (not really), and just as likely to ruin something as repair it when I take the lid off (really).
Profession: Civil engineer, noting that the word "civil" is a term of specialty and not necessarily a character trait, but, as they say, self-awareness is half the battle. I am a specialist in road traffic management systems, which is multidisciplinary and means I hold memberships in both the Institute of Transportation Engineers and IEEE. Mostly it means that I paid attention during statistics classes--the necessary building blocks of traffic flow theory--and that makes me different from most people even a lot of engineers. And I teach systems engineering methods, which makes me rather different from most traffic engineers, who are inclined to build stuff and then try to figure out what it's good for.
Avocations: Musician (tuba, currently--were it not for Covid--performing with two local ensembles, and relentlessly pro-science participant in tuba forums), amateur radio, restoring a vintage 1973 GMC motor home, collecting fine wristwatches, collecting and using well-made axes, photographer (sometime professional), bicycle freak (and former avid participant in much-missed bicycle science groups such as Hardcore Bicycle Science), church treasurer, and generally whatever else that involves interesting apparatus that is expensive enough to preclude retirement at a reasonable age.
Audio stuff:
Former sound-board operator for a country band (that was a loooong time ago). Sometimes assistant to radio station engineer. Sometimes assistant and mentee to rarely excellent PA system installer. Good friends with audio engineering firm owner, good friends with high-end audio equipment company boss.
My first decent system was a Kenwood integrated amp with its matching tuner (both at the bottom of Kenwood's range at the time, which was 1977), the cheapest belt-drive Technics turntable, and (of course) Advent loudspeakers.
My current main system (always changing): carefully restored Thorens TD-166II with AT440mla cartridge and outboard power supply (to permit accurate speed adjustment), Nakamichi BX-300 cassette deck (as a musician, I have lots of old tapes of groups in which I played that need to be transcribed), Tascam CD-401 CD player (soon to be replaced by an Arcam CD92 if it works when it arrives, or maybe a Cambridge CXC if it works when it arrives, with a Topping E30 DAC), Carver TX11a tuner, Adcom GFP-565 preamp, Benchmark ADC-USB and Musical Fidelity V90 DAC connecting a computer to the other tape loop, Yamaha YDP2006 digital parametric equalizer in the processor loop (used with REW and calibrated mic analysis). The preamp drives two B&K Reference 125.2 amps, each of which drives a pair of Advent NLA speakers (including the pair I bought in 1977 and have restored twice since).
My work office system is the old Technics table (with Grado cartridge), Cambridge Audio D500SE CD player, Kenwood C1 preamp, Adcom GFP535 amp, and Pioneer SP-BS22LR speakers in near field.
Home gym (meaning: spare bedroom where the elliptical stair climber resides for days when it is too inclement to run): the old Kenwood integrated amp (which still works beautifully), ifi Zen Blue bluetooth receiver (for my iPhone) and Canton GL260 speakers. I chose the Zen Blue because it clearly shows what Bluetooth protocol it is receiving with color coding a nice British female voice annunciator. If it has a British accent, it must be good, right?
TV watching: fairly recent Yamaha AVR, pair of old Linn Index Plus fronts, pair of cheapish Polk Audio rears, and Boston Acoustics sub. It's good enough for listening to sound effects, dialogue, and background music.
My home office system uses a Creative X-fi USB sound card into a Carver PM300 commercial amp and a pair of cheap Alesis speakers from about 25 years ago.
Lots of stuff in the fixit pile.
For those of you who made it this far, I always sign my name using an internym. It annoys some folks, but I've been doing it since the days of newsgroups. I apologize in advance.
Rick "fully forgiving those who did NOT make it this far" Denney
I'm a typical audio enthusiast: Too old to hear most of the top octave, too foolish to spend money wisely, too into equipment to care about music (not really), and just as likely to ruin something as repair it when I take the lid off (really).
Profession: Civil engineer, noting that the word "civil" is a term of specialty and not necessarily a character trait, but, as they say, self-awareness is half the battle. I am a specialist in road traffic management systems, which is multidisciplinary and means I hold memberships in both the Institute of Transportation Engineers and IEEE. Mostly it means that I paid attention during statistics classes--the necessary building blocks of traffic flow theory--and that makes me different from most people even a lot of engineers. And I teach systems engineering methods, which makes me rather different from most traffic engineers, who are inclined to build stuff and then try to figure out what it's good for.
Avocations: Musician (tuba, currently--were it not for Covid--performing with two local ensembles, and relentlessly pro-science participant in tuba forums), amateur radio, restoring a vintage 1973 GMC motor home, collecting fine wristwatches, collecting and using well-made axes, photographer (sometime professional), bicycle freak (and former avid participant in much-missed bicycle science groups such as Hardcore Bicycle Science), church treasurer, and generally whatever else that involves interesting apparatus that is expensive enough to preclude retirement at a reasonable age.
Audio stuff:
Former sound-board operator for a country band (that was a loooong time ago). Sometimes assistant to radio station engineer. Sometimes assistant and mentee to rarely excellent PA system installer. Good friends with audio engineering firm owner, good friends with high-end audio equipment company boss.
My first decent system was a Kenwood integrated amp with its matching tuner (both at the bottom of Kenwood's range at the time, which was 1977), the cheapest belt-drive Technics turntable, and (of course) Advent loudspeakers.
My current main system (always changing): carefully restored Thorens TD-166II with AT440mla cartridge and outboard power supply (to permit accurate speed adjustment), Nakamichi BX-300 cassette deck (as a musician, I have lots of old tapes of groups in which I played that need to be transcribed), Tascam CD-401 CD player (soon to be replaced by an Arcam CD92 if it works when it arrives, or maybe a Cambridge CXC if it works when it arrives, with a Topping E30 DAC), Carver TX11a tuner, Adcom GFP-565 preamp, Benchmark ADC-USB and Musical Fidelity V90 DAC connecting a computer to the other tape loop, Yamaha YDP2006 digital parametric equalizer in the processor loop (used with REW and calibrated mic analysis). The preamp drives two B&K Reference 125.2 amps, each of which drives a pair of Advent NLA speakers (including the pair I bought in 1977 and have restored twice since).
My work office system is the old Technics table (with Grado cartridge), Cambridge Audio D500SE CD player, Kenwood C1 preamp, Adcom GFP535 amp, and Pioneer SP-BS22LR speakers in near field.
Home gym (meaning: spare bedroom where the elliptical stair climber resides for days when it is too inclement to run): the old Kenwood integrated amp (which still works beautifully), ifi Zen Blue bluetooth receiver (for my iPhone) and Canton GL260 speakers. I chose the Zen Blue because it clearly shows what Bluetooth protocol it is receiving with color coding a nice British female voice annunciator. If it has a British accent, it must be good, right?
TV watching: fairly recent Yamaha AVR, pair of old Linn Index Plus fronts, pair of cheapish Polk Audio rears, and Boston Acoustics sub. It's good enough for listening to sound effects, dialogue, and background music.
My home office system uses a Creative X-fi USB sound card into a Carver PM300 commercial amp and a pair of cheap Alesis speakers from about 25 years ago.
Lots of stuff in the fixit pile.
For those of you who made it this far, I always sign my name using an internym. It annoys some folks, but I've been doing it since the days of newsgroups. I apologize in advance.
Rick "fully forgiving those who did NOT make it this far" Denney