A Big Thank You to you all.

Fellow Members:

September 15 has been a great day for me vis-à-vis this Forum. This was the day when my reputation count reached and immediately crossed 100. The person who took me from 99 to 100 was Neo_49, and he deserves a big Thank You from me. Neo_49, I owe you a dinner anytime you are in Chennai.

One might think what the big deal about this is. Let me explain.

For the last 5 odd years, my tryst with audio/video has been a continuous journey, many times in vain. At the outset, I did not have the requisite money. Secondly whenever I gathered the guts to buy something, some 'cannot be postponed expense will spring up from nowhere. So I literally had to gather my high end, buying it piece by piece.

Whenever I traveled abroad, I would carry a set of CDs and DVDs that I would, hopefully, be able to use for auditioning. The trick was to get away from my wife and family members who would rather spend 4 to 6 hours in a supermarket. The minute I get into a audio/video shop, my phone would start ringing, and someone would be very hungry, or there would be some very urgent matter that needs my immediate attention, many times just my skills at being a good driver in a foreign land. India was a little better, but back then there were not too many retailers. So my only recourse was a lot of reading, and surfing. Of course things changed rapidly over the last 12 odd months when I had some money to put down. I am glad I did not make too many mistakes in my purchases.

I, though, have a number of regrets and missed opportunities:

1. Not having bought the B&W DM303 speakers. For the price and size, I think they were just tooooo good.
2. Having sold my Dual TT with Ortofon's Concorde cartridge when I shifted out of Delhi.
3. Not having bought a Marantz OSD CDP
4. Not having bought a new Nakamichi Cassette Deck.

When I joined the Forum in July, for the first few days, I was just curious and was containing myself to just reading the postings. Then I saw a lot of questions that I did not have answers to, or at least a clear answer in my mind. This made me scramble for my books, manuals, and of course the ubiquitous Net. I just HAD to find the answers in way that I could understand.

I then started attempting to post a few answers. Frankly, in the initial stages, I was quite apprehensive of what responses I would get. I did get some negative comments as well as positive comments. A number of times, I was tempted to walk away, wondering why I am wasting my time. Then my wife told me she has never seen me so happy and so full of life. I realised I was really enjoying myself in the Forum. That tightened my resolve and I used to discuss some of the postings with my wife who, I must add, gave me very patient hearings, though she did not understand a word of what I was saying. I also called a lot of my friends and relatives who must have thought I had gone completely bonkers. I would call my brother-in-law in Nagpur who is a practicing Electrical Engineer. He found the whole thing strange, but would patiently answer my questions. I would call companies for details, and of course speak to people I know in the Industry.

In the initial stages I never bothered about the reputation count. It was just another data point in a screen full of data points. As time went by, every time I got a new count, I felt as if someone was patting me on the back. I started working harder and trying to give better and more useful information to you all. I think the biggest compliment came from SuhasG, when he commented on an excellent posting by Psychotropic and called it very 'VenkatCR-ish'. Thank you so much, Suhas.

The net effect is that my own knowledge of audio and video has gone up tremendously, and there has been a subtle change in my life style. Whenever I visit shops and markets now, I am different person, and spend long time asking probing questions and tinkering around with stuff. Whenever I travel I always pack my CDs and DVDs, never to miss a chance to visit a retail point. I have for example, fixed Oct 14 to spend a whole day with Audire in Coimbatore. When I visit book shops, I head straight for the audio section and keep looking for interesting books, CDs, and DVDs. Even when I am sitting in a Cinema Hall, I look around to see what speakers are there and the logic of the placement. Many times I close my eyes and listen to the sound missing a scene or two.

The last three months of my association with HiFI Vision has been tremendously satisfying to me. I have made new friends, and found a group of people with similar interest which sometimes, as my wife puts it, borders on madness. But then each one of us must have our own passion, right?

I thank all the members here for their patience and understanding. If I have been instrumental in making even one member buy a piece of equipment that he is happy with, I would consider that a great privilege.

Finally, before I sign off, a big Thank You to our dear Mr. Moderator. I always feel he is silently watching all of us to reprimand us if we are mischievous.

Once again, a beeeg thank you to all of you.

Cheers

Congradulations for crossing 100 on reputation chart!!!!!

Regards,
Anil

Glad this made you so happy, Venkat. I always thought your posts were very detailed, clear and added a lot of value to this forum. May your association with this forum continue for a long time.

Congrats venkat,

Happy to know you also were like us one day.

Thank you for your help for all of us. Infact we all wait for your posts regularly.

Venkat, you are one of the greatest contributors in this forum, with loads of knowledge to share and your posts are valuable, technical and in detail...

It's great to have u as a member of this forum

Hi Venky,

Congrats man.... []

Great post Venkat, and great achievement, considering all that you had to go through in giving out all those details. I am sure there are many "passive" readers, apart from the registered ones, who would have benefited from your posts. Keep going.

Warm Regds / Shailender

Hi venkatcr,
Congradulations on your achievments on this forum, I have gone thru many of your replies and I feel every reply your post was better than the earlier one. Keep it up buddy. Once again i wish you all best for your achievments in future.
I will try to meet you in chennai .
with best regards,
nanda kumar

Hey Venkat,
Hearty congrats!
I know how this forum makes us all feel!.. Not a single day goes without going through hifivision.. and those days whilst i am travelling, i feel so lost when i cant read the posts! :-)
Thanks so much for being an encyclopediac ( wanted to rhyme like a knowledgeable maniac).
hope to see you supporting this av fountain of knowledgelike avery strong pillar that oyu really are!
Kudos.
PS: I just forwarded your post to my wife... she also has been very forgiving of my time spent on AV.
Hope to see you when i visit chennai...

Congratulations venkat.
I admire the trouble taken by u to answer so many questions in such a detailed way. Most times u really throw up a wealth of information and the fact that your reputation count is over a 100 while the rest of us are in our 20s/30s is testimony to the fact that u are helping solve the problems of tons of our members.

Keep going venkipedia!