always had music in the house. dad used to play cello, mom, the piano. and we had a hmv turntable run through an old philips radio. grew up listening to abba and other oldies. got my love for rock through brother's cassettes.
went to the hostel in pune for a few years, went to the local music market and picked up a pair of speakers and amp. cost 1000 bucks. plonked them on my table at the edges and amp in the middle, running through my walkman. yes walkman, those days
then went to bombay, with limited room no place for music. picked up a pair of used bose active speakers for bout 4k. served me well for 4 years. then came to bangalore and had more space.
then started looking for something good. started off as bose
seriously. listened to the 301's and 601s. then discovered other brands like wharfedale. limited money pointed to the diamond 9.1s as a good choice. kept auditioning cos couldnt bear to part with the money. then cadence was top choice for me. thought they were 'the' speakers. then chanced on viren through another audio forum. was in talks with him for almost a year! still money issues. then finally got his el84 push pull amp. by this time though i knew what i wanted even though i hadnt heard it and when i got his amp i told him i wanted a SET amp and if he was making one, could he make one? said he was exploring it. meanwhile took the amp around for auditioning speakers, listened to mordaunt short the bookshelves also kef iq5s. the bookshelves s were quite a good match. by this time i had done a ton of reading and a SET amp, single driver seemed like the sound i was looking for.
luckily viren made this 2A3 amp hardly a year or so later and took the push pull back as part trade-in for the SET.
and i was set. however i wanted a 45 tube amp and it took a year later. rajiv found that one could use a 45 tube in place of the 2A3 and that was it. my final system.
along the way i got lucky and got two good deals a second hand wadia 12 dac from another audiophile here in bangalore who was good enough to give it to me at a good price.
as far as the turntable goes i got lucky twice. the first time went to sushil anand of nova audio looking for the debut III. there was the project rpm 9 sitting there too. cost a little more than double that of the debut. a great deal. but too much money for me. thought about it for a while then decided it would pay off in the long run, scraped through the money, picked it up and i was set.
then a year or two later was going back to him to return a temp cart he had loaned me when i see this garrard 301 sitting smack in the entrance with not one but two sme series II tonearms a 9" and 12". not the 'improved' worse sounding version, but the highly regarded series II. got it for bout 23k. those who know the prices of garrards and sme's on ebay... :licklips:!
and that's where i am today.
the things i'm gonna add are: set up the garrard, get the emission labs 45 tubes, add a squeezebox for my rips.
EDIT: a lot of where i am today is cos of viren. i've called him up many a time for a chat to clarify things and a lot of times, he's mentioned things that pointed out new research directions for me. a great person extremely friendly and accessible and balanced in his views.
