Pls.post abt your journey to HiFi world

[prem]

Hi HifiAshok


The Cadence was the integrated tube amp. It is the same one that is available today. The speakers were initially Amaya and then the Avitas. The cables they recommended were Van den Hul which is what i went with. I have had the Sony ES cd player as well as the EAD transport/dac with the Cadence. Power conditioning if i remember correctly was Shunyata. Since I was not liking the sound,I tried a few other cables which i had like the Kimber Select, JPS. None gave me the sound i wanted. I finally gave up on them and went the Martin Logan way. One thing the Cadence did for me was introduce me to electrostatics.

 

[prem]

Hi Audio_Engr

I do not know any audiophiles in Mumbai but i think it is Sanjiv's Audio Artistry speakers that i had purchased from a dealer in Mumbai. His Rowland 6 monos were also available through this dealer. I preferred to stick to the JC1 monoblocs. I have never met Sanjiv though.

 

[cooltoad]

Nice write-up man, Although i listen to lot of rock/pop, MD Ramanathan is one of my favs. His music has been truly transcendental.Pity not many good recordings of the genius are available.

Hi Guys

My entry into HiFi has been a little different.

My father was an amateur Carnatic classical singer who believed singing was a God's gift and hence one should not charge for a concert. He was Tiger Varadachariar's disciple and was one of his favorites along with MD Ramanathan.

 

[thevortex]

Thanks audio_engr.

This thread is getting more interesting by the day!

 

[Asit]

Hi murali_n,

Thanks for your post with all your acquisitions. I have quietly read most of your posts, especially the ones on music. I can easily make out that you have a deep passion for music, and unfortunately you have not touched on that part at all. We would be eager to know that part too.

Regards.

 

[Asit]

Hi Prem,

It was a pleasure to read the story of your journey - an amazing one through some wonderful equipments.

I can very easily relate to your father who never took any money for performing. I have done exactly the same (although my wife does not agree with this principle of mine, because she thinks in this day and age people takes one for granted if one does that). On many occasions, the organisers forced me to take some money and then I immediately distributed that money to the accompanying musicians like the tabla-player, tanpura players etc.

I also noted your mention of your father performing with Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. I know that the Ustad performed also in Chennai and deeply enjoyed Carnatic Classical style. Another one was Ustad Abdul Karim Khan who actually was deeply influenced by Carnatic classical and mixed that style into his Hindustani style. This is quite apparent from his later recordings.

I apparently listened to Bade Ghulam Ali Khan once probably when I was about a couple of years old but I cannot remember that. The Ustad passed away, I think, in 1964. However, I remember once around that time when I was left with my mother at home for a whole night music conference where Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sang probably for the last time in Kolkata. I remember I, probably at the age of 3 or 4, kept on crying because I wanted to listen to the Ustad until I fell asleep in my mother's lap. In any case those years the Ustad was already quite ill with cancer and mostly his son Munawar Ali was singing.

BTW, you may be happy to know that I also took some lessons in Carnatic classical for a few years (off and on) from a disciple of Maharajpuram Santhanam, and also have sung for more than a dozen Bharatanatyam Arangetrams when I was younger. I did meet Santhanam once.

I would not have mentioned all this had it not been that your post dug up a few things inside me.

Thanks and Regards.

 

[prem]

Hi Asit

I only wish i had discussed music with my dad when he was alive.


Hi Audio_Engr


The Audio Artistry needed biamplification. I used the JC1 monoblocs and the Model Two. You are right about Sanjiv using Model Two. There was one at the dealer from whom i picked up the speakers. I had picked up my Model Two much earlier. I used Kimber Select cables in that set up.

 

[spirovious]

Still waiting for poppular friends to reply-

Venkat Sir,Dinyar Sir & others many.....

 

[murali_n]

Hi murali_n,

Thanks for your post with all your acquisitions. I have quietly read most of your posts, especially the ones on music. I can easily make out that you have a deep passion for music, and unfortunately you have not touched on that part at all. We would be eager to know that part too.

Regards.

Hai Asit,

Thanks for your post, which was very encouraging, will post about my musical preference as well.

N.Murali.

 

[square_wave]

This is an awesome thread. Bringing back so much memories and getting to know the person behind the "moniker".

There are so many posts which touched me hence I do not want to mention all the names.

Gear junkies, technology junkies, musicians, music lovers, different paths.........just so cool !

 

[stevieboy]

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.

 

[spirovious]

Thanks stevieboy for sharing another beautiful journey.

 

[spirovious]

Is this thread dead? :sad:

Waiting for many ones to post here.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

I always wanted to stay away from this thread and did not want to spoil the quality of this thread, but I now thought of taking a chance. My hifi journey started at a very young age, where I was made to learn carnatic music which I hated the most. However, I did incline more towards western music and basically was interested in dancing and karate and had participated and won lot of prices during my school and college days for dance. I went up to brown 2 in Karate.

My real hifi journey started around the late 90s where I and my friend, Sivasubramanian, in a small town near Trichy, during our holidays after 10th exams, planned to have a setup with a tapedeck and bookshelves. We managed to spend all our savings and got the setup we needed, and our first song in the setup was something about the way you smile from Colonial Cousins by Hariharan and Lesle Lewis. We were crazy about Hariharan and always tried to imitate his voice. There was a Tamil album released by him named Kadhal Vedam, we would have listened to that at least more than 100 times. Shortly thereafter, my father switched jobs and I had to join my diploma in Chennai and I gifted him the stereo setup and let him have that. We used to buy a Sony cassette every two months (Rs. 125 or 150) and we had at least 75 cassettes by the time I left the town.

Then, I assembled my first system in 2000, it was a Celeron-based system with microtek speakers. It has been my dream from 2001 to have a HT system when I saw a big aiwa TV in an A/C room painted red and with grey carpet, with huge tower speakers, I loved the setup! Afterwards, I was forced to give up all my hobbies and interests and had gone through a rough time from 2002 to 2004. I would say the worst part of my life, disappointments and only disappointments! I joined my third job in 2004 in a BPO and was able to get hold of flat in 2006, starting buying equipments one by one and 2008 and 2009, 10 have been, I would call, hifi years and finally I have the setup I wished for and still want to explore a lot in hifi. I dont get much time as I am pursuing my studies as well as job!

Also, I learned guitar for about 8 months and successfully passed the Trinity Grade 1 exam!

Journey continues.....

 

[spirovious]

So your journey is not bad & still was running far from this thread?
My journey is not much better than your though.

There are many others whom I am expecting ,pls join us.

 

[stevieboy]

my journey has now moved on to include playing internet radio from laptop, streamed wirelessly to airport express which is connected through analog mini to rca cable to amp. it's great to listen to more music than one has in one's collection!

 

[thevortex]

Good one, Venkatesh! And glad to see a fellow Hariharan fan. I thought myself and my wife would be the only people who liked listening to 'Kadhal Vedham'. .

Sadly I think the album was released much before its time.

 

[srikarkav]

Hi venkatesh!

A nice post. The journey is not about hardware but about the passion. You have it in abundance. Keep rocking.

cheers,
sri

 

[himadri]

well Spiro
My journey started when I was very young. (im 50 now). in the age of televisionless entertainment, socializing was the only recourse.every month i used to wait eagerly to accompany my parents to another (uncles ) house who had the comic lab 3000 amp with cosmic floorstanders and cosmic turntable.wow, some of my best hours of my life was spent in his house (especially in a small town like bhilai where it was probably the only hifi system in town).as i grew up i managed to convince my parents to acquire the Phillips hifi system and later the sonodyne tape deck . as i started working, on my own income i got the uranus 3 of sonodyne , then the sonodyne amp and finally when i could convince my wife and kids, i have the denon dcd700/pma2000/deftech 7004s since the last 5 years or so.my wife wouldnt spare the living room, so the bedroom it is but otherwise my family has always encouraged me. musically, i started with film songs, then gazals, then classical(hindustani , i learnt vocals), then rock at college, then jazz-rock, then straight ahead jazz and now its mostly allan holdsworth, john coltrane,miles davis,ar rahman, pat metheny, jeff beck, eric johnson,george benson and a host of jazz and jazz fusion musicians. on a meditative mood, i listen to my good dhrupad collection. SO THE JOURNEY CONTINUES...............
REGARDS
CHEERS
HIMADRI

 

[spirovious]

Thanks for input.
I started buying true hifi products after I started earning.Till some local products, 2in1,etc.