Reading through the journeys of various esteemed members here imparts generous doses of much needed humility and again reminds me that in comparison, my journey - if it can be called that - has just started. It is nascent - in word and spirit.
As a child, even though I grew up around a gramophone my brother and I were too busy playing and/or watching cricket to listen to those scratchy records. I still remember that we would much rather listen to the little transistor radio than the record player. Knowingly or otherwise, that initial experience has coloured my views towards record players and to this day a scratchy record and the tape hiss jars my ears. Yes, I know, not all records are like that and I probably did not experience the best equipment, but the sum effect of all this is that I have no fascination of one day owning a record player myself to go with my recently acquired valve amplifier. Now, that is another story altogether.
Although we did not have professional singers or musicians in our family, my grandparents had a great sense of music and would be immediately able to recognize ragas when they heard songs and they would often regale me with stories of how they would attend concerts in 'those days'. A pity that I did not give those stories their due attention when I was young. My grandmother always used to resort to the song 'Alai Paayuthey Kannaaa' (a famous and melodious song on Lord Krishna) to get me to sleep - this much I remember from my early childhood. My father was a self taught and in my mind a gifted singer. He worked for a nationalized bank and would never fail to bring home trophies and shields for his singing ability. In many ways, my fascination for vocals stems from the tastes I learnt from my father - be it Pankaj Udhas ghazals or Kishore Kumar songs. The beauty of the human voice, to me, was much, much better than any instrument. It still is that way although I am slowly opening my eyes (ears, rather) to the beauties of various instruments and the art of coaxing emotion from objects other than the human vocal cords.
For a long time - till my mid 20's - I had no idea about Hi-fi. I used to listen to a wide variety of songs on computer monitor speakers, transistor radios or straight through the TV speakers. This, in my mind, helped me develop a thick skin as far as enjoying music - no matter what the system is like. Once when I was in the US on work - I had the chance of using an old pair of Altec Lansings from office. I was so smitten by that pair that I brought them home and I still remember there used to be music flowing from our computer speakers almost round the clock. And I used to relish waking up to music. I remember I used a multimedia player called Quintessential and setup an alarm song. Those were the days...
When I came back to India, I resolved to get a 'very good pair of speakers' for computer audio. The search led me to the Altec Lansing MX5021. I must thank the Techenclave community for the information provided on this front. After a year or so, I started seeing these ads about the 'best sound quality' being provided by Bose and Onkyo and others. I still remember visiting the Onkyo showroom and getting wowed by their Hifi systems (tape decks as well as AV Receivers). In the meanwhile I also got to listen to a few decent Sony Hifi systems (all in ones) at a friend's place. Most of the music I listened to was Indian in origin at that time. Classical or Fusion or Film music. For that matter, I still like these genres the best.
Around that time, there was no way I could have afforded a system from Bose or Onkyo. Once when I was almost convinced about buying a Bose Wave music system for around Rs. 20,000 (which seemed a right fortune to be spending on a music system at that time) , I chanced upon a few names in Hifi such as Marantz, Denon etc. That set off a wild goose chase around the internet and I finally ended up at The Audio People in Chennai getting a Marantz SR4001. Just prior to this - after a lot of research into budget speakers and after I had discovered Hifivision - I got myself a pair of PSB Alpha B1s from Raghu of Decibel. By this time I would have auditioned equipment at all the major showrooms available here at Chennai.
The idea at that point was to slowly build a 5.1 system. I had a huge confusion raging in my mind as to whether to add a subwoofer first or go for a better set of main speakers as the next upgrade. Please note that it was never a question of 'if' but purely a 'when'. In the end after a lot of dilly dallying I went for the EPOS ELS Sub. This was done without audition and so there was a lot of trepidation. But thankfully the subwoofer has never let me down and it is everything that I wanted it to be.
In the next phase, the biggest question raging in my mind was whether to go for a floorstander or to opt for good bookshelf speakers. Thanks to Raghu of Decibel, I could live with a couple of floorstanders for about a couple of weeks each - a Canton floorstander and an Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 3. I found that for my late night listening sessions, there was no way that I liked the amount of bass that the floorstanders were putting out. I rather liked the way I could control the bass output with bookshelves. And when I wanted real hard hitting bass - if a tad looser - then I could switch on the subwoofer. I found that I also preferred the extra dollop of clarity and detail provided by bookshelves of comparable price. What this meant was that I picked up the EPOS M12.2 - again from Decibel.
All this time I had been using a Samsung DVD player as a source. Even before I had really understood what true audio quality was about, I had always been fascinated about various multi media players available on the PC platform. When I found out that a computer could successfully be used as a quality source for Hifi, I set about doing some research on these lines. Net result - I had myself a AMD powered HTPC with a ASUS Xonar D2X sound card within. The sound quality jump that I experienced consequently cannot really be put down on paper.
That meant that the only weak link in my chain was the amplification. The source was decent as were the speakers. Considering that I was (and my wife too) was more inclined towards music than towards movies or surround sound, I thought the best thing would be to go for a stereo amplifier rather than relying on my Marantz AVR to do all the amplification. By chance, my brother in law in Dubai was able to spot a great offer on the NAD C372 and we got it. This was again a quantum jump for me in terms of detail retrieval, sound staging and dynamics. For about six months I was blissful and content.
Hifivision is helpful in many ways. But promoting the state of contentment with one's own audio system components is not one of its strengths! So, the moment I started hearing about tube amplification, the upgradation demon in my mind woke up. In my mind I wanted to bring some steadiness to my acquisition spree. And considering my predilection for vocal based music and soft instruments I got into reading about how valve amplifiers were the best way to go. In this regard, I must thank the various Hifivision members who were most helpful in my pursuit. Rajiv, Stevieboy, HifiAshok, GeorgeO, Cranky and many others helped me in understanding what tubes actually were. But all this was nothing without actually hearing for myself what tube sound was. This was where a visit to Rajiv's house helped. I had transported my HTPC as well as my EPOS speakers there to hook up with his Lyrita tube amp. What I heard there was delectable and at a different level compared to what I was used to.
Long story short, Viren was kind enough to send his amp for a month's trial. About a couple of weeks into the trial period I was convinced. So the equipment chain was now simple and hopefully should stay steady for a significant period of time. HTPC Analog outs -> Lyrita 2A3c tube amp -> EPOS M12.2 speakers. Occasionally the EPOS ELS Sub too does duties - connected to the pre-out of the tube amp.
Today it gives me great pleasure to have my parents listen to their erstwhile favourite songs on this audio system. Sometimes when I see the rapt expressions on their face, I feel, all the expenditure is worth it. It is not all about others' enjoyment either. No matter how stressed I am coming in from office, an hour or two of enjoying music flowing through my system never fails to pick me up.
All this also raises an amount of curiosity in me regarding another subject. While growing up I never had the opportunity of listening to well balanced systems. But my 8 year old son is getting to do it on a daily basis. I wonder what its effect in the long term would be in his case. Time will tell.
In retrospect, I owe a lot to Hifivision and its esteemed members without whom I would not have been able to make it this far in my Hifi journey. I look forward to many more years with you and with music.