The road to nirvana |
|
My journey into Photography, Horology, and Audiophilia |
The Evolution of my audio setup
Going Analog
Although I only have few remaining records from my earlier days, I wanted to get back to turntable, and spin those black discs again.
I had a brief shot with a Technics SL-2000 (if I remember right) which I got from Rene Rivo. It was ok, but I never thought I would have an interesting journey with analog starting with this acquisition. I was bitten by the analog bug...
When I was invited to a product launch, I never knew that this will be the start of a colorful analog journey. Here, I met a couple of people who were great influences to my direction. First, Hansen Dy, a very young cool dude, who has measuring instruments in his ears. By listening to the setup he'll be able to tell you the character, the weak point, and strong point of your system. Second, two guys named Robert Suchy and George Mabasa. Robert Suchy happens to be one of the owners of Clearaudio, a west german manufacturer of expensive analog equipment. George Mabasa happens to be Clearaudio's distributor.
I was just looking at the products, without any intention of buying because I know they're expensive. However, I never thought that in this gathering I will be meeting two of the friendliest people that I will be dealing with in the coming months (years).
Robert is fun to talk to, very level headed, no arrogance or air in his character, considering his stature. I also had a brief talk with George whom I felt good customer service is forthcoming, should I become a customer. At the end, I bought a Clearaudio Aurum Alpha cartridge which I asked Rene to put into my Technics. So I have a cartridge much more expensive than the turntable.
Because my setup is on the second storey with wooden, suspended floor, the Technics is very susceptible to jumps and skips when my Shih Tzu goes from the sofa to the floor.
I decided to go back to Rene and ask him to bring to life the Oracle Delphi turntable that I previously saw in his shop.
So, I ditched the Technics and got an Oracle Delphi Mk I and SME 3009 tonearm, now fitted with Clearaudio Alpha.
Simple setup, good sound.
Next> Going Tubes > Going DIY > More DIY Projects > More Analog Journey
