Hi from Durham, England. I am a seasoned hi-fi buff having purchased my first Technics amp and B&W speakers back in 1983 at the age of 16! Had all sorts since then from Technics, to Marantz, Trio (Kenwood) Pioneer, Sony, Aiwa, Akai, Arcam, Yamaha, Cyrus, Sugden, Rega, Denon, Castle, Ruark, Proac, Monitor Audio, Toshiba, Wharfedale, Naim and probably a lot more that I have forgotten about. Tape decks I have had several Technics (about 4), an Aiwa a Sony and a Pioneer that I have just sold. Some high end but most were middle of the road range. Have had all the regular players for speaker cables and interconnects as well. I suppose I just have the bug! I am treating myself to my first Nak which is a Nak BX-2 which I am due to collect on Sunday and will be getting my old tapes out of which I have many!!!! I like vinyl too and recently refurbished Pioneer PL-41 turntable from circa 1969 which is playing beautifully and has a motor that can work a washing machine!
Well I haven't had quite that much stuff. I guess I'm about 5 years older than you as I started experiencing cassette related devices in about the year 2005 when I was finally had some money to buy stuff with and then I started making videos of all these things and then later in life. Now present day past 5 years or so I've been repairing them and making videos of them. So that's my forte
Yes I started off in the mid 80's with Technics and B&W as I suppose I liked the looks of them and it was a mixture of vinyl and cassettes....but mostly cassettes. I always had a twin deck. In the 90's I gravitated towards Arcam and had the Alpha 9 amp and power amp Bi-amped with Audioquest cables into B&W P4 speakers which was a good set up. I have mixed and matched with loads of gear in the intervening years as I got into AV and built a few systems around my TV room. I have recently put together a 2nd nostalgic system in my "den" which comprises of a Pioneer PL-41 turntable for my vinyl, Denon DCD-835 CD player and a NAK BX-2 for cassettes (I am due to collect the NAK tomorrow) powered by a Cyrus 3 hooked up to a PSX-r power supply and bi-amped with a Cyrus Power Amp using Linn K400 speaker cables into B&W P5 speakers. It sounds great and it's really a lot of gear that I could not afford when I was a young kid but which I have sourced over the past year as a bit of a project. I made a nice bespoke Oak stand for the Cyrus gear which are quite a unique size and need a bit of ventilation as they run hot. I actually had some Ruark Talisman 2's as speakers in that system which were great but since I have a soft spot for Bowers speakers and since I always regretted getting rid of my P4's I sourced some P5's which I love. You have to be careful with these speakers as the tweeters use ferrofluid which always dry up so the tweeters need changing or at least servicing every 15 to 20 years.
