I think the foundation was laid at 3 years old, playing my parents’ collection of 45s on an RCA 45-EY-3 changer with a tube amplifier.
I believe that this seminal and extensive listening of rock and roll, blues and pop music with a tube amp set my expectations of what the realism of records should be. In the late 60s, my first dissatisfaction with an audio playback item started when we got a brand new solid state GE record player and really good new albums from my aunt for Christmas. Not only did it sound thin, but the voices didn’t sound realistic when I compared the 45 of the Coasters Searchin’ on the RCA vs the GE.
Like this but ours was burnt orange:
In 1970-1971, I got into reel to reel using my dads Panasonic he was using to practice for the Columbia School of Broadcasting:
Our TV was an old B&W Hoffman that had an RCA jack that I would connect to one output channel of the tape recorder to get a richer sound with more bass from the Hoffman than the little speakers it had builtin.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/d8/73/a1d873f172facc69fca189c5ee9d772e.jpg
I bought a Tom Jones 7.5 IPS reel tape, but would also drag the machine to my aunt’s apartment where I’d record Abbey Road, Santana, and my mom’s Tom Jones albums on blank tapes my dad got cheap from work. He knew a guy that was taking unwanted computer tapes, slicing them to 1/4” and selling them cheap. She had a really nice looking and sounding KLH FM/Turntable with a Koss headphone adapter. I frequently listened to her records on that system and it sounded great.
These are the headphones and adapter I listened with the KLH:
My first foray where the system my parents had in the 70s. No clue what type of amp, speaker or turntable it was. But it sounded great and so did the headphones.
I blew out those speakers in college in the late 80s and replaced them with some Polk Audio bookshelf speakers I bought off a frat brother for $100 who had a gambling problem. They were $300 speakers at the time. I also had a Sony integrated and 5 disc CD changer and double cassette deck all purchased with summer job money. That setup got me through most of the 90s.
I don’t remember what happened to that system but we didn’t really have a place for it our small house with 3 little kids running around. At the point the only setup we had was a Panasonic mini system with a CD player and cassette deck in the dining room.
The other setup I remember was a Roku music streamer and then a squeeze box streamer I hooked up to Altec Lansing computer speakers and subwoofer.
We moved to a bigger house and I got a Sonos setup. That was nice. I had a Sonos amp connected to a set of Polk Audio tower speaker, M70 I think. I thought it sounded great. Also, had some Play 1s on the covered deck paired in stereo mode that sounded really good as well.
Around 2010 I started getting into headphones. First with Grado S80, then V-Moda m100 complete contrast in sound. I then picked up Sennheiser 6XX and a DarkVoice tube amp and that was my main rig for a while.
Kids are all out of the house and I finally have my own space and started developing a proper setup. First was a Yamaha as301 and Klipsch rp160m speakers and a Raspberry Pi streamer. Then added a Project Evo TT. The Yamaha and Klipsch now hold things down for my son in his college apartment.
My main system for a while has been Cambridge Audio CXA81/CXNv2 stack with Triangle Comete EZ speakers. I added a Willsenton R8 tube amp about a year ago and wow.
A few weeks ago I picked up a set of Buchardt S400 Mk II speakers and a Kinki Studio EX-M1+ amp. The EX-M1+ Is a different sound. Super detailed and leans slightly cool compared to the CXA81 and R8. Still deciding if I like it or not. The S400 MKII are monster speakers. So much bass in a small package. No need for my dual RSL 10 s subs when running the hose speakers.
Nice post. I think I’m reading that you don’t have any analog sources After you tweak the tubes, take a shot at improving your source