David99, I must need a shrink (hello, Detlof & Larryr).It's taken me 6 months to reveal myself and although a newcomer at AG, I should have caught on earlier. Uncanny, the connections shared w/ you guys (& gals?), seems I'm not alone: let me summarise the connections. I'm Greg, 43 yrs old, from the old continent (hi, again, Detlof), born in Russia, raised in middle-europe and lived in France (moved around, a bit like Mohammad and Dekay. I am now a headhunter by trade (Ezmeralda11, if u see this, send me a resume... hi, Briweve / Sdcampbell, if u're there, let's do business. Need it for my next upgrade). Divorced with a beautiful (ofcourse) 6 yr old daughter, living with a lovely partner who has not, yet, offered me Mesa Barons (Dtj, you lucky b...!) BUT she's from DOWN UNDER (hi RED, hi Tim.warhurst). BTW, Red + hdm + other Junior Wells aficionados, I heard Junior live in Paris... drool (I did)!
A law + MBA graduate, I began my professional life at CBS (now Sony music) then, Unilever...unbeleivable, there's a P&G ex-rival on this thread.
Hobbies: my daughter, my partner, (red) wine, cognac, cigars, literature and music ever since I can remember. (i.e. things that are expensive, fattening and immoral.) I listen mostly to classical, jazz & blues. Am listening to Liszt's Christus as I warble.
Hi-end, etc. Got hooked when I first heard huge horn-loaded speakers at the tender age of ¬7 (Westminsters, Canterbury... something like that). I still remember being awed. My first system was a Philips integrated TT with two detachable bookshelf speakers & it took me 10 years to finance my first separates: Luxman (35?) integrated, Technics TT, Kefs. Since then, finance not really permitting but demos, deals, and friends allowing, I've gone thru valves (Jadis, ampliton!!!, KR, CAT, AR), all kinds of speakers (Apogee, Rogers, Spendor, Audioexklusiv, Quad, Audio Physic, Genesis), and source components (you name it). This is getting to sound like a hi-fi shop....
Thought I had a dream system some while back -- but had to sell everything due to dire financial straits.
Now operational again with Gen V speakers, Symphonic Line Kraftquelle pre, RG7 power, Reference CD, Zarathustra/ PLuto 6A/ Clearaudio Victory TT set-up / bearlabs cables-- and tweaking with lots of help from J D (Winters Lessons -- thanks JD for the tweaks and many thanks for your stamina: it teaches me many a lesson).
I'm now into searching the *best performance* in classical -- a costly past-time.
Thank you David, not only for the thread, but also for managing the plethora of responses.
Take care everyone and let's all be well to enjoy the beauty around us.
