[davidaht]

My journey into audio, and eventually home theater, began as soon as I was able to enjoy my father’s Heathkit amplifier and 4-way speaker system sourced from an H. H. Scott turntable. The loudspeaker kit consisted of two Klipsch-designed, Jensen driven enclosures with an 8” woofer and rectangular horn in one box on a larger corner-fitting range extension base containing a 15” woofer and a small tweeter. Quite a magnificent sound for the home in the late 50's and early 60's. I recently saw a pair of these sell on eBay for $1400.

My interest in electricity and electronics began with my grandfather’s smile and Lionel trains. He was an electrical engineer. As an infant, I would be held up to a wall light switch and be excited that my pushing the switch at one location could turn a light on and off at another location – an early showing of the male affinity for ‘remotes?’ My first word was “Ight,” short for “light.” In early adolescence, I tinkered with high-voltage and related projects that began with my acquiring an early 1900’s book called The Boy Electrician. This eventually led me to learn about tube-based amplifier and radio circuits.

Quite a few years later and these two interests were fused as I bought a half-working Realistic solid-state stereo amplifier for $25 with paper-route earnings, traced the parallel circuits of the left and right channels until I found a bad soldier connection and restored the full functioning of the unit. With this working, and a new stereo cartridge, I resurrected my father’s turntable and loudspeaker, and used them along with another loudspeaker my grandfather had built. In the early 1970’s, 25 watts-per-channel RMS could really rock the house with such efficient speakers.

Combine this mix with an interest in performance drama and photography through high school, let the television production bug bite me as part of a studio audience and some time behind the scenes with the director and technical director, then add a few years of EE and mass communication education, and technical video production is where I’ve spent the better part of the last three decades professionally.

Interest in obtaining a surround-sound system started in the 1990’s when Velodyne began promoting their under-development, ‘distortion-free, full-range, mini-monitors’ at CES in Las Vegas. A couple years later I started with a near top-of-the-line Onkyo ‘Amplituner,’ some of the Velodyne DF-661’s and, due to space limitations, an original Sunfire Truesubwoofer. Several years later I upgraded with Outlaw Audio separates and added a second sub. I put the system together and modify the listening environment according to sound principles without getting too esoteric. One example: reasonable cables and interconnects, made without any ‘mysterious qualities’ – I’m willing to pay for important attributes but not dubious hype.

Which brings me to today when I enjoy a good mix of music and movies on my system during some of my indoor time.

My other pastime is hydrofoil sailing (I gave up a motorcycle years ago, so the boat is my ‘pocket rocket’), which gets me out in good weather and helps me keep and learn skills related to sailing and modifying boats. Do some web-browsing for the Windrider Rave sailing hydrofoil if you’re interested.

As most of the posts I’ve glanced through here seem to come from reasonable people interested in real-world performance, I’m glad to be a part of this forum.