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I was born and raised in south Alabama where we like to call L.A. or Lower Alabama. I am a bonafide country redneck hillbilly and take pride in it (I really am!). I have been married to my lovely wife Angibug since April 1984 and we have a loving young daughter, Chelsea, born in 1990. We are all Christians, living our lives as best we know how and members of His one and only church, however, don't worry... I will not force religion on anyone, but if you ever want to talk or need a prayer, I'll be here. I have been in the finance industry (lending) since 1983 and have owned my own company, First Troy Finance, since May 1998. I also own First Troy AV where I simply piddle with AV stuff, NO Internet sales, just a little local stuff for friends, etc. I love to hang out in the forums, work with websites, watch movies in the HT, fish, pitch horseshoes, tinker with car stereo, and fiddle around on my tractor on our 63 acres of land... and of course we love to fellowship and worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe everything is made for love and that one of our main goals in life should be to love one another with all our heart. Think about how much better the world would be if we all loved one another as much as God loves us.
My first real stereo system was a complete NAD system put together back in 1984 with the help of a good friend, Walter Barno, who was and still is, in car stereo retail management at CKR Stereo in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition to the NAD equipment we had a Thorens Jubilee turntable and a couple of EPI speakers that I quickly upgraded to Klipsch Fortes. I first got serious about HT back in 1991. I piddled around with it small time from about 1987 until I broke all out in 91 with the big screen and full surround system... McIntosh, Snell, Lexicon, and more. In August 1996, Ron Sabin at Stereo Review magazine got desperate and contacted us about a Systems article in their mag. I'd sent them some pics and a write up about a year earlier... I guess they finally got to the bottom of the pile. Anyway they flew out from California to our honky tonk residence in BAMA and reviewed our system. We were honored to say the least. You can see/read the article
here. I traded up and down over the years, having fun learning about HT and it became a favorite hobby of mine. In October 2003 we started construction on our dedicated home theater with a front projection system, which an absolute blast to build. We finished this up in early 2004, in time for the Super Bowl. It has been our favorite room in the house since. It is named after the road we live on... Cedar Creek Cinema (see sig).
My first experience in the HT forums was the SMR (Lexicon) forum back in the mid 90's when I got our first real processor, the CP3+. I popped in and out but was not what you'd call a regular. I traded the CP3+ up to a DC-1 and later sold it and went the Sony TAE9000ES route and departed from what I considered at that time a less than friendly SMR forum (there were some good guys there but too many that were... well you know). I joined up at HTF back in 2001 and hung out there a little off and on. I joined most all of the popular HT forums (AVS, HTT, HTS) and skipped around from one to the other, but HTF was probably my favorite at the time. Shortly after joining HTF I moved over to the fairly new HTG and ended up hanging my hat there for a number of years. While I was labeled the BFD Expert there, I've never really been an "expert" with anything, just a fella who loves to chat about HT stuff. I'd be better labeled as a jack of all trades - master of narry one! In 2001 I set out on a challenge to author the BFD Guide (actually co-authored with Ken Bruce). It's actually a compilation of several HT enthusiast thoughts and input that I simply put together in one place. I never dreamed it would be what it is today, but I am glad it has been of some help to others and to myself for the friendships it has helped to develop. I look forward to helping others here.
In October of 2005, Andrew Pratt, formerly of HTG, asked me to help Next Level AV forums start a BFD Forum. I obliged and it was a very popular section of the forums. It was fun working with all the folks over at NLAV. Hard to find a finer group of guys. Unfortunately the owner, Jim Piscitello, passed away unexpectedly in early April 2006. It is a great loss to the HT community and Jim will be missed dearly. I was fortunate enough to have gained a great friend in such a short time. These events brought about the idea of creating a new home theater forum and consider partnering up with John Mulcahy of Room EQ Wizard, since the two compliment each other so well. Things worked out and here we are. We hope you enjoy your stay at the Shack.