Hi, and welcome to my pages.

I have had many hobbies over the years, but one of the most enduring has been the Audio hobby. Back in the '60's and '70's, I built a few speakers, some simple amps, but never really built anything remotely "high-end". I did it for the simple expediency of it being cheaper than trying to buy something factory made.

I've held an advanced class Amateur Radio license for over 13 years and really enjoyed it....for quite a while, but the magic wore off after doing nearly everything there was to do in Amateur Radio and I rekindled my interest in audio.

In the '90's, I started playing with audio again, and thus started a transformation of bits and pieces bought at garage and estate sales, pawn shops, and other ways of just trying to get the most "bang" for my bucks into a higher end, more resolving system which would allow me to do whatever I wanted to, whether that was to record an LP to CD, cassette, or Reel to Reel tape, or listen to the marvelous recordings available on R2R tape, and still enjoy the music.

My main speakers have progressed from Ohm Walsh 2's, to Infinity RS-IIIa's, to Magnepan MG-I's in which I restrung the tweeter section and used better caps and internal wiring, to the MartinLogan Aerius-i's, and now I am currently enjoying a set of Third Rethms with Lowther DX-55 drivers. I still have the Ohms on hand, plus a set of Klipsch Heresy's, a set of Loth-X Ion BS-1's, a set of Loth-X Amazes, and a couple of home made single driver speakers that I experimented with.

The central part of my system that has remained unchanged for the past 4 years has been the Audible Illusions Modulus 3A preamp. I bought this before I took a part time job with a local mail order/internet retailer, so I paid his usual street price for the unit. I haven't regretted it!

My Turntable is a Linn Sondek Valhalla with an Ittok LV-II arm, a Benz H2O cartridge, and an XLO Type III tonearm cable.

Other sources include TEAC X-700R and A-2300SX reel to reels, an Akai GX-77 R2R, a TEAC AN-180 Dolby unit, Pioneer Elite CT-43 cassette deck, a Pioneer PDR-05 CD recorder with a modified ART DI/O used for A2D and D2A, a Sansui TU-719 tuner and a Philips SACD-1000 SACD unit. The recording gear is switched via a DBX program route selector connected to the tape loop of the Modulus. I also have an Audio Alchemy DTI 2.0 jitter reducing box and I use this to switch between it's optical input into which I have the Sony DirecTV's digital out plugged into, and the coaxial input from the PDR-05.

I have an old M&K Goliath subwoofer box in which I removed the crossover and installed an Adire Shiva driver as the right hand subwoofer and a Dahlquist DQ1-W on the left. These are crossed over using a Pioneer D-23  feeding an Adcom GFA-555II from the second set of line outputs of the Audible Illusions, the main speakers are run full-range.  

The amplifier I am currently running is a tweaked version of the Electronic Tonalities Paramour .

Things that I will be changing in the future will be mostly custom racks for the equipment and the 43" Toshiba RPTV, it's just sitting a bit too high for perfect viewing from the couch, and I want to get all the equipment to the right of the TV a little closer together, which should free up that corner for the other Dahlquist sub box in which I will install the Shiva driver as the original driver is shot and a new Shiva into the currently working Dahlquist. 

I have a few links here about the things that I have built, some of the parts I have used, and some of the fun that I have had.