Get this ....

[Gerry D]

I think you'll find this interesting.
http://audiomatters.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... u.html?m=1

[Claus]

Wow! I feel VERY normal now ;)

[Seán]

I never tire of watching that video. There are some choice comments in there.

"Electricity is 50% of the sound". Rack is 30% of the sound" WOW, only 20% for the kit so!

"We are hunting for something". "We are not normal, you know?"

Yes we Irish are not like the Greeks. LOL

[patrickd]

Hi folks -- this is Patrick Dillon, the writer of the AudioMatters blog linked above. Imagine my delight this morning when editing my site to find incoming from a hifi forum in Ireland!! I grew up in Limerick and I can tell you, there was precious little hifi going on when I emigrated in the 1980s. Love the forum, just saying 'hello' from Texas, and I'll be checking in regularly.

Peace

[Ivor]

Hi folks -- this is Patrick Dillon, the writer of the AudioMatters blog linked above. Imagine my delight this morning when editing my site to find incoming from a hifi forum in Ireland!! I grew up in Limerick and I can tell you, there was precious little hifi going on when I emigrated in the 1980s. Love the forum, just saying 'hello' from Texas, and I'll be checking in regularly.

Peace

Lovely to have you on board Patrick. Your contributions will be very welcome!

[Fran]

You're very welcome Patrick!

Glad to have you on board.....



Fran

[fergus]

Your timing is very good Patrick with your namesakes day coming up soon!!

I look forward to reading your contributions.

[Seán]

Hi folks -- this is Patrick Dillon, the writer of the AudioMatters blog linked above. Imagine my delight this morning when editing my site to find incoming from a hifi forum in Ireland!! I grew up in Limerick and I can tell you, there was precious little hifi going on when I emigrated in the 1980s. Love the forum, just saying 'hello' from Texas, and I'll be checking in regularly.

Peace

Hi Patrick and welcome to this great forum. People in the eighties had some awareness of hifi, these days the general populace hasn't got a clue.

Keep in touch.

[patrickd]

I think that sadly, despite impressions to the contrary, the general populace here too has few clues and even less interest in hifi. My memories growing up in Limerick were that I could at least hear various pieces of equipment in a couple of stores in town - Savins on O'Connell St used to have a room at the back with gear (and a downstairs room with musical instruments too), and I purchased my first real audio gear there -- a Connoisseur turntable, and an integrated amp the name of which escapes me now and a pair of large bookshelf Sony speakers -- all of which set me back something like 140 pounds as I recall after a bit of bargaining with the old guy there who ran the shop. Even then some of my friends could not understand why I was spending all my money earned working a summer job on that gear. To be honest, in some ways nothing has ever sounded as good to me as that set up, which of course is over the top romantic memory at work.

By the time I left, originally for England then for the US, friends were all shifting to mass-market CD players and you could not find a 'table outside of Dublin if you wanted to buy something half-decent. England, comparatively, seemed like audio heaven, there were stores everywhere. Been awhile but I think that might have been the last days of a golden age. In the US, dealerships have moved increasingly into small home-based businesses where you make an appointment to audition a limited range of products, though some super-dealerships still exist in larger areas. The small dealers I know tell me the market is precarious. The rise of audio forums and online sales comes with costs but it has some upsides too for rekindling audio interests. Most people I know now buy gear on Audiogon without audition and spend inordinate amounts of time on line discussing it...it's a whole new world. OK, enough going down memory lane...it's great to see this community here.

Best

P.