Hi there guys, Bernard from Great Brak River ... previously from Cape Town. Super forum and propped up by some massively supportive / interesting folk. I'm 55 in a few days time and have enjoyed all kinds of music since my school days in Rondebosch ... no fancy equipment mind you.
A friend and I used to pop into the record library on main street Rondebosch every Friday after school and each hire about 5 records for the weekend .. 10 between us. Then it was off to Clicks to buy a bunch of C90 BASF cassettes for copying. ( Shudder .... piracy never crossed our minds then ! ) All this music was then played on a little Aiwa portable .. we were in heaven !
Then I built my own kit speakers, 30 watt Corels. All built to their specs but they weighed a ton as I used pretty thick wood from my dad's garage, no funds for luxury stuff then. After the army I had a few rand and bought a Kenwood amp. Now we were progressing .. Aiwa tape ---> Kenwood ----> Corels.
Then came an Akai T/T and the cassettes gave way to records. Still have every one of those records in the bookrack. Then I bought a pair of DM 11's from the late Norman Foglar, near parliament. A really super guy and he actually put me onto the path of actually sitting in front of a pair of speakers and trying to identify the various instruments. Loved the DM 11's.
Popped into his shop again one day to buy a particular Technics amp which I had just heard at Holscher ( Are they still around ? ) Norman practically hopped up and down on the spot while gesticulating madly at all the newspaper clippings attached to his wall and notice board. "Have you heard the NAD 3020, have you heard the NAD 3020" was all he said. Needless to say I walked out with his NAD ... was still using it until about two years ago. Now carefully stored for future use. Then I had to retire the DM 11's due to removals accident and my daughter blowing the tweeters about 14 years ago. Visited Ricus in George and came out with a pair of Mission 730s which I'm still using. Had to replace a tweeter a couple of weeks and found the last one from AVSpecialists in Cape Town.
Oh yes, the CDP is also an old NAD 5425. It recently stopped playing CDs and insisted on spitting them out. NAD agents said it couldn't be repaired, too old ?? I gutted the transport and discovered a perished drive belt for the draw. No spares, so I bought a length a O-ring material and made one. CDP still working today. Saw a similar model at Cash Crusaders, asked the owner to play something .. nope, kept spitting out the CD. I offered him R200. I now have 2 working 5425s
My old DM 11s have now become a WIP as Shaun ( Shonver ) kindly supplied me with a pair of Mission tweeters as I'm not able to find anything B&W. Have plans to veneer the boxes with cherry wood. Thanks a million Shaun ! Wish I had your lounge .... edge to edge things musical. AND a soldering iron on the diningroom table !! My wife would have extracted my cochleas by now.
About 2 years ago I bought a 3rd hand ( originally a shop demo unit ) Rotel RA 1070 to drive the Missions from a chap, Wally, in Cape Town. After that everything changed.
Now, when the wife and kids are in bed I move the speakers into place ( thumb tacks in the floor ) and move the seat forward ( another thumb tack in the floor ) and place a box of red wine on the table next to me and turn off the lights .... sometimes 'til 1 in the morning.
To summarise the above .... I have a very old CDP, a 3rd hand amp and repaired Missions and the most awesome turning point was just getting the speakers and chair in the right spot. That happened after I met Shaun. Previous to that, I had missed out 40 years of stage and depth, but I'm making up for it !
That's all folks !!
