Hello everyone. We are journeying into new territory here at Tweek Geek, and Inviting a guest blogger. Finn is a great customer and now a friend. He has a fascinating history, and insights into audio. I have heard his wonderful system, shared many ideas and audio experiences with him, and consider him a kindred spirit on many levels. I invite you to read his introductory blog, and look forward with eager anticipation his future posts.
Enjoy!
Who is the dude ?
Born in Reykjavik Iceland 1962. My earliest memories of music are sitting in front of my older sister's turntable where she kept her record collection and flipping through them, looking at the artwork that fueled my imagination. Moody Blues For our Children's Children's Children with its cave painting was an endless source of wonder for me. Another one was Steeleye Span Please to see the King. That cover had texture that I could run my fingers over and over and my child's mind took me to a world of knights and kings. Later I mustered up the courage to play some music and it was Steeleye Span and the song Blacksmith that will forever hold the grip of being the first to capture my soul. Later I saw the movie The Sting (1973) and the piano music took a hold of me. Got money from my dad and bought the soundtrack. Over the next 3 years I had a casual interest in music. Radio in Iceland at this time was not a hot source of inspiration but with a small tape player and a microphone attached to it I was recording music, from the kitchen radio. I had become aware of something called rock n roll. I think it was fifties rock and doowop that I did like.
1976
In the fall of 1976 everything changed. One of the newspapers published a record review that said this record was rock n roll like no other. I took the bus the next day downtown, walked to the record store, found the record and bought it, walked back to the bus station and bus home and on the newly bought radio/record console Ted Nugent Free For All made a noise I could not believe I had just bought. Record back into the sleeve, record back into the bag and both back to the neighbourhood bus station for the ride and walk back to the record store. To my horror I was told by the wonderful woman who later became a good friend and a coworker, that I could not return the record because I had broken the seal (opened it and played it). Outside the store I made a vow to play the bloody record until I heard what the dam reviewer had heard when he wrote that review. I became a long time Ted Nugent fan and had the pleasure of eating lunch with him and his wife in august 1992. I had graduated into a music buying teen. I was ready for the next step.
My First Hifi
My first hi-fi equipment was a cassette deck. Bought a better one from Marantz and an amp from Marantz and speakers from Kenwood. All I needed was a turntable. After a lot of thinking I settled on a Thorens 160. I told a friend at school that I was going to go down town the following day and buy it. "Oh no, you can't do that. You have to see the one I saw the other day". In the late afternoon we took the bus downtown and in the window of a stereo shop I did not know about. I saw the most distinct, wonderful looking turntable ever made. It was sitting in a glass box, silver and futuristic looking like nothing before. Wow. Wow wow! We stood there after opening hours but what happened next changed my life forever. The owner of the store was still working. He had seen us and stepped out and talked to us, invited us in and we got to see the player in action. The player was Transcriptor.
I have seen many different versions of the player over the years but the one I saw and bought was all glass, all silver with a straight arm that had a string from the head shell to the weight at the back of the arm. The owner became a friend. I would later work at the store. The Gods had laid the path of hi fi and music in front of me.
Since then I have had a lot of equipment. The store was a KEF dealer so all reference series from 101 to 107 I had. We also represented Electrocompaniet in the beginning. The 25 Watt power amplifier named "The 2 Channel Audio Power Amplifier" who someone wrote about: "Audio freaks – eat your hearts out. This is the world’s best-sounding amplifier." It was indeed a good amp but it ran so hot that the print board kept blowing. Rega was another brand that we did sell and Roy Gandy became a friend. We had some hilarious demonstrations in Iceland. Through the Stereo shop I got to visit a few hi fi companies, one being Quad. I Ate lunch with Peter Walker and his son. So I have been pretty fortunate in my world exposure to hi-fi, considering that I was living in Iceland.
First Concert
My first big concert came in May 1978 when the Stranglers came to Iceland to promote the Black and White album. The second concert was The Clash in June 1980. And I was hooked on live music and concerts. From September 1980 to September 1981 I got a job in a record store run by one of two big record labels in Iceland at the time. This led me to write record reviews for the big newspaper for a number of years. This led to hosting a radio program and a tiny little TV job.
From an early age I had taken photos and in 1988 I moved to Ann Arbor MI to learn photography. Came home in 1993 and that is all I have done since. My camera has been extremely kind to me. It has taken me to places most people never see. To fuse my love for music with photography was materialised when I did work for Iron Maiden, Megadeath, Frank Zappa Family, Iggy Pop and Deep Purple. Besides working with a host of Icelandic musicians.
In 2005 I met my future wife in Iceland. I sold my 12.300 strong LP collection and moved to her in the USA in 2015 and we have lived in France, India and Iceland. Home is in SC.
Current Hifi Gear
My current gear is an Oppo 105d with mod from ModWight. Elrod RCA cable to ModWright LS 100 preamp. The pre has a Super Tube Rectifier from Space Lab Tech connected to it. The signal then runs 3 ways. 1. To a DartZeel NHB 108 clone made in China who feets my 2 REL Ti9 subwoofers. 2. It goes to Audio by Frank VanAlstine 850 watt monoblocks who feed Aurai Z 165 speakers. 3. A signal goes to VeraFi Audio 12" subs who play 45hz and below and are on the side wall shooting to the listening seat. Interconnects come from Hi Damond. Power cords are being renewed by cords from Grand Activation. The Speaker cable is from Grand Activation.
Thoughts/Philosophy
There are few things that I like to think of as important when it comes to my system. One is the system is not set up to be an eye candy. It is set up to be functional and sound as good as it can. For example, my monos face the back wall so I have easy access to the connectors. So does my power conditioner from Furman. No rack. Everything sits on its own 3 leg table. Each table is hand made for the system and 2 legs are of the same wood and the 3rd is different wood to break the resonance connectivity between them. I like tweeks. I think tweeks are one of the best things we can practice when it comes to improving the sound in our system. Some are more expensive than others. Some are cheap. Some are strange and make no sense. It is easy to put the label "ridiculous" on some but the magic still is this: Some work more wonders than others but collectively they add up to big "better". To the people who dismiss it all and want only to take note from "we must be able to measure it". Why on earth would we distrust the best instrument in the world, our hearing, brain and give way to some man made instruments ? Well I guess there are people who need words from a man written book about invisible god instead of trusting common sense. Said a guy who firmly believes in things he can hear but can't explain.
At the end of the day I like music and music is the beginning and the end of this all. Music can be, when it sounds good, an experience that few can match. The art of sitting down and listening to music in front of a good sounding stereo system is a dying art. Oh so you are not doing anything is what I hear. Music is now mostly a second hand consumptions. People drive and play music, work out and play music, go out for a walk and play music and so on.
This year has been exceptional for me. All my understanding of good sound has been replaced by ideas that I did not know or thought possible. More on that in my next post.