Hello from a rank new guy

[HawkSpeed]

Hello everyone,
I'm very new to hifi, I've really only gotten into it over the last year or so, before that I was a home theater guy, and it has served me well, but as I age my tastes become more refined and sonic quality becomes much more important then sonic quantity (though my HT setup is running a Harmon/Kardon 5300...)

Anyway, I've purchased a simple turntable to start, a Music Hall MMF 2.2 and paired it with a Grado Reference Sonata cartridge but now its time to build my first bit of tube electronics, a preamp for my vinyl, so I'll be digging around these forums for a while trying to find something to my liking. I've already chosen the SE monoblock amps I will build, 300b's, but in addition to the phono preamp, I will need a "regular" preamp as well. All tube, all analogue and hopefully all sticking to the K.I.S.S. school of design (my thought on the subject, less in the way of the audio signal, the less chance to distort and colour it.

As for electronics experience, when I was a young teen I did a bunch of hobby robotics projects, so while a lot has been lost to the years I'm finding quite a bit of it flooding back as well.

Thank you,
Steven Paul

[Cal Weldon]

Hello Steven and welcome to the forums,

Sounds like you're well on your way to becoming addicted. Not to worry, there are plenty here whom you can confess your deepest audio urges and desires to. You're among friends...


..my name is Cal and I'm a speakerholic.