Finding My Salvation....A Vinyl Love Story

[reubensm]

@reubensm: ur standard4 made 1watt ampli thrills me.... What a make for a 10 yrs old boy... You did a grt job, i must say...... On my time during class4 i used to play with defective compnents that are thrown away by my elder bro, he is also a genious DIYst, he made a lot of things in his childhood, many of them are still used by me. I used to see him during his works. I learned DIYing from. His inspiration helped me a lot to make electronics my primary hobby. My first venture was in my class8 when i returned life to my dad's HMV STEREO 666 record player. I can remember his smile after seeing that alive on that saturday afternoon when he just returned from his office..... After that there was lots of happt DIYing which is still being continued....

yes, some great fun with DIYing back in those days. Yes I started very early and the enthusiasm carries on, right up to this day. But somehow, much to the astonishment of Dad, I was never interested in pursuing Engineering as a career option.

On another note, noticed that I haven't completed my story on this thread. Shall do so this week. Got too involved in sorting out my Turntable plinth builds.

 

[anirban420]

But somehow, much to the astonishment of Dad, I was never interested in pursuing Engineering as a career option.

Electronics is not also my carrer though. But I hv a storng will of working in cross system bio-interface device.........

 

[anirban420]

On another note, noticed that I haven't completed my story on this thread. Shall do so this week. Got too involved in sorting out my Turntable plinth builds.

I have note completely read the thread yet. Busy in my lab. Will read completly soon...... [emoji1]

 

[anirban420]

But the coin has other side too, An old guy sat me in his shop, looked at me with respect and talked about good old days. In his words, "THE GOLDEN DAYS of music", he affirmed strongly that there is no media that can beat a well pressed vinyl, he's been to DUM DUM plant of HMV and had seen vinyls getting born.

@frend2001: good to know that u r from kolkata..... :yahoo: at least I found a pure music lover in my city.... can u tell me how to contact that old man u hv mentioned in the post....

 

[frend2001]

I was standing there with no much in my pocket to even buy an audio cassette and my friend was rolling in his hands a headphone which was worth a whopping 600 bucks then in 1996. I was getting light headed......

He bought it, and I, on the other hand couldn't muster enough courage to inquire about a strange round kind of thing which had SONY logo and "Discman" embossed over it.

I was highly interested in it, I mean what on earth it was ?? but alas me, the poor bugger had to satisfy myself by just looking at it and ogle at it.

But the itch had caught me.....and caught me BIG time....

I was back to that shop the very next day.

to be continued..........

_______________________________________________

I was at shop, the shopkeeper greeted me with his wolfish grin (all imported goods seller back then were like smugglers to me . I was shy and hesitating but he was all ears...

I pointed my finger at the thick and round gadget and asked him.

"oooh.......waaaakman (walkman)", he replied.

No man....I know what a walkman is, what is that....

he again told me it's a walkman, he lifted the box and out came the shining new DISCMAN.

I was confused, sony has renamed it's walkmans or what....?

He connected a adapter and pulled a CD from cover, flipped the cover of Discman and put the CD on it and shut it.

Plugged in earphone and offered them to me. I was not getting this.....ok I put on those earphones and looked at him.....

starting notes of "Humma Humma" from Bombay hit my ear...


Man.....oooh.....man.

A guy who's crazy about music may understand the instant high the sound gave me.

Every note was like a drop of rain.....a drop of cool rain on a hot skin.......

So clear......as if the orchestra was infront of me.

the sound stage and stereo....whoa..

I'd never heard something so pure and clear in my whole life.

to be continued.............

 

[RAAGA]

A guy who's crazy about music may understand the instant high the sound gave me.

We do....I have had my share of similar experiences...:yahoo:

 

[koushik]

Anyone who born in & around 80s and a music lover has the very very similar story to tell.
Thanks for giving me (us?) the Goosebumps and I felt nostalgic. I could see all those "struggle" days that I have gone through to practice an expensive hobby.

To buy a cassette you have to complete a Math chapter today and all that. To get a CD player this year, you have to secure more than 80% marks.
I am sure many others have gone through this "torture"

 

[prakashsubbanna]

@ Koushik, that "torture" sure would have instilled a value for the hobby u still love & nurture...If it were to be " asked it - got it" it would have been just another hobby...!! my 2 cents...Pls. don't take it personal... Cheers. Regards.

 

[koushik]

@ Koushik, that "torture" sure would have instilled a value for the hobby u still love & nurture...If it were to be " asked it - got it" it would have been just another hobby...!! my 2 cents...Pls. don't take it personal... Cheers. Regards.

Absolutely true. BTW I took it personally and I loved it.

Also, that torture ensured that I am a capable person now to carry on nurturing the hobby.

 

[VinylShakti]

I never did get into CDs in a big way, so I guess I spared myself the torture

 

[frend2001]

Yeah just when I'd mustered courage and money to get into CD, MP3s broke over the scene so CDs were left behind pretty fast.

@koushik and @prakashsubbanna, I'm just narrating our stories, I'm sure everyone who's born in 80s and grew up in 90s can relate to this writeup, this is our story man and I'm proud to have witnessed the radical shift in media, from LPs to cassettes to CDs and then to MPs and then coming back to analog.

Whoa....what today's teenagers have missed.

 

[RMCWS]

Such a lovely thread making me nostalgic.

1983 - I was born.

1990-1999 - Started listening to music using my dad record player. Still remember listening to songs from aradhana for hours. Mom says "mere sapno ko rani" was my favourite. First tape recorder was purchased mostly by Philips. Had to put the cassette horizontally, like a car deck.
Then came a philips 2-in-1 with detachable box speakers. Used to listen to "hawa hawa" for hours.
Slowly introduced to lots of western (lots of aerosmith/ gnr/ metallica/ nirvana) etc. Used to buy cassettes from local shops as rock albums are stored in very few during those time. 8B stand near jadavpur had few small cassettes shops which used to stock good number of rock albums mostly because students of Jadavpur university was regular there. Golden days when I searched a lot to get hold of cassettes. some released by Sony was Rs125 at that time. Also used to get the lyrics from Rock Street Journal. With limited or almost nil pocket money, I survived.

1999 - Passed Class X and was gifted a sony system ( 1 cd/ 2 cassette/ radio) by parents. CD was damn expensive. Initially bought Pal by KK and Live Era by GNR (2 Cd pack)...these cds are still with me and working perfectly. This sony hifi was good, at least to me at that time from what I was earlier experiencing.

2001- passed XI.... and got a pc. Suddenly the form of music changed from cassette to mp3. At that time internet was rare, so had to buy mp3 cds. Even rock mp3s were extremely rare at that time in Calcutta. I asked my dad to bring some rock mp3s from delhi. He bought some random stuff and it was then I was first introduced to Cradle of Filth.

I had many rock albums, hindi movies and RSJ albums. I decided to convert those tapes to mp3 using winamp. It took many hours to do so. But I enjoyed a lot.

The got internet connection at home. It was dial up. Very slow and expensive. Still remember the first movie that I downloaded from the net was Desparado and downloaded the music video of until it sleeps by metallica. Slowly the speed of internet increased and downloading was the only thing.

During 2003 bought a 2GB ipod for 9000 bucks and it is still running smoothly but mostly used by my would be wife last 5-6 years.

Was using frontech and creative speakers with the pc. Since i was no longer using the sony hifi, it became dead but the aux was working. So thought of connecting the sony hifi with the pc. It took music to a new level.

2007-2012 - Completed my studies, entered the working life...had less time to spend for myself though music was always there. Also lost my father.

2013 - I decided to built a decent HT for myself as I always like watching movies. So came to this forum with a budget of Rs30,000 (Onkyo 3500) and ended up paying more than a lakh. Thanks to the forum member here.

Apart from movies, I have purchased more than 120-150 ACDs. Have purchased many albums which I had in mp3.

By end of 2013, I decided to venture in vinyl. Got the first one from Shaffic. Lots of advice from the forum member. Trying to get into the physical medium of music and surely there will be nothing more than vinyl.

The only constant thing that has most probably stayed with me is listening music everyday (mobile and ipod does not count though).

Anyways, that's my story.

 

[koushik]

I never did get into CDs in a big way, so I guess I spared myself the torture

It was never about only a CDP. May be someone else got that "torture" for a original willow cricket bat, may be a ranger cycle, whatever it is, it was just an example.

 

[frend2001]

@RMCWS

Just how similar our lives have been. I often find FMs quoting the writeup as their story, you my friend wrote as if you watched me over the shoulder over those years.

God bless music and us, BHAKTGAN

 

[koushik]

@RMCWS

Just how similar our lives have been. I often find FMs quoting the writeup as their story, you my friend wrote as if you watched me over the shoulder over those years.

God bless music and us, BHAKTGAN

I was just about to say the same.
Is it the great 90s Bollywood music that made us lovers of music?

Nadeem-Shravan and Jatin-Lalit working on one after another timeless tunes.

 

[Sameersharma]

Hi, I looking for MP record lovers in Indore . Lets catch up . I am also from Indore . Would like to seek some help in buying a new LP record Player setup.

 

[audiohunt]

hi all music lovers dedicated to preserving the quality of music, i was going thru all of u r posts n i am in my forties n i can say i agree n appreciate all of u 4 taking out time n pains to share u r wonderful journey specially reubnsm n frend2001. i live in a small town near to indore .my story is the same as every one my dad had a hmv ceramic cartridge turntable with built in amp which i used to love the sound of, it was sweet , only prob was that its one channel was not playing loud enough my father loved me so much that he gave me full authority to handle it when i was in 5th or 6th std n i wanted it to be the best sounding as we had a collection of approx 60-80 lps theni came to know about a fellow a repairing wala who when i visited gave me full assurance to repair the turntable n then i went on to repairs without telling my family so as to give them surprise .
now came the surprise when he tested me the player it was running with both channels sounding the same volume n he took 200 rs from me ,
but if some one cud take my picture at that time n moment i suddenly turned pale n sat on the chair because guys there was no music in it
i was all in to tears as the sweet sounding turntable was now just a noise producing thing n i asked him what he did
he then smilingly told me that all the inner plate with transistors n resistors which was there has been removed n replaced by new small less space occupying neat plate which will run longer n just handed me over removed parts
guys believe me i cried for days as the thing was gone forever i had hurt feelings for my self father n family
to cut story short this is the same thing happening to music now, convenience comes first now a days, little note here or there little music here or there doesnt make any difference to todays generation
i still crave for that sound which is registered in my mind its hard to find
even after wasting considerable amount of money n time in gadgets .now i have one sonodyne turntable i got it from a record collector in indore n recently got
technics SL 1200 but i tell u guys i still miss my HMV TT.
Now a days it is very difficult to get good music system which will shaant u r atma in a minute all veterans will agree to me i think that if u listened to that good stuff
even for few minutes it was a nirvana.
that nirvana is gone ,only a few of the veterans or sensible diy kind of guys or filthy rich (who just by virtue of money have it all) have the privilege of enjoying the music to the best. as per rest of the people like me its all an
endless tiring journey of trials n errors hoping to get the "sound of music" as once was registered in my eternal senses


will share rest of jouney further soon

 

[murliblitz]

Hi, I looking for MP record lovers in Indore . Lets catch up . I am also from Indore . Would like to seek some help in buying a new LP record Player setup.

Hi sameer,
I am murli pagarani originally from indore and now settled in dubai,shall make it a point to meet you during my next trip back home..

 

[reubensm]

HMV used to be well known for using old germanium transistor based output stages and silicon transistor based phonostages. Transistors like AD149, AD161/162, AC187/AC188, AC127/128, BC147/148/149 were the mainstays of their amplifiers. These circuits were very capable of producing enjoyable sounds. Simple but very sweet sounding.

 

[entsurgeon]

Hi, I looking for MP record lovers in Indore . Lets catch up . I am also from Indore . Would like to seek some help in buying a new LP record Player setup.

what help do you seek? where r u in indore?