Thread: Greetings From Orlando, Fl.

Hello everyone! My name is Tom but in all the audio forums I'm known as Thetubeguy1954. I've been an avid music lover and because of my desire to hear my music reproduced as accurately as possible, an audiophile as well, since Feb. 9, 1964, when I heard The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show! I still remember my dad laughing at me because I kept yelling STOP SCREAMING!!!!!!! to the girls on the TV. I don't remember how I attained it, but the very next day I had a transistor radio so I could listen to music and every night I fell asleep listening to rock on FM until it went off-air sometime between 12 midnight and 1 am.

The next nudge in my audio journey occurred when a new kid I met at school invited me over to his house. As soon as I entered I heard music. As it turned out his parents were both avid music lovers and they had --for the first time I'd ever seen one-- a very nice Motorola console. I just couldn't believe my ears! To me, back then, this sounded almost real. They played Fats Domino, Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, Nate "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra, and of course, Elvis Presley! I'm sure there are many more artists I can no longer remember but after 55 years that's to be expected.

Over the next couple of years, after hearing how good music sounded when played on the various mono & stereo music consoles over friend's and relative's homes, I tried talking my parents into buying a music console for our home as well. But nothing happened so when I turned 13 in 1/1967 I started talking my bike out once a month on the days you could throw-away literally anything you could bring to the end of your driveway. On those days I'd searched for music consoles to "gut". It didn't take long until I had a tube, tuner/preamp, 2 monotube amps, and a turntable. I became quite ingenuitive. Back then in Hartford, Connecticut --where I grew up-- a company called "Hartford Club Beverages" used to deliver large bottles of soda in wood crates. So I took one of these crates and turned it upside, down and I cut a hole in the bottom of the crate and mounted the turntable there. Next with the turntable facing forward I cut another hole and mounted the tuner/preamp on what was now the 'front" of the crate. I then took the two monotube amps and flipped over two more wood crates so they were also upside down and I simply placed one amp each on two separate crates. Finally --please remember I was a dumb kid at the time-- a friend and I sneak out of our homes at midnight on a Friday night. Then we rode our bikes down to the local high school and took to a pair of LARGE University Sound speakers that were mounted to the sides of the building from which they announced the football games and I had my speakers! For a kid of 13, my system was better sounding than anything I heard any adult own when we'd visit their houses!

Today I'm a 66-year-old toad and my system consists of a YBA Genesis CD4 CDP --used strictly as a transport-- a tube Musical Paradise MP-D2 DAC, a Don Sachs Audio custom SP-14 preamp, a T+A Amp 8 (thank you Randy) and a pair of Reference 3A Taksim speakers. I also have various high-end ICs, power cords and speaker wires. With that, I'll end and thank you all for having me here...

Originally Posted by Mike

Welcome fellow Floridian.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thanks, Mike! Although I'm sure you won't remember, we met when you held the event to introduce Lukasz Fikus' Pacific DAC at your audio salon! My friend Phil Abish drove me down and I had a wonderful time. Lukasz ended up playing a song from Phil's thumb drive and Lukasz liked a song on my friend Phil's thumb drive so much, Phil gave Lukasz the thumb drive!

I'm hoping sometime in the future after you've gotten to know me, I might be able to hear that beautiful audio system in what appears to be a dedicated audio room at your home. But, I must warn you "if" that invite ever does come, I would need to have a friend drive me down there --as Phil did for your Lampizator event-- because I'm disabled and cannot drive any long distances. In any event, Mike, thanks for making me feel welcome to your AudioShark forum...

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

Welcome Tom. Another good dude is always welcome here 😊. Sounds like an interesting journey.

Hello, my friend! First & foremost, thanks for welcoming me here at the AudioShark forum. It's always nice when a "newbie" to an audio group/forum is made to feel as welcome as you guys are doing! I ran a forum called SETriodes for almost 20 years in Yahoo Groups until earlier this year when Yahoo out-of-the-blue without any real previous notice, simply decided to end their "Yahoo Groups." But I digress, my point in saying this was to let you know whenever I had a "newbie" join SETriodes I made it a point to welcome them to the group, just like you guys are doing, and I cannot tell you how many new members wrote me a private email expressing gratitude for receiving their public welcome, and that's exactly what Mike and the rest of you guys here are doing here! THANK YOU!...

Second Randy I need to tell you yet once again, how happy I am with the T+A Amp 8 you sold me. That little solid-state amp when combined with my Don Sachs Audio SP-14 tube preamp is turning out to be one incredible little combo. I cannot wait to get the YBA Genesis CD4 repaired so that I might be able to remove the Toshiba DVD player from my system. I'm going to check and see if there's a digital out on the Toshiba tomorrow. If it does have digital out I'll be able to get the Musical Paradise MP-D2 tube DAC back into the system, and use the Toshiba strictly as a transport thus greatly improving what's already turning into a great sounding combo into an even much better sounding combination!

Finally, yes, my audio journey was indeed a strange and unique one. In the mid to the late 80s to early '90s, I was a UPS driver out of the Hartford, CT, UPS hub. Believe it or not, with overtime I was grossing at least $53K at that time. Here I am in my early 30's, I'm making a great living, and then BAM!%#?(*^ I slipped while delivering heavy PC parcels down a very long staircase and the hand-truck, the very heavy PC parcels, and I went down that staircase hard and fast. All I remember was waking up with all these people standing around and then WHAM, I felt the pain. To make a long story as short as possible, I went from a $53K/yr earning to a $12K/yr SSD check. Thank Father God, I had already put a decent audio system together consisting of a rarer than hen's teeth --see pic below-- Infinity FET preamp --it literally smoked my previous GAS Thaedra-- with a David Belles/Magnum-Dynalab OCM 200 power amp, a Nakamichi CDP --I can no longer remember the model-- and a pair of Carver Amazing speakers!

If it wasn't for having that start in audio before I became injured and then, later on, declared "disabled" I would have never been able to slowly save up some $$$$, sell a component --amp, preamp, etc.-- and then with those funds combined purchase a sonically better piece to replace it. But it was that very unique journey that has led me to where I am today. A fairly new member of the AudioShark forum and the lucky man who got to purchase your T+A Amp 8 and make a new audio friend in the process...

Originally Posted by Mikado463

Tom, I enjoyed your tale and since we're the same age I can relate!

I remember going through Orlando on the train when I was a kid ('58) to visit my Great Grandparents in St Pete, Orlando was basically a swamp, man how things have changed!

Dave, WOW!!!! Orlando was basically a swamp? Boy how times have changed. I can tell you where I moved to in East Orlando just 16 years ago has drastically! I cannot believe how many new stores and apartment buildings have sprung up. On another note --like the pun-- I truly appreciate how much you and all the others have made me feel welcome in the AudioShark forum. Hope to see you in one of the forums...

Tom aka Thetubeguy1954

Originally Posted by AJ Soundfield

Welcome Tom, I guess rumors of your demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Can't recall who I asked while back, said you were having health issues on multiple fronts?
Think last I saw you was at Francis's meet in Beverly Hills (FL!)??
Anyway, you're well enough to type and listen to music!

cheers,

AJ

Hey AJ!!! Yeah, I'm still around and kicking, and I am indeed having a few health issues I've been struggling to get ahead of! In fact, it was just about 4 years back now when my wife returned from visiting her family in Colombia, S.A. The moment I saw her come through the area where they allow the international passengers to enter the airport, I could see she looked sick and she came out coughing & hacking up a storm. Well, I got her home asap, and as she changed into her PJs --hey PJ, AJ there any relation-- I made her a hot cup of herbal tea with honey, which she drank and went to sleep. Well, two days later she was feeling a lot better and now I was the one who was coughing & hacking up a storm. However. unlike her, I kept getting sicker & sicker until Saturday morning came and I told my wife I could barely breathe and needed to go to a Walk-in clinic right now!!! We drove to the local Walk-in clinic and as soon as the doctor listened to my lungs he told me to go to the emergency room and tell them I needed to be seen stat. So the doctor gave a piece of paper from his prescription pad and wrote down; This patient needs to be seen stat and off we went to the local hospital.

Now for those who are still reading my tale of woe, I'll continue on... Once we arrived at the local ER the first nurse I encountered in the emergency room, I handed her the note from the doctor at the walk-in clinic. She calmly read the note, and when she finished she took me into a back room and sat me in a chair that resembled the chair you sit in when the dentist is working on your teeth. She then asked me questions about how I felt and why I felt the need to come to the emergency room. I answered all her questions but I noticed, as she measured my blood pressure and took my pulse, a strange look came across her face. After she finished measuring my pulse, she turned around and said; "I'll be right back." To be honest I was still ok at this point. I looked at my "dentist's" chair and thought this would be the perfect spot to give me an IV antibiotic and that's probably exactly what I need! And that's when it happened BAM! Around the corner, a hospital gurney came flying surrounded by a cardiologist on one side, a pulmonologist on the other side as well as nurses and nurse's aids.

It turns out the cough syrup I took had something in it which jacked my heartbeat and blood pressure. So the cardiologist thought I was on the verge of having a heart attack. On top of that that I was actually just getting over a terrible case of bronchitis, and unbeknownst to everyone, including my wife, she brought back from Colombia a rare & potentially deadly form of the human metapneumovirus --which she proceeded to give to me-- so the hospital immediately quarantined me for the next four days. Now in an effort to make what's actually a very long story as short as I possibly can, I was released after four days in quarantine but sadly the human metapneumovirus permanently damaged my lungs and I now have COPD which requires my taking a Symbicort inhaler twice in the morning, an Incruse Ellipta inhaler once in the afternoon and the Symbicort inhaler twice in the evening again. That's just one of my health problems you previously mentioned. But heck buddy I'm 67 and we all have different crosses we have to endure right? AJ, I actually consider myself to be blessed. Sure there are people who have a lot more money than I do, people who have much better health than I do, and even people who have a much better family life than I do. But I still consider myself to be blessed. Why some might ask? The answer is very simple; I just remind myself how there are people who have a lot less money than I do, people who have much worse health than I do, and even people who have a much worse family life than I do. The thing is to learn contentment wherever you are in life, period... Remember this "Every day above ground is a good day indeed!"

AJ you and I have sure come a long way since our times of battling on the A.A. huh? --Audio Asylum for all those wondering what A.A. stood for -- I've noticed you have a nice speaker business, with some nice looking speakers too! I'd really like to hear them someday because I've always been anti-powered speakers! However, if anyone could change my mind on that topic it would be you. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's nice to have a forum with so many local audiophiles/music lovers on it! Especially an audio forum whose members go out of their way to make a "newbie" feel so welcome. AJ thanks again for the welcome. It's really good to see you again...

Originally Posted by CPP

Hi Tom, I'm up in Palm Coast now retried, Welcome Tom!

Hi CPP! I'm very sorry my friend, but I just don't recognize your CPP moniker!?!?!?? Should I? Did I know you, by your moniker or personally? I did check and I saw you're about 1.5 hrs away from my home now. Tell me where did you live before Palm Coast? Did we ever visit each other? To be 100% honest with you, I have COPD, so Covid-19 really scares me --if I catch Covid-19 I'd most likely not come home from the hospital-- and because of that, I've been pretty much a homebody since 3/20. All we can do is hope & pray for things to improve for 2021.

In any event, I truly appreciate your welcoming me to the AudioShark forum...