Hello from Eastern Tennessee
 

Hello,
I'm new and I'd like to introduce myself. I'm a software guy in Knoxville, TN. I've loved stereo equipment since I heard a Threshold / Magnepan system at a stereo store as a teenager and realized that it's possible to have a really entertaining musical experience in your home. What a revelation that day was -- I still remember it vividly years later.

I've had my Magnepan 1.7s speakers and a Velodyne DD-12 subwoofer for years. I've just purchased two Mark Levinson 536 mono amps and an MSB Technology Diamond V DAC/Preamp.

I'm old school and I have a "physical" collection of music (mostly CDs, but also vinyl and some SACD). These are items I can touch, and read, and many times remember buying. I realize all the hipsters are streaming and CDs are becoming a dinosaur, but I'm just not a big music streamer even though I do have an account on Tidal (mainly to help learn about new music). I've ripped everything into my music NAS box (a custom linux build with a 50 TB raidset). The music collection occupys around 10 TB and over 150K tracks. I use Itunes to manage the library and Roon to play it (from smartphone, tablet, and laptop). Most tracks are 16bit/44Khz losslesss ALAC, and there's a fair amount of higher definition (e.g., 24bit/352.8K). I have almost no mp3s.

I'd describe my musical tastes as varied. I like most music, but my favorite artists are big on vocals and guitar: Big Head Todd, John Mayer, Lucinda Williams, Eric Clapton, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Van Morrison, the Stones, and so on. I especially like nice live recordings and I have a fairly extensive collection of recordings from artists dropping by studios like KFOG and WFUV.

I guess I'm a cynic when it comes to some of the audio stuff I read. For instance, I think you can get low capacitance, low inductance, cables/interconnects fairly cheaply and they'll sound just as good as a gazillion dollar cable made from a unicorn's horn. On the other hand, I do appreciate good engineering and there are plenty of great examples of that in the audio world.

I'm looking forward to talking with you about my passion -- wonderfully rendered music. :rock-on:

Welcome to the best group of online friends you will ever make.

:welcome2.: Good to have you aboard. :thumbsup:

Welcome!!

50 Tb... you're not so old school! :D

Trjtrjtrj... Welcome to AA! :wave:

Welcome to a great site! Go Vols!

Thanks to all of you for welcoming me with open arms! :banana:

I'm a big college football fan -- but I follow Oklahoma! (That's where I grew up.)

I also like to see Stanford do well (That's where I went to grad school).

Living in Knoxville, I see plenty of orange (the color of the University of Tennessee, aka The Volunteers and located in Knoxville). Of course, orange is a rival color to Sooner fans (both Texas and Oklahoma State use orange). But the Vols orange is a slightly different tint of orange than that of Texas and Oklahoma State -- and truth be told I like to see the local team do well.

By the way, I noticed that there isn't a thread for MSB Technology gear in the Manufacturers forum. Could someone add one please? My guess is that I'm not the only person interested in chatting about MSB Technology gear and it would give us an obvious place to congregate and share. :scratch2:

Thanks for your consideration.

Welcome from a fellow East Tennessean to a great forum for all kinds of knowledge.

MSB makes the best digital IMHO.

Mike S.