A bit short on photo's but in 1971 I broke up a Pye radiogram, built a wooden enclosure for the mono valve amp, and mounted the full range drivers into baffles which I leaned against the wall. I was into baffles in those days but moved on
Source was the Garrard deck that came out of the radiogram, mounted into a simple wooden cut out. Sound was much improved over the combined radiogram unit and became even better when I painted the amp enclosure red with white 'go faster' stripes
In 1975, I acquired a Thorens TD150 in a peice of veneered chipboard, fed into a secondhand Rogers HG88 MkII (valves) which I still have. This stereo amp was wired for mono to feed a 'Musolium' speaker which was a very open to atmosphere cabinet containing a single 12" Goodman's full range driver. The cabinet was so airy, it operated very much like a baffle as we know them today. Around this time, I built my first relatively serious interconnect.
Thereafter, as income improved, I started to get into more commercial kit and in the 1980's developed a taste for quality sound. I bought new kit based on listening sessions and magazine reviews, but had to save up my police mileage and subsistance allowances from attending police diving jobs. It was a slow process. With a mortgage and young family, upgrading kit over the counter was a non starter. The only option was to DIY something. My first step was to strip down and rebuild the Thorens TD150, fit it in an Ash wood properly made plinth, fit damping material to the chassis, a Linn armboard and Linn springs and mount a Rega 250 arm. I also ripped out all the mechanics to reduce it to a simple 33rpm player only. This produced a massive improvement to sound and set me on the way to DIY regardless of bugger all knowledge. My brother still happily now uses that TT.
I contented myself building interconnects until in 1994 I heard the WAD KLS3 speakers hooked up to their 300B PP amp at a Bristol show and I was gobsmacked by the sound quality. The next year, I built my own KLS3's and after much tweaking and tuning, continue to use them to date. This gave me the courage to move onto amplifiers and my first was the WAD KaT88 with a passive pot in a box pre. I can't describe my excitement when having built it, tested it and fitted it into the system, it worked first time and the sound was so good. Thereafter, all is history most of you know.
Nice thread Steve.
Greg
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
Douglas Adams (HHGTTG)
