JRT Pictures - Curious

Eclectic Taste

I like singers, good singers like Pavarotti and Elaine Paige. Pop singers like Neil Diamond and Jennifer Warnes. Cult singers like Leonard Cohen and Eva Cassidy. I like Rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen. I like listening to good musicians like Jaqueline Du Pre, Nigel Kennedy, and Lang Lang, the great symphonies like Beethoven 6, and niche stuff like the Protecting Veil. I listen via analogue and digital and I have listed my kit below for those interested.

Equipment

Current equipment used for listening to music....

SOURCES: VINYL REPLAY from a Linn Sondek LP12 with Lingo Power supply, Akito tonearm and Adikt cartridge. CD REPLAY from a Linn Majik CD player. SACD, Blu-ray and DVD from a Denon DBP-2012UD player. DIGITAL RADIO and HARD-DRIVE from a Sky HD+ box. Due to Sky not upgrading the HDMI socket on their 1TB box I have hooked up direct to the T.V. via HDMI for vision and to a receiver via optical cable for surround sound. The other sources are hooked up to the receiver listed below.

AMPLIFICATION: Yamaha AV 1067 surround receiver.

SPEAKERS: FRONT; Bi-wired Quad 11L. SURROUND; Boston Acoustics xs 5.1 system. So I have ended up with a 7.1 surround system. Now you would think the Quads would be incompatible with the tiny Bostons but it all sounds rather good to me.

The last kit upgrade was the universal disc player. The next upgrade will be a quality 3D T.V. I also need to obtain a good test and set-up disc so perhaps a trip to Russ Andrews in Kendal is in the offing.

Latest Sounds

Music is sourced online (not downloaded) from various sellers for both new issues and seconds. I still need discs as I live in an area that doesn't get broadband, yes seriously.

VINYL:

'Ben Hur'

OMS re-issue, obtained online from the pre-owned market.

CD:

'Ultimate Toni Braxton'

DVD-MUSIC:

Phantom Of The Opera live at the Royal Albert Hall

If you only have one artistic receptor in your body you will still enjoy this. Now here's an idea for Bluray concert footage, a viewing option from a fixed camera. You know like we are at the show and not at the mercy of a director and strange 'artistic' camera angles. Please.

Latest Sights

High definition has added beauty where once there was none.

Star Wars

Blu-ray boxed set. Watched them all now and must say the older films don't quite stack up to modern standards so my conclusion would be to keep your older DVD's if you have them and get the newer films only on Bluray.

The Bourne Trilogy box set

Terrific entertainment. Does Matt Damon ever appear in a bad film?

Other Interests

Music and Its clutter

1950's

My earliest music memories were listening to a transistor radio in our kitchen, away from the rest of the family, to Cliff Richard and The Shadows playing music and having fun, seemed to me, in the late 1950's on Cliff's weekly radio slot "Me and My Shadows" Soon to be succeeded by The Beatles and their weekly radio slot.

At this time I became an avid film fan as I was packed off to the Saturday matinee at my local cinema every week, the Queens in Whitehaven which was demolished a long time ago, and here eventually the two interests merged as the first pop musicals were thrust upon us and Ennio Morricone penned some music for a small budget Italian based western. Would you believe it Whitehaven used to have three cinemas! Not a one remains.

1960's

The first LP soundtrack I ever bought was "A Fistful Of Dollars" by Ennio Morricone and I remember distinctly having to spell the name out to the shop owner as I ordered it. Yes I know the film was an 'X' certificate (18) but I knew the doorman and young as I was I got in, luckily I always noted the music credits and I was a very good speller, more Morricone followed.

I played all this stuff, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, The Beatles and various film soundtracks on a Dansette, yes yes that Dansette the one with the auto stack and a flip-over cartridge for LP's, it was the family Dansette and it served us well.

1970's

Later I managed to purchase a Hacker record deck with its stereo box upgrade, the 'ultimate' in stereo reproduction, or so I thought at the time before moving on to a huge Japanese music centre. This thing had a record deck, tuner and tape deck all in one with a seperate pair of speakers, weighed a ton and took up a huge amount of desktop space.

1980's

I moved on from the music centre to my first foray into seperates via an all one brand Bang and Olufsen 2002 set up. A definate improvement in both aesthetics and sonics and it was in this auspicious period that I became aware of and started reading about hi-fi.

The pop scene seemed to me to disintegrate during this period and I turned to classical music to fill a void and quench a thirst for 'new' good music. Yep, classical. I took the plunge and invested in a Linn Sondek.

1990's

The seed was set and the demons temporarily satisfied, cue photography ....