Willfully obscure, quasi-philosophical intro to a piece about stopping and pondering. Where have we come from and where are we going? That sort of thing.
Approaching the landmark of 5000 posts on HFS - which I hadn't spotted, so thanks Stu for pointing that out - I feel that this is a moment to ask myself what 5 years of forum activity has done/achieved/whatever for me personally. To be quite honest I still have the feeling that I'm a bit of a new-boy in the forum world. HFS is the first and only internet forum I have actively participated in, I like it here and don't really have a desire to look anywhere else.
It all started after I needed to update my ageing NVA P80/A40S and I discovered that Richard had restarted the company and was in production again - and there was a group of enthusiasts discussing matters NVA-related in the HifiSubjectivist forum, which I subsequently joined. To me the spirit of HFS is the feeling you have when you're sitting at the bar in a cosy pub with a bunch of mates and solving the problems of the world through the bottom of a beer-glass. It doesn't need to be all technical and measurements - it's only really about enjoying yous own music and messing about with gear, innit?
My own posting statistics show where my main interests are: 40% of my entries are in the Music room and then mainly on 'Your Last Listen', clearly I like to inflict my dubious musical tastes on the rest of humanity. I'm a music lover/fanatic/junkie. Well, I have to do something as a non-smoking, anti-drugs, moderate drinker don't I? Everybody needs a hobby and preferably one where you don't harm anyone else.
But being here has done me a lot of good. I have made friends here - shared interests allow you to build up a bond of friendship and trust. As an ex-pat living outside the UK I can stay in touch with life in the 'old country' , sharing reminiscences and memories. It has also done my self-confidence a lot of good as at least here my opinions on matters music and hifi aren't immediately categorised as 'boring' or 'there he goes again' (I hope) and those things are important to me.
More concretely I have learnt a lot - Doc-modding speakers for example. How to get the best out of ancient equipment you've picked up in a thrift-shop. Great old amps and speakers. Vintage CD players. Discovering the joys of DIY digital. The importance of cabling and power supplies. Spotting the rip-offs and the bargains. Doing up a set of 90's MDF-cased NVA Cube3's with help from The Doc. In doing that he became freshly intrigued by small speakers, going on to reintroduce the Cube3 in the new range and experiment with wooden boxes that resulted in the Cubette.
Sparring with Richard was a major factor in being on HFS - his outspokenness and direct approach did mean that you would need to remain aware of his presence. But he had genuine humour, wisdom and insight, he is still missed.
That's enough about me for now. Off to the next 5000 posts; there are albums to review, cheap DAC's to find and my own technical inadequacies to display.
Cheers lads, see you around.
