Wharfedale Laser 90s with ‘ferrofluid’ tweeters (!) were vastly improved by being raised to seated ear level. The domestic supervisor had to be persuaded that the parquet wouldn’t suffer!
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I had/have the Japan poster. Covered a whole in the wall in my student loft.
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Cactus Choir poster dates it. 
I used to love the monthly poster sales; I still have most of them, including the Blancmange one; a personal favourite.
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Not the Linn ‘hear no evil’ advert?
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That too.
The Dave Greenslade caught my eye. 
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I just loved Roger Dean artwork!
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Still have all of mine.
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I was a Roger Dean fan back then too with posters on my walls!
I remember the LP12 was the stuff of dreams back then, I had heard one quite often because I used to frequent the local Linn/Naim dealer in Southport as they were near my sixth form college. This was the era of Hi-Fi Review and later Audiophile magazine and I would avidly buy it most months and there was a lot of LP12 coverage in both to heighten my longing!
I never did own one, although just after university I swapped the Systemdek IIX for an Ariston RD110SL, which was a close cousin of the LP12. A few years later I moved to a GyroDec in the late 90’s and have kept that ever since.
Those first audio systems are just so special though. It’s a time of life when music is very much a shared experience, sitting in your college rented room with 3-4 friends in shabby surroundings but pursuing audio excellence and new records with every penny you can muster. I loved every second of it!
It’s interesting that Rhiannon is having that same experience at Uni with her system now. She has had several of her male friends coming around to hear her system and they have been spending late nights listening together after the pub. The females in the house she shares with just don’t seem to get it in the same way.
I’m rather looking forward to this coming week as I’m going to be spending much of it with a couple of old Uni era mates. Paul in Bristol is buying my NAC82/Hi-Cap and I am heading down there on Monday to install them with his new active ATC SCM40’s. We need to buy him a streamer too and everything will be new to him as this is his retirement present to himself. It will be great to spend 3 days with him getting the system up and running. Then on Friday I am off to Ipswich to see Simon, a friend from school, who is buying my NAP250 for his second system - so there will be plenty more music to share with him too.
So it’s not just the hi-fi and the records, but the friends from that era that I cherish so much. I still love sitting down with them and sharing music, just as we were doing in the 1980’s and 90’s together…
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…
After that I will finally be in a position to purchase the NAC332 to complete my move to Naim 300 series as my reference system. I can’t tell you how excited I will be to hear that for the first time since I reviewed it!
JonathanG
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I quite envy you …
I have completely lost touch with all the folk I knew of that era in my life,. Of course all my fault, I was ‘a mature student’ so maybe had much less in common with others, and anyway, as an older person, I was heading for settling down in a few years time (the best outcome for me at that time, kept me out of trouble).
Enjoy the week…sounds a great trip. (maybe on such a trip you will miss the old TVR, - the MX5 will give more comfort though).
Thanks Fergch,
Im sorry to hear you have lost touch with your old mates although I wouldn’t rule out a reconnection. I lost touch with my best female friend from university for 15 years and we have since reconnected and still enjoy getting together, laughing at old photo albums of ourselves (were we really that slim and good looking?!!!) and reminiscing about all the crazy things that happened. That’s one big advantage of social media I think - it’s much easier nowadays to trace old school and college mates and just ping them a hello message and you never know where it might lead…
It’s an odd thing but all of my inner circle of 4-5 closest mates bar one date back to school or uni times. I have one very good friend from flying and certainly have some friends from the hi-fi industry too, but the really deep connections are all from my formative years and I don’t really know why. The biggest issue therefore is distance - we’re split across Bristol, Corby, Ipswich, Cairo and Vietnam so as you can imagine getting together isn’t just difficult it’s nigh on impossible!
I’m taking the Suzuki EV as I have to lug some hifi speakers down there too as well as the Naim boxes so no MX5 this time!
JonathanG
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Jonathan
Apologies, just read the account of your Suzuki purchase (my son has the earlier more rounded and more attractive body Vitara petrol), so appreciate the trip will be in the new electric car. It will give you the opportunity to explore the charging away from home. (No experience as no electric cars in this household).
Interested to see the pictures outside the Goodwood Circuit - maybe near your home. I appreciate photographs of cars in interesting locations.
Yes I appreciate the use of social media, but I have no interest so exclude myself from this opportunity. The forum here is just about the limit of my social interactions on line. I did however establish an email correspondence with an old friend previously only on the Christmas Card list (which is small!) via a chance meeting with an old girl friend of my brother at a local car show, which has been interesting. Recently I have been scanning my early black and white negative films and discovered some photo from the 1970’s which was when we met, and a few photos of that group of folk. I had never enlarged and printed these (lack of access to a darkroom) so the scanning has been a bit of a trip, and revealed just how much I have lost touch with all the folk seen in many of these pictures, though most of the pictures are of racing cars and bikes, and landscape and towns visited. Now spending some time putting together some photo books.
Hope the road trip goes well.
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Revealing a leaning towards Canadian prog rock?
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@Loki haha - not really… I’m more of a Scot Rock fan despite being from near Liverpool! The bands I love though do seem to often have a celtic connection - Del Amitri, Deacon Blue, Big Country, Proclaimers, Simple Minds, Primal Scream, Belle and Sebastian etc. My editor messaged me once after I sent a review in harping on about the Blue Nile and said “what’s with all the ruddy Scottish bands”! which made me chuckle… (only he didn’t say ruddy)…
JonathanG
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Waterboys surely ?
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@alg777 Oh I love them too… Good spot!
JonathanG
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