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How I came to be Knighted


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This thread is a continuation of my 2 earlier system threads;

 

"A snapshot in time"

 

"Can't see the trees for the Sherwood forest"

 

 

 

Those 2 threads discussed my system as it developed in my home in Oamaru.

 

We've now moved to Waimate and own a slightly smaller villa which has been opened up to combine the kitchen, dining and lounge area.

 

This was the feature that really appealed to my wife and I, but it caused problems when I came to set up my system.

 

Also my wife indicated that she would prefer not to have the lounge dominated by the gear (more on that later).

 

I tried several different orientations of the lounge and didn't really feel comfortable with any of them.

 

What I would have liked to do was to mount the tv on the chimney breast and have the main speakers either side of this, but the wall on one side of the chimney breast had been removed, which would mean that the speaker would be sitting in the middle of a traffic route, and would be visible from the kitchen. I thought that this would just look wrong and possibly sound awful too.

 

Also during the months spent rearranging the room I decided to update my AVR. I wanted one with HDMI which unfortunately the Sherwood Newcastle 965 didn't have. My new receiver is an Onkyo TX-NR1010.

 

And to offset the cost of the AVR I decided to sell my Image 414s and the matching 400C centre and use bookshelf speakers (Celestion Ditton 100).

 

The problem with that of course is that the Celestions are a bit bass shy. I found that I was less inclined to watch movies as they no longer had the impact or scale that I had become used to.

 

Also I spent more time in my work room listening to music whilst building cables.

 

Then a funny thing happened.

 

My wife said that she too missed the scale of the old system. "But dearest" I replied, "you didn't want a lounge dominated by gear".

 

"Well I miss it and I'd like it back" was her response.

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Well I've got to say that I was bloody annoyed at that point. I certainly didn't have the readies to pop for a new pair of Image 414s, and they no longer make the 400c centre. But to be honest the 414s seemed to visually and sonically overpower the room.

 

However the plus side was that I didn't need to strive for musicality now, as I mainly listen to music in my work room.

 

But living in a small town offers no chances of demo's. Even Timaru where I work has no audio stores. I wasn't keen on traveling to either Christchurch or Dunedin either. So I made Google my friend and checked out all the suppliers websites.

 

Then some TradeMe auctions caught my eye. Tiens Hattingh from Stereotype had a few listings for Jamo HT sets including subs, and I nearly went for the Jamo S606 HCS6 until I found several negative reviews of them. Especially criticizing the quality of components used.

 

Tiens also had some Castle speakers listed.

 

I remember seeing Castle speakers 20 odd years ago in Auckland, but hadn't paid much attention to them at the time, but was interested enough to find out more about them.

 

The more I read the more I liked them, and one model in particular.

 

Then a Christchurch retailer listed an ex-demo pair of that model for sale at a very good price.

 

They were 3 years old, but I found that another Christchurch dealer had a brand new matching centre speaker on sale.

 

So all I had to do was win the auction and then buy the centre speaker and I'd be set.

 

There's a bit of a story about the auction but that's for another thread.

 

As it was I was successful with both items and a few days later couriers delivered the items.

 

What I bought was a pair of Castle Knight 5 floorstanding speakers and a Castle Lincoln 2 centre speaker. All finished in Mahogany timber veneer.

 

Got to say I'm really happy with them especially for what I paid. Love the performance with movies; possibly not that great with music but that could be the Onkyo AVR.

 

 

 

So that's how I got Knighted. Pictures may come later.

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