My "Quarter Century in the Making" System

Ed Grochowski

I've been interested in audio for a very long time. Here's a picture of my stereo. It occupies an entire wall in my living room. You're probably thinking anyone with a stereo like that should be in an asylum. I am in fact a registered inmate at AudioAsylum.

Starting from the top left, there's my integrated amplifier, designed and built by me. I've been working on its design for the last 25 years, and it's taken me that long to get it right. Below the amp is the matching phono preamplifier. Audio and electronics have been my hobbies since I was a teenager.

The two units on the bottom are my mid-fi Sony cassette deck and CD player. Before you say ugh, let me point out that this CD player was the last model Sony made with a linear D/A converter; right afterwards Sony switched to the dreaded 1-bit D/A converter. So it's a keeper.

On the right is my beloved Dual turntable, purchased in 1976. This turntable has been in my system since the very beginning - all the components around it have changed, but the Dual refuses to break! If only all products were built that well, other manufacturers would be where Dual is today.

Below the Dual is my old Dell computer, retrofitted with a 200 GB hard disk and living its second life as a music jukebox. It plays uncompressed WAV files and losslessly compressed files.

Flanking the electronics are two monoliths, Magnepan 1.6s, shown here on my carpet and earthquake-friendly bases. Tweeters on the outside, slight toe-in, and my midrange-boost mod.