About Sean Leighland (2 Articles)
Like many people, live and reproduced music was common in my family. I also experienced important musical boosts from time to time. Having all night private access to the world of music via FM Radio and portable transistor radio was extremely formative. So were the rocking house parties hosted by teenagers and university students. But mine was a passive role. Veni, Vidi, vici, I came, I heard and I left.
I entered the game more seriously with my purchase of a pair of Tannoy HPD 12 loudspeakers and a Technics turntable. Decades of casual and pleasant listening ensued until that fateful garage sale when someone walked off with my box of LP's.
I spun CD's for a decade until I realized that as fun as it was no amount of coaxing could get me 100% engaged in the music. After one last effort to save myself via a quality Linn Genki player, I finally chucked CD' s entirely in 2003 and returned to vinyl. I was desparate.
The day after formalizing this decision with my music loving wife, we rushed out to a Saturday morning garage sale and purchased 80 mint condition pop/rock LP's for $80 USD. No turntable mind you. That would have to wait a couple weeks until a glorious new Audimeca TT. We have not looked back.
That decision also ended my casual experience with music. Now I had a true "must have it" audiophile addiction. A couple of HiFi magazine subscriptions, four turntables, three expensive cartridges and five years later my credentials were established. We now had an entirely new audio system complete with a 40kg German turntable and a Schroeder reference Dark Palm Wood tone arm. I had experienced the true pleasure of first rate Hifi as well as price of paying for it.
For me, writing audio reviews essentially allows me to combine an act of critical listening, which I was doing anyway, with the definite challenge of communicating abstract and personal observations in a meaningful way. With that effort I hope to identify for the reader products that offer real value and hopefully with broad appeal.
