Paul Eros

TNT-Audio UK

Paul Eros - The one without the hair !!

I was born in the Nothern England seaside spar town of Saltburn-by-the-sea on the 21st March 1960. I now live with my wife Sharon and two teenage children, Amy and Connell in the county of East Sussex. For a living and to fuel my twin passions of Hi-Fi and Golf, I work as Director for Sales and Marketing in the UK affiliate of a large multinational medical diagnostics company.

I got into music at University. My grant money didn't get spent on beer and fags but concert tickets, records and hi-fi bits and pieces....OK so some of it was spent on beer and fags too!.

Then a hi-fi system was something I had to have to listen to the music I bought. It wasn't until I left University that my then brother in law introduced me to the fact that different components could change the way music was presented in your room. Thus started my addiction with hi-fi. In the interveining years I've had many systems. Some sounded sublime whilst others strangled all life and emotion out of the music. Today I have, what I believe is, a wonderfully balanced system that allows me to connect with the music and the musicians playing it, in a way that only great hi-fi can.

I very firmly believe that life is too short for bad music and bad hi-fi is an aberation. .

Today I listen to both vinyl and CD, though to these ears at least, vinyl is still King. In my systems vinyl has always featured as the primary source (though as I write this I'm listening to Alison Krauss on CD).

In the 80's I was seduced by Linn amd Naim. Things changed when I spent a few years in France at the start of the 90's.Upon my return to the UK I discovered valves and a whole world of Linn-Naim alternatives.

Today my system comprises the following

VINYL duties are served by a Pedersen modified Michele Orbe, SME IV, Dynavector XX-2 Mk II cartridge; Trichord Delphini with never connected power supply.

CD sees the only concession to my Linn-Naim past, a Linn Ikemi CD player

Amplification duties are performed admirably by a Music First passive magnetic pre amp and a Bel Canto e-ONE S300 power amp.

Speakers are ART Stilletos ( I only have a small listening room into which they fit superbly and produce a very satisfyingly full sound

All speaker cables and interconnect are Chord Signature, with the exception of Townsend Isolda balanced cable between the pre and power amps

The latest adition to my system is an Isotek Sigmas. I have poor mains quality, although I didn't realise this until I introduced the Sigmas. It now lets the rest of the system get on with the job of reproducing the music on my discs

Support duties are performed by a Quadraspire rack though I have introduced RDC cones to support the Linn Ikemi and Bel-Canto amplifier

I love my system. Not because of the way it looks, though it does look great, but for the way that it can transport me into the world the musicians have created on the CD's and LP's. in my collection. But as I said earlier I'm a music lover and not a hi-fi snob and I listen to music on-the-go on the ubiqutous i-pod, though I do use the lowest levels of compression available for improved sound quality

I'm excited about being part of TNT Audio as I believe, as the rest of the staff do , that you don't have to have a meg bucks system to enjoy great music reproduction at home. It's not what you spend on a system that counts but how you put it togehter. I have heard mega bucks systems that sounded horrible and more modest systems that produced music that reduced me to tears of joy.