3213 members who have said nowt.

[Stanton]

Hi All and a very good Christmas and wonderful New Year to everyone.

Regarding the need to post before messaging I've just checked my history on the forum and find:

I joined in Dec'11

Sent my first private message the next day, no posts required

This will be my 13th post

So not very talkative but regularly visit and very much enjoy reading all the discussions even if I rarely log on. I'm very impressed with the high quality of advice and opinions offered and the good nature of all concerned.

Regards

Frank

[John Caswell]

The really bad news is that now family problems have quietened down I shall be more active/aggressive/thought provoking next year.
Merry Xmas to everyone and of course a Happy New Year thrown in as well

John

[Greg.]

I think it is worth reflecting on some history of this forum. I'm not sure when it all started. Early listed members all seem to have a generic start date of 30th Dec 2005, no doubt because of some forum disruption in the past. I can remember when it got hacked and other occasions where there was a loss of information, posts and material. Certainly it was running before Dec 2005. In the early days, this forum was very busy, on a par with Audio Asylum at the time. This was for a couple of reasons. Firstly at the time, the forum was set up by Nick Lucas (now of Hi-Fi Collective) who was employed by Hi-Fi World magazine to run their sister company, World Audio Design. The forum was very much intended to be a support tool for those buying and building WAD kits and also supported the HFW DIY Suppliment which came with the magazine.Secondly, in the mid norties, WAD was producing a large number of both amplifier and speaker kits. Many bought and built these kits and the forum also attracted a large number of members who were into non WAD DIY valve equipment. The place was so busy at that time that coming in from work, I could sit at the PC for over two hours just to read all the latest posts! I note, Bob, you joined in Nov 2009, sometime after all of this frantic activity.

Many members who bought WAD kits as their first builds started to develop their hobby and moved onto other kits or even scratch building. Because of this and some other reasons not worth re-visiting now, in May 2007, NickG set up 'audio-talk'. Many members from here, particularly those who had not patronised or had moved on from WAD kits gravitated across to that website and the activity here correspondingly dropped. These members were the most prolific contributors to this forum at that time. It has remained pretty quiet since.

WAD then had several changes of ownership, became WD and the volume of kits available reduced massively.

Since Matthew took over WD, there has been the longest period of stability here both in terms of the products and this forum since the earlier WAD days of prolific kit supply. His catalogue is not big but it does comprehensively offer several quality options for pre-amps, power amps and integrated kits. I don't specifically know, but I expect his turnover is much lower compared with the busy WAD days in the norties.

Undoubtedly there hs been a corresponding reduction in traffic here, particularly because generally the forum is principally dedicated to WD products. Discussions on other products tend to be minimal. Nevertheless, this WD forum continues, albeit on a more occasional basis to be friendly and helpful, contributions often coming from very knowledgable and expert contributors. Seriously value this. Visit many other forums and discover the rubbish advise offered. That privaledged and expert knowledge needs to be very seriously valued. Many thanks particularly to John Caswell (we used to call him Dr John) and Richard in this regard. I really can't remember how many times they between them have helped me out, keeping my system producing very good sounds.

I would love to see the forum busy again as in the early days, but I doubt that wish will come to fruition. I do however continue to visit here daily and make contributions when I can because WAD/WD will always be important to me. This place may be slow but it is far from dead, is always a pleasure to visit, and when you do, you get quality reliable advise.

So, not knocking it, It is also my pleasure to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2017.

[Chris]

I agree with Greg and I also would like to acknowledge those that have given their time to help and support members of this forum.

Merry Christmas...

[Little Mick]

Hello

I guess I come under the said banner,i have a quick look every now and then a couple of times a week or so, its a nice forum with nice and more to the point knowledgeable people very prepared to help fellow like minded souls for me its memory lane of my first foray into valves proper and pretty much a new start,i remember going too Lee's house one Saturday and meeting a few members some still here some not,maybe some like me.
Regards

Stuart

[bob orbell]

Yes Stuart, but you have posted 152 times, I was talking about those who have posted nill 0 zilch. BOB

[Riggers]

I'm one the members who doesn't post all that regularly but will trawl the pages for all sorts of info and hidden gems of advice on a regular basis. I have greatly valued the help of Dr John et al and hope the great resource that this forum represents will long continue.
Merry Christmas from sunny Brisbane btw��

[Baggy Trousers]

Originally Posted by John Caswell

The really bad news is that now family problems have quietened down I shall be more active/aggressive/thought provoking next year. John

Good heavens, Bob, now look what you've been and gone and done!

I think Greg's synopsis is very good; it certainly charts things as I remember them.

Many of us have start dates of either December 2005 or January 2006 because this is when we switched from an earlier incarnation of the forum to a subsequent management and were obliged to start again. I can't remember when I had my WAD 6550 kit sent to me in America but think it was probably 2002 although it could have been a year later. It was at that time that I joined the forum, so I'm a child of the noughties.

It's somewhat disturbing to realise that I have been listening almost daily to the 6550 and making infrequent and usually irrelevant submissions here for perhaps 15 years. Frightening, in fact. Even more frightening is the awful truth that my younger brother still uses the Williamson I built in 1954.

For me, at least, a defining characteristic of the WD forum is the remarkably wide range of interests held by so many - it would be easy (and indeed, probable) that an association of this sort would, because of the recondite nature of the subject, be populated by the congenitally nerdy but mercifully, such is far from being the case. These interests have yet to be extended to English full-circle bell ringing or spherical trigonometry as applied to celestial navigation but watch this space . . . Another feature of the forum is the total absence of what I belive is termed "flaming". I don't recall a cross word said at any time.

Nevertheless, it is sad that so many of the characters who were with us all those years ago and who added to our knowledge as well as providing just plain amusement have moved elsewhere. For my part, I intend to hang around here for as long as the Great Power Pentode in the sky allows, providing I don't fall off my bike in the meantime.

[Edwin]

I suspect that, of the large number of members, few are technical experts. My own contributions to the forum have mostly been appeals for help, which has been readily given. It is entirely possible that the help I’ve received has been noted and used by other members, just as I’ve read many posts containing useful information that I’ve stored away without making any further contribution to the discussion or putting the information to immediate use. In that way the forum enriches in a general sense the understanding of those who use it, and may spark an interest that has lain dormant in others who may in due course find reason to request advice or to pass on their own experiences of success or frustration. In my opinion it would be a pity to stop people watching the game from the side-lines because it may be that they would, at some point, join in.

I was intrigued by the idea of the Great Pentode in the Sky. Presumably people may select from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope and others their preferred output transformer on earth.

[Baggy Trousers]

Originally Posted by Edwin

I was intrigued by the idea of the Great Pentode in the Sky. Presumably people may select from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope and others their preferred output transformer on earth.

Never mind those chaps; my preferred output transformer always has been a Partrige, preferably something from the PPO range. However, you've caused me to wonder what my reception at the Pearly Gates might be if I claimed to be operating in triode mode.

Of course, to replicate the enormous bandwidth of these superb transformers would be ridiculously expensive.