Music has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember.

 

My introduction to hi-fi came early, when my dad brought home a Sansui Six receiver paired with Dynaco A25 speakers — a system he still owns today. At the time, nothing else I’d heard came close. It had a full, rich sound that pulled you in and made you want to keep listening.

 

He also had a Dual turntable, and my brother and I would spend hours playing records — Depeche Mode, New Order, Talking Heads. No matter how many times we listened, it never got old. That feeling stuck with me.

 

As a teenager, music took a different turn. I discovered drum and bass through a Toronto radio program called Hard Drive. It opened up a completely new world of sound, and before long I was all in — buying records, learning to DJ, and eventually playing raves and clubs on a pair of Technics 1200s and a Pioneer mixer. My job at the time funded what was quickly becoming an obsession.

 

In my early twenties, I found my way back to hi-fi. Those early memories of my dad’s system stayed with me, and I wanted to recreate that experience for myself. My first proper setup was a NAD CD player and integrated amp driving Totem Rainmakers — and it reignited everything.

 

Over the past 20 years, I’ve gone deep into this world. I’ve owned gear across all levels, spent countless hours experimenting with systems, and, like most people in this hobby, made my share of mistakes along the way.

 

Speaker & Song was built from that experience — not just a love of music, but a desire to help others find a system that makes them feel the way I did sitting in front of my dad’s stereo all those years ago.