THE AUDIO and RADIO PAGE
NOTE 1: If you find anything with tubes in it, grab it, save it, praise it, bow down to it, study it, make a big deal of it, tell everyone in the world you have it, jump up and down, rejoice and feel fulfilled. Read on.
NOTE 2: Below is the account of audio projects I have come into contact with. I try (comedy is not easy you know) to add some comedic relief to the very serious subject of audio. I hope I do not offend anyone. If I do, go pound salt.
The Philco "TWO BUCK CHUCK"
One day at an auction this Philco record player went up for bid. It is an older stereo record player with two speakers and a BSR turntable. I said to my self, "self, I bet this has a little stereo amplifier in it and I should bid." Well, bidder number six, who was on the phone, decided that he didn't want it. Come to find out nobody wanted it and I paid a grand total of two dollars. That's correct, two bucks (two greenbacks, two frogskins, two George's, two moolas, two wallet papers, two one notes, two bits, two percent of a sawbuck).
I took it home and immediately took it apart. Low and behold there was a little stereo tube amplifier all integrated on a nice little metal chassis. The tubes are 50EH5s and the circuit is simple and runs right off line voltage. I hooked it up to a variac, signal generator and speakers and it worked like a champ. I ran around the house for ten minutes screaming "it's alive, it's alive" and I named him......... Two Buck Chuck.
The Tale of Two Haflers
My DH101 is like my child. I was there for her birth (I assembled her from a kit) and we have been together through thick and thin (listening sessions comparing her to other pre-amps and chatting with other parents). I was there for her first illness (the power supply caps died and puked out something that resembled chewed black beans).
Recently I bought a matching DH120 power amplifier on Ebay for an arranged marriage with my 101. No I am not Muslim. It was a good deal on Ebay but I do have to say that the guy who sent it to me was not a packaging engineer. He was more of a packaging idiot and to this date I am amazed that the thing was not smashed when I got it. Anyway the two sound great together and really don't fight much at all. I did find out from talking to people that the power switches can be flaky and the output FETs can be had, but for a price. Very nice equipment that I am sure at one time was handed out as bonuses to Wall Street execs.
Well Traveled Dynaco Mark IIIs
I found these amplifiers in an electronics surplus store in one of the worst sections of Rochester, New York. You can't really audition equipment at this place because the gun fire out front is just too loud. Any way these were out of an MIT instrumentation lab and were all there including the Gold Lion KT88 output tubes (better known as fancy 6550s). The KT88s are big in the audio and gay community.
The amplifiers were in very good shape electronically except for two problems: The filter cap on one of the amps began to heat up (not what a filter cap should be doing) during testing and the other amp had an open resistor in the feedback loop. I decided that I would totally gut and rebuild the amps with my own little power supply filtering network and my own hand etched circuit boards. I would put nice speaker jacks on them, nice RCA input jacks and use precision components on the circuit boards.
I loved these amplifiers and used them for many years. Thugs once broke into my apartment and stole sneakers, a VCR and some change but left the Mark IIIs alone. I guess it would have been tough to convince a crack dealer to take them in for another gram or two.
When I got married my wife kept saying that the cabinets that I had them sitting in smelled like they were burning. She was probably correct, they did put off some heat. I was getting nasty email messages from Al Gore about the wasting of energy for crying out loud. It was either my Mark IIIs or killing a polar bear so I decided to sell them. They were sold at an antique wireless meet to someone I knew and incidentally I thought he was certifiably nuts. I however gave him a great deal.
About three years later I find these pictures that you see on Ebay, advertising a pair of Dynaco Mark IIIs for sale. Well I just had to buy them back and I did. They were shipped from a guy in Virginia and when I told him the story I don't think he believed me. I recognized the modifications, the work was unmistakably mine.
Well, I have since sold them again to fund other projects but if I see them for sale I am buying them and shipping them right to Al Gore's mansion.
Mom, Look What I Found at the Ham Fest
A few years ago I found these at a local ham radio meet. They are little PA amplifiers that are single ended and use a 6V6 for the output. I cleaned them up a little, got new tubes and put new line cords on them. I was amazed at the sound. Not a lot of bass but mids and highs to die for.
I could not find any information at all on these. I am pretty sure they came from Canada. The guys I bought them from drank Labatts, wore Maple Leafs hockey jerseys and had funny accents. I loved these guys.
Care has to be taken when connecting these up to a pre-amp. I didn't want to kill my kid (see Hafler story). The chassis is connected to line nuetral so you have to make sure that the chassis doesn't get the hot line voltage. What I did was measured the AC voltage between the chassis ground and my preamplifier chassis. Both of them are powered on but not connected. If there is voltage between the two, reverse the line cord plug from the amps. I didn't use polarized line cords. There should be no AC voltage between the preamp chassis and the amplifier chassis.
The test setup using a Marantz receiver as the source.
This picture is not from that ham fest but from a bachelor party I went to in West Virginia.
How The Cleaning Lady Broke My Grado
I love Grado cartridges. Always have and always will. I also love AR turntables. When I was in high school and I wasn't chasing young women I was hanging out at local audio and music stores. I remember when I saw the first AR table and I thought how could something that simple be so cool. It was years later when I could finally afford one and I purchased an XA. For the last ten years I have been using an AR EB101 and I love the thing. It has a Grado Green mounted on it and lately I have been on this plastic waffle binge. I have been picking up ablums in decent shape for $1 a piece. You can't go wrong.
One important audio specification that I must mention here is the component WAF. This is measured on a 1 to 10 scale and stands for Wife Appreciation Factor. Most tube equipment has a very low WAF, usually around 3 or 4. Large speakers share the low rating of tube gear at about a 3 or 4. The Magnepans that I had for many years were fantastic sounding but had a WAF = 1. It should be noted that the equipment can be turned off and still maintain a low WAF level. Room decor can also effect the WAF and the presence of children can add or subtract to the rating. With children you must also be aware of the MFKBS (My Freakin Kids Broke Something) level and the TFCLBS (The Freakin Cleaning Lady Broke Something).
Oh Yea, I ended up with the Grado Green because the woman who cleans our house decided the turntable was dusty. This did cause me to upgrade from a Grado black so it wasn't all bad.
A Great AR Turntable Web Site!
Rocky was a solid state guy
Big F'in Tape Decks
There is nothing more exciting than watching quarter inch magnetic tape fly across tape heads. I have a very special place in my heart for reel to reel tape decks. I have two of them. There is nothing like threading them, hand turning them and then letting them fly. At the higher speeds the sound quality is quite amazing. I will however, give a warning about alcohol and reel decks: From past experience, do not mix alcohol with reel tape listening. I once ended up with about 400 feet of tape on the floor after a night of partying.
This is a Teac A3340 10.5 inch reel to reel that a good buddy of mine gave me. He got it out of a church for a song and a prayer. It is in mint condition and it is built like an Israeli bomb shelter outside the Gaza strip. The reel shown here I bought on Ebay and it came from some recording studio in London England. Something about the lost Beatles tapes? Anyway, I recorded over it.
Ever notice that these show up a lot in 70s pornos? At least that is what I heard.
Easy Come Easy Grommes
This comes under the category of fun integrated amplifiers to play with. Most low powered tube integrated amplifiers I spend time with have horrible phono front ends. This little baby or "Little Jewel" as they call it has a very good phono section. The thing I like about this one is that it is ugly and uses 6BQ5s for outputs. If you have never heard a 6BQ5 just put one up to your ear and you will know what I am a sayin. I will also add that this was refurbished by another guy I know that is an expert at this stuff. This might explain why the phono section is that good. The filter networks that make up the RIAA equalization were all replaced with discrete components.
The First Ghetto Blaster?
This thing weighs about fifty pounds. Could you imagine how well toned your arms would be after toting this around for days at a time? I guess this is how the NBA started. It is the first mass produced superheterodyne receiver made. It is an RCA Superhet from the 20s.
Note should be taken that someone would have to follow closely to carry the speaker and batteries.
Boat Anchors Beware
The first stereo I ever bought was a Longines Symphonette record player and radio combination. I joined a record club (mom not happy when she got the bills) and the stereo came with it. This was also the first stereo tweak I performed. To get the sound a little bit bassier and louder you would put a penny on the tonearm. This aided in tracking as well. I don't recommend this with a $2000 SME arm.
Officially, the first real piece of audio gear that I purchased was a Marantz 1030 integrated amplifier and a Pioneer PL12 turntable. Of course to outdo me, my childhood friend Brian had to buy a Marantz 1060. Even today Brian has to go one better than me. He is a smart guy that is an astronomer and I am an idiot that programs computers. I took the 1030 with me when I went away to college and with the Radio Shack speakers I could blast out the girls who lived upstairs. Nothing like playing a little Frank Zappa at 100dB when they were entertaining suitors. I am not sure where that amp is today but one thing I am sure of, it had more marijuana residue on it than Jerry Garcia's frontal lobe.
This is the latest Marantz acquisition, a Marantz 1150 integrated amplifier and 115 tuner. It is 75 watts per channel and like all Marantz equipment from the 70s, it's power is underrated. I will bet you can arc weld with this baby. Specifications you ask? Frequency response is flat, DC to light. The only thing bad about this unit? It could use more buttons and knobs.
The Real Reason We Invaded Iraq
"There is something at the heart of it that's simply Awful.
A man who makes a living off a plastic waffle."
-Todd Rundgren
The Pioneer PL12D and the AR XA Turntables. Very simple (for simpletons like me) belt driven turntables.
Swap Meets can be quite amusing. A side from the multiple geeks and cool challenged people, there is some money to be made and spent. At another ham radio fest in Rochester I had stumbled across two guys with a beautiful Empire turntable sitting on their table. If you have ever seen one of these things they are works of art. I am sure the guys with the golden ears and the brass sphincters would scoff at them. They are absolute pieces of heaven. When I asked the price, one kind gentleman said twenty five bucks, I almost needed a cold shower right there. Without hesitation I got my wallet out.
I walked it back to my table and within five minutes people were asking me what I wanted for it. When one such customer wouldn't take I don't want to sell it for an answer, I said $175. He pulled out his wallet and it was the fastest $150 I ever made. He probably made $400 on it the next day.
Silvertone Tube Amps
(Sears has never been the same)
This is one of my latest projects that I most likely have too much money into. I had an old Silvertone chord organ that I bought at a garage sale one time for $30. It sat in the basement for a few years and occasionally I would play the thing. In the quest for a cleaner basement I decided that the organ must go. I tried to sell it everywhere but nobody wanted the crazy thing. I finally decided to curb it but first take out the amp. I figured I could at least get $30 for it. Well before I list it on Ebay I thought I would search for another. Low and behold another amp from another organ that hit another curb. I had to buy it and I spent $57 with shipping included.........Ouch!
The amplifier is a single ended type that uses a 6AQ5 for the output and two 12AX7s for the driver.
Puberty and Dynaco Equipment
One thing that should be accomplished by every young man between puberty and his first feel of a sweater puppy, should be the assembly of a Dynaco audio kit. This is an SC80Q that I aquired and cleaned up. It looked like it was played with hard and hung up wet. I found a new front panel, sprayed the pots and Wha-La! A fine piece of American history.
Note wine glass in upper left hand corner.
Speaker of the House and the Speaker in the House
One Lies the Other Does Not
Frightening!
I have listened to many different speaker systems in my days and this is what makes the waves. I think my favorites would have to be Quad, Magnepan, Paradigm and Vandersteen. You always put your money where your mouth is so it would make sense that in a good stereo system the most money would be spent on speakers.
The Boston Acoustic A70s shown above were purchased at a garage sale for $10. I thought I got such a great deal until I got home and took off a grill cover. The surrounds were so ripped up that you could see the insulation on the inside of the cabinet. I went to a local speaker shop and bought a kit to replace the surrounds. This was the first time I ever did this and I have to say it was pretty easy. I now have $34 into these babies and I do have to say that they are not bad sounding.
It is of my opinion that one of the best deals in Hi-Fi is the Paradigm Atom speaker. I purchased a new pair of these about five years ago for $189 and purchased stands for another $100. These got very good reviews all over and the reviewers were right on. They are small bookshelf speakers that will not fill up Carnegie Hall with sound but are perfect for a small to mid size living room. They are fantastic sounding and you would never believe the bottom end. Now they are about $300 a pair and it would behoove the new buyer to get good stands for around $200. Still at just under $500 they are worth every penny and more. Unlike Nancy Pelosi, I am not-a lying!
Heathkit Had a Spaceship?
Here are a pair of Heathkit tube public address amplifiers that were restored by a buddy of mine.
Heathkit tube stuff is very popular these days and these amps can bring in some decent cash. I had them running with the Paradigm Atoms and they were a pretty good match. These amps are about 20 watts a piece and use 6L6s. The restoration was very nice by TubeHead Audio.