Allan Songer

The reasons behind my design are simple. First, I wanted the risers to look like simple walnut risers so that they would blend with the Cornwalls and the decor in my room. I wanted them to be really HEAVY but appear small and light. Second, I wanted something cheap and DIY-friendly. The biggest pain was going to Industial Metal Supply and having the steel cut to order. And it really helps to have a drill press for drilling and countersinking the steel plates (about 100 holes total I think!). The steel was about $35, the walnut about $30 and the sand was maybe $5 or so. Throw in a 100 screws, a tube of silicone, some semi-flat black paint for the steel and some gunstock oil and you MIGHT spend $80 or $90 or so on the whole project not including the cones and cups. I am sure that a big chunk of granite or marble or stainless steel or WHATEVER would work just as well, but it would surely be more expensive. Casting some bases out of concrete would be a good cheap alternative, but making them look good would require some tools and techniques I don't have.

My wife loves me and knows that records and tubes and such are an essential part of who I am and keeps her mouth CLOSED (even though she thinks I'm nuts!). When I dragged home a pair of ratty Belle Klipsch a few years back the only comment she made was "do you think they're big enough" and smiled. I sold them only because the Cornwalls sound better.

Any vegetarians out there? I like Dijon mustard on my Gardenburgers. I like tone controls too--even though I use them mostly for playing old 78rpm records. Going to the "Howling Monk Cafe" tonight--one of the hippest places to listen to jazz ANYWHERE. I've heard Bennie Maupin and Tootie Heath there in the last couple of months alone. Those of you in L.A. should check it out--it IS in "the hood," but this place has a great vibe. www.howlingmonk.com

In push-pull configuaration there is nothing like the mid-range magic of a really good 6L6 (KT-66, EL37, 350B, early 6L6G).

They sit on a hardwood floor (raised foundation). If they sat on carpeting I would just eliminate the cups. Believe me, this WORKS.

Here was my "riser" design from a few years ago which is STILL the best tweak I've even done to my Cornwalls. I've shared this before, but here goes again: I built my riser frame from solid walnut (3/4" x 2")and then screwed 1/8" steel sheet metal to one side with silicone caulk as a sealer. I then FILLED the riser with sand and screwed and glued another piece of sheet metal to the other side. I then screwed cones to the botton of the risers and placed them in cups on the floor. Each riser weighs about 60 pounds! The Cornwalls then sit on the risers. This poject costs less than most tweaks and it does more to tighten up Cornwall bass than anything I've tried.

Here's what's spinning lately: James Moody's Moods (Prestige LP) Teddy's Ready-- Teddy Edwards (Contemporary LP) More Swinging Sounds--Shelly Manne and his Men ("Stereo" LP) Art Pepper-- One September Afternoon (Galaxy LP) Big John Patton-- Brown Sugar-- (Blue Note LP) Kenny Dorham-- Una Mas-- (Blue Note LP) Johnny Coles-- Little Johnny C-- (Blue Note LP) Helen Merrill -- "The Feeling is Mutual" (Milestone LP) Bennie Green-- Soul Stirrin (Blue Note LP)

I wrote my Masters Thesis on Willams. He and Wallace Stevens are America's finest poets. (maybe you could add in Frank O'Hara, John Ashbury and Adrienne Rich if you're feeling generous) So much depends on A gleaming poentode Nah, no reason to go THERE!

Yep. Dick Katz, piano. Two years ago at the Charlie Parker jazz festival in NYC I had the RARE opportunity to hear Katz and Ms. Merrill together in a 45-min set that brought tears to my eyes. I flew all the way to New York from L.A. just to hear and witness this. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=6:45:37/PM&sql=Aqckxlfhegcqp I am pretty sure this one is still available as an import CD from France. Gitanes reissued a BOATLOAD of 60's and 70's Helen Merrill records on CD in 2000.

The pure products of America go crazy-- mountain folk from Kentucky or the ribbed north end of Jersey with its isolate lakes and valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves old names and promiscuity between devil-may-care men who have taken to railroading out of sheer lust of adventure-- and young slatterns, bathed in filth from Monday to Saturday to be tricked out that night with gauds from imaginations which have no peasant traditions to give them character but flutter and flaunt sheer rags-succumbing without emotion save numbed terror under some hedge of choke-cherry or viburnum- which they cannot express-- Unless it be that marriage perhaps with a dash of Indian blood will throw up a girl so desolate so hemmed round with disease or murder that she'll be rescued by an agent-- reared by the state and sent out at fifteen to work in some hard-pressed house in the suburbs-- some doctor's family, some Elsie-- voluptuous water expressing with broken brain the truth about us-- her great ungainly hips and flopping breasts addressed to cheap jewelry and rich young men with fine eyes as if the earth under our feet were an excrement of some sky and we degraded prisoners destined to hunger until we eat filth while the imagination strains after deer going by fields of goldenrod in the stifling heat of September Somehow it seems to destroy us It is only in isolate flecks that something is given off No one to witness and adjust, no one to drive the car

If I had to choose one jazz vocal record as my favorite it would be Emarcy 3006, "Helen Merrill." Her voice might not be "world class" in the way Ella's or Sarah's or Carmen's was, but she sends more tingles up my spine than any of them--I've always compared her singing to a Bennie Green trombone solo. Helen Merrill is a JAZZ singer, pure and simple and she should be a national treasure--sadly, she doesn't even seem to be able to get a gig New York these days. She plays Japan and Europe regularly, however. If you want to explore Helen Merrill a little deeper, look for the LPs she make with Dick Katz in the mid-1960's. I can't think of better examples of the female voice as jazz instrument. The titles are "The Feeling is Mutual" and "A Shade of Difference" and both feature KILLER lineups (Elvin Jones, Thad Jones, Jim Hall, Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, etc.). Anyway, I'm glad to spread the word about Helen Merrill to a fellow Cornwall jazz listener. I already have about 8 or 9 copies of this LP (every original Emarcy and Mercury pressing and a couple of Japanese versions!). ENJOY!!!!!

I think the "cold storage" will do the records no harm at all--if it were 98 degrees in the middle of July we might have a problem! Plus, the records were pretty well packed, so I'm betting they're just fine. ENJOY!

I remember gathering around the FIRST CD player in the Bay Area in a high-end shop with a pal of mine. Everybody "oooohed and "ahhhed" over the litte silver disc and the exotic machine. Then they played the damn thing--most were so caught up in the techonolgy that they continued to "ooooh" and "ahhh" but I remember saying out loud "does anyone else think this sounds like sh*t?" I think all CDs continued to sound like sh*t for another ten years or so--but over the last decade or so I've had to grudgingly admit they can be pretty damn good--not ALL of them, but enough so that I went out and bought a mega-buck CD player a few years ago. And what's this anal fixation about an occaisional click or pop? I go to a great jazz club that has a f*ucking ice machine 6 feet from the stage that dumps a load of ice right in the middle of a John Heard bass solo almost every time I go. John calls it his "avant garge percussionist" and we all laugh. So a little click in the middle of a Kenny Dorham solo doesn't bother me in the least--what matters is that what's coming our of my Cornwalls sounds like a trumpet, not a shrill, tizzy mess.

DING DING DING DING!!!! We have a winner!!!! Blue Note 1512-- "A New Sound---A New Star" Jimmy Smith I have 3 or 4 copies of this one--I'll pick a nice clean one (it WILL NOT be a Lexington--but you don't really care do you?) Email me your address again.

Thomas Pynchon!!! I have devoured every word so many times--from "V" through "Mason and Dixon" and everthing in between. Lot 49 is easily the most accessible and maybe even the "best" of his novels, but I always go back to "V"--one of the few truly great post-WWII American novels. And anyone here who made it past the "Banana Breakfast" and can tell me name of that novel and it's protagonist wins a deep-groove Blue Note Jimmy Smith LP. You all have one hour starting NOW!!!

There is a upper mid-range sweetness and magic you get from a really good 6L6 based amp with really killer tubes that I have never found in any other P-P configuration. I still don't know why this type tube never really got off the ground in hi-fi. There were a few odd-ball British amps and a couple Fishers and Scotts from the mono era and a couple of McIntosh offerings and that was about it. Really too bad--because if there ever were a "king" of pentode tubes, the really great 6L6 offerings would be up there on the throne (EL37, early 6L6G, GEC KT66, WE 350B). Don't get me wrong, I love the EL84, but none of them can hold a candle to the mighty 6L6!!

I have a 10B that I bought about 15 years ago that doesn't work and I have been meaning to do something about that ever since. I get ambitious every once in a while and take it down off of the shelf. The ambition fades as soon as I look at a schematic. I should sell it on ebay "as is" for a few hundred dollars, but I just can't seem to rid myself of this one. Mike Zuccaro told me once that Marantz lost $100 on every 10B they sold--a real "ego" product if there ever was one. The real nightmare receivers are the mid-1970's Japanese "top of the line" units. I opened up one once--Alice lost in Wonderland.

I always thought the real strength of the 299/299B was the phono section. I think it's the best of ANY vintage integrated I've ever owned/heard. I was kind of shocked to read the comment about the bad RIAA curve. It romps with Mullards (old long-plates if you can find them) by the way. I think that the best way to enjoy these things (old, inexpensive hi-fi gear) is to bring them up to snuff and listen to records as often as you can. My suggestion to go for really nice tubes is a good one for a couple of reasons-- first, your "stock" 299 will never sound better and second, you will always be able to SELL them later and recoup your "investment." When I sell gear on ebay I ALWAYS strip out the good tubes and stuff working "junk" in them and sell the good tubes separately or keep them. Recently I sold a McIntosh MC240 with late Philips 6L6GC and a combo of Russian and Japanese tubes--I still got $1400! I then sold the RCA 6L6GC black-lates that were in the amp for an additional $335!!! And I kept all the other tubes in my "stash." Believe me, you should really ****-can that Russian rectifier FIRST and scare up a Mullard on ebay--used and tested from a seller with a good reputation. They sell all the time in the $30-$40 range. This will be the best $40 you can spend on the 299. As far as the 7189s go, I agree that a set of Mullards or Telefunkens might set you back a couple of hundred bucks, but if you don't hear a big enough improvement, you can SELL them! A set of GE, RCA or Sylvania can be had for much less. Believe it or not, I sold a quad of Amperex Bugle Boy 7189 for about $50 last year! They were used but good. Sorry I snapped at you last night--I worked a 16 hour day and was REALLY tired! Enjoy your 299!

I don't get it. You want to "hot-rod" the 299 but you don't even tell us what improvements you're seeking. Then you get bummed when nobody jumps in to tell you what to do. Then I make an honest suggestion that you put in some decent tubes and you tell me that changing power tubes and the rectifier won't make a difference. How the hell can you possibly know this? I suggest you shut up and listen to some music and stop worrying about "hot-rodding" your 299--especially since you can't articulate what you're after and reject honest advice from someone who has owned LOTS of 299s and was playing with them before old NOS even HEARD of them (no offence NOS--you are providing an amazing service).

I went to a Wal-Mart once.

I don't own these WE amps! I was fortunate enought to audition a pair of push-pull 350B based WE theatre amps from the late 1940's once and they were very, very good--they had the upper mid range magic that all good 6L6 based amps have. The ones I tried out for a couple of weeks eventually sold to a fellow in Japan for about four grand. This included four 350B power tubes and a pair of 274B rectifiers--all practically NOS. The tubes alone were probably worth 1500 bucks or so. The 91a and 91b were the amps that the 300A and 300B tubes were designed for and are considered by many to be the ultimate SET amp. I have never even SEEN one and the reason they are so rare is that Western Electric LEASED all of their amps to the individual theatres and when something new and better came along they would upgrade the client to the latest and best, so MOST of the 91a and 91b amps were "melted down" by WE--only a very few survive and are PRIZED by 300B and WE freaks. 30 grand for a pair seems a little high, but 20 grand is probably about right. I have never even met anyone who has seen or heard one.

Ooops! That's the wrong link! This is the ORIGINAL 91b, not the repro that's supposed to be "on the way." Here's the real one! http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~tossie/300B-E.html Sorry about this humor, but what exactly do you want to improve by "hot-rodding" the 299? My first suggestion would be to step up to really good NOS tubes--what does your unit have now? Look for some Mullard 7189 outputs and early Mullard 12AX7--go for Telefunekn 6U8. And only a Mullard rectifier will do. But seriously--what do you mean by wanting to "hot-rod" the little 299? Get specific and maybe someone here can help you.

Here's a nice profile of the "ultimate" amp: http://members.tripod.lycos.co.kr/audiotubes/91b.htm

Like these? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3001100547&category=3284 They didn't meet reserve, but I'm sure you could work out a deal.

Yep. Just about every time I've used tone controls it has been to BACK OFF on the bass controls. Never once did boosting the bass do anything but screw things up (I feel the same way about most subwoofers too). And I have never had to adjust the treble controls at all unless listening to pre-RIAA recordings which ALWAYS need a treble boost.