Allan Songer
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Posts posted by Allan Songer
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Uh, actually my 1964 vertical horn Cornwalls have a factory sticker on the back saying that the speakers con be used either veritcally OR horizontally--they weren't designed for exculsive use in either plane.
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Mondrian's seminal painting is titled "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" not "Boogaloo." Don't mean to be picky, but it's a great painting and I visit it every time I'm in New York.
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The newest piece of MAC gear I have ver owned was an MR78 tuner!!!
**** -can all of the tubes that came with the 2200.
I suggest Mullard box-plate CV4004 for the 12 AX7--they are still available NOS as they were made into the 80's and are VERY stout and have a GLORIOUS midrange (and that's where the music is!).
12AT7? I suggest the same Mullard military variant--the CV4024, also available NOS from various sources.
There are also Sylvania 6021 (a gold-pin rugged variant) out there NOS and they're pretty awesome too.
All of these are gonna set you back $25-$35 per tube, but they'll probably last YEARS in your application.
I'm sure MAC will make everything right for you. I concur that you should take your complaints up the ladder. 30 days is WAAAAAY too long considering your preamp crapped out in a hour!!
I love my MAC gear, but the newest piece is my C-22!!!
But I love the new stuff--their preamps still have phono stages--- just like EVERY preamp should!!!
Have you heard the 2002 tube power amp? How is it?
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And worth every penny to a Radio collector--this is the Bugatti Royale or Duesenberg SJ Roadster of Radios.
I was lucky enough to see one of these a few years ago--the build quality is un-feaking-believeable. I would love to build a glass housing for one of these and display it in my living room! Just the thing to listen to Vin Scully on!
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Those are the sides! I have the Savoy "Surf Ride" LP--it has a painting of a girl surfing on the cover--right? Savoy bought all the Discovery masters in the mid 1950's and "Surf Ride" was the first reissue of those Discovery recordings. My copy is THRASHED, so I tend to listed to last year's CD (quite good)or the original 78's.
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More shots of table stand.
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All of the Pepper 78's I have are on the Discovery label--most have a blue label with silver writing, but a couple have a deep red label with black writing.
I have 6 or 7 of these--all of the titles can be heard on last years CD compilation of the Discovery sides.
My favorite is "Holiday Flight"--it has a killer Hampton Hawes piano solo.
My two real 78 rpm treasures are "Up in Dodo's Room" by the Howard McGhee sextet on Dial and "Blues in Teddy's Flat" by Teddy Edwards, also on Dial. There sure was some SMOKIN' bop being recorded in LA in 1947!
Every bit as daring as what was going on in NYC!
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I designed and built the stand for the Thorens. It weighs about 80 lbs BEFORE the legs are filled with sand. With 40 pounds of sand in the legs, it's now 120 pounds! On top of the stand is an air-bladder device and the plinth sits on it with cones and spikes.
I have ZERO vibration problems with this set-up!
The legs are 12-guage steel 2" tubing and the shelves are 1/4" plate steel. I heliarc welded the thing together and then powder coated it. I've built a couple more for other TD-124 users and they seem to like what they hear as well.
The Cornwalls are about 4" from the wall and only slightly toed in. Not optimal, but I have only one corner in the whole roon and there are other (aesthetic, ahem...) considerations. They sound great to me!
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It's a Linn Sizmik subwoofer. It's the fifth or sixth sub I've tried over the years and it's the only one I can't "hear" if you know what I mean. My wife is a wanna-be 45 year old "gangsta" who likes RAP of all things (Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, etc) and every once in a while I let her crank this crap (sorry) to high volumes. She loves the sub, needless to say.
When I complain about her current fascination with this "music" she says "at least not everyone I like to listen to is dead."
And yes, I did the restoration on the juke from top to bottom!
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The Wurlitzur is a stand-alone unit--I lightened the tonearm and installed a modern Grado 78rpm cartridge within the original shell--now it tracks at 5 grams instead of 20! The amp is a P/P 6V6 with massive transformers. I rotate my 78rpm shellacs through the box--lots of Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, Art Pepper, etc.
Next to the Corbusier Lounge chair is a really great little stool/table desgined by Charles and Ray Eames for the Time-Life bldg. in New York in the late 1950s. I have several of them--they come in 3 different shapes (all look like chess pieces to me) and are made from solid walnut. Great occaisional seating and a good place to rest a cocktail too!
The cabinet is a great 1930's moderne piece that was originally a stateroom cabinet on the Cunard Queen Elizabeth I which I converted to a hi-fi cabinet years ago. The venner is burled walnut.
THe MAC scope is pretty cool, isn't it? I use to mostly to adjust my FM antenna for mulitpath, but you can test stereo separation with it too--not too sensitive, but it looks good in the rack, as they say!
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One more try!
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The wooden jukebox is a 1937 616A. Very rare and really a lot of fun--spent months restoring it back in the 80's and I still play it at least once a day!
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Amen, brother.
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Too rich for my blood, but I'll bet I'd love 'em!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1337673925
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Don't take it personally--some folks only know how to express a difference of opinion by spewing rancor and bile. I never mind someone telling me I'm full of crap, as long as they do it in a cordial and friendly manner!
As far as this amp goes--I try to NEVER buy a home assembled Scott or Dynakit or Eico or whatever because of the generally rotten build quality. The factory-built units go for about the same amount of money most of the time are are worth waiting for. I did score a pair of meticulously assembled Heaths once and a also a pair of "Mac-Kit" MC-30s that were beautifully made, but that's about it.
This amp IS a rat's nest and I would re-do it only 'cause it's so freaking UGLY! But my "weekend with an iron in my hands" days are OVER--I'm far too lazy to do this stuff any more. I'd rather play golf or tend to my garden or spin some vinyl! I do have a dozen or so "projects" waiting to happen, but I may end up selling them on ebay "as is" because I know I'll never get around to doing anything with them! Anyone looking for a cherry-pie orignal MAC 240 or 225 out there? Just kidding . . . .
I have gone through dozens of amps over the years and I have yet to post any advice here--don't really feel comfortable with it. I'm no EE and I'm certainly no expert or guru--just a hack with a schematic and and iron in his hads who has restored his fair share of MACs and Fishers and Scotts over the years and you know what?---I have NEVER thrown everything into the dust bin and started over.
Anyway--let's try to express our honest differences of opinion with less rancor and bile around here. This is one of the friendliest bunch of enthusiasts I've ever come across on the net and I hope we can keep it that way!
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The best "satin" black paint is Krylon "Semi-Flat Black." It dries quickly, covers well and has the PERFECT amount of gloss. I've been using in on McIntosh Amp restorations for about 15 years. You can't tell it from the original factory finish.
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I think I'll make the trade and sell them on ebay!
Then I'll can buy some more vinyl with the profit!
Don't want to mess around with the X-over for what might be no gain.
THANKS GUYS!
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Buy a set of pads an solution from "The Disc Doctor."
This stuff flat out WORKS!!
If you're gonna be doing this on a regular basis, then by all means buy a VPI or Nitty Gritty machine to use WITH the Disc Doctor products.
On really nasty stuff I will use staight isopropyl from time to time between Disc Doctor scrubbings.
But NEVER on shellac.
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I was wondering if anyone has tried swapping the T-350 for the T-35 in older Klipsch? I know they're bloody-expensive and rare, but I have the opporunity to pick up a pair in trade and would like some impressions from those that know. I think the were used in the EV Patrician and Georgian K-Horn clones.
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Wow!
I am pretty sure that most of those originals were just fine, but as an exercise I guess it was a fine project. Does the amp sound different now?
I tend to replace parts when I hear an obvious problem--I am far too lazy to spend an entire day with a soldering iron in my hand unless forced to!
Excellent job, by the way!
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Romex is good.
Jumper Cables from Pep Boys are better.
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These were VERY expensive when new and the $1000 sounds about right. The high-end Sansui stuff, both speakers and electronics was VERY high quality in the late 60's through the late 70's.
As far as how they sound? Nothing like a Klipsch, that's for sure. But crappy? No. Just WAAAAY different! Pump about 200 Solid State watts into them and blast some good-old-fashioned rock and roll through them and I'll be they'll rattle the windows before they distort. I'll bet they sound pretty lousy with tubes and jazz, however.
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I am a confirmed Mac-aholic. I have owned literally SOCRES of vintage tube amps and preamps and integrateds and receivers and tuners. etc. (Fisher, Scott, Eico, Pilot, Bogen, Sherwood, Marantz, Dynaco,
Harmon-Kardon and McIntosh--and maybe I left some out!)
I know MAC doesn't have the reputation among vintage tube-tweakers that many of the others enjoy, but I have listened to them all and fooled around with most and I always go back to McIntosh--especially the MC-30.
I return to MAC the same way I return to Cornwalls--the MACs just do everything right for my ears. I just finshed listening to "Leroy Walks," an original deep-groove Contemporary LP and everyting from the snap of Frank Bultler's snare to the sharp attack of Conte Candoli's trumpet to the authority of Leroy Vinnegar's walking bass lines is so damn beautiful and RIGHT that it still sends chills down my spine and I've owned this record for about 30 years!
My preamp is a McIntosh C-22 with Mullard CV4004 tubes (mil spec 12AX7--box plate, 1960's vintage--the best preamp tube in the world IMO).
It's all a matter of opinion--I respect those who prefer the sweeter Marantz sound or Eico or Scott or whatever--to each his own--they're ALL good--I just like the way the tube-rectified MACs sound above all others!
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The two most "modern" tables I've employed are a 1980's vintage Linn LP-12 and a SOTA, both with a Graham 1.5 arm and a variety of MC cartridges. I used the Linn for about 10 years. I bought the TD-124 becasue is was in such minty-fresh and was CHEAP (less than 100 bucks) and seemed as if it were built to withstand a nuclear blast. I tried a few different arms and cartridges until I hit upon the SME 3012 and the Ortofon SPU GT/E. I found nirvana. I can never go back. The SME/SPU/Thorens combonation hs the most lush, musical midrange I have ever heard. And it's a LIE when people talk about hideous rumble on these old Thorens--all you have to do is put them in a massive plinth and isolate them and they are DEAD QUIET! Perfect for those old Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz records! The problem is that the old SPUs (I have four of them now!!) are expensive (at least $400 used) and they have to be sent overseas to be retipped (another $500). WORTH EVERY CENT!!!!!
Cornwall Value?
in Technical/Restorations
Posted
And one more thing!
In the late 60's and early 70's the "vertical horn" option was referred to as the "Cornwall 2"--not to be confused with the later "Cornwall II." I have seen three pairs over the years with this "2" designation.
I think there were more versions of the Cornwall than any other Klipsch!