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Allan Songer

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Everything posted by Allan Songer

  1. That’s even better - a 3012. Do you have the arm board for the TD-124? If you don’t they are easy to find on ebay. Now you just need an ortofon SPU!! If you don’t want to spring for a step-up transformer then look for an SPU-GT that has the transformer in the head shell. There’s a used one on ebay from Japan for $800- that’s a good deal! Go for it!
  2. And don’t forget about that TD-124 table - the best turntable ever made in my opinion. You’ll need a different tonearm, however!! Sell the MC-240 and use the money for a new arm and cartridge for the table. SME 3009 and an Ortofon SPU should be an option with the cash you’ll clear on the 240. Youll need an early 3009 with the detachable headshell and the sliding counterweight. You will never regret it!
  3. Didn’t Klipsch always use furniture grade WHITE oak on their speakers? Can’t imagine they ever used red oak.
  4. I had to lay off 50+ employees exactly one month ago - our business went to ZERO in matter of 3 days. Very few of my people will qualify for ANY Stimulus because they are highly paid - most make between 90 and 115 K per year - some without working spouses might get something. CA unemployment is $450/week so they are getting that - and there is supposed to be a supplemental amount above that as well. I applied for a SBA loan because bills don’t stop even if revenue does. We are shuttered and I don’t really expect we can resume until late summer or early fall. It’s a bloody nightmare. Our industry really can’t operate under any sort of “social distancing” in many ways.
  5. Yep - I ended up with all the audio gear. It wasn’t all high end but there are some cool pieces - there’s a CHERRY Marantz 18 receiver in the Rick Baldwin house (Leo DiCaprio) that there is a tight close up of in the final scene- that system also has a pretty much brand new condition AR table and a wild pair of Altec speakers in custom cabinets with 1967 dates on them. Also a 1968 Sony reel to reel. The Jay Sebring stuff was the best - all Mcintosh with the thorens and if I remember right Frazier speakers. And everything had to work so I had to go to every set either on location or at Raleigh studios and dial everything in because QT would flip on every system and put on a record when he walked on set. He did allow for modern cartridges because of availability. I was most disappointed when they cut the scene at Al Pacino’s house because of budget - i was going to use my Metregon there! EDIT: I guess Sharon Tate had the Frazier bookshelf speakers!! Jay Sebring had AR speakers with the linen grille cloths.
  6. I ended up with this TD-125 after providing all of the audio equipment for the last Tarantino film “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” Everything had to work and be absolutely period correct. I ended up with two very early TD-125 tables while purchasing and refurbishing all of the gear. I put the best parts of the two tables together for the scene in Jay Sebring’s house - a scene that was cut from the final edit!! Anyway, I took the parts left over and built this TD-125 for my desert system. I had the FR arm in box from WAY back, but no headshell. So I made a mounting board and bought the Ikeda headshell off of ebay (Ikeda was the designer of the FR arms back in the 70’s). I already had the 103 and the step up so I used them. It’s a cobbled together rig for sure but DAMN it sure is sweet!!!
  7. Oppo isn’t making blue-ray players any more as far as I know. I love mine - it’s built like a tank
  8. I haven’t changed my main system in 13 years. Nearly 30 if you don’t count the CD player or the addition of a second tonearm to my table.
  9. Indeed! Riding it out. Had to close and lay off 53 people on March 19- hardest day of my professional life. We high tailed it to our desert enclave and haven’t left except for one trip to the supermarket.
  10. i I always wanted a Metregon from the time I saw one in person at Henry Radio in the 60’s. I finally got this one from a Craigslist ad about 2 years ago - the son of the original owner was moving and was selling it. It a 3- way system with 130A woofers, 175 midrange drivers with cast horns and 075 bullet tweeters. I still have my Cornwalls in my main system and I use Heresys for a 2-channel TV setup. The Metregon is a beautiful object and sounds great but the Cornwalls rule.
  11. haven’t seen 70 degrees yet - we are at 4300 feet! We are near Pioneertown about 15 miles from the National Park.
  12. We are sequestered on our 10 acres at the end of a 2 mile dirt road deep in the CA high desert - waiting it out!!
  13. Finally set up my TD-125 here in the desert. It’s an early one from the 60s that I’ve paired with a 1970’s Fidelity Research arm and a current production Ikeda headshell and a Denon 103 and step up. It’s really sounding SWEET!!
  14. I remember hearing my first CD in around 1981 at The Sound Well in Berkeley CA. They had a huge in store event with some guy from Sony there and demonstrated the player through some super high end amp and the big KEF speakers. Everyone was ooohing and ahhhing and then I spoke up and said “am I the only person here who thinks this sounds like crap?” Early digital was AWFUL.
  15. I agree that two copies of the same record can sound WAY different and I guess if you bought 500 copies and carefully play graded all of them and found the best copy it would be worth a few extra bucks to someone who didn’t want to spend the time and money doing that. My experience has been that if you find the cleanest earliest pressing you will PROBABLY have the best sounding version. That said - this website looks like total BS to me.
  16. Yes - use a dedicated SME 3012 arm with an Ortofon mono SPU. I listen to mono about 2/3 of the time as many of my favorite recordings are early and sound way better in mono.
  17. Yes you do! The best 6L6 of all time. Nothing comes close-- even the GEC KT-66.
  18. I've been running the same quad of WE 350B output tubes in my McIntosh MC-30s for TWENTY YEARS. They still test as new. I bought ten of them from a guy who had 25,000 tubes in his garage. They are incredible in every way you can imagine. I don't think I will ever need the spare 6. If they can even come CLOSE to replicating this kind of quality then hooray for them.
  19. Hello fellow Klipsch folks. It's been a good long while since I've been around here but in the last few months as i slowly prepare for retirement (3-4 years off) I've been putting a couple of systems together in my Pipes Canyon place (5 acres at the end of a dirt road--paradise after 35 years in L.A.) I pulled my 1978 Heresys out of storage and built a little cabinet that houses them for my TV sound. I never went in for "Home Theater" but I wanted to have decent 2-channel sound so I paired them with an Oppo bluray player and a little NuForce digital amp. It sounds great to me-- this is the first time I have used anything but a cheap-o sound bar in my life. For music I'm using my JBL Metregon that i bought a few years ago but never had a place for. It's a really great piece of furniture and its a rare one with the 3-way system. I'm pushing it with a Fisher 500C I've had since the 70's and a Thorens TD-125 with a Fidelity Research FR-64 and Denon 103 with a Fidelity Research step up. It sounds great. It cant hold a candle to my main system (Mcintosh MC-30s/C22/Thorens TD-124-SME 3012-Ortofon SPU) with my beloved 1960 Vertical horn Cornwalls. Its good to be back!!
  20. TD-124 with custom plinth sporting two tone arms- Ikeda IT-407 with Otrofon SPU-GT and SME 3012 with Ortofon "SPU" mono with Jorgen Schou step up transformers. I have been using this TD-124 since the 1980's and have no need to consider any other table.
  21. I have two arms on my TD-124. A vintage SME 3012 with a recent production mono SPU and Jorgen Shou step up transformers and a 12" Ikeda 407 arm with a 1960's SPU- GT for stereo records. I doubt I will ever find the need to try anything else. If you don't want to use an SPU (and I can't imagine why you wouldn't!) then try out the classic Denon moving coils - the DL-102 mono and DL-103 stereo. They are the best bang for the buck with the SME arms. Then find a Denon AU 320 step up transformer on ebay. For less than $600 you'll have a GREAT cartridge for your SME.
  22. The greatest living American musician passed away a few days ago. And just in case you forgot how bad he really was:
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