Clipped and Shorn

Paul, Thanks for that excellent information which may explain why many of my visually shiny vintage LPs can sometimes sound so bad even after cleaning regimes. I have a rather large collection of both high quality LPs (many bought new or truly NM when purchased) and an even way larger collection of default LPs (inherited from various sources) and years and years of combing thrift stores for what appeared as NM and VG+. I play an extremely wide range of LPs from classical to jazz to latin and sometimes must play poor examples for their musical information which may be otherwise quite rare to find. To give a glimpse: recent exciting scores of obscure and impossibly rare LPs include Calcium Light (Gunther Schuller arranging and conducting the orchestral work of Charles Ives) amazing stuff, several LPs of obscure Indian music on Odeon (to be revealed at a later date), the spoken word and poetry with jazz LPs of Kenneth Patchen including his early readings from the Journal of Albion Moonlight. Also, even tho not quite so rare: Claude Debussy at the piano! via the Welte Vorsetzer. Given the wide range of material in my collection I would tend to think that the actual percentage of showcase audiophile worthy albums is relatively small, although I have enough to show off the system when needed. Yes I was basically joking, I rarely part with musically interesting material however non-perfect, but do sell duplicates and stuff I am not interested in on eBay sometimes. One of the most "important" albums I have is the 10" SMC LP "Concerto in Percussion" (1947) Julio Andino and Jose Estevez. This album, even in mint condition, is 50% surface noise!!!, but is very rare and not to be reissued and is, arguably, the very first latin jazz masterpiece. Such was the low quality vinyl used by this legendary company in 1947. To extract the best I can from this wide range of sometimes compromised material, I use a tri amp system with electronic crossover and an Aphex aural exciter. I currently use either an Ortofon MC20-superII or the Denon 103 as a workhorse. PS. I just recalled what a revelation it was looking through the microscope attached to a Scully Lathe while a vinyl master was being cut. Wish I could see what was actually going on at that level of magnification with many of my problematic LPs. Your comments make me realize some of the possibilities. C&S

The general audiophile rule is: the better it sounds, the more damaging to the vinyl. The ultimate audiophile LP experience involves playing an album one time, one great time, then selling the remains on ebay. C&S

In that era there was already a tradition of reading to jazz. I remember attending a live concert of the great poet Kenneth Patchen reading with the Chamber Jazz Sextet. A few years later Ken Nordine's "Word Jazz" became a popular phenomenon. Kerouac had always been a huge jazz fan and attended the early jam sessions at the birth of modern jazz. There are many recordings which document all of this. Fun stuff. c&s

Those who know Rudy do get it! I definitely got a chuckle from this. C&S

Pitch control has always been handy for transcribing, that is, to fine tune the recording to one's piano in order to verify what notes are in a chord or melody prior to writing it down. Some recordings are not actually in "tune", that is to say, the speed is slightly altered (intentionally, for reasons not all that clear to me). Another application for pitch control might be to match the wide variety of original recording speeds used by different companies in the days of 78s. These needs (33/45) are met easily with the Technics TT (78 with an available mod) among others. C&S

Very nice. What is the crossover situation? c&s

"The Chokes are much, much smaller than the parafeed plate load choke or the 15H filter choke in the Moondog,..." Where in the Moondog circuit do they use the 15H choke? just curious. C&S

Dear fini, Congrats on being the 10K man! That really is an amazing amount. You must be so proud. Don't jinx it by making it 10,001. How ugena celebrate? http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?17584 -? ? ? (©fini)

I don't think that 26 and 27 are easily substituted since the 26 is a 4 pin and the 27 is a 5 pin tube. #26 has 1.5v filament, I guess you could use some flashlight batteries, that's cool. I checked my junk, and mdeneen is correct, I do have some nice old 26 tubes....ah, but what the heck to do with them (?). It might be nice to use them as pre-driver tubes with 45 outputs, but alas, I see no handy schematic online or elsewhere, except for an exotic preamp with batteries for the filament and a ridiculously obscure AZ1 rectifier tube. Someone have a reasonable schematic using a 26 tube. I don't see any mention of their use by the nice folks at JE Labs who so generously share their information. http://hjem.get2net.dk/aaholm_audio/projects/26Preamp/26Pre.htm Has the term "integrated" come to mean any amp that makes listenable sounds with a CD player input? I tend to think of an integrated amp being one that I can plug in my phono player as well. Just for luck, Is possible to substitute two #13 tubes in series or parallel for the #26. 13+13=26 I have a gross of NOS Arcturus #13, any good schematics for those? I have just been using them for Christmas lights....nice blue glow...strung out on the porch... Other special tubes in my junk box waiting for schematics are globe meshplate #33, #79, #88, #97 and many other numbers whose very obscurity just about guarantees the finest possible sounds. You get a nice solfter sound from the globe meshplates because the harsher electrons deflect off the special angle of the glass sides and then fall through the mesh and are eliminated from the sound chain at this point. The mesh acts like a filter. Some of the bad sounding electrons have things like claws which get stuck so the mesh nets need to be cleaned every 20 years or so. I have a special vacuum pump for putting the tubes back together after these routine cleanings. I have a collection of the weird things cleaned from these mesh nets over the years and are set up as kind of an audiophile museum in a custom wooden case that fini made for me in exchange for cleaning the filters on some of his meshplate tubes,... best seen with a good microscope. They are still trying to develop meshplate tubes with self cleaning mesh but true tube audio hobbyists kind of enjoy the hands on process of cleaning out their own mesh filters. The best sounds are with the mesh speakers using the same concept except instead of bad sounding electrons being filtered through the mesh in the tubes, the bad or distorted sounds fall through the mesh of the speaker cone itself and end up in a pile just in front of the speaker cabinet where they can be vacuumed up. Better this than they end up in your ears. OK, Now we are talking audio. Enough of this big new amp big new speaker stuff.... let's hear it for dusty old stuff what sounds good. c&s

Important piece. The record I acquired the moment it first came out now shows a lot of playing time. It is very familiar to me. It was much discussed and quite the event at the time. Waiting for the latest Trane recording to come out had always been an exciting thing right from the beginning, at least amongst the fans and musicians I used to know. I don't quite judge John Coltrane in the context your question seems to set up. At the time of its release there was a different context and history does not stand still for aesthetics or anything else. The "free jazz" thing had its historical moment and at the time we were excited about Ascension and other recordings in that context in that time of our lives, cannot say I play it much of late though. Not that I care about your preferences (or mine for that matter), I would imagine there is other "later" Coltrane you don't play much now. Anyway, Mark is correct, I wasn't really addressing you but referring to past conversations I had with him. I would not recommend this period of jazz to Mark. His getting and liking Blue Trane appears to me to be a major breakthrough and a breaking down of aversion to what he thinks these improvising musicians actually do. c&s

huh? you mean the idea of art appreciation being an expansion beyond "knowing what you like and liking what you know" ? c&s

If you have to 'splain it, its not humor........

fini, nice work on the MC cartridge step-up box. You were lucky to get those beautiful Altec 4722 transformers when you did. They sound fantastic and is why they have been collected so agressively by Japanese audiophiles among others . c&s

Hmmmm....Sounds familiar! Nice report though! god forbid art (appreciation) might involve learning something...... c&s

fini, "done", by all rights, means it woiks? how does it sound? good going....in any case.... c&s

http://radioatticarchives.com/archive.php?page=a7 Our Atwater Kent is closest to the model 60C from the post '28/'29 period seen in this museum page (far right with high legs). The cabinet was beautiful, and why fini snagged it without hesitation out at the county dump, but inside it needed some tube replacements, tube shields, top shield, cap clips, speaker restoration, and a repair to an interstage transformer (which I got help on). The most dramatic bit of restoration was gluing the totally smashed speaker cone back together using tissue paper and "Service Cement" from Antique Radio Supply. Also replaced the tattered grille cloth. The tuning mechanism relies on a rubber bushing which I had to improvise. The radio works fine with good ground and long wire antenna. I was amazed to find how nice the speaker sounds after repair. The tubes used are 80, 24A, 27, and 45. c&s Mike, I checked the tube box , turns out there were no 71A.

Funny thing about the LP collecting "sickness", I later mostly think about the rare valuable finds not the bulk. I have space, that is why I can grow such tasty vegetables and corn. As it was, my friend who had orignally filled that barn with records was the most indiscriminate thrift store collector you could ever imagine. I left behind more than half because they were not worth finding any more cardboard boxes to carry them out of there. After selling some for him (a nice chunk of change he appreciated) I ended up with keepers for the trouble. Not only does one find treasures in this process, but one LEARNS about great music that one may not have previously known about and sometimes new categories of appreciation. Discoveries! Valuable 1st hand knowledge. Learning from the past. Expanding consciousness use to be a good thing. hard to pass up those NM albums, huh? good going..... (give yourself permission to be a "wise steward"..... c&s

fini, I sometimes use a silver pencil to note the pin numbers of the octal sockets underneath the chassis as a handy reminder. For security reasons, don't let the other socket know the PIN number of the socket you are working with. Ok, that was a joke. I have a box of these pencils if you need one (I also use them for marking dark metal for cutting etc., more precise than the "chalk" markers that welders generally use) and it rubs off easily. you remember the old saying..... ..... Ihr kleid kam schneller als die weiße Markierung auf einem echten Telefunken 12AX7 ab. (eg....her dress came off more easily than the white markings on a real Telefunken 12AX7......... ) You can see the numbers on the octal sockets themselves but they are hard to see sometimes and things get confusing if and when you have different orientation for the sockets and sometimes it is possible to make little mistakes (with bigger consequences). They are numbered clockwise (1-8), seen from underneath, starting at the locking pin, which I do realize you already know. --Catsup & Mustard

One might also make just the amp section from scratch. I don't think those output trannies are that hard to find, or their equivalents. But I agree, thrift store or dump find might make for a good story. c&s

I restored a 1920s Atwater Kent tube radio with a beautiful wooden cabinet that fini found at the dump, the output tube in there is a 45. It is an old radio tube triode power tube that sounds pretty nice even on that old electromagnetic speaker! A few years ago they were plentiful, now they are prized by SET guys and the price went up and the Chinese started making them again. C&S That organ amp section looked like every note on the organ had its own little 12AU7 and a transformer. I cannot remember if they plugged in or not, they were not potted and they had some kind of adjusting thing on top.

Mike, I stopped over to see fini and he has the makings of a Maggotbox as well, also some encouraging notes from you, very impressive notes I must say! He says you like that little SE 6BQ5 amp too. I bet his Khorns would sound great if he gets that amp up and running and follows your directions. I have been hearing good things about that old 71A, the ultimate flea circus. The JE lab guy seems to like them. Think I will sit that one out because I have enough projects right now. Not sure, but if I have any lying around in the radio junk box, I will send them your way. Have you done anything with 6V6? PP or otherwise? The old amps in 16mm movie projectors used them, but that was for amplifying that light strip on the edge of the film. Seems like they used a lot of 6v6 for various lower powered amps back in the day.... I think I am going to enter into a little breadboarding myself, for educational purposes, and also to eventually make a 45 SE amp with and for fini, and possibly an equivalent 46 amp for me. For starters I want to see what kind of power supply I can make from existing "junkbox" parts, nice junk though, fini premium county dump junk finds. Should be a good learning project. btw, I checked with fini and he doesn't really have any scavanged opt's, lots of organ power transformers, but not so much on the output iron, except for 88 little tuneable organ transformers of some kind, each with its own 12AU7! I have no idea what those things are or do or what they would be good for. I should keep my eyes peeled for one of those Maggotbox possibilities, seems like a fun one.... C&S

Good to hear something positive about the Hammond OPT. There is a variety of opinions on the various forums about them. The James are about the same money: http://euphoniaaudio.netfirms.com/ea/nfoscomm/catalog/index.php?cPath=26_1_33&osCsid=a7f02a1d4d185151de8fb722d0cac0ac Yesterday I put my diy 45SE (SRPP) back with some open baffles (10"full range + 15" woofer/Lpad) and they sounded real fine, this amp uses the James 6112HS, very nice, with plenty of bass. Didn't work last time I tried it. Maybe I had the wrong impedance on them before or maybe it was the different set of 45 tubes I put in there. I used the 4 ohm tap since the two speaker components are in parallel. Meanwhile the DIY JE Labs SE 300B DX with Sowter OPT is the heart of my triamp system which is now using all tubes. I put the upgraded Dynaco Mark III on the bass and a modified Dynaco ST-70 on the high frequencies. This system really works for me and the added SE in the middle has made it better than ever (with presence and brightness to spare). I can adjust so that a lot of the middle comes through the legendary Altec 515. It is not about loudness, it is about there being some there there. Between the 3-way active crossover and the Aphex aural exciter, I can tweak almost any recording so that there is there there. This gives me the level of engagment in the music that I desire. This is my preferred system and where most of my vinyl collection lives, and it is plenty resolved and focused for me with great sound stage. The small residual hum (after hum pots are trimmed) is something I can live with. There are kind of a lot of tubes going in this system! When I want open baffles, I have another space where I can experience them as well (now with some nice SE 45tubes) . In yet another room I have the proto pCats on a pair of diy Altec Valencias, another good match. So I think things are settled for awhile, nothing is ever absolutely perfect but I am at peace with it now and need to change emphasis to some other projects....ok maybe some fun tube rolling with the drivers for the 300B just for jollys and because I can. Soundwise: there is there there...... btw, building these simple diy SE tube amps is a fun and rewarding activity in and of itself....rainy day stuff..... -? ? ? (©fini)

In 1939 people still knew how to use their ears to seek out the sound at a performance. Today one needs to fend off the sound rather than listen for it. When I went to the symphony the other day it was fun to have my ears "seek" out the subtle sounds, every one of which could be heard, even the celeste that was brought out for a particular piece. The venue I was mentioning that was so bad is a relatively new restaurant, not the hall we heard that sound horror in a few years ago. This restaurant space is just the worst for sound. And now fini tells me they also have a reputation for serving food that makes people sick. Don't get me wrong, this is all in one of those new upscale areas that are popping up in many old towns around here. Funny thing, the worst sound I have heard was at an outdoor concert! Also the best sound I have heard where amplification was involved was at an outdoor concert. It all depends on the expertise of the sound guys and their equipment. Last summer at that annual Solar Fest I heard an amazingly good concert in Hopland by the artist Bruce Coughburn. Turns out he travels with his own expert sound man, who I could observe was constantly tweaking and listening and adjusting. Turns out that Bruce also uses beautiful sounding custom built guitars as well. They made their audio a major concern and it was beautiful. I made an effort to compliment this sound man and told him thow truly unusual it was and how much it was appreciated. C&S

Fini, you are correct sir! That time we heard the Spankers in Berkeley was a real treat on so many levels. I only went to this Petaluma club last night because my friend called and said he was playing and I should support the local phenomenon. I told him right off there would be a good chance that I would reject it quickly. It seems to be a lost cause to convert bands, sound guys, and clubs about this bad audio situation. Even the best jazz club in the Bay Area, Yoshi's, has audio problems IMHO. For example, I hate to see a great band and not really be able to correctly hear the pianist except when she solos. -? ? ? (©fini)

Last night I simply forgot to bring a pair of those ear protectors which I had vowed to do the last time I went to a club and it was a disaster. I have several here on the ranch. They come in different levels of sound suppression. You get them at the professional safety supply outlet. They come in different colors to indicate the level of sound suppression . I have some for use on the tractor, another set for the cord saw which is really really loud and painful, another for the chainsaw. Mostly I wanted to show up at the music gig wearing these obtrusive things as a statement rather than the stylish dancers who wear inconspicuous ear plugs. I simply do not understand why the clubs, the sound men, and the musicians don't FIX this situation and explore more acoustic presentations. Instead of the audience having to push away sound, they should have to tune in the the sound and listen for it. It seems backwards. You should not have to shield yourself from music when it is presented, you should have to listen for it. I would be more inclined to make up a Rupe Goldberg DIY contraption on the cheap so I can chat up people in noisy clubs and be totally weird and eccentric. I could wear these things when I go up to the sound guys and read them the riot act! -? ? ? (©fini)