DRBILL

---------------- On 7/21/2005 1:57:37 PM DeanG wrote: Someday, you'll have to tell us what this means: "Lived in Hope, almost died of despair!" ---------------- My first assignment out of seminary was St. Mark's Episcopal in Hope AR in the late 60s. I had the honor of presenting Paul and Belle Klipsch for confirmation. I was their priest until I took my next assignment some six years later. In those days, you couldn't have claimed that Hope was a great cultural center, or garden spot, or center of academics. In a word, think sty. There were some bright spots. Paul and Belle were frequent dinner guests at the Vicarage. Some of us (amost all overeducated and about the same age) formed a monthly dinner club at which the host provided the entré and cocktails and wine and the rest brought the remainder of the meal. There was the two of us; the editor of the Hope Star and his wife; Mac McClarty, who went on the be the Chief of Staff at the White House and his wife; the county recreation director and his wife who was a professonal flautist. Once a month there was intellectual stimulation and lively conversation. Sometimes even music. I had the only 9' concert grand piano in the county! The other bright spot was St. Mark's. It had a pipe organ, Tiffany windows, and a golden interior that looked like the inside of a Russian Easter egg. I could just sit in there for an hour and regain sanity. But the rest of the time, might I say most of the time ---ennui, angst, dispair. In my maturity (dotage?) I could be happy seated on an anthill. Youth is wasted on the young. And that, DeanG, is the rest of the story. DR BILL

---------------- On 7/20/2005 6:00:23 PM risingjay wrote: Dr. Bill, What did you do to bring them up to modern standards? Did you bring them to someone? I'm interested in doing this and any help will do. ---------------- No, I do all my own work. In the case of the MARK IIIs, I used Joe Curcio's cap boards. This is a huge improvement over the old electrolytics. It raises the voltage rating to 600vdc. The old electrolytics were driven right up to their maximum and exhibited a high failure rate. I also used Joe's PC driver board which is all triode and gets rid of the 6AN8. THD and IMD are improved by a factor of 10. Not too shabby. In all candor I have to admit that one of the cap boards failed after slightly less than fifteen minutes! It was a shorted capacitor --the very thing that I was trying to avoid. Damage was done to both the cap board AND the driver board. It was just one of those things that happen, a brand new component failed! $50 worth of parts burned open, thus protecting the 3A slo-blo 50¢ fuse. Hmm. The KT90s provided maybe five more watts and made a huge difference in the bass without sacrificing any of the KT88 warmth. So, maybe I made "Stone Soup"! I also used the new power and output transformers. But I DID keep the original chassis (except for the new ceremic sockets)! Anyhow. It kept me out of the pool hall. DR BILL

Mark III's are my favorite amplifiers. Brought up to modern standards and carefully maintained, I believe they will hold their own against all comers. Many of us have replaced the KT-88s for KT90s with stunning results. It is an exact drop-in and biases at the same 1.56v routine. It is a much more robust tube. Some non-NOS KT-88s will experience slightly rosy plates even when precisely biased. I blame this on higher house voltage than the 117vac for which they were designed. In our neighborhood, 128vac is common and I have seen it at 130! I run my Mark IIIs through an ISOTAP to achieve the original 117vac. These show up on E-bay at a bargain and would be a good investment. When the KT88's become tired, try a quad of KT90s. I hope your Mark IIIs bring you as much pleasure as mine have for me. DR BILL

---------------- On 7/15/2005 2:06:57 PM garymd wrote: Where did you guys get your KT90s and how much is the going rate (if you don't mind me asking)? Any bias adjustments required? ---------------- Ned at Triode recommended them to me. He sells a matched pair of EH for abour $70. I have heard, more them once, that Ei makes a better tube. I'll probably try them, too. They bias at the same place on the MARK-III's as the KT88's - 1.56v. You will have to make that adjustment the same as you would with any tube swap. DR BILL

They are wonderful amplifiers. When they were introduced, much of the copy proclaimed them to be the best production amplifiers ever made. I have a pair for my K-horns and I am looking for a third to rebuild for my center. I thought they were perfect until I installed KT90's. Talk about the icing on the cake! DR BILL

I don't anticipate any bass problems, but it will play havoc with higher frequencies. I have worked on organs in buildings that have just the configuration that you have explained and it rendered the room "dead" acoustically --boomy bass and low mid, deficient treble. This might not be so pronounced in a room of your dimensions as in the nave of a church. DR BILL

Dish over cable any day. Which dish depends entirely on you tastes. I have DirecTv with the HD package. SPLENDED. DR BILL

Yes, I'll go. It will be a long overdue homecoming for me. DR BILL

I have a factory Dynaco FM-5 that is WAY better than any of the FM stations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area deserve. The public station is talk-talk-talk. The classical station is owned by the city of Dallas which rents "subchannels". Somehow, they leak. In the background there is always a murmering sound like you hear at the opera just before the lights dim. It is a well-managed station with knowledgeable "hosts" and interesting music. I never tune to it because of the distraction. The ear is a strange device. It can tune out music and obsess on background noise! Those who know of my work know that I don't allow SS equipment on my bench, my reasons being legion. At the same time and with great admiration I know that there are many applications for which the transistor and IC are wonderfully suited. My wrist watch is tuned to the NBS and corrects my time to ± a hundredth of a second. My computer amazes me daily. Try to duplicate either of these with triodes! So, here is the question. Why would a vacuum tube FM tuner outperform a SS tuner? I'm not trying to start a fire. I would really like to know. DR BILL

With you fingers spread out like a spider, gently move the cone about 1/8", in and out. Listen for a rasping or scraping sound. If absent, your problem is only cosmetic. "Things happen". I saw something like that on a bumper sticker! DR BILL

Columbian DARK ROAST beans. Ground seconds before use. SLOWLY dripped. Sipped from a large heavy white cup with the two blue rings (you know the one) which allows for maximum nose. CC's (Community) beans are always fresh at my supermarket because of high volume. If I try something else, I always go back. Both sides of my family are from Louisiana. Coffee is argued like religion and politics or tube amplifiers! DR BILL

This raises some interesting questions. My Bostons rush to the music room when I start listening to something. They lie at my feet, facing the speakers. I know how sensitive dog's ears are, and I often play music that has loud episodes. The dogs could be anywhere in the house, but they prefer listening with me. Could there me some shared "deep grammar" that transcends species that is addressed by music? We once had a Boston that would "sing" when I played the piano. She would run in from the back yard to join the fun. As my wife, the other doctor, often says, "More research is needed." DR BILL

I built several "passive pre-amplifiers"* for myself and family members a while back. You can go from the CD player directly to the power amplifiers controling nothing but the volume. It is such a wonderfully clean sound on carefully recorded CDs that I lothe to return to the "active" pre-amp. Unfortunately, my collection of "carefully recorded CD's" can be carried around in the pockets of a windbreaker. It is the rest of the collection that requires active "manipulation." Sound engineers love to mix all the excitement out of music while making a homogenized sound. * I hate that nomenclature, but we are stuck with it. At least every one seems to know what you are talking about when you say "passive pre-amplifier." DR BILL

Yes, No, Yes. Welcome, DR BILL

No disk makes an interesting point. I have a preamp on the bench right now that has a "microphonic" elecrtolytic cap. You can tap it and it rings like a chinese 12AX7! It is hard to say what the effect would be in a X'over if a cap was similarly afflicted. It is a good question. DR BILL

I second the motion.

The old "tracker" organs are as simple as a crowbar. Wooden strips (trackers) run from the keyboards to the pipe valves (pallets), one for each note. They are very easy to rebuild and maintain. A days work would have this one playing again, but not reliably. It is customary to replace all the trackers and to replace the leather nuts with plastic. I notice on this instrument, some of the cloth tape restraining the larger bass pipes in the interior of the organ have rotted and allowed the pipes to fall forward. This may or may not have caused damage to smaller pipes. Organs like this often come available "free if you will move it." This one does not have an inspiring stop list. DR BILL

Please pass the "hash"! (Hint: You need to be a HAM from the 40's to know this one.) DR BILL

---------------- On 6/29/2005 9:24:38 PM DTLongo wrote: The organ Sousa "Stars and Stripes" played loud through that speaker array was to die for. Enveloping, penetrating, visceral, exhilarating. ---------- DTL, You make a good point. Do you ever get the feeling that on "professional" recordings, all the excitement has been "mixed" away and homogenized? When I was in the pipe organ business (right after the earth cooled) I did quite a lot of on-site recordings with a half-track Ampex stereo deck and a pair of Sure Model 300 Studio Microphones (ribbon, bi-directional). The figure-eight pattern allowed me to capture the "room" as I worked fairly close to the instruments. When I got home and played it back, it sounded like it sounded live. The fellow who recorded the "Organ Grinder" WurliTzer did an astoundingly fine job. BILL

The concept of a "partly bad" diaphram boggles the mind. I am reminded of the old comic strip POGO. A sign on the counter of Mr. Miggles general store read "Eggs, ten-cents a dozen. Many fresh". DR BILL

Welcome. Give it a try. The gang is very forgiving of newcomers. Get ready for the time of your life! DRBILL

---------------- On 6/28/2005 8:02:13 PM Mallette wrote: Couldn't tell from the site what became of it...be a crying shame if the thing were dismantled or lost. ---------------- It saddens the heart. The pizza business closed and the organ was parted out. I know the feeling. Charlotte and I donated a pipe organ to our parish --one that I had built. After I retired, the new rector decided that he preferred "praise" music accompanied by a keyboard! I had exactly two weeks to move it. A major national organ builder took it for free with the understanding that it would be kept intact. They didn't keep their word and parted it out. I'm too old to harbor grudges. Unfortunatly, I'm stuck with memories. Sometimes senility seems strangely attractive! BILL

---------------- On 6/27/2005 6:48:59 PM triode wrote: There seems to be a number of links on the webpage. Which one has the recording you are referring to? - thanks. ---------------- I was pointing toward the three in the body of the site. What were they? Joplin, Christmas, Burning Rome? If you don't mind investing more time and CD's, there are perhaps nine more at the bottom that have real merit. I particularly like this because it is free, legal, and exceptionally well done. DR BILL

---------------- On 6/27/2005 9:09:17 PM Malcolm wrote: Very nice, Dr. Bill, but don't all those 1s and 0s mess up your system? ---------------- I don't inhale.

Download this and burn it to disk and really give you equipment a test. http://www.sonicstudios.com/theatre.htm This is a rare (assembled) WurliTzer pipe organ that is complete in every way --including the "toy counter" and going down to 32' or 16hz. And keep in mind ...this is entirely an "amateur" volunteer undertaking. Digital recording up close! Trust me ---this is worth your time. DR BILL