DRBILL

Some of you know that I rebuild classic AM radios. Here in the Fort Worth Dallas market there is a 10,000 W AM station KAAM 780, that runs its high end frequency past 10,000 Hz with no compression that I have been able to detect. Its format is Golden Oldies. I listen to it on a 1937 Zenith floor-model with P-P 6L6's in the final. It produces that rich, throaty sound that made Zenith famous. AND there is a switch that disables the roll-off at the top end. Although mono, it beats anything on local FM. I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Everybody who has heard it has been amazed. DRBILL

Interesting. Mine is hard to awaken. You really have to crank up the main amplifier to get the sub to resurrect. Once it is on, everything is fine and you can return to normal volume. I'm sure there must be an adjustment somewhere. Maybe someone can help us both. DRBILL

After all is said and done, it is a matter of efficiency. Klipschorns will reveal hum when lesser speakers are totally silent. I run Klipschorns in what used to be a small bedroom. It took me months to get rid of the last of the line noise. DRBILL

I just won a nib KSW12 on e-bay for 315.00. After reading this thread, I'm inclined to think I didn't do so well. This is not for my main music room which has k-horns, etc.. It is for the h-def we have in the bedroom with 5.1. We watch movies and crumb up the bed at night. Any wisdom will be appreciated. Thanks. DRBILL

I got to sing in a local production of Amahl in 1957. It was a life-changing experience for amost every person who worked on the production. He will be missed. DRBILL

Does anyone have an opinion of or experience with Kvant S-11 preamp? I would appreciate your mind on this unit. DRBILL+

"alcohol, I've seen and been known to drink way to much to relieve a cold and I was fine the next morning like hmm 10 shots or so, down blankets, lots of water prior to sleeping, I sweated that cold right out of me! " EXACTLY! Pour out a tumbler of good sour mash whisky. Turn the electric blanket up to 11. Turn the shower on full hot. 1) Take a LONG shower. Breathe the vapors deeply. When quite red, jump out of the shower, barely towell off, drink down the spirits in one draft. 2) Jump in the bed under the electric blanket and SWEAT. 3) This always turns the cold into pneumonia -which is easy to cure. Trust me on this. I've had some experience. DRBILL

I'm at a loss, too. I would have assumed that many (if not most) people on this forum would have had at least a little hands-on experience with constant-voltage distribution systems at church or lodge or school or work. What is the point? Mas, I used to have to grade papers like yours which assumed that I knew the wonderful secret. DRBILL

It didn't used to be.

Every time I hear about SACD I think of Sony Beta. One day, you couldn't do without it. The next day, it was on the shelf waiting to become a boat anchor. DRBILL

It would be no harder than restoring any other amplifier from that era. Dynaco actually built amps for some of the electric organ companies. It was a a beefed up Mark III if my memory serves. It was all point to point wiring with no PCs. I'm guessing that the one you show is from a Hammond. They were rugged and over-engineered. That being said, they rolled off sharply past 5000hz. If that amp you show is yours or you can get it for free, I'd say restore it. If its something you are going to try to buy on e-bay, you'd be better off bidding on a regular power amp. Good luck. DRBILL

May he know "Light Perpetual Unto the Ages of Ages." DRBILL

Thanks, DD. It isn't as amusing as the story about the Aggie and the Tacks! And there is still the "band" amps and my adult kids' Klipsch speakers and tube amps to distract me. As a brother presbyter, you know how hard it is to form to word "NO" in your mouth. Frankly, I'm a little frightened of idleness. It invites the interest of the grim reaper! But that's my story and I'm stuck with it. Boredom with the gift of this amazing universe HAS to be the unforgivable sin. Come by the next time you are down this way. Bill

I lost interest in doing much more to my sound system. I have it like I wanted, and I can't imagine anything that would make it much better. I listen to it every night and marvel. It is satisfying and makes me proud of PWK's acheivements and of my own meager technical skills. So, what about the bench and those expensive instruments and tools? The answer fell out of the sky while I was visiting an old friend in Arkansas who has a serious blood disorder. He had his Dad's 1939 Zenith from the family farm back in Kentucky and asked me if I could make it play again. What could I say? With trepidation, I took it to the bench and tried to remember what I did when I had a similar bench at a radio shop while in high school. I started taking it apart and it all began to look familiar. New tubes, new electrolytics, new poly caps to replace the out-of-spec paper/wax caps. The real challenge was alignment. The third try was perfect. I replaced the badly damaged dynamic speaker with a new output transformer, choke and PM speaker. I fixed the scratches in the case and applied several coats of wax, buffed out the bronze, and it looked like it came out of the showroom. But the sound was amazing! It had that "chesty" full sound that I remembered as a kid from our own household Zenith. The wide bandpass could fool you into thinking it was FM (bought at the price of reduced selectivity, but a fair trade). My old buddy was delighted when I drove to Arkansas to deliver it and set it up. And I was hooked! I'm now on my third restoration --a floor model '37 Zenith. And I can't remember when I have had so much fun. There are very few 60+ year old devices that can be resurrected so easily and so inexpensively. I like having my hands on history. DRBILL

how many watts I'm playing my speakers at? A chap from Texas A&M earned a fellowship for a year at Princeton. Wanting to find his way around he stopped a distinguished looking gentleman and asked, "where is the liberry at?". The man responded, "We speak English at Princeton and we know better than to end a sentence with a preposition!" The Aggie replied, "Oh, yeah." "Where is the liberry at a** h***?". Sorry about that. But if something is funny, it's funny. DRBILL

Vancouver BC

A midget from Prague is being chased by the Gestapo. He runs into a restaurant and shouts, "Can you cash a small check?"

They come to my house on Thursday. Only two. Makes you wonder. DRBILL

What's not to like? I got Bob's tweets and crossovers and discovered I didn't need a preamplifier. Everything's passive except the TT. I placed a small line amp right under the arm. No loss, no line noise. How simple can it get? Occam's Razor rules (look it up in your Funk and Wagnell). And so does Bob Crites in my humble assessment. How many of us can stand in front of the mirror every morning and say that we do something better than anyone else in the world? Why are we doing this? He didn't die or something? DRBILL

It is a nice tool. It is an oscilloscope. It allows you to see what an electrical signal looks like. This is a particularly fine make and model. It cost c. $2000 new (mid-'60's). If you have no use for this, many of your brothers on the forum could put this to very good use as they are doing valuable research in audio. I would never think of siding with your wife, but if you don't know how to operate this instrument and have no desire to do amateur audio research, you should consider offering it to your colleagues on the forum. Someone needs that instrument. DRBILL

DUKE WROTE --- "the RED recepticals .......are Emergency Power" And I expect you are right. I was relying on 35 year old memories of when I worked in the engineering department of a large hospital when I was working my way through graduate school. All of the recepticals in our operating suites were isolated (because of the spark and flammable gasses danger) and were also uninterruptable. So you might say they were Emergency Power. They came off that board. They were all red. But they were allways on --not just in emergencies when the main busses went dead. And this wasn't often. The power company had three back-up legs to the hospital that switched automatically. Back-up was a mighty Delco natural gas fired engine turning a three-phase generator. The change-over wasn't seamless. The engine had to reach full speed and frequency before the change-over relay was allowed to switch --three to five seconds. I understand that modern stuff doesn't even flicker. DRBILL

DJK, Funny, isn't it? DRBILL

Jim, It's a small world. I looked at your dad's website just a few days ago! DRBILL

I keep white and red. If anybody asks, I can make rosé! Look for AVIA vinyards. Slovenia and Macedonia. They make a very good everyday table wine for a shockingly low price. I was told they were a sub of Coke. In the bad old days Coke couldn't take the profits out of the country in currency, so they bought wine and shipped it home to sell it. Even after EU and all that, they still have this arrangement. This story was told by my winemonger, so don't bet the farm on it. I called their office in Kennesaw, Georgia, once. They were very nervous and anxious and didn't want to talk. Good wine, 'tho. Avia has a website. DRBILL