SOUND SYSTEM CULTURE's topics - tribe.net

any other vintage / tube / DIY speaker freaks out there ?

mark — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:08:47 GMT

Just joined tribe.net, and stumbled across this group . . .

my own personal system is comprised of homemade line array open baffle speakers utilizing 8 vintage KLH fullrange drivers per side, actively crossed over to a pair of vintage Karlson 15 enclosures stuffed with Altec 418's . . . hot rodded vintage magnavox EL84 PP amp on the arrays, big Marantz 1152DC for the Karlsons. . . sources are mostly vinyl, but also ipod, radio, andc CD's . . .

anyone else using a combination of vintage tubes & DIY ?

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RAINDANCE CAMPOUT

kingshag — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:51:03 GMT

See post below...

I would like to recommend this event to you all. Turbo Sound all around and the Bassbin twins ....What more could you ask?

Phonic

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WELCOME LIL' JOHN

kingshag — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:27:27 GMT

Your S Cruz (scout camp) Weekender a year or so ago w/the PURPLE TURBO SOUND represents one of my most treasured sound experiences insofar as outdoor PA's are concerned.

Thomas (Wicked) - Truly tested the limits of that system w/his ITAL disco - freakbeat set. That night apparently it had none....

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equipment sites

kingshag — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:17:17 GMT

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Audio Equipment Links

This (unofficial) page is dedicated to those great audio products made by the Electronic Instrument Company, located originally in Brooklyn, later here in Queens, and then back to Brooklyn. EICO started off as a test equipment manufacturer, and offered many kits and wired units throughout its history. Concentration is on EICO's audio components, both mono and stereo. Many of these components are readily available (used, of course), and still sound great! "Eico" vintage audio centric website

Here you will find information and data (circuit diagrams, old literature, reviews etc) concerning vintage Quad equipment... "Quad world" a website dedicated to classic and vintage Quad audio products

This gentleman provides resources such as templates for making yr own speakers for model 14's model 15's and more. Altec -DIY loudspeaker replacements and upgrades

Bill Fort's fabulous 604-8G System. . . photos of how he built it with a great description. High quality sound is not about money. It's about imagination and simplicity. Altec featuring single ended triode amp powered system

The definitive vintage audiophile speakers as purveyed by Altec Lansing. Truly a benchmark in speaker design in their day. Still manufactured to the original specs today. See JBL/Altec link description for Charlie Manson angle. Altec Lansing - "Voice of the theater" speakers

JBL are know for their modern high quality audio components and particulary for their speakers. They make gear for the professional and home markets but in my view have a stronger offering in the PA and Soundsystem space. Altec Lansing is an American company that for decades has produced high quality audio equipment. Again they are know specifically for their breakthroughs and innovations in speaker design. The most famous example of their many innovations is their "Voice of the Theater" speaker which defined the standard by which all other speakers were judged upon their introduction in the late 60's. As indicated by their name they were often used as the principal source of sound in the cinemas around the country at that time. Great informational site featuring history, product info, technical data and images. Including the often unintentionally hilarious audiophiles posing with their equipment "photo page". On a related but purely non-tech relevant note, Roman Polanski had one of the first pairs of these speakers in the house he occupied during the sixties in the Hollywood hills. On a tragic day in the late sixties his pregnant wife Sharon Tate (actress - "Rosemary's baby" e.t.c.) was hanging out with friends listening to the new Beatles album on these Voice of the Theater speakers when they were rudely and fatally interupted by several followers of Charlie Manson who stabbed and killed Sharon and several of her friends. Following their murderous rampage the Manson accolytes took some time out to listen to the Beatles on the homes space age soundsystem. That album "The White Album" contained the track "Helter Skelter" which blew the blood soaked cult members away with it's chaotic bristlingly aggressive sound as conveyed by the VOT speakers. It inspired them to write the infamous "Helter Skelter" graffiti style in the blood of their unfortunate victims on the wall of the home. Their is no "bad time" to check out a pair of great speakers apparently. Altec Lansing and JBL Vintage audio resource site

An amazingly detailed site that provides a comprehensive set of resources for enthusiast of the classic Altec Lansing audio equipment. Well maintained and lovingly created contact courtesy of Todd White a former employee of the company. You will info on this site such as... 1. Company history. 2. Product specs. 3. Technical overview of the various components that were offered by Altec. 4. Spec sheets and literature in the right format. 5. Advice on maintaining and repairing your Altec equipment. AND MUCH MUCH MORE. Altec Lansing audio centric unofficial website for enthusiasts.

Altec Lansing centric resource for parts, components, technical info and much more. This is in PDF format which makes it easy on the eyes and readily printable in a nice usable format. Altec Lansing centric section of this online HIFI magazine.

I myself own a pair of Altec Lansing Model 15's that leverage these horn tweeters for the highs and mids. They sound incredible and this is a link to the original marketing litereture. Altec Lansing Mantaray horn tweeters

Page dedicated to the Model 14 speakers made by Altec Lansing in the early 80's. I own a pair of these myself and love their amazingly warm sound. Altec Lansing Model 14

Pro audio indeed Ever seen a movie screen? No, not the movie. The screen. It's huge, when you get right up to it. You'll notice that it has holes in it. This is to let the sound out. Behind the screen, you see the movie backwards, and you see where the sound is coming from. If the theater is more than about 20 years old, the sound is probably coming from Altec horn speakers. These have woofer cabinets the size of Porta-Potties, and 4-foot tweeters that look more like space ship weapons. They're mounted high up on platforms, booming out thunder from above. Any made before the end of World War II have electromagnetic field coils. Unless you power-up the tube rectifiers before the show, you've re-invented silent pictures. Until Altec was dragged down, down, down, ever farther into late-20th-century capitalist Hell, it was the outfit putting the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop, and the whang in the whang a danga ding dang, at your movies. This has never been a business for the faint hearted. Movies cost megabucks, and theater presentation is where producers and exhibitors alike win or lose with the audience. Nobody's going to stand around and let the equipment screw up. From the beginning of the talkies, one of Altec's several incarnations was there with the technical chops to make it work and keep it working. As the company branched out into broadcasting, recording, public address and "Golden Age" home hi-fi, it was the same - straight-ahead, gimmick-free engineering, designed to specs rather than prices, and supported with extreme professionalism. Altec WAS pro audio, probably explaining its recent rise from the dead. Yes, you can buy A7s again (some assembly required). Altec Lansing page

huge audio bulletin board system. Sections for tubes, single ended amps, wire, speakers, general insanity, and more Audio Asylum - User supported audio bulletin board info and resource ctr for all things audio.

AudioFile Magazine from Maylasia, in English. These guys actually have a sense of humor about audio, at any rate it's worth checking out. AudioFile online audio centric magazine from Malaysia.

This site can be useful when shopping for component. The lack of true objectivity can be frustrating but if you are prepared to aggregate the reviews and to read between the lines it can be a decent resource. You will see this statement for ea of the primary review sites that we link too. You have to give me credit for consistency on this one. Audioholics is a review centric site dedicated to audio equipment.

Audio review and testing site for multitude of different types of audio equipment. I am like an audioholic but for alcohol. Oh, come to think of it I am an audioholic too. Gonna have to cut this description short so I can get back to my online gambling site. Audioholics.com - Comprehensive testing and review site for audio equipment

A good example of a very dry (almost stern in tone) online magazine for "serious" audiophiles. Audiophilia is an online audio centric magazine

This site can be useful when shopping for component. The lack of true objectivity can be frustrating but if you are prepared to aggregate the reviews and to read between the lines it can be a decent resource. Audioreview is.com is a review site for consumers to rate their audio gear and to relate their experience overall.

Bagend - This is the home base on the web for this high quality producer of PA and SoundSystems. Bagend pro audio

Danish company dedicated to the production of audiophile equipment that are also fully realized pieces of "art" from a design and aesthetic stand point. Bang and Olufsen - Official site for this audio component and system company.

Bose is a well know manufacturer of audio components and speakers. Based out of MA in the usa. Bose audio's official home on the web

Manufacturer of some of the most beautiful and well respected audiophile speaker systems ever created. Bower and Wilkins (B&W) official website. British manufacturer of high end speakers and more.

The Rotary Mixing Legacy Now is Rane MP 2016, yesterday Urei 1620, but the originator was the Bozak CMA-10-2DL: the very first high-end rotary DJ mixer. Bozak Rotary DJ mIxers

Butler Audio Model 5150 5-channel Power Amplifier

Cerwin-Vega offer products for both the home audio and pro audio market. For some reason when I think of Cerwin-Vega I think of "BASS". Perhaps b/c of the home loud-speakers that they produced in the 80's that had featured a substantial wallop on the low end. They also own KRK (studio gear) and Stanton (know for their styluses and turntable related products). Cerwin-Vega audio home website.

This directory is both exhaustive and definitive. In a simple alphabetic order you can find practically every type of audio company, componet, speaker e.t.c. with a link to related info. Classical.net offers an incredible audio equipment link directory

For Yamaha, Sansui, McIntosh, Marantz, Pioneer, Nakamichi and Luxman. Classicaudio.com offers this great valuation page for vintage equipment

A relatively useful spot to go when you want to look for review of speakers and speaker systems that are available out there in the wide wide world. CNET reviews of speakers and speaker systems

Community are a well know professional audio company based out of the U.S.A. According to their website their future plans are as follows... "For the new millennium, Community continues to do what weve become known for since Bruce Howze first founded the company. We start with unique and practical ideas designed to bring the highest level of communication to sound reproduction. These ideas then evolve into unique designs manufactured with rigorous and sophisticated techniques, coupled with new proprietary materials and transducers, to achieve superior standards of acoustic excellence. Beyond that, we constantly look for new ways to better develop and provide the finest audio reproduction technologies to the world marketplace." Community ProAudio Soundsystems and PA's home site

Conrad Johnson are an American company who manufactures very expensive, audiophile components. Most famously their tube preamps and power amplifiers. In the mid-seventies, two economists, friends and serious audiophiles - Dr. William Conrad and Dr. Lewis Johnson - were highly dissatisfied with the commercially available equipment of the time and were also perplexed and challenged by the readily apparent sonic differences among components in their own systems. What made these two classic tube systems sound so different? Could the virtues of each be somehow combined? Not content to merely speculate on such issues, conrad and johnson decided to systematically investigate by developing and refining a vacuum-tube preamplifier. The resulting conrad-johnson preamplifier was immediately recognized as a state of the art contender and catapulted Conrad and Johnson into the audio industry. The most important legacy of conrad-johnson design's beginnings is the basic methodology which took shape in the course of the development of that first preamplifier. This methodology has enabled Conrad and Johnson to develop new products which have routinely been ranked among the most musically satisfying. Few other manufacturers have so consistently received such high praise for their products. Conrad Johnson audiophile equipment home website.

Dynaco upgrades and Vacuum tube equipment centric website. Specifically focused on upgrades for existing equipment and maintenance of vingage equipment. Curcio audio specialize in

Dahlquist are most famous for their Dahlquist DQ 10 Loudspeaker. These speakers were first introduced 30 yrs ago and garnered a lot of attention at the time. They are now considered by many to be true classics and are quite sought after. Rather large and unusual looking speakers that have a reputation for excellent sound reproduction with and a relatively flat response over a wide frequency range. They still speakers today and this is their website. Dahlquist loudspeakers home website

All of the manuals that accompanied the various different speakers both current and past made by DCM. This company is known for their time aligned, phase corrected speaker designs throughout the 80's and 90's and into the present day. DCM Loudspeakers manuals past and present

This is an online store that sells a variety of electronic gear particularly audio. It is good for esoteric items such as turntable accessories with some decent deals on speakers and component e.t.c. Distributor of audio gear and accessories

Excellent independently run site that is focused on providing resources and data regarding Dynaco audio components. Includes a "how to buy" section and a comprehensive breakdown of the Dynaco product line over the years. An American based manufacturer of high quality audio equipment. Historically known for their "kit" components. Complete assembly was required for much of their equipment. This required relatively detailed knowledge of electronics, soldering and circuitry and made Dynaco the pet company of engineers and electricians alike. Their tube amps and preamps in particular are legendary from a performance and sound quality standpoint. Due to their "low profile" Dynaco components can be bought at bargain basement prices generally and represent a great opportunity for the average Joe to gain access to audiophile standard equipment. Dynaco Audio - Unofficial Site

Dynaco schematics and upgrade advice for the adventurous souls who are up for this type of thing. Dynaco diy projects and upgrade advice.

These folks specialize in the upgrading and rebuilding of Dynaco preamps amps and othe assundry equipment. Dynaco upgrades from Curcio Audio

For the past 25 years, Dynaudio has realized its own loudspeaker concepts through complete vertical integration of all aspects of engineering, development and production. The net result is a perfect balance of audiophile sensibilities and real-world value in a broad range of products designed for advanced music and home theater systems. Dynaudio loudspeakers are manufactured in Skanderborg, Denmark. Only the finest grade materials and components are utilized in production: the innovative Dynaudio aluminum voice coils, proprietary MSP (magnesium silicate polymer) driver diaphragms, soft-dome tweeters specially coated for advanced performance capabilities, and high-quality crossover units - all incorporated into hand-built, furniture grade cabinets finished in the finest natural wood veneers serve as the foundation of products designed to offer state of the art performance and enduring value. While the intricate nature of the details of the construction might easily be overlooked, the results will undoubtedly be seen, felt, and above all heard. Lifelike sound - perfectly natural, realistic and dynamic; tonal accuracy without any harshness or boom; each Dynaudio model offers an incomporable musical experience: Experience the difference at your Dynaudio specialist retailer, and naturally, in the comfort of your own home. Dynaudio speakers home website.

This is the home page for the Northern California based (Scott's Valley nr Santa Cruz) E-mu industries. Famous producer of electronic music equipment varying from samplers and synths to software and plug ins. E-mu music component, synths, components, gadgets and instruments home page.

EAW make some rather fine pro audio systems. Our good friend RockaFella Ry has one of their mobile systems which sounds simply amazing. This is what they have to say about themselves. "The development of audio technologies is a science - but it is also an art. To merge both concepts together during loudspeaker design requires ingenious technical skill and passionate creativity. Since its inception in 1978, EAW has successfully displayed its mastery of this conceptual merger through our highly acclaimed and technologically superior product offerings. Year after year, we lead the professional audio industry in technical audio advancement and creative loudspeaker design. As a result, EAW has become the worldwide technological and market leader in the design." The Laws of Physics/ The Art of Listening The development of audio technologies is a science - but it is also an art. To merge both concepts together during loudspeaker design requires ingenious technical skill and passionate creativity. Since its inception in 1978, EAW has successfully displayed its mastery of this conceptual merger through our highly acclaimed and technologically superior product offerings. Year after year, we lead the professional audio industry in technical audio advancement and creative loudspeaker design. As a result, EAW has become the worldwide technological and market leader in the design Eastern Acoustic Works pro audio home website

Eden Electronics are know for their bass amps and enclosures. Eden Electronics make reputable Bass Amplifiers

They have the following to say about their company... "Since 1987 Edge electronics has been designing and manufacturing high-performance amplifiers for the discerning music lover. As a dedicated music lover himself, Tom Maker started the company when he ventured into audio speaker and amplifier design for his own enjoyment. Over the intervening years, Tom and his wife, Deb, assembled a team to design, manufacture, distribute and service Edge products in the high-performance audio market world wide. Today the company is introducing its flagship Reference Series Amplifiers and Pre Amplifier. This rounds out an already impressive array of multichannel solid state products." Edge audio components clearly targeted at the audiophile market

EV are a famous pro audio equipment focused company that is one of the major players in this competitive market place. Electro Voice (EV) Pro Audio home official website

These folks produce very high end pro audio amplifiers. Quote from their site.. 'What E.A.R have done is to create an amp with such style and build quality that it makes most other kit seem as aesthetically pleasing as a baked bean tin. That such style is combined with top quality sonics is cause for celebration.' Esoteric Audio Research pro audio home website.

This Sacramanto based company made their name through the successful positioning of the Heil air-motion transformer to the marketplace. It is a revolutionary midrange-tweeter that, since 1973, has distinguished ESS. loudspeakers from all other speakers in the world. Its principle is simple, yet it provides results superior to any other sonic transducer available today. ESS home loudspeakers website

Full Compass - online reseller of audio equipment Full Compass - online reseller of audio equipment

GSA (Gary Stewart Audio) based out of New York are one of the worlds leading companies devoted to providing custom made soundsystems and equipment to the nightclub/dj world. They inherited a lot of the technology and know how that Richard Long of "Paradise Garage" fame left behind and have done installations at some of the biggest clubs in the world including the Sound Factory in New York (which is also where GSA is based) and the Ministry of Sound in London. They customize Technics 1200's too. Bringing them up to audiophile standards. Gary Stewart Audio

This company inherited much of the technology pioneered by Richard Long (designer of the Paradise Garage sound system). They are still busy at work today custom designing some of the best contemporary sounds systems in the world. There systems are featured at the Ministry of Sound in London and the Sound Factory in New York not to mention countless other locations. Gary Stewart Audio Design - Club Soundsystems

Genelec make high quality studio monitors. Genelec have been designing and manufacturing active monitoring speakers since 1978. Our current product range consists of more than 20 models and covers most imaginable monitoring needs. Since the beginning, we have held the belief that the job of a monitoring speaker is to find the truth of a recording. If the truth is beautiful it will sound beautiful, but if the truth is ugly that will be revealed as well. What ever circumstances, a sound engineer needs to hear the inherent truth of a recording to know how to respond to it. This has been our guiding design principle for every one of our models from the minuscule 1029A to the massive 1036A. Genelec studio monitors official website

These folks make speakers and high end cables and other accessories. About Golden Sound from their website. "Golden Sound was founded by a group of audiophiles who are working hard to develop new stereo products and accessories that bring the listening experience to a higher platform of enjoyment. Their mission is to offer the best product for value price. Through the introduction of DH Cones, DH Squares and Golden Sound Pad. Golden Sound offers the most effective way to upgrade your audio equipment." Golden Sound is a manufacturer of high end audio equipment and accessories.

Good source of info on audio equipment with a good answer board for yr specific questions. Good sound is an online info resource for audio and audiophile gear

These folks offer kit loudspeakers that leverage his practically hand made "super 12 drivers". The mission of Hammer Dynamics is to create musical-sounding, well-balanced, high-sensitivity loudspeakers, for owners of low-powered tube amps, at reasonable prices. Five years ago I was struck by the fact that there were no inexpensive high-efficiency loudspeakers on the market. Once I settled on a full-range approach I began testing most of the full-range drivers on the market. Not one of them gave me the sound I wanted no matter the price. The few, which had reasonable mids and highs, had no bass. The few, which had good bass had congested mids and no highs. My solution to these problems was to design my own driver. My final design represents the best compromise I have been able to come to. The driver is capable of fast, accurate bass, silken mids and exceptional response to 10,000 Hz. I believe it is better to add a fast super-tweeter to a system than a slow sub-woofer. During my research I found that the usual 8" full-range drivers were never going to offer the kind of dynamic range I wanted so I finally settled on an ultra-light 12". The entire moving mass of this driver is less than 29 grams. With a surface area of around three times that of an eight-inch driver the dynamic range is increased by a similar factor. The S-12 represents my efforts to create a loudspeaker that sounds like Quad ESL 57s with much greater dynamic range, sensitivity and another octave on the bass-end. To my ears I've made it happen, and without recessing the midrange. Mission Statement As many of you may already know, my husband, John Wyckoff died on January 28, 2001. John had a dream To design a speaker system which produced high quality sound at an affordable price. A system which would reproduce the music as it was recorded, with all of the vocalists & musicians represented as they appeared in the hall. During the course of five years he studied, tested, built prototypes and voiced all manner of speaker configurations. At one point we had two 4x8 sheets of plywood with various drivers in place standing in our 600 square foot log cabin. I called it the "Wall of Fame". As a result of all of his efforts, he designed and produced the "Super 12". Following his desire to keep costs low, the system was released in kit form to appeal to the true audio enthusiast who was willing to put some effort and love in a project which would provide musical rewards for years to come. His dream came true. Once his design was in place, we spent many hours as a team putting kits together and shipping them all over the world. Although I can't promise the same technical support that John provided, there are many happy Super 12 enthusiasts out there who can. The kit also contains a 24 page instruction manual with step by step directions and photographs of the process. It was John's fervent wish that I carry on that dream. I have committed to do so. "Though the voice is quiet, the spirit echoes still" Colleen Wyckoff Hammer Dynamics Hammer Speakers website ... kit loudspeakers offered by a Mom and Pop pairing. Although sadly Pop kicked the bucket.

Respected manufacturer of audio components since the 1950's. Particularly well known for the amps, preamps and receivers. HarmanKardon audio corporate website

Heathkit was an American electronics company that offered (like Dynaco) high quality audio components in kit format to tech savvy consumers. Their tube pre-amplifiers and power amplifiers are particularly noted for their quality. They leveraged superior quality components and electronics and offered performance that equalled that of its far more pricey premade peers. In good condition these components still offer a great value on the used market today. This is a link to a matrix that outlines their product line through the years. It offers good descriptions and pictures of select units. Heathkit - Audio Product Matrix

Heathkit was an American electronics company that offered (like Dynaco) high quality audio components in kit format to tech savvy consumers. Their tube pre-amplifiers and power amplifiers are particularly noted for their quality. They leveraged superior quality components and electronics and offered performance that equalled that of its far more pricey premade peers. In good condition these components still offer a great value on the used market today. This is a link to a matrix that outlines their product line through the years. It offers good descriptions and pictures of select units. Heathkit - Audio Product Matrix

During the Heathkit era which lasted from the late 1940's through the mid 1980's, building Heathkits was a favorite activity for many electronics enthusiasts whose interests ranged from hi-fi/stereo and ham radio to computers, radio control, and home electronics. Heathkits were first marketed by mail-order, with advertisements appearing in popular electronics and amateur radio publications such as Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics, CQ and QST. This was a time where enthusiasts eagerly awaited the next issue of their favorite electronics magazine to see if Heath had introduced any new kits. Hobbiests maintained an annual mailbox vigil, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Heatkit catalog. In the mid 1960's, Heath branched out to retail outlets and added authorized service centers in several metropolitan cities, while changing ownership several times (Daystrom Incorporated, Schlumberger Limited, Veritechnology Electronics Corporation.) Heath later expanded its products to include a Thomas organ kit, computers, satellite television earth stations, even furniture and woodcraft, in an attempt to attract a wider range of customers. Declining interest in build-it-yourself electronics resulted in Heathkit closing its doors in the mid-1980's. There were literally thousands of kits manufactured. Development of this virtual museum is being attempted in a chronolical order, beginning with vacuum tube kits. If you don't see a kit listed, it hasn't yet been added to the museum. Information represented here has been derived from Heathkit marketing materials as well as contributions from individual Heathkit enthusiasts and former Heath employees. Heathkit online museum

According to this gentleman... he intends "this site to offer my privately owned Heathkit items in order to help the hobbyist continue to service and enjoy ownership of their Heathkits." Heathkit parts, kits and manuals

UK based online audio enthusiasts magazine. Up to date online versions of their print magazine. Hi-Fi World is an online audio enthusiasts magazine.

Horn Loud Speakers overview with reference to both good and bad design schemes. Alludes to both Klipsch Kornerhorn's and Altec designs such as the Voice of the Theater speaker. Horn Loud Speakers overview by Dr. Bruce Edgar.

Horn Loud Speakers overview with reference to both good and bad design schemes. Alludes to both Klipsch Kornerhorn's and Altec designs such as the Voice of the Theater speaker. Horn Loud Speakers overview by Dr. Bruce Edgar.

Horns can be thought of as providing sound reinforcement to a transducer (usually a compression driver). Horns generally have two essential properties: sound directivity enhancement, and acoustic impedance transformation. Horn Speakers

Build your own horn speakers. If you have the know how and talent why not? This website gives a good overview as to what is involved. Horn speakers DIY site

Apparently this is a feasible design for a horn based loudspeaker... "A 3D spiral horn has a relatively short three-dimensional spiral horn that looks like a conch shell. Its structure is comparatively simple. It can be built using standard PVC pipes and fittings. Therefore, you do not need a high degree of technical skills to build. The most prominent peculiarity of 3D spiral horn is that its lower frequency region extends to 50 Hz using 3" full range driver without booming and without decline of SPL. (Please see frequency response of Helix-H75) Sound degenerations are minimal because a 3D spiral horn has smoothly expanded sound passage and because there is no parallel plane, which may produce standing wave. If you bring the ear close to the horn mouth, you can hear very clear sounds although bass sounds are much emphasized. This means the distortion inflicted through a 3D spiral horn is minimal." Horns for loudspeakers. DIY page for making spiral horns.

Welcome to the online home of Iconic Manufacturing. We are dedicated to bringing back to life the Sounds and Traditions of the great west coast loudspeaker companies and introducing that sound to a new generation of listeners. I was made aware of this company by way of ebay. I asked this seller about some Altec Woofers he was selling. The informative nature of his response was rather intriguing to me as it hinted at unplumbed depths of "audio gear know how". That intagible but respect worthy quality that few have but all need. I have had some great communication with these folks. They are dedicated to building a small grass roots company using the classic Altec Lansing designs from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Apparently they bought the rights to the Altec technology of that era and also have a lot of the tooling and original machines necessary to make the components that made the Altec sound so detailed and accurate. Currently they are in the initial stages of rolling out their enterprise. Their first line of home audio speakers with these Altec centric components and designs are available and are worth checking out. They plan ultimately to also develop a line of pro audio gear. Worth keeping an eye on. Iconic Speakers is dedicated to re-introducing a new generation of listeners to the incomparable sound of the best Vintage Speakers and Audio equipmen

This audio company was particularly successful during the 80's where there affiation with Rogers Sound Lab stores made them a favourite of college kids and audiophile's to be alike. Infinity audio home website

Well known audio company JBL have a long history of producing high quality audio components and speakers. Owned by HARMAN these days they still feature noteworthy designs and technology. JBL Home Audio official website

JBL picture of complete speaker lineup for 1971

JBL is these days best know for their pro audio gear. From their ubiquitous self powered EON spkrs to their new SRX700 super high end pro enclosures. JBL pro audio official website

British company KEF make some of the most critically acclaimed speakers of the modern age. Kef home loudspeakers website

Kenwood are probably one of the best known manufacturers of audio equipment in the U.S.A. Mostly undistinguished by audiophile standards. Their 70's components though are always worth a look though as they made some respectable receivers and speakers during this period. Kenwood home audio corporate website

According to the their website... KLH is a company of exceptional (although sometimes fanatic) people, with a passionate focus on designing and building quality audio entertainment products at exceptional values. KLH is a family owned business. Established in 1957, KLH has always maintained the basic goal of producing superior high fidelity loudspeakers at extremely affordable prices. No hype. No smoke and mirrors. No "what's behind door number 3." Just great sounding speakers! We may be a bit eccentric, but we are a company of dedicated audiophile nuts that truly believe quality performance does not require you to take out a second mortgage. Our mission statement is simple: "To improve our customers¹ audio video experience by providing quality product at an exceptional value." KLH audio corporate website

A page on this site (that is dedicated to re-selling vintage audio equipment) concerned with KLH and specifically their vintage mid size speakers, the Model 20 and very similar Model 17's. I acquired 3 pairs of these speakers recently and am looking forward to putting them thu their paces. As for now they languish in my "band" room. They are sure purtty though and their design looks simple but elegant. This is a page that reviews these speakers and that features pics and stats. KLH Model 20/17 (vintage) speakers info

Klipsch, like Altec Lansing are a legendary and revolutionary company in the world of high end speaker design. Their "Klipsch Kornerhorn's", first produced back in the 60's and newly returned to production this last year set a benchmark in fidelity and speaker design. They used the walls of the room in which they were placed as an extension of their horn tweeters and mids. Effectively turning the entire listening area into an extension of the speaker itself. I believe they were a key part of the legendary "Paradise Garage" sound system put together by Larry Levan and Richard Long back in the early 80's. Their speakers are noted for their incredible efficiency requiring minimal amplification to produce clear sound at effortlessly high volume levels. They still favor the characteristic "horn" design to this day (like Altec Lansing) and produce fine equipment for the modern consumer. My heart though goes with their vintage speakers which were the stuff of legends. Their names alone evoke a lost era of audio excellence..."La Scalla, Cornwall, Belle, Kornerhorn and so on...." I myself bought a pair of Klipsch "Tangent's" from a dodgy character in San Bruno not too long ago. This mid 80's speaker was a plucky contendor but a pale shadow of the "characters" that loom in the paragraph above. I am flogging them on Craigslist as we speak. Klipsch - Company website

A lovingly created site with an amazing depth of resources for the Altec Lansing enthusiast. PDF's of a lot of the literature, manuals and marketing materials for their full range of products. Extremely thorough spec sheets. A nice history of Altec Lansing and much more. Lansing heritage site - Another great Altec Lansing centric website.

This is an un-official "Leak audio" Web Site, designed to help encourage the restoration and maintanence of this wonderful audio equipment that was originally made in the UK. They made some particularly lovely tube equipment - preamps, power amps and integrated amps. Leak vintage audio equipment centric page

Audio site that has a comprehensive set of links for the consumer looking to research most anything audio related. Link focused audio resource site

Links page to over 800 audio related website. Links page to over 800 audio related website.

A site dedicated to the history of loudspeakers over the last century. Loudspeaker history

Probably best know for their formative role in develping the market for electrostatic speakers. Magnepan has been manufacturing innovative, world class stereo speakers for over 35 years since Jim Winey, the inventor of the Magneplanar loudspeakers, first owned electrostatic loudspeakers and began the process of experimenting to design an improved electrostat. In 1969, Jim invented the Magneplanar, a thin-film magnetic equivalent to the electrostat and started the company Magnepan, a speaker based company currently manufacturing home theater system speakers. Magnepan manufactures top quality home speaker systems, surround sound speakers, loud speakers, home theater speakers, audio speakers, best stereo speakers and home theater systems available through dealers in the United States and Canada. We have the audio system to meet your surround sound and amplified home theater needs. Corporate and manufacturing facilities are located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, a small community north of the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Having outgrown its original facilities, Magnepan's current plant is over 50,000 square feet in addition to corporate and engineering offices. While 35 years have passed since Jim first invented the revolutionary Magneplanar Speaker, each and every model is still designed by Jim, and to this date over 200,000 pairs of Magneplanar loudspeakers have found their way into the homes of music lovers the world over. Magnepan Loudspeakers corporate website

This U.S. based company is particularly noteworthy for the exceptional quality of their product line. Particularly during the 70's. Their tube gear commands astronomical prices and is apparently of exceptional quality. They still make decent home audio equipment today. More than any other person, Saul M A little history on this company from their website.... "Marantz defined premium home entertainment. Driven by his passion for music and his accomplishments as a classical guitarist accomplishments that led to a close friendship with Andres Segovia he was never satisfied with the hi fi equipment of his day. So he built better; first in his basement, later in a factory. His talent for industrial design and his ability to infuse talented engineers like Sidney Smith and others with his vision resulted in legendary products. The Model 7 preamplifier. The Model 8 and, soon after, the 8B power amplifier. And insured that his company would remain a premiere name in the industry he helped establish. " Marantz home audio official website

Audiophile loudspeakers that command respect in the marketplace. Particularly well known for their electrostatic designs. Martin Logan loudspeakers website

McIntosh design and manufacture a line of audio equipment that for the last 40 years has set the standard for audiophile design. Their rugged and instantly recognizable designs are legendary. I myself own a c24 preamp and mc2040 power amp. These vintage components outshine most any of the modern designs I have had the opportunity to compare them with. They are the standard by which all other audio companies are judged. From their website... "The exceptional longevity of McIntosh products owes to a design philosophy established with the very first McIntosh amp: that every component will be created with capacity so great that it will never be operated at or near its stress point. Take, for example, our legendary output autoformer: its bandwidth exceeds both the output circuit and the audible range. Distortion is virtually immeasurable. And because an autoformer cannot pass DC current, it provides absolute protection for loudspeakers in the unlikely event of an output circuit failure. " McIntosh home audio official website

A rather amazing home theater set up. Mcintosh powered JBL voiced massive home system

A former employee of Altec Lansing built this consulting company focused on the pro audio space. There is some great information on this site pertaining to pragmatic approaches to building the "right" system for you ultimate needs. MCsquared is a pro audio consulting company.

Established by John and Helen Meyer in 1979, Meyer Sound has been at the forefront of innovation in audio engineering for over two decades. From the outset, Meyer Sound looked beyond loudspeaker cabinet design to create totally integrated, systems-comprehensive solutions that encompass transducer design, signal processing, power amplification and even electroacoustic measurement systems. As a result, Meyer Sound's engineering teams have earned an enviable reputation for developing unique, innovative solutions to some of the most difficult problems confronting audio professionals. In fact, it is fundamental to John Meyer's philosophy that no component of a system should be compromised in order to compensate for variables "upstream" or "downstream." Instead, the entire system should be conceived, designed, tested, confirmed and manufactured as a whole to provide the optimum blend of audio fidelity, utility and long-term reliability. Meyer pro audio - Home Base For Meyer PA and Pro Audio systems

Mixonic offer a duplication and packaging service that may interest the dj's and musicians out there who are looking to independently release their own music. Mixonic cd duplication and packaging

These folks in San Jose can repair yr audio equipment. They are particularly specialized in DBX gear and vintage synths. They are Factory Authorized by: Akai Ampeg Audio-Centron Allen&Heath Celestion Cerwin-Vega Community Crate Crest dbx Digitech Eden Fatar Fender Fostex JBL KMD Kawai Korg Kurzweil Kustom Line 6 Marshall Mackie Mesa-Boogie Pas Park Panasonic Peavey QSC Ramsa Roland Ross SWR Sunn Soundcraft Spirit Studiomaster Technic Tascam TLA Toa Teac Tannoy Vox Washburn Yamaha dbx repair: We specialized in dbx 160, dbx 160X dbx 161, dbx 162, dbx 166, dbx 165, dbx 165A and dbx 900 series. Vintage synth repair and restoration: Arp, Sequential Circuits, Moog, Linn, Oberheim, Chroma, Hohner Clavinet. Musician Service audio equipment repairs

"Powered by passion" Is the tagline for this British audio companies website. They are know for their high quality components. Pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, receivers, CD players and so on. The following is paraphrased and excerpted from a rather long discourse on their company history and attendant philosophy. "The real point of all audio equipment for the home is obviously enjoyment of lifelike, involving sound from music and movies. Some of the fun in buying audio components is deciding (and swapping views on) just how lifelike their sound really is. We take as much pleasure in that as anybody else, but we never lose sight of the central aim of enjoyment. And the three qualities we feel are central to creating it are performance, value, and simplicity. Performance : : . In audio electronics, the bottom line is that the waveforms that go to a loudspeaker should be in every possible respect as identical as possible to the ones that originally were produced by the microphones used for recordings or broadcasts. They should look exactly like the original ones, and they should have the same time-relationships and dynamics they did at the outset. Keeping those factors straight without adding any overlay of any kind is what every component should be designed to do." I deeply appreciate the philosophy outlined in the last paragraph. It's simple and makes a great deal of sense. NAD Audio's home website

This link takes you to a PDF formated copy of the brochure for this Stereo Receiver. NAD High quality Audio co. PDF for 7020 e Receiverr

Review of this rather delightful Bay Area manufactured speakers of which I am a proud owner. Worth more than the original asking price these days. NHT 2.3 Loudspeakers Review

Now Hear This (NHT) are based in the lovely Bay Area and do a great job of representing the "North" in the competitive audiophile market for Speakers and components. They have recently expanded their operations and have added a pro-audio line. Their sleek, angular designs and devestatingly detailed sound reproduction have made them a stand out performer when it comes to loud speakers for the home. I myself had the good fortune of going to their factory not too long ago. Thx to erstwhile friend and skilled bargain hunter, Jeff Ledbetter, I benefited from an "end of yr" employee pricing blow out on some discontinued components and equipment. For a couple of hundred bucks I got a pair of NHT 2.8 tower spkrs. I recently augmented them with the addition of a free standing matching NHT sub and custom NHT sub amp. The sound of these speakers is phenomenal. They stand shoulder to shoulder with systems priced well into the tens of thousands of dollars. A pair of 2.8's will set you back about $500 -$700 these days unless you have your own personal "Ledbetter bargain getter". They are well worth it though! NHT or "Now Hear This" makers of fine audio equipment, make this their home on the web

Paia were an early pioneer in the Synth world. Their early analog synths used clothing buttons as knobs but had remarkable sounds that are still sought after today. Paia Synthesizers website

Well known manufacturer of all sorts of audio equipment. Particularly noteworthy in my mind for their development of the Technics turntable line of which the SL1200mk2 can claim fame as the industry standard for pro dj's everywhere. Panasonic - Home Audio website

These folks make high end speakers of all types. Paradigm's website - High end speaker manufacturer

Audiophile components. Particularly know for their various different types of amplifiers and receivers. Parasound audio website

Phillips is one of the top 3 electronic companies globally. They helped pioneer cd technology amongst their many other contributions to the world of audio. They also absorbed English company PYE who my Dad used to work for back in the day. Phillips Consumer Electronic Website

Pioneer is a market leading manufacturer of electronic equipment. Pioneer Electronics corporate website

Here you will find a review of their pro audio line. Particularly of interest are their market leading DJ CD players. Pioneer pro dj website

This site is dedicated to the era of silver finish Pioneer stereo components. That era spanned less than two decades--from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The collectible era, which this site is dedicated to, covers the period between 1971 and 1981. Then came the microprocessor which Pioneer used to do away with analog controls, i.e. knobs and toggle switches. Finally came the "Black Plague" in the mid- to late 1980s with the proliferation of plastic. This visual theme remains with us to this day in the U.S. market, although there are a few Pioneer components finished in silver that are starting to appear on the American market. Aesthetically, Pioneer's components from this Silver Era period were distinguished by their handsome brushed aluminum front panels, solid machined aluminum knobs, toggle switches and pushbuttons, and beautiful walnut veneer with solid walnut trim. Electronically, they offered superb performance that received rave reviews from both magazines and from the owners. The substantial feel of the controls bespoke quality. And the level of quality of the electronics inside were such that this equipment is still being listened to today. In fact, these Pioneer components are experiencing a resurgence of interest and are eagerly being purchased over the internet, getting snapped up at vintage electronic shows, flea markets and even thrift shops. This site is meant to act as a resource of information for past, present and future owners of this equipment from the Silver Age of Pioneer. Pioneer vintage (silver) centric site

Well respected manufacturer of mostly mid-fi home loudspeaker systems. Polk Audio corporate website

See my Voodoo cable link review for my thoughts on Monster cable e.t.c. This is a site owned by Prana a manufacturer of audiophile grade cables and wires. Prana Wire - Audiophile cables

QSC are most known for their pro amplification products. This is what they have to say about themselves... "After more than three decades in the business, QSC Audio Products, Inc., has become a globally recognized leader in audio manufacturing. This prominence is the result of the company's mission to establish new standards of reliability and performance through the development of breakthrough technologies. QSC changed the face of amplifier technology with the introduction of QSC's exclusive PowerWave switching power supply, a technological advance that makes heavy, bulky and inefficient amplifiers a thing of the past. PowerWave, first incorporated into the revolutionary PowerLight Series and now used in three other amplifier lines, is proof that high power can be achieved in small, lightweight packages. While QSC continues to set the standard for amplifier technology, the company has also made significant strides in computer control, digital signal processing and signal transport. QSControl (pronounced Q's Control), a remote audio monitoring system application, has proven its performance in systems worldwide, from the world's tallest buildings (the Petronas Towers in Malaysia) to Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. QSC recently entered the professional loudspeaker business. Several of the company's enclosures incorporate Composilite, a patented core composite technology that yields superior acoustic properties, lighter weight, and outstanding weather resistance compared to conventional enclosure materials. The introduction of RAVE (Routing Audio Via Ethernet), which gives users a simpler way of transporting up to 64 channels of digital audio using Peak Audio's CobraNet technology, provides more evidence of QSC's commitment to creating system solutions based on open standards and protocols." QSC professional audio website

Quad 405 & 405-2 Current Dumping Audio Amplifier Information, History, Theory, Repair, Modifications, Parts, Service Quad 405/405-2 Current Dumping Audio Amp

U.K. based company that manufacturers high quality audio components. The history of Quad is one of audio excellence. The early products were all firsts of their particular type and cast the mould for the products which would follow for many years afterwards. Quad products are renowned for their longevity, and a journalist recently commented that new Quad products come along slightly less frequently than leap years. You might think that this would leave us trailing behind other manufacturers, but quite the opposite applies. Instead, every product Quad releases is a landmark, building on the successes of the predecessors, refining and innovating to bring you closer to the original sound. The company was founded in 1936 by audio master Peter Walker, under the title, the Acoustical manufacturing company. The company produced Public Address systems and compact amplifiers (relatively speaking). In 1949, The company produced the Corner Ribbon Loudspeaker, producing higher frequencies than had ever previously been achieved. In the same year, the QA12/P was launched and the brand QUAD was born from an acronym Quality Unit Amplified Domestic. Quad Audio's offficial website.

Best known for their line of high quality dj mixers. "Rane started out with four products aimed at small bands, designed to make their live performances better. At the forefront was a unique 12-input, 6-output matrix mixer (MM 12) used to create six different monitor mixes for driving stage monitor speakers. The idea was to help performers hear themselves better. Up to that time, either the small group had no monitors at all, or they were all driven by the same mix. What Rane provided was new, compactly designed, affordable tools to help solve the many problems of on-stage monitoring. Complementing the matrix mixer was the industry's first 6-channel power amplifier (MA 6), and a companion 6-channel headphone amplifier for rehearsal (HC 6). The fourth initial product was a unique combo unit, consisting of a 1/3-octave graphic equalizer and a simple realtime analyzer (RE 27), aimed at giving the performing musician a handy, easy-to-use tool for improving their sound in all venues. In doing all this, Rane established a new price-point for performance, quality and reliability. Rane products were priced well below the top high-end equipment yet outperformed and outlasted them, but were still priced significantly above the low-end products -- thus creating a new middle ground. " Rane pro audio website

Specializing in the reconing of tragically damaged Woofers and Mids. Recone - Speaker repairs. Specializing in the reconing of tragically damaged Woofers and Mids.

Excellent guide to the fair market price of speaker repairs. Specifically reconing. Consult this before unwittingly entering into any overly expensive speaker repair situation. It can be effectively used as a benchmarking tool. Recone.com

Popular campout and annual social event obviously focused on reggae music. Northern California. Reggae on the river

This is a good example of a contemporary vacuum tube preamplifier design. Reimyo Cat-777 tube control preamplifier

Swiss company that is known for their innovations in both home audio gear and also equipment for the studio. "Revox has established a distinctive brand image through its unique, systematic and modular products. The basic concepts of compatibility between different systems and the scalability of functionality and technology are what set the brand apart from the competition. At the heart of it all, is the principle of controllability. Simple operation, unique solutions and technological professionalism are the maxims behind the development of Revox products. Revox has turned simple entertainment into a fascinating experience. " Revox audio website

This gentleman was responsible for the custom design and installation of some of the most well regarded club soundsystem in history. Most notable in my mind being the system he designed for Larry Levan's Paradise Garage. Many would say this system was hands down the best sounding system ever designed and implemented. Indeed the Ministry of Sound in London did their best to duplicate the Paradise Garage system when installing their own sound. This site tells you all about Mr Long and some of his most accomplished sound installations. Richard Long - Designer of excuisite club soundsystems

I have heard both sides of the audiophile cable arguement. See the notes associated to the Voodoo cable link below as they represent the pro side of the arguement. Here Roger Russell a chief engineer with McIntosh back in the day makes the contention that the notion of "special" audio wires/cables having any significant audible impact on the actual acoustical properties of the ultimate sound is absurd. A very well stated arguement at that. I think I am going to forward this link to the gentleman that I met from one of the "monster" companies to get his response. Roger Russell McIntosh engineer webpage where he debates the audio cable issue.

Audiophile company best known for their high quality amplification products. "We are a forty year old high performance audio / video manufacturer of receivers, preamplifiers, surround sound processors, power amplifiers, DVD players, CD players, tuners and multi-zone electronics for hi fi and home theater. " Rotel audio corporate website

Basic overview of the audiophile component manufacturer SAE's (Scientific Audio Electronics)history. Written by an enthusiast and audiophile, apparently called Ward who has quite the amazing SAE system if you go to his home page. SAE home audio - Scientific Audio Electronics link to company hisory

Danelectro, Silvertone, Coral vintage guitars history and collecting. Private vintage guitar collector. Pictures, history for Danelectro, Silvertone, Coral vintage guitars. Contact the Vintage Guitar Info Guy. Silvertone/Danelectro/Coral guitar related site

A place where you can go to get your speakers fixed. Their specialty is Altec Lansing equipment. http://www.simplyspeakers.com/speaker-repair-altec.htm Simply Speakers - speaker repair, reconing and re-foaming

If you have decent speakers and they break, don't throw them away! Fix them instead. Send them to folks like Simply Speakers or purchase the parts directly from them and diy. Simplyspeakers.com provides all manner of parts and sevices for speakers

Full-range single driver speakers attempt to cover the entire audible frequency spectrum using only one driver unit. This removes the need for an electronic crossover network, well known for being hard to design without introducing colorations to the sound. Some people consider the crossover network one of the most evil things in audio. In practice, how well a single driver speaker delivers depends both on the driver and the speaker cabinet design. Lowther (UK) is one famous and well known full range driver, Fostex (Japan) is becoming popular in the USA and is well known in Japan and Europe. Other manufacturers that build full range drivers include Mitsubishi (Diatone), Jordan, Reps, Fertin, Supravox, Radio Shack, and many others. Single Driver theory Loudspeaker centric website.

This is the spiel that these folks use to describe their repair service for speakers. "We can repair any speaker. If you don't see you brand and or model number please send us an e-mail before you ship you speakers. " Soundspeaker repair.com

Soundwell is a repair ctr and retail outlet for vintage audio equipment that makes it's home in Berkeley California. For those of you who are local they are on University ave. They offer a reliable although somewhat pricey option when it comes to repairing vintage and modern audio equipment. Chances are though that they are cheaper than disposing of damaged equipment and buying new so they are definitely worth a look in the right situation. They also sell vintage equipment and can be a good place to look if you are in the market for speaker, preamps and so on. Soundwell - Home website

Fix those speakers and make them as good as new. This Orange County based company offers all the usual repair services. Speakerrepair.com offers their services to those with distressed loudspeakers in need of help!

This part of Panasonic's corporate website is dedicated to the Technics dj line. This line includes their ubiquitous SL1200mk2. Technic turntables - portion of Panasonic website

I have heard that it is possible to significantly increase the fidelity of yr playback on 1200's and 1210's through the upgrading of the tonearm. These folks offer some options in this regard. Technics 1200/1210 Tonearm upgrades

Page focused on Technics turntables. Technics Turntable online store and resource ctr

These folks make some pretty well respected power amps and preamps. This is what they think of themselves... "Threshold Audio, Inc. is the technology leader in power amplifiers, control preamplifiers, and active loudspeakers. Feel free to browse our official home on the World Wide Web..." Threshhold audio home website

DIY vacuum tube equipment site for the adventurous souls who are up for it Tube (Vacuum tube) diy site.

1000 (more or less) Tube Amplifier Links Tube audio equipment links page

Steve Bench's Home Page, lots of DIY projects for tube audio mavens, including the whole deal on the RAT Tube Tester Project and the Poor Man's Distortion Analyzer, Battery Powered Tube Audio/Guitar Amps, and more. Tube equipment centric web site.

EXPERIMENTS IN ELECTROCUTION (aka: DIY TUBE AUDIO) Tube resource page - EXPERIMENTS IN ELECTROCUTION (aka: DIY TUBE AUDIO)

Duncan Munro's Amp Page: lots of tube data, plus SPICE models & schematics. Tubes - Duncan amps is a guitar and tube centric website.

Legendary U.K. based manufacturer of professional audio gear. Most well know for their speakers and enclosures. Turbo Sound pro audio homesite

Many diy project vacuum tube based amplifiers on this site. Valve world - diy project vacuum/valve amplifiers.

Vintage Synth Explore is a resource for info on old synthesizers Vintage Synth Explore is a resource for info on old synthesizers.

This is one of several companies that make "gourmet" cables for the audiophile market the most famous of which is the ubiquitious "Monster Cable". That company just recently bought the rights to put their name on the stadium formerly known as "Candlestick park" where the 49ers play. It is now "Monster" stadium apparently. I think this shows how lucrative this business has become. There was a time when the companies that sold compents and speakers would simply give away lamp wire with the purchase of audio equipment. Then came Monster Cable! This is a hotly debated aspect of the audio market in that many folks say that cable quality is a component purely of thickness (resistance) of the wire. Voodoo cable and Monster say that this is not true. They talk about oxygen free wire, different metals, custom twisting of wire and much more. The owner of Voodoo Cable sold me an audiosource self powered subwoofer through an ad on craigslist. His company plays in the high end cable audiophile space. I had always thought that the whole "monster cable" thing was largely a suckers game. He told me that by....cryogenically treating the wire, using different metals, twisting them carefully and using the right connectors, one could actually change the attenuation of the music as ultimately heard through the speakers. He looked like an honest type and did not have that mad stoned look to him that I see occasionally in the mirror. I now have more faith in the gourmet cable thing as a result. Anyway, here is a link to his site. Thx for the sub and it's accompanying "special" coaxial rca cable. May your head be cryogenically frozen so that you may return to life in the future. There may you witness audiophile soundsystems being implanted directly into people's brains and ears by "Voodoo brainaudio systems". This will be the company that yr children develop and that is yr future legacy. Voodoo Cable

Classifieds for audio equipment. A free service! Wardsweb offesr free online ad for audio equipment

A thread concerning vintage English Wharfedale speakers. Wharfedale Speaker discussion - AudioKarma.org

Older speaker models once offered by Yamaha. Info courtesy of Yamaha's own website. Yamaha discontinued speakers

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EZLUV MUSIC Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved. Contact EZLUV for more info.

posted in SOUND SYSTEM CULTURE - 0 replies

SOUND SYSTEM SET UP - DAVID MANCUSO (see photo gallery "fig 1" for PICTURE)

kingshag — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:03:09 GMT

Loft Audio Papers

by David Mancuso

Fundamentals Do Not Change, The Laws of Physics Endure

Loft Audio Paper #1 - Room Acoustics

The overall quality of a sound reproducing system can be affected by the
room acoustics! Many times a very good system is placed in a poor environment and the sound system is held at fault. By using NATURAL sounds, such as the voice one can tell immediately if the room is good or bad. Of course, so will the reproduction of all sounds. The dimensions of the room is also extremely vital. So if you are serious about music you will observe the first rule - ROOM ACOUSTICS - If it doesn't go in right it doesn't come out right.

Loft Audio Paper #2 - Speaker Arrangements/ SPL Levels

posted in SOUND SYSTEM CULTURE - 0 replies

POST SCRIPT - ARTICLE ON SUBJECTIVE NATURE OF PREFERENCE FOR AUDIO GEAR

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:53:24 GMT

Markus Sauer responds:

Editor: I was glad to see a number of reader's letters regarding my "Nuances" articles. My initial reaction was not to respond; I've had my say, now let the readers have theirs. However, there are two letters which make me wonder if I expressed my views as clearly as I should have.

Mr. Alter, whose letters I have read with great interest and respect over the years, accuses me of being untrue to Stereophile's original ethos of high fidelity reproduction. And Mr. Barringer accuses me of the abandonment of accuracy in sound reproduction equipment.

Not really. The easiest way to convey the original emotion is to convey the original sound. However, in the real world, conveying the original sound in all its glory is impossible, at least within the means of present-day science. My argument is that we should accept this impossibility and take a close look at which aspects of reproduced sound are of greater or lesser importance to the conveyance of the original emotion, and optimize our playback chain accordingly. If that means taking a retrograde step in some respects to make overall progress, well, that's one of the longest established tactics in all human endeavours.

We should judge our progress in matters audio not in terms of how close a component comes to the original sound, but how close it comes to the original message, which, in most cases, is an emotional one. We should judge a component on how close it comes to fulfilling its purpose of delivering the content of the message, not the outer packaging of the message.

I did not want to advocate using distorted equipment. I hate distortion. My point is that conventional THD+N measurements don't seem to correlate very well with the perceived emotional importance of the distortion. Hasn't CD taught us that very-low-level, but not signal-related distortion artefacts can be subjectively much more annoying than much higher distortion caused by other mechanisms? Isn't it an established fact that higher order distortion can be subjectively more relevant than a considerably greater amount of low order distortion? We should judge the quality, not just the quantity, of distortion phenomena.

I'm not calling for the abandonment of science. I'm calling for new and better science, for more research into the sound/emotion interface, if you will. For an example of what I mean by better science, readers are encouraged to seek out Ben Duncan's recent series of articles on amplifier sound in Hi-Fi News & Record Review.

And I'm certainly not calling for a return to the warm and woolly tube sound of lore. I never wanted to say that equipment should make us feel good, no matter what music is being played. If the original emotion, was hate, sadness or cold brutality, a component should be able to convey those emotions. That's why I said that our motto should be the closest approach to the original emotion.—Markus Sauer

posted in SOUND SYSTEM CULTURE - 0 replies

PART 11

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:51:40 GMT

I think that this factor, tonal balance, is another key aspect in which old gear has an advantage over much modern equipment, and is as important as the low-level dynamics Jean-Marie Piel was talking about. Jean Hiraga, a French journalist whose writings appear mostly in the Nouvelle Revue du Son, has often cited the "Law of 400,000": The product of a loudspeaker's -3dB points should always be 400,000. If a speaker is down 3dB at 20Hz, it should be down 3dB at 20,000Hz; if a speaker is down 3dB at 40Hz, it should be down 3dB at 10,000Hz; and so on. This law is simplistic, because it is applied only to the on-axis response. Ideally, it should be applied to the room-averaged response. Many modern speakers are flat or even tilted up in the final octave, as we have seen above, without an adequate bass fundamental to counterbalance this top-end extension.

Another aspect of old loudspeakers that seems important to me is the drivers they employ. Old loudspeakers are all about pneumatic coupling. When a loudspeaker chassis' membrane is propelled forward by voltage and/or current applied to the voice-coil, the air in front is pushed away. Depending on membrane size and the length and speed of the excursion, the air in front of the loudspeaker will react more or less willingly to the input (the technical term is acoustic impedance). There is a fairly precise point when the air will more or less fail to be impressed by the driver's stimulus, with an inverse ratio between frequency and loudness on one hand and membrane size on the other hand. (Loudness is a function of the air you move; to achieve a greater loudness level, you have to increase either the surface or the excursion of the membrane.)

Put simply, to reproduce a bass tone loudly, you need a fairly large membrane; for a treble tone, a much smaller surface will suffice (in case you wondered why your tweeter is smaller than your woofer). Above a certain frequency, the air will effectively follow the membrane's movements, vibrating forward and backward. Below that point, the air's inertia is too great to be influenced by the driver---compare the effect of waving your hand with waving a ping-pong bat. There is also a point where excursion cannot be substituted for membrane size, because the air will no longer couple efficiently to the driver.

This acoustic impedance stuff is one of the reasons why horns were once so popular. A horn can be seen as an acoustic impedance transformer: The air in front of the driver cannot escape to the sides when stimulated by the membrane, but will faithfully follow the stimulus. By gently broadening the canal through which the sound waves travel, these air movements will be imposed on an ever greater amount of air, until you come to the end of the horn. In a certain sense, the air that is present at the horn's outlet can be seen as the effective driving surface of the horn driver, because it is this air that couples to the rest of the room. The larger the surface, the less excursion is needed to play at a certain loudness level; and in speakers, the less excursion, the better.

A large bass driver needs a large cabinet behind it, which makes it impractical for many people. I think it's no coincidence that the small infinite-baffle speaker was invented when stereo became available. One big enclosure, for mono, can be tolerable enough, but two such behemoths are beyond what most people will tolerate in their living rooms. Fine, I say. Just be aware that there is a sonic price you pay for the small woofer.

There's one other component of the hi-fi chain I want to comment on: the phono cartridge, for those of us who still listen to vinyl. Some time ago I reviewed (for a German magazine) the latest iteration of the EMT cartridge, a design that started out in the early '60s. Listening to this cartridge after a spate of newer designs made me realize anew that certain classic designs (whose number includes the Denon DL 103 and the Ortofon SPU series) have an emotional rightness that speaks powerfully to the heart and soul of the listener, even if his head can discern some not-very-subtle deviations from linearity. The EMT has a much more colored sound than many modern cartridges do. Yet it is a heck of a lot more fun to listen to than those modern, oh-so-flat, tread-carefully designs. When was the last time you read that a cartridge could really get down and boogie?

Yes, I'll listen to the future
Please don't think that I'm anti-progress, anti-technology, anti-digital, or whatever. Far from it. I hate the expense and complication I have to go to to obtain good sound---which to me means satisfying sound: the rigors of speaker placement (a surprisingly accurate first approximation for speaker placement is to put them where they do the most visual damage to a room; that's probably where they'll sound their best), cables that positively invite you to trip over them, the seemingly unstoppable proliferation of small or not-so-small electronics boxes, and so on. My ideal hi-fi rig consists of a small and preferably inexpensive appliance that sits quietly and unobtrusively in some corner of the room, but fills the room with sweet music. Now that's what I'd call progress.

I'm also not saying that triodes are the only way to go. I remain unattached to any specific technology. I would like to see more single-ended transistor amplifiers. These should provide quite respectable specs, a low output impedance, a flat amplitude and phase response, and so on. Judging from my experiences with tube designs, I would caution against the use of parallel transistors in the quest for higher power outputs. Anyway, the compromises inherent in this technology tend to show up much more clearly in single-ended topologies than in circuits that split the signal.

Single-ended designs are necessarily class-A, so they'll never be as energy efficient as I'd like my hi-fi to be. It could be argued that it doesn't matter much on a global scale. I don't yet see a Japanese electronics giant bringing out inexpensive single-ended integrateds, so for the foreseeable future this exciting technology will remain the expensive preserve of the dedicated few. But I have to say that I'd be happier if all of humanity could follow my path to audio truth without vaporizing the polar ice caps. This aspect truly troubles me.

I also have great hopes for the Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio formats. The present CD format, after all, was laid down in the late 1970s and relied on technology that was then cost-efficient to manufacture. If you compare a present-day computer to its late-'70s counterpart, the latter appears to be a relic of the Neolithic. The CD standard seems just as antediluvian when compared with the new digital technologies.

A change in direction?
I'm sure that I've raised more questions in readers' minds with this article than I have provided answers. However, I hope to ignite a discussion that may lead to a better understanding of how sound influences emotion, and how equipment that doesn't get in the way of the emotion can be designed. The High End has become too technocratic, too sure of itself, maybe even a little arrogant. In my estimation, we have only scratched the surface of this whole matter of music reproduction in the home. Some humility would give a more accurate perception of our achievements in this worthwhile field. Personally, I'm usually very unhappy when someone tells what I should and shouldn't enjoy.

In lieu of a conclusion, I offer this observation: There is a paradigm shift underway in the world of music reproduction. For the last 40 years or so, the High End's aim could be summed up in Quad's famous motto: "the closest approach to the original sound." But there is a growing movement underfoot that refuses to adhere to this motto, creating its own instead: the closest approach to the original emotion.

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PART 10

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:50:18 GMT

The essence of an interpretation lies in working on the infinitely small---be it an attack on a note held back for a fraction of a second (perceptible if the preceding note is reproduced neither too short nor too long), or be it a note that develops in itself; or, on a larger level, a crescendo or diminuendo encompassing several notes---all of which gives music a sense of direction, its palpable dynamics, its quivering life, and all of which, in the end, lies in the nuances.

"Which explains, by the way, why certain old loudspeakers with a very high sensitivity and thus a very high precision in the rendition of dynamics, especially of very small signals---just like certain tube amplifiers with very simple circuits---and despite more or less obvious colorations and the omission of an octave or two, manage to reproduce with disturbing fidelity all the emotional intensity of an interpretation. Which should give our designers something to think about, and convince them that the musically more important kind of dynamics is that which loses itself in silence (footnote 14), not the kind that turns into noise."

Learning from our ancestors
I think it is no coincidence that Jean-Marie Piel would turn to "old" technology for inspiration. Some old gear can still hold up surprisingly well today. The American press, with the occasional exception from Sound Practices, has concentrated so far on triode amplifiers as "the new thing." Loudspeakers receive a lot less attention. I have given my opinion on triode amps and their qualities in this magazine (footnote 15), and of late there have been a number of articles on single-ended triodes. Instead of further amplifying this addiction to triode amps (which, contrary to what you may have been led to believe, are no panacea; if we have to talk about amps, I'd prefer to emphasize the role of the preamp), let me concentrate first on another piece of the hi-fi chain in need of a reevaluation: the loudspeaker.

Let's start with an unexpected item of old technology: vintage tube radios. Those of the 1940s to 1960s often have an astonishingly good sound quality. The frequency range of their single driver is severely restricted, but they have a magical coherence that more than compensates. All the really good ones seem to have a single-ended tube, not necessarily a triode; an EL86 pentode can sound wonderful in a single-ended topology. (By the way, Jean-Constant Verdier, designer of the best turntable I have ever had the pleasure to hear, has a huge collection of old tube radios.)

One of the more intriguing facts about old tube radios is the way they make use of their enclosures. These are not designed to be as acoustically inert as possible, as are most modern speakers, but are allowed to resonate with the music, a character trait shared with many old loudspeakers. The wood panels' size and density are judged so that those inevitable resonances are consonant with the music. Music seems to pass through them unscathed. If you listen to the output of modern speaker cabinets (using an ear pressed to the box; or, for a more dignified approach, a stethoscope), most sound horrible. The sounds emitted by an Altec Voice of the Theatre's cabinet can be much less objectionable (footnote 16).

Another facet of this phenomenon is the way the room is energized by a loudspeaker using a noninert enclosure. Sound, especially the lower frequencies, is radiated from the entire surface of the box, not just the chassis. This seems to accomplish much the same thing as using multiple drivers or dipoles. One of the most convincing loudspeakers I have ever heard is built according to principles having more to do with the making of musical instruments than with orthodox hi-fi loudspeakers.

Another aspect of old loudspeakers is that they tend to have dimension ratios diametrically opposed to those of modern speakers. Modern speakers typically have very narrow fronts, the enclosed space needed for a reasonable bass-driver alignment being found by making speakers tall and deep. By comparison, old loudspeakers tended to be wide but shallow. This has profound consequences for sound dispersion. Once the baffle is narrower than the wavelength of a tone emitted by one of its chassis, the emitted sound is no longer reflected by the baffle and projected by the speaker toward the listener, assuming the listener sits in front of the speakers; instead it will travel around the speaker and radiate to all sides.

Typically, low and middle frequencies are dispersed quite evenly in the room, while high frequencies are projected in a narrow angle. Thus the energy concentration at the listener's point in the room is tipped toward the high frequencies. Many designers compensate for this by introducing a slight clockward tilt in the speaker's frequency response, a gentle fall from low to high frequencies. The indirect sound, which in nondead listening rooms makes up an important part of the overall gestalt of the sound, the perceived tonal balance, will then be perceived as lacking in high-frequency energy. The speaker sounds dull. To prevent this, there will often be an on-axis rise in the tweeter's top octave. Unfortunately, two wrongs don't make a right. Old loudspeakers, which have wider baffles, project more energy at lower frequencies toward the listener and have a more natural balance between mid and high frequencies without that tilt in the frequency response.

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Footnote 14: To quote Keith Jarrett (Stereophile, April 1994, Vol.17 No.4, p.59): "Silence is where music comes from." Jarrett meant this from an artistic point of view, not from a sonic one, but the parallel is striking.
Footnote 15: Stereophile July 1994, Vol.17 No.7, p.19.

Footnote 16: Depending on the specific model and the execution of the cabinet. There are bad ones and good ones.

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PART 9

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:48:41 GMT

In my estimation, the writing style that prevails in current hi-fi journalism is an attempt to describe the sonic presentation as an abstraction from the listening experience, in an attempt to produce results that do not depend on a certain kind of music, but can be related to the perceived requirements of a given style of music. If a review states that a speaker has abrasive highs, it matters little if this observation was made while listening to massed violins or to a rock guitar. The assumption is that the reader then translates this observation to his own listening experience and decides if this particular aspect of music reproduction is important to his enjoyment of music or not.

But how do we know this assumption is true?

The way forward?
This article would be pretty pointless if it didn't at least try to find a way out of the dilemma we have brought upon ourselves. A magazine, after all, has to be useful (and entertaining) to its readers if it wants to survive. Here's the question we have to answer: Are there aspects of sound that are more important for emotional appreciation than others, and if so, which? It's clear that, however much I have derided sound per se up to now, somehow emotional response must be related to the waveform of the sound reaching our ears. There is no secret medium other than sound emanating from our speakers.

Let me introduce you to the thinking of another searcher for a new direction: Jean-Marie Piel, a 45-year-old journalist living in Paris, France. At the age of 15 Piel built his first hi-fi chain, consisting of a tube amp and Supravox speakers with a single chassis per channel. After earning his baccalaureat, the French equivalent of a high school diploma, he began to study literature and philosophy. He taught himself how to play the flute, which he taught for 13 years---beginning at age 23---at the Conservatoire de Fontainebleau. From the age of 20 he also worked as a journalist for hi-fi and music magazines, among other achievements writing and editing the "Arts Sonores" section of L'audiophile, the influential French underground magazine. Since 1985 he has been responsible for the sound section of Diapason, the largest music and sound magazine in France, as a joint editor-in-chief. He also writes regularly for Paris-Match. Jean-Marie Piel receives and listens to practically every CD that is offered in the French market, selecting two to four of these each month as musically and sonically outstanding. His knowledge of music, instruments, and musicians is encyclopaedic. He can eloquently explain the differences between instruments of different periods and why they evolved in a specific way. He writes (footnote 13):

"With his familiar ironic humor, Paul Valéry once said that 'the vice begins when one gives up the whole for the part'---a sentence that could be applied to a lot of hi-fi enthusiasts and that well [describes] the perversity that grips us when we take our pleasure by listening to music with those devices called loudspeakers. Modern miking techniques, which have a tendency to run amok on technology and to favor the detail at the expense of the ensemble, further push us in this direction: that of fragmented listening, even if one has to guard against overgeneralizations. But the fact is, if 20 microphones are used for recording an orchestra, there is little chance for the cohesion of the ensemble to survive. We are then reduced to hearing details, to take interest in nothing else. But the music escapes the detail; if the detail takes precedence, it is nothing but sound, a piece of sound. The music passes through it---if you stop to examine the detail, the music has already moved on. Of course, sound is the necessary medium for music. It's the sound that makes the music, not the notes. Still, by a mysterious paradox, fidelity to sound does not always coincide with fidelity to the emotion, which is the soul itself of music.

"Therein lies the rub: If one wants to judge a hi-fi system, one tends to erroneously concentrate on purely sonic details---are the lower mids good and are the extreme highs easy on the ear? As if one would ask such questions in a concert. In a concert, there is no woofer, no tweeter, there are only musicians playing. When listening to a hi-fi system, it is they and only they one should be listening to. It is true that a lot of components, in all price brackets, do not invite us to do this, and direct attention to the sound. We then have every occasion to think that the invisible link between notes that gives them musical meaning is not being reproduced. There's no necklace, just pearls . . . they may be beautiful, just as sounds made by certain sophisticated systems, which reproduce sounds superbly and with a certain implacable coldness, yet miss the soul of music, can be beautiful.

"All the difficulty lies in analyzing what is missing in the sound when living music is not happening. For the beginning of an answer we may turn our attention to certain chains, sometimes somewhat colored, missing the bottom or the top octave, which nevertheless reproduce the life and magic of musical movement. A certain timbral fidelity may be missing, but in a broad midrange where the essence of musical energy is concentrated (between about 200Hz and 4kHz), they are capable of perfectly reproducing nuances: ie, the intensity interrelations between sounds; or, to be more precise, the fluctuations of intensity within a single sound. This is where the life is. It's enough to analyze a note held by a musician to gain consciousness of this fact. You know that this held note comes from a musician and not a machine because there are infinitely small instabilities. The sound does not have a constant intensity. Sure, the variations are very small, but they exist. In the ability to reproduce these infinitely small nuances is the answer to the question of whether a chain will let through the life, without which, evidently, the music is just dead notes.

"Another example: Listen to the way a violinist like Salvatore Accardo lets sounds develop in the Beethoven Concerto. He attacks certain notes hard, with a broad vibrato (variations in pitch and volume), then progressively reduces the intensity, tying the whole down (which in itself creates several levels of nuance) until he flirts with silence. The way he lets the note finish, or die, is so subtly progressive that one doesn't quite know where the note ends and the silence begins. From this uncertainty, which makes us listen hard to save this fascinating passage from nothingness, arises a strong emotion. If superficiality enters into the reproduction---a kind of oversimplification in the rendition of nuances that gives the impression that the note, instead of dying away imperceptibly, is brutally cut off---the interpretation's magic is immediately destroyed. The artist leaves us indifferent because he doesn't force us to train our ears to the outer limits of audibility.

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Footnote 13: Quoted with Jean-Marie Piel's permission; translation by Markus Sauer.

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PART 8

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:48:02 GMT

THX has drawn our attention to the fact that room size influences perceived tonal balance. Listening rooms tend to be much smaller than the halls or studios in which music is recorded (this is even more true in Europe than in the US). Thus, if a recording is true to the original event but is reproduced in a smaller room, it will sound too bright---which, again, seems to indicate that a truly flat system will sound bright (footnote 10).

These factors have long been known to audio designers. Having spoken to a number of manufacturers of drive-units, I know that it's relatively easy to make a tweeter with a flat on-axis amplitude response. But the loudspeaker designer knows that flat is not necessarily right (a point I'll return to later). Celestion's SL series, particularly the SL 600, was an international sales success and very well reviewed in all leading audio magazines, including this one. Its tweeter was shelved down 2dB vis-à-vis the woofer, but it sounded pleasingly natural in typical living rooms.

Conversely, many speakers have an on-axis rise in the tweeter's output to compensate for radiation patterns and give a flat room-averaged response, and to heighten the apparent level of detail a speaker can reproduce. To my ears, such speakers have always sounded way too bright. Summing up, I think it nigh on impossible to design components, especially loudspeakers, that will sound anything like their input in a variety of settings (footnote 11).

The third sacred cow waiting to be slaughtered is measurements. This magazine is working very hard to correlate the listening experience with measurements. I remain to be convinced that conventional measurements tell us much about whether a hi-fi component reaches the heart or not. In loudspeakers, there seems to be a fairly good correlation between a reasonably flat amplitude response and fidelity of timbre. In my own experience, low loudspeaker distortion and a reasonably flat phase response make for ease of listening, in the sense that I can listen for long periods of time without listening fatigue. Power bandwidth, perhaps more so for loudspeakers than amplifiers, will tell you if a component is apt to change its sound when the listening level goes up.

I think that good measurements are often an excuse for the designer: It measures well, so I haven't done anything wrong. Not doing anything wrong, however, does not automatically mean that the component under test will do enough right. To put it another way, I have yet to find a measurement that tells me if I'll want to listen to a component.

A final pet hate is detail. A proposal for the international language of hi-fi reviewing: There should be a distinction between detail and nuance. Just as a fact is mere data without an interpretable context, which only meaning can transform into information, a detail is meaningless without its context of musical direction, which transforms it into a nuance of interpretation (footnote 12). Dwelling on details like the audibility of a microphone falling down, the direction taken by a London underground line below the recording venue, or the chirping of a bird somewhere outside the recording venue, seems counterproductive: Such aspects take my attention away from the music and its meaning; they don't lead me to the music itself.

Magazines
A reviewer who relates his listening experience in terms of the emotional impact a component made on his enjoyment of music has a hell of a time getting his point across. As is evident from this magazine's "Letters," a lot of readers out there don't have a clue what he is on about. I can understand why: If the writer uses a type of music the reader can't relate to, it's hard to translate the review into a context relevant to his own preferred music. "Yeah, but how would it sound on my kind of music?" is a question often heard when discussing such reviews with readers. The prevailing impression seems to be that different music styles depend on different aspects of reproduced sound to carry their musical meanings.

A typical observation seems to be that for classical music, timbral fidelity, low-level dynamics, and, yes, soundstaging are considered important. (The soundstaging part I have never really understood; yes, I know, in the concert hall, the violins are seated on the left and the double basses on the right, but hey, they have to sit somewhere, and I have yet to read that a composer---Stockhausen excepted, and you never know if he's joking---specifies a certain seating arrangement for artistic reasons.) For rock music, essential aspects seem to be loudness, speed, rhythm and pace, and a tonal balance that conveys power in music.

These prejudices are so widely held that there must be something to them (although I submit that if you listen to Ansermet conducting, pace and rhythm are very important for his readings). And the dichotomy is so deeply anchored in the minds of music lovers that it seems almost insurmountable.

Yet it seems to me that for the reviewer, the way out need not lie in falling back on a sonic description of the audio experience. He should instead try to incorporate as many different styles of music into the review as possible, and describe the emotional impact these different styles have made. That means that the reviewer must educate himself in the appreciation of these different music styles.

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Footnote 10: Which brings to mind J. Gordon Holt's famous "Down With Flat!" essay.
Footnote 11: For a more detailed discussion of some of these points, read J. Gordon Holt's "Space . . . the Final Frontier" in Stereophile, March 1994, Vol.17 No.3, p.61 (and especially p.67).

Footnote 12: "God is in the details," said Mies van der Rohe. When I look at his architecture, which to my eyes is cold, full of harsh black-and-white contrasts, decidedly inorganic, and well-meaning but brutal in its treatment of the buildings' inhabitants, he seems like just the man to suffer from this misapprehension. Maybe God is in the nuances.

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PART 7 OF ARTICLE ON ....

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:47:18 GMT

Sacred cows will get you nowhere
Let's try to shoot some holes in a few favorite topics of hi-fi reviewing. One of my pet hates is soundstaging. For some people, this seems to be very important. For me, it isn't. When asked if the hardware he sells images well, Colin Hammerton---an expatriate Brit working as British amp manufacturer Exposure's importer in Germany---says, "I don't want to hear where the musicians are on stage. I want to hear why they are on stage." I couldn't agree more. Please don't get the impression that I'm against soundstaging---it's nice to have. It just doesn't matter for my emotional reaction to music.

Out in the real world, however, soundstaging is very important. If a review would state that a component makes wonderful music but can't image, sales would be practically nil, at least among the very large part of the clientele whose buying decisions are influenced by what's said by magazines and dealers (who rely on magazines as the most important sales aid).

The expression "sonic fireworks" is a recurring theme in hi-fi journalism. It seems also to describe the listening expectations of a certain type of hi-fi customer. "Ooh, look there . . . and there, to the right, outside the right-side speaker . . . ooh, and there, six yards behind the speakers . . . and there, over the speakers---isn't that beautiful!"

This listening style could be called visual-oriented listening, because it tries to describe sound in terms of visual experience. Visual-oriented listening is attractive because it allows a quantitative analysis ("The soundstage reproduced by the device under test was this broad, this deep, and this high."), which must be a big help in developing, and describing the sonic performance of, audio components.

It is also a defensible listening experience: We all know that the so-called objectivists try to knock the so-called subjective listeners. The latter have responded by turning into observational listeners (another visual term), relating an experience that other listeners can duplicate if the test conditions are identical---a prerequisite for gaining recognition as a scientific, and thus reputable, branch of engineering. (It must be hard to live your working life without the recognition of your peers.) Everyone with intact hearing will agree to reasonably identical dimensions of the soundstage, and the location of instruments in that soundstage.

However, there is no way yet to objectify the musical pleasure a component gives. A different listener will approach the same sonic demonstration with a different mood, different reactions to a musical stimulus, and so on. The emotional experience is not as easily transferable as the observational one.

A bonus of visual-oriented listening is that it is economically attractive. It allows listening irrespective of psychological and physical condition, and thus opens up a much larger part of the day to the accomplishment of meaningful work than if you could listen only when you were really in the mood for some music. For people who make their living from sonic judgments---designers, dealers, and journalists alike---I can see that it may be imperative. Problem is, this is in direct opposition to the listening experience of the paying customer, who wants to unwind from a day's work with a little musical entertainment.

Since visual-oriented listening is something at which a reviewer tends to get very good, it usually makes up a large part of a review's content. Magazine-reading audiophiles will be influenced in their listening habits by those reviews (the "learning" part that Jürgen Ackermann was talking about). They choose their systems and set them up so that the visual-oriented listening experience is emphasized. Many such systems, to me, sound boring. There's no meat on the bone.

An experiment: Disconnect one speaker from your setup and listen to the sound of just the remaining speaker, preferably with a mono source. I'm sure that few so-called high-end speakers (and systems) will survive this test. Many will sound bland and anemic. Two such speakers sound just the same, but probably a little fuller, because with the usual practice of mixing bass sounds straight down the middle, doubling the radiating surface of the bass drivers and doubling the available amplifier power gives a perceived 3dB rise in relative bass level. But the speakers don't become more interesting.

Another experiment: Listen to recorded voice. My favorite material for this kind of test are comedy records (Eddie Murphy, Bette Midler, and Bill Cosby spring to mind). Good comedy works on much the same principles as music. Timing is crucial, as are small inflections of the voice, speed of delivery, and so on. You'll be surprised by how few systems preserve intelligibility, an essential prerequisite for this kind of stuff. Dynamics and low-level resolution are much more important than timbral fidelity here.

While I'm at it, I'd also like to diss timbral fidelity. Of course, timbral fidelity is the essential prerequisite for the accurate reproduction of music in the home. It is also nigh on impossible to achieve, for sound scientific reasons.

Modern multimiked recordings tend to employ a microphone for every instrument or, at most, small group of instruments. The sound put down on (digital) tape is that of instruments at close proximity.

In the concert hall, one tends to listen from a much greater distance. Even if one were to sit at the conductor's feet, only a few instruments would be this close, the rest farther away. Thus, what is recorded on tape can never be heard in a real-world situation.

There is also the question of radiation patterns. In the concert hall, the sound one hears from a solo violin is a mixture of sound waves radiated by the strings and the top and bottom plates of the violin body, the latter two usually much lower in frequency than the strings to which they resonate and thus radiate with a broader radiation pattern. The close-proximity mike picks up a greater proportion of the string sound than would be heard live. The sound the microphone "hears" is only a fraction of the instrument's total sound that would be perceived by the typical listener, who sits much farther away than the typical microphone. This fraction will be prejudiced toward the higher frequencies. If the microphone's output is faithfully reproduced by all subsequent elements in the chain, the resulting sound will be unnatural. (In contrast, rock, pop, and blues music is usually amplified even when performed live. The sound you get from a recording is, on a certain level, faithful to the original.)

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PART 6 OF ARTICLE ON SUBJECTIVE NATURE OF ....

kingshag — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:46:19 GMT

The result of all this is a deep thirst for experiencing one's self. Bungee jumping, canyoning, and other fashionable sports reveal the desire of getting to know one's abilities and limitations. Roller coasters have to be built on ever-grander scales, with steeper inclines and sharper descents to catch the attention of the paying public. You get my drift.

Life is becoming boring. We want more! In the words of that great philosopher, Calvin: "I think life should be more like TV....I think we should all have powerful, high-paying jobs and everyone should drive fancy sports cars. All our desires should be instantly gratified. Women should always wear tight clothes, and men should carry powerful handguns. Life overall should be more glamorous, thrill-packed, and filled with applause, don't you think?" (footnote 5)

That thirst for experience also manifests in hi-fi. How many loudspeaker reviews have you read where the reviewer spoke of trouser-flapping bass? If it is achieved, great; if not, the reviewer will go on to say that the speaker has other, redeeming qualities. But in the figure of speech is revealed the desire to have a physical effect that can be experienced with more than just the sense of hearing. Similarly, cinemas are going for ever-higher sound-pressure levels to intensify the movie experience, and much of home theater seems geared to just intensify the physical experience of sound effects like bombs, car crashes, helicopters, and other such boombastic assaults on our nerves.

Listening without hearing
On the other hand, for musical enjoyment, all of this should be irrelevant. In terms of the evolution of man, the part of the brain responsible for the recognition of sounds is relatively new, being located in the cerebrum. The part responsible for emotions is comparatively ancient, being located in the brain stem. With this in mind, researchers have conducted the following experiment (footnote 6).

It's possible to numb the specific part of the brain responsible for the recognition and critical evaluation of sounds. If a person so treated is exposed to music, he or she will hear nothing. Yet the listener's mood will still be influenced by the music! This means that, for the emotional response to music, the sound, or at least the conscious experience of the sound, is unimportant!

The far-reaching conclusion: You cannot tell what your emotional response to a component's sound will be from a description by a critical listener, because that response is independent of the conscious perception of its sound.

I can't claim originality for my observations. Other journalists seem to have had the same gut feeling, even in the pages of this learned journal, which otherwise prides itself on its no-nonsense stand toward sound reproduction. Starting with this magazine's founder and erstwhile chief tester, J. Gordon Holt, here are some quotes (and yes, I know that you can prove just about anything by quoting out of context; I wish to make it clear, therefore, that although these quotes were not made in the context of a train of thought similar to my own, I do think that they are valid):

Larry Archibald: You're saying that there's a complete disjunction between pleasure and accuracy?

J. Gordon Holt: Yes (footnote 7).

"1) The only way to judge audio equipment is to use it to play music which you love, no matter how 'poorly recorded' you mistakenly think it is, even if you've never seen it mentioned by an elitist audio reviewer from Stereophile or The Absolute Sound. Especially if you've never seen it mentioned by an elitist audio reviewer from Stereophile or The Absolute Sound.

"2) There is no music, no matter how well recorded, that will tell you what you need to know about a piece of gear as well as something you've listened to hundreds of times and still dig the most---whether it's Booker T. and the MG's, the Grateful Dead, or Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet. Familiarity trumps recording quality every time.

"3) The harder you listen, the less you hear.

"4) Amanda McBroom sucks."---Corey Greenberg (footnote 8)

"Because audiophiles care about sound quality, we are often more susceptible than usual to allow interfering thoughts to get in the music's way. These thoughts are usually concerned with aspects of the sound's characteristics. Does the soundstage lack depth? Does the bass have enough extension? Is the treble grainy? How does my system compare to those described in the magazines?

"Unfortunately, this mode of thinking is perpetuated by high-end audio magazines. The descriptions of a product's sound---its specific performance attributes---are what make it into print, not the musical and emotional satisfaction to which the product contributes. The latter is ineffable: Words cannot express the bond between listener and music that some products facilitate more than others. Consequently, we are left only with descriptions of specific sonic characteristics, a practice that can leave the impression that . . . being an audiophile is about dissection and critical commentary, and not about more closely connecting with the music's meaning.

" . . . this experience precipitated a catharsis that forced me to reexamine what music listening---among other things---was all about. . . . Better sound does result in more music, but paradoxically, only when the sound is forgotten."---Robert Harley (footnote 9)

There could be more quotes, but I hope my point is made.

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Footnote 5: From Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes: The Revenge of the Babysat, Andrews & McNeel, 1991. Imagine the two heroes in a childrens' wagon on a roller-coaster ride down a steep hill fraught with perils, imagined or otherwise. The punchline goes, "Of course, if life was really like that, what would we watch on TV?"
Footnote 6: Unpublished research at the University of Giessen, Germany, related by Jürgen Ackermann.

Footnote 7: Stereophile, December 1991, Vol.14 No.12, p.25.

Footnote 8: Stereophile, July 1992, Vol.15 No.7, p.11. A personal comment: Ana Caram sucks, too.

Footnote 9: Stereophile, November 1992, Vol.15 No.11, p.7; Bob's "Listener's Manifesto" is also worth rereading: Stereophile, January 1992, Vol.15 No.1, p.111.

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