The day started with me picking up my good friend Win who was in town with his wife Kelly and taking them along on my travels for the day. First stop was Canarsie (that's Brooklyn) to an old prosound guy who had a number of dead altec speakers. In his back yard underneath a tarp were a few different units like the one pictured above which I gladly carted away for free. Inside he also said he had a pair of working units and he went to fetch them. He came out with a working 421A and said "gimme $10 for it". I gave him $20 and told him to give me a call if he turned up the other.
The entire goal of that stop was to come up with some dead drivers to look at the internals of and these were perfect for what was needed. The next stop was the Brooklyn Navy Yard which is where our friend Jeff Kahn has a humble shop. Like us, Jeff is an audio junkie and while Win drooled over the 5-axis waterjet the size of most NYC apartments, Jeff looked at the drivers and wondered about what info they held. Time was tight, so I pried Win from the waterjet, left Jeff the carcasses and across the Manhattan Bridge we went.
On the Manhattan side of the bridge is Chinatown and grumbling stomachs required we stop for a snack. Parking is impossible and the crowds insane. I slid over into a "No Standing Except for Commercial Vehicles" spot while Win and Kelly Jumped out to get some pork buns (sorry Jeffrey). About 2 minutes into the 3 minutes it took them I glanced to my right and the traffic officer busted me. I asked if it was too late and he said yes. I was watching and I commented what a great sideler he was and offered him some tic-tacs.
So it was $115 for standing. As we all loaded back up into the truckster, the officer said you paid for this spot, why not use it? Being skeptical I questioned him and he said you can keep this car here for 24 hours, just leave the ticket under the wiper. We took advantage of the loophole and toured Canal Street and the rest of the journey was somewhat pedestrian. Listening to a great system at a friends, a nice northern Italian dinner and a trip home.
This morning, upon unpacking the 421A that I had in the trunk it became very clear why we became lost several times in our travels when I saw what was attached to the box. That damn speaker was throwing of the male internal navigation device.
As a footnote, I could have honestly titled this post $115 for sticky buns with Win and his wife in NYC but I suspect that might have sent the wrong message.
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Well,
ReplyDeleteKelly and I enjoyed the pork buns even if they did cost $115+. I did manage to find a Ben Franklin to contribute to the cause, but Dave slipped away without my knowledge to pay for the dinner. We still owe him the way I see it...and bigtime.
Dave's friend, and now mine, has a nice system in the West Village. The visit to his place was my first opportunity to hear a Mitchell Cotter turntable, too. That's a pretty slick device. For those of you who don't know about it, the Cotter was based on the Technics SP10 drive, and some were built around the Denon transport, too.
Cotter, by the way, wrote a paper way back in the 1940's that outlined the physics of what he thought would be a guideline for the perfect tonearm. Unfortunately, the technology wasn't available to build it. Jim Whiney of Magnepan fame read the paper, and built a tonearm from it. The Magnepan Unitrac tonearm still has a following, and some currently made arms follow suit with the basic premise. Cotter was smart, really, really smart.
As far as the trip to the shipyard is concerned, Jeff Kahn's work is mind-blowing, and his entire operation is way cool. Yep, I did like the water jet machine. :)
Anyway, the food was good, and so was the company.
Win