Birthday Season.

at least that is what he calls it... so we show up... goof off... and hope we get something accomplished as a bonus.... and until Jersey Rick puts some real words down, here are the pictures I managed to snap... still need the YL installation photos... but considering that I arrived late and limping, not too bad... life is good...

 Appalachia in the Fall

 Hoodie Brigade (aka Dixie Iron and Valve)

 Dan's place

 man barn

 a tree man's tools

 you have no idea... thanks, man!

 first LP at Lenwood's since he started drinking again

 had to harvest before the freeze

 best gatefold ever

 I wanna go fishin' with that guy!

 prolly has some Latin name - ask me about tubes!

 platypus

 amazingly, we had music every night, despite the major changes..

 art don't talk, it just sits there and messes with your mind...

 yeah, a lot of this.. it healed me!

 offering to the altar of Darryl - my childhood idol

 the PT Barnum amp - eats tubes...

 and this kept me moving while the soup kicked in

 five inch tonearm

 12 Bones - best veggie plate in memory!

 thanks robert and deb!

 D7.. cranked to 11...

 first new sponge in *years*... gross...

 tacqueria

 stuffed... bi-amplification in a Red State

 globe fiddies coddle the....

 very bad influence:

 baby girl's painting

 as it stands now..

 as the stand stands now

Peace,
Me

YL and Goto..

.

I had the opportunity to make a fairly informal comparison of a YL driver and an early Goto driver recently.  As many of you know, Goto and Kondo worked together at YL.  The story is that Goto left when they began to use folded horns.  This was a compromise he just could not accept.  Not sure of the accuracy of that, but that is how it was passed to me....

Goto photos:

so this comparison was not a perfect A>B... it was not really fair to the YL driver as we had to use it below its recommended range.  However, the horns were the same.. and should load the driver just fine to well below where we were crossing... I think we were crossing in the 500 range and the horn is a cast very early Goto horn of about 250Hz flare with a too small mouth... but this is a system that was designed for listening from anywhere.. .upfiring horns.. Altec 416's in a big sealed box below... and TAD 4001's used as tweeters.. even given all of these caveats, it was easy to discern which driver was which...

here are the same horns in one of my old "lashups":

in general, the Goto was a bit richer... which is obvious as it went lower, but this quality extended to the treble as well... the YL was just as quick and delicate, but it had a touch of tizzy.. not a lot, but it was there... neither driver had giant scale, but they did Soul/R&B/Blues well at medium volumes, and the slight feeling of compression worked very well on Nirvana's "D7" from Live at Reading... which was *way* too loud... just awesome...

YL photos:

Peace,
Me

Big Star - Memphis Indie Pioneers...

.
too many coincidences lately... watch for them.. it is late in 2012.. but first, the story..

last night I was privileged to see the Big Star documentary at the Indie Memphis Film Festival.  I was invited by Chris Bell's niece.. in turn, I invited one of his best friends... and in this group, the circles of friends all closed quickly... Ardent, the Fry family, the Turleys who started a local restaurant with Chris's family... dang it.. I fell into coincidences again... let's just say small circles... like my friend Tommy, who owns the first amps I ever built, was in the movie!

I need to get to Big Star... move along, 2012...  Big Star was a local band that was a commercial flop... copies of their albums were impossible to find... yet somehow they survived.... almost legend... whisper on the wind... from musician to musician did #1 Record pass... and somehow, despite zero sales and less promotion, an alternative rock album from  early 70's Memphis is here today... Elvis was still around.. Isaac Hayes ruled the other side of town... this record was definitely Memphis, but had no home...

 the music was too far ahead of its time... REM and the Replacements cited Big Star as their major influence..  jangly guitars would belong to college rock, but not for at least another decade... but critics did recognize them... all three of their albums are in Rolling Stone's top 500.... so.. I guess I am saying that if you like Indie.. or college rock... these guys are who you owe... pick up #1 Record... or, perhaps more so, you really need Chris Bell's I am the Cosmos..

(YouTube links and ramblings of an actual music writer are here:  Stereogum)

PS to JC - hey man... there were quite a few partying scenes with Eggleston (yes, audiogeeks, Eggleston Works)... I am wondering if your old man was in this doc as well?  It certainly looked fun!

The center... side three.

With a hurricane approaching I was excited to see the media mail show up today.

I lost power.  Luckily I was the first and it came back on quickly.  Time will tell the rest. 

I am spinning at 33 for the moment. 

power interrupt.

Too Hip To Kick It?

Both JJ and I are huge fans of Kickstarter. Is Kickstarter a fan of us?  Not so much.



In order to get things moving with the phono corrector we decided to try Kickstarter and offer up a few units at a reduced cost to get the EMIA ball rolling.  Ultimately the EMIA model has the units being sold through dealer network so the final price will need to take that into consideration.  However with all of our capital at risk we decided a few of the early ones could "squeak out the back door" at a reduced price to ramp things up.  We did need a means to draw a line in the sand to protect us in the future.

Kickstarter seemed to be the perfect venue to draw that line.  We jumped through all their hoops and they declined us providing a list of smaller hoops we needed to jump through.  We thought we did pretty well, hell JJ even played "Ed Wood" and uploaded a video!  Alas we were declined again.  They did do us the favor of allowing a public preview of the declined project so we ask you to take a peek and tell us where we went wrong.  (the video alone is worth the price of entry)

Our Kickstarted project.
 

Here is a list of the "special guidelines" we were required to meet.

• A functional prototype must be shown. If an adequate demonstration requires video, a video demo must be included in the project description or project video. Still images alone will not suffice.



check...

• Simulations of functionality and photorealistic renderings are prohibited. Products can only be shown performing actions that they're able to perform in their current state of development. No exceptions.

sure sounds like music to me... maybe a picture of the bling on the back panel would convince them.

• Detailed information regarding the creator's background and experience must be included in the bio or project description.

our bios say it all... anything more would be BS.

• A thorough manufacturing plan must be described. Details should include steps taken in the product development process up to the point of project launch as well as production and fulfillment plans post project success.

working prototypes.... done.... playing as I type.  delivery by Festivus is a promise not to be taken lightly.

• Creators can only offer one of a single item or one sensible unit of multiple items. For example, if you had a drinking glasses project, you could choose to offer 1 glass per reward tier, or if a set makes more sense, 1 set of 4 for each tier. You could not offer 1 glass in one tier and 4 in another tier.


check.  single item, single tier.  Do they really want to be a place to hawk $25 T-shits and $50 record bags?

Unfortunately, this project did not satisfactorily meet these requirements, which means we are unable to accept it. This isn't a judgment on the quality of this project, just a reflection of our focus.Ahh... Focus.  That must be it.

I guess that means we need to refocus and offer up the same deal here.  The quantity is limited to 6,  4 commitments are needed for the "deal" to go through.  As a plus since Kickstarter will not be getting their 5% the price is now $2400.

Comments below secure your place in line.  Private correspondence will hash out the details if needed.

peace,

us

The Anti-Audiophile rack...

.

so what to do when you have a bunch of gear?  Do you really want to look at all of that mismatched stuff?  I don't.  I will be completely honest and say that I would much rather have it all in a closet than look at it - yes, even Eimac tubes... To me, it keeps the focus on music and away from gear.  Are there exceptions?  yeah.. of course!  most turntables... the REL Precendent.. and my Marantz Model Twenty makes me smile... but now I have wandered off task... so I googled "ultimate audiophile rack"... and this kind of gave me the shivers:

So what to do if you have no closets and want easy access but no staring at nerd gear?  Well, you scrounge until you get lucky..  and lucky is what I must be... check out the Art Deco cabinets from Simplex! 

yeah...  I will need to customize it a bit... so that the right components are easy to get to... and the noisy and hot items are down below... but I can handle having this baby in my listening room... maybe some strategically placed mercury tubes behind those openings?  or Tungar field coil supplies?  or just a power switch and a classic jewel bulb as an indicator?

so I do have a couple.. one is spoken for... drop me a line if you are interested... I will post a follow-up when completed...

 

Peace,

Me

There's a new blogger in town...

I checked his credentials... apparently he really has owned damn near everything HiFi and Theatre related from about 1925 to 1975... he even sold "audiophile" gear in the 80's... I guess you have to know the enemy... but Dave and I are not scared of him... (Iain might be)... because we know that all you have to do is put on some James Brown and he loses all focus... but then, so do I... so maybe we need a Plan B?

The above shows how Joe normally dominates the conversation - with a WE24a to cheat!  I guess this is his new online equivalent...


Papa Joe's Blog:  www.JunkyardJukebox.com


Peace,
Me

audio as art.

This is by far the most beautiful cartridge I have laid my grubby paws on.  It only took a decade to find one... it doesn't work... but  someone circa 1954 "got it"

For those of you that thought that the Strain Gauge cartridge was an invention of the 70's, think again.

dave