crazy loot delivery day.

four packages showed up today all with some nice loot inside.  The first one came from Mr. Oh and had an assortment of 49% nickel lam sizes they recently acquired.  I have to come right out and say that that even though many people consider me crazy,  Those guys are insane and set goals for me to aspire to.

without the 300B for scale the family looks pretty pedestrian and it doesn't really hit home until you see the basic autoformer sized lam in the picture for comparison.

 

 

The next two boxes had goodies from a different realm.  One had a panasonic strain gauge and the other had a Euphonics U15-2 which is one of the earlier lower output Euphonics.

The last box is the one that made me nervous since it actually cost me some real money and since they were not fully tested they represented a bit of a risk.

 I must be living a charmed life these days since not only do they test perfectly, In circuit they are nearly matched  (13ma & 15ma) which is very difficult to get.  Given a random sample of 10 tubes, you would be lucky to get three pair this close and for a given 150V B+ and -2V bias you might see a pair at 10-12ma  a pair at 18-20ma and a pair at 28-30ma.  They all sound great but man they are all over the place.

dave... knocking hardly on wood.

Stereo Sound Agency....

.

yeah... skateboard decks... I have loved Stereo Sound Agency (for obvious reasons) for many years... but they have really outdone themselves this time... check out the fall collection... sick stuff.. want a Western Electric 755A on your board? yeah... me, too...


if you dig this stuff, head over to Stereo Sound Agency... support them.. I am sure their business model is "try not to lose too much money".....


ok... so did you catch that? jazz cats on the left... I like the deck on the far left... but the decks on the right? stacks of vinyl!


so those are the decks with drivers on them... Altec 604's and 515's... Western 755A's... these are for Iain to drool over...


Those decks have the artwork of Chris Pastras... I dig it... always have.. he is one of the two partners of Stereo Sound...


and if you need an analog/hifi/stereo T-shirt or hoodie... check them out... they will be gone very soon.. seasons and styles change probably next month... I might have to treat myself to a new hoodie this year... maybe a birthday present...


so the other partner is Jason Lee... yes, that Jason Lee... from "My Name is Earl"... he used to be a professional skateboarder.. I love the fact that he is now loved by millions but probably still gets "Hey! Get outta here!!" when skating through the park... dude is an amazing street skater... was really one of the best ollie/kick flip guys a decade ago.... VIDEO HERE.....

man, do I need to spend more time on my board... I'm getting rusty.... it really is as much fun as it looks... except for the pavement... that hurts...

Peace,
Me

Sam Phillips and Sun Studio...

yeah.. the guy that recorded all of those great Sun Studio artists.... wikipedia article here:

Sam Phillips

discovered Howlin' Wolf... Elvis... Johnny Cash... heck, the man even recorded what many consider the first rock and roll song ever - "Rocket 88".. featuring Ike Turner on guitar...

Rocket 88 on You Tube

so during a recent walk downtown, Lisa and I went by his last studio (that I know of)... check it out.. it is one of my favorite buildings in town.. the problem is that I am unsure which side I like more...

Hi my name is dave and i'm an addict.

I have been scanning the local craigslist for a few of my needs and near the top of the list is a small benchtop mill.  This morning one gets listed for $400 which is high but it also seems to come with a metal lathe.

 I know JJ could use a metal lathe and the only possible downside is it has been in storage for 10 years so I feared rust.  The lathe indeed showed rust but nothing was frozen and it happens to be the same model I have and it had a 5" chuck mounted on it. (which i could really use)

The milling machine was unfortunately a drill press.  A better one than my current one but it wasn't until i started looking in the other boxes when things became interesting.

I asked if what was in the rest of the boxes was also available and he said he needed ot vacate the storage space and needed everything gone.  I handed him $400 and loaded up the car.  What was also included is pictured below. 

I have been looking for a 6" rotary table and the 24" cross slide is an added plus

setup and measurement tools are always fun.

Chucks to the left and right of centers.

there was also a mini benchtop drill press and a box of assorted tools including 30-40 end mills and lathe bits.  They guy said his father used the press as a mill (hence the cross slide) and all the parts suggest that to be the case so for $400 I thought I 'd give it a go.

the occasional 'For Sale' ad....

Dave approved the occasional for sale advertisement... so here is a wild throwback.. an integrated 45 SE amp... this is like the second amplifier I ever built... pretty good condition considering... I reworked it a bit when Bruce went to tri-amping his horns... we yanked the parallel feed output stage and went to juicy nickel from dave... so it was never meant to be full range... it ran either his mids or treble.. and I think the Avant Garde speakers are 12 ohms.... but Bruce is a solderable DIY'er, so we designed and he built a big six channel SE amp... pretty fly.. I will get pictures next time I visit...

here it is with "vintage" knobs:


and again with "modern" knobs:


circuit and measurements shown here... it is wild for me to look back at how I did some things back then... I built it for a budget, so it was a case of few parts, but good ones.. teflon coupling caps... some MQ chokes in teh power supply... film caps as last PS and cathode bypass... I now use mercury and too many power supplies, but this is really clean... just two triodes used in their linear range.. hard to not make music with that scheme....


I can gap it down and drop the -3dB point to the high 20's... that would make it full range for people running 8" drivers... the lack of a bottom half octave would actually clean up the sound a bit... or I can swap the outputs for parallel feed... or drop in something bigger with more inductance... or convert to 46's... or 2A3's for a bit more power... it is up to you... I have about $1500 in trade value in it... I can add to that for some customization, or drop ship it as is with a pair of ST45's...

if you have any interest, send email.. experiencemusic at hotmail dot com...

thanks!

Peace,
Me

The Voigt Legacy...

Yeah, it is fashionable to bad mouth Lowthers... I get it... measure one straight on in an open baffle and it is rough... but what if I presented it a different way? how could you make the best sound with these? Can you admire what they do well (and those things are phenomenal) and live with what is not perfect? That mindset just might lead to happiness for a lot of people....

so let's look at that weird name associated with Lowther and see if we can learn anything... what did he build?


yeah, a front horn! smart man... I bet this thing sounds fabulous... (I heard teh Voigt museum does not have one of these... I found it in Hope, AR!)


look at those smooth horn curves ending in ninety degrees... even a small roundover on the very edge.. diffraction, be gone! tractrix flare... nice.....

so what else did he build? well, a corner horn.. with reflectors to get the highs out... a very well thought out cabinet... I bet one of these in the corner sounded pretty darn good...


highs were bumped out by using a small deflector.. check it out...


and the drivers from that era....


Modern Lowthers are very different than the old models. Gone is the heavy lacquered cone.. the whizzer now has a roll on it.. the light bulb phase plug has been lost... so do not believe people when they say Lowther has not changed with the times - they have... there is even an outfit making new field coils.. designed with finite element computer modeling... (very tongue in cheek)...


the newer cones are better for all of these direct radiating cabinets and back loaded horns.. the rolled whizzer helps control what the horn's air load used to... put them in an appropriate room... set them up with care.. get toe-in just right.. turn off the lights.. and you can get visiting musicians to your room.. how do I know this? well, once upon a time when I was too young to know any better, Jon Ver Halen talked me into bringing a single ended, no feedback amplifier to a Stereophile show to pair with, gulp, Lowther Medallions... we set them up by ear... and then Wally came in... took teh best seat.. wouldn't leave.. kept spinning record after record... so then he came back teh next day with measurement gear... we were +/- 3dB from 20 to 20k by cheating with a sub below 45Hz... pretty amazing for a single voice coil...


and I guess that is why I defend Lowther to the end... pretty tough to get that performance from a single voice coil of any sort.. especially at high SPL on a five watt single ended amp...

Peace,
Me