Marantz 7T

Alas the "T" stands for transistor and not triode but this one was personally modded by Sid Smith.

The insides...

and in case you didn't notice, it happened to be sitting on by far the most beautiful piece of gear ever.

ETF 2019 Sunday...

and this time I am positive what day it was...  I could hear the church bells... 

first we said goodbye to our lovely house... and the lovely field... and the French cows... 

verification of Sunday.... 

then I walked over to finally see Marc Henri... I had not yet had a chance and he was still setup... we have similar tastes... and he listens.. so it sounded exactly as I recalled... very nice... very open... and very French -  it was sweet.. hard to do with horns... 

we then walked the streets of Bellême... 

and admired the colors again... 

but the stupid Americans had their loud pull cart luggage... you can spot and hear them a mile away... 

the Yellow Vests were relatively quiet... so I talked the crew into a side stop... I am quite certain they all were grateful... I have read books about this place... and I will apologize for the low quality photos... the place was stunning... everything I had hoped for and more.. google around for Chartres Cathedral.. read some about it... just incredible... and to imagine them building this is mind-boggling... 

and the rose windows... these things are so large and so beautiful... and survived massive shelling during WWII as teh French buried them in the surrounding fields... 

man... those photos were worse than I recalled... oh, well.. you should really find a way to go for yourself... and they were cleaning quite a bit of the statuary inside... being such pure white really changed the feel of the place... it was nuts... 

oh.. and we waked by this really creepy doll shop... actually, it was rather interesting... glad that such places exist...

lastly, this:

grateful for the French team... thank you...

peace,

me

ETF 2019 - Saturday?

thank you again, Belleme... I am very grateful... 

_________________________________

stopped in to see JC and Bae.... such fun they are having... IKEA boxes... Manger drivers... fits in the overhead bin!

Bae swapping bteween Bendix 6900 and Western Electric perforated plate 310a...  this is a FET amplifier that truly tracks the triode tube being used.... kinda like an optical sensor.... the change was astounding... colossal.... on Aretha, I am quite certain you can guess which I preferred... 

thank you, brother Walter.. this was a revelation for me... so good.... 

and then the last notes played... ETF always ends... ..... ..... ..... sigh...

peace,

me

ETF tube swap

UK Pete brought 12 of his best friends for us to listen too and all I can say is mesh 50's are yummy.

until those little bastards turn on you.

and force you to a more pedestrian option.

Thursday? at ETF 2019

yep.... pretty similar.... now S6 driving 50...and more and new cartridges... and some new albums in the rotation... 

and of course as soon as they would have us we visited the Norwegians... pure genius.. I expected nothing less... 

acoustic lens from salvaged halogen lamps... I totally feel Torbjorn on this... he just couldn't bear to throw them away... so he kept them... and then this project "found him"...

a wall of inexpensive RCA console drivers... but a lot of them... the bass was quick and clean, but yet warm... I loved it....

and Dunker's new amp... just finished soldering it before getting in the car.... of course.. that is ETF tradition.. 

peace,

me 

(on dave's computer)

day 1 arrival and main system setup

After a few technical difficulties like the tug getting stuck to the plane and and the 9A receiver attachment being temporarily misplaced by the airline we arrived in Belleme.

 

preview - European Triode Festival - ETF 2019

.

hello kids!  "kids" seems an apt description as we all wait for ETF like children at Christmas....

I have gotten more than a few requests for what is up for ETF, so blog post time it is... and unlike most years, Tim, our host, is dropping info on Buddybook, so I am not spoiling secrets here on HiFi Heroin...

what you see above is a Shearer bass horn... Tim built a pair for the big room... should be a much better match with the space than last year... but installing something this size and mating it with unknown gear is always tricky... no crossover yet?  crossing in the heart of the midrange?  and with a dozen people contributing?  I would not want to be the guy making the final decisions on getting all of this dialed in... except that I am that guy... this should be fun!  I actually cannot wait!

I sent Tim my RCA phenolic MI-9584 drivers... four!.. and the mating double throats... I actually think these drivers have a wonderful midrange... I am totally OK with them having a rolled top end as that is far preferable to me than having extension coupled to diaphragm breakup..... especially when we have Dietmar's tweeters available.... :^)

the amplifier powering all of this will be Xander's.... 833a running zero bias... but bias is adjustable, if we want to play... Slagle is threatening to make an adapter and bring the 357 tubes for this amp, but we will see.. he has about 24 hours to finish them.... 

he built them into military shell crates!  genius... perfect handles... and already designed to accommodate the weight... 

I would be remiss if I did not mention the rest of the team... I always feel better when Stephan has put the gear through its paces on his bench... I love that dude... and he is also bringing the line stage... very versatile... Frank on turntables.. I know we work together very well already... and, truth be told, Tim's "right hand man", Julien, is very much on top of all of this... I was only asked to coordinate a few weeks ago... he was already working on back up plans for the back up plans... so maybe I just bring some Fred McDowell records... or some Kung-Fu Kenny.... 

oh!  and our humble system... it will likely be nearly identical... we can't store anything afterwards this year, so it all has to come back home in the overhead bins of the plane... but I know dave is planning to be able to listen and compare some identical cartridges with different magnets!  neo, alnico, and samarium cobalt... that should be interesting!

peace,

me