:: the austin hifi blog ::

The DC-8 that landed safely in San Francisco Bay

2011-04-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

Art Frisch/Chronicle 1968 (click to enlarge)

Peter Covert/Special to the Chronicle (click to enlarge)

U.S. Coast Guard Photo/Special to the Chronicle (click to enlarge)

Gordon Peters/Chronicle 1968 (click to enlarge)

Here's a story I ran across over at The San Francisco Chronicle's blog called "The Poop" about a 1968 Japan Air Lines flight from Tokyo to San Francisco by way of Honolulu that landed about three miles short of the runway at San Francisco International Airport. It seems that no one was injured, and in fact, no one even got wet because the plane landed on a slightly submerged bit of ground.

According to passengers, the landing was fairly gentle (considering the circumstances, I presume.) Everyone was evacuated, and the plane was immediately removed from the water by a salvage company. Japan Air Lines had the DC-8 refurbished(!) and continued to use it until the '80's, when it was sold, and used for several more years.

Anyhow, check out the original article at The Poop and another article on the incident at Burrito Justice.

Thanks, The Poop!
and thanks, Reddit!

How does an autogyro work?

2011-01-19T23:24:00.000-08:00

Or: do you have seven minutes to kill right now? I try not to put too many videos up here, but this one's worth it.

How the Autogyro Works -

(can't remember where I saw this.)

John Lennon's Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 coupe for sale.

2011-01-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

(click image to embiggen)

If you're in the market for a new car, this might be just the thing. Bonhams is auctioning the car on February the fifth, which should give you some time to scrape a few extra pennies together.

Apparently, the Ferrari was originally left-hand drive, but Lennon had it converted to right-hand drive (possibly since he'd recently been driving on a learner's permit, and wanted things to be familiar.)

The New York Times article on the car's auction mentions that a 1965 330 is not a highly-desirable model, and that this could affect the sale price. Still, if you don't mind being caught "slumming", it's probably a decent automobile.

Study shows dopamine release before and during certain musical passages.

2011-01-19T08:04:00.000-08:00

A McGill University study appears to show that there's an anatomically distinct dopamine release directly before and during passages of music that elicit a sudden, strong emotional response.

The researchers followed the brain patterns of test subjects with MRI imaging, and identified dopamine streaming into the striatum region of their forebrains "at peak emotional arousal during music listening."

(Read the ars technica article here.)

Participants supplied their own music in which certain passages give them "objectively verifiable chills" and data was gathered through the use of PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans.

If you're feeling more adventurous, the more detailed article from Nature Neuroscience is here.

Bahnhof ISP in Stockholm, where Wikileaks is currently being hosted in a cold-war era nuclear bomb shelter 30 meters underground.

2010-12-04T20:42:00.001-08:00

click image to enlarge.click image to enlarge.

edit: It looks like the photographer has taken down the 360 degree panoramas. Seems like there was too much traffic and the images became too expensive to host. I'm going to leave this post up anyway, in case the panoramas are restored. And anyway, the pictures are still interesting.

Here are some pictures of the Bahnhof ISP in Stockholm.

According to the Wikipedia page: Bahnhof is a Swedish Internet service provider founded in 1994 by Oscar Swartz in Uppsala and was the first independent ISP in Sweden. Today the company is represented in Stockholm, Göteborg, Uppsala, Borlänge, and Lund.

Whatever. The cool thing is that there are some pretty amazing 360-degree panoramas of the Bahnhof facility here.
Make sure you view the panoramas in fullscreen mode by clicking "full" at the bottom of each image.

Thanks again, Reddit!

In Russia, stereo plays you.

2010-10-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

click image to enlarge

Russian president Dimitry Medvedev was having a photo op with Vladimir Putin the other day over breakfast when he decided to show off his $200,000 hifi setup. The original story seems to be from The Guardian but I think the picture is worth posting here. It seems that Mr. Medvedev is a fan of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and he was apparently listening to them when they were on the official Soviet blacklist. I wonder what Leonid Brezhnev would have thought of that!

I wonder what the CD in the drawer is!

The Original Wayne Taylor Loudspeaker Stands

2010-08-20T15:22:00.001-07:00

After many months and several prototypes, The Original Wayne Taylor Loudspeaker Stands are available at Austin Hifi.

(click here to see more pictures)

The Wayne Taylor stands will improve the sound of just about any loudspeaker in the 1.5 to 2.0 cubic foot range. They work especially well for Harbeth Monitor 30s and Harbeth Compact 7s. They've got an ultra-low acoustic footprint and they're low-mass and have very low resonance. We can ship them just about anywhere. Call us for details at (512) 236-9100 or email us at: creston@austinhifi.com

The Cantata Music Center by Resolution Audio

2010-08-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

Yep, you can come and hear the Cantata Music Center at Austin Hifi. We'll also show you how easy it is to set it up to stream your digital music collection.

While you're here, have a listen to the Harbeth 40.1 and Harbeth M30 loudspeakers, the Tocaro Single-Driver loudspeakers, the ATC 50-ASL loudspeakers and the amazing Crimson Electronics 710 preamplifier and 640E series III amplifiers. Oh, and the Reson Rota turntable.

Give us a call at (512) 236-9100 or send us an email at: creston@austinhifi.com.

Mark Linkous 1962-2010

2010-03-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Mark Linkous passed away on Saturday at the age of 47. If you haven't heard Mark's work with his band Sparklehorse, I suggest picking up a copy of "It's a Wonderful Life".

Mark had recently collaborated with Danger Mouse and David Lynch on a terrific project called Dark Night of the Soul which features a book of photos by Lynch and performances by The Flaming Lips, Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop, Frank Black, Vic Chesnutt and others.

You can listen to the Dark Night of the Soul album here at NPR. The Flaming Lips track called "Revenge" is especially nice.

Here's a Pitchfork article about Mark's passing.

And here's Sparklehorse performing "Saturday".

First Aid Kit

2010-03-03T11:34:00.001-08:00

If you're really talented, you don't actually need a recording studio; you just put on flannel shirts, walk out into the woods, set your camcorder on a tree stump and start singing. These ladies are called First Aid Kit, and they're from Sweden. Hope you like!

via smokeandacoke.com

Arlo and Billy and some Superbad White Cars

2009-10-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

(click to enlarge)

I miss the Seventies. These guys knew how to make rock-stardom look cool. And did anyone question their credibility for appearing in a car stereo ad? Hell no.

(via Super Seventies)

The Men Who Built The USS Enterprise

2009-10-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

(click to enlarge)

From left: Vern Sion, Mel Keys and Volmer Jensen.

(excerpted from Hemmings Auto Blogs)

You’d have to be a real Trekker to know that the original Enterprise (”No bloody A, B, C, or D!”) model, the 11-footer used for shots in the original series, emerged from the Production Models Shop on Providencia Avenue in Burbank, California, on December 29, 1964. Based on a design by Matt Jefferies and an earlier three-foot proof-of-concept model by the Howard Anderson Company, the construction of the 225-pound model was contracted to Richard Datin, who subcontracted it to Volmer Jensen, Mel Keys and Vern Sion, mostly using wood, sheet metal rolled into tubes (the nacelles) and vacuum-formed plastic (the saucer).

(click here to read the rest of the article at Hemmings Auto Blogs)

(via This Isn't Happiness)

Don't Argue with The Man.

2009-10-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

(click image to enlarge)

via Paco Camino

...and in turn via This Isn't Happiness

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop

2009-10-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a great documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop existed from 1958 to 1998. Its purpose was to create sound effects for BBC programs by using tape loops, oscillators, filters, ring modulators, etc. The Workshop was perhaps best known for its contributions to Spike Milligan's Goon Show and to Doctor Who.

For bonus points, take a few minutes to visit Delia Derbyshire's website. (Don't miss the audio clips.) Delia was employed by the Radiophonic Workshop in the 1960's.

I'm only embedding Part 1 so the page loads quicker. Links to all six parts are below:

The Alchemists of Sound, Part 1

The Alchemists of Sound, Part 2

The Alchemists of Sound, Part 3

The Alchemists of Sound, Part 4

The Alchemists of Sound, Part 5

The Alchemists of Sound, Part 6

Just a reminder...

2009-09-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

via We Love Typography
via This Isn't Happiness

Space Collective

2009-09-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

(view of gallery at Space Collective. Click to enlarge.)

(view of gallery at Space Collective. Click to enlarge.)

Space Collective is (in its own words) "Where forward-thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction today."

Got it? Not quite? That's okay, because Space Collective is pretty hard to describe. It's got essays, articles, videos and artwork, which is all "curated" by Space Collective members (the collective has a lot of "found" content.)

I particularly like the "projects" section which features a number of projects conducted by universities, architecture and design schools. Some projects are public and some by invite only.

It's a fantastic site to get lost in. Give it a go.

(via But does it float.)

Bing says we don't exist.

2009-09-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

The Austin Hifi Blog is hosted by Google's Blogger service, so it's no surprise that Google can find the blog in a jiffy. We thought we'd see how easily Microsoft's Bing search engine can find The Austin Hifi Blog.

It seems that Bing can't find it at all. We tried several combinations of search terms, but no go. Bing can't even find The Austin Hifi Blog when we enter the url in the search window. Is it possible that Google and Bing have such incredibly different search algorithms, or is there some skewing going on?

And by the way, Yahoo can't find The Austin Hifi Blog either. Hmm.

edit: to be fair, Bing now says we exist.

The Selby

2009-08-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Selby, by Todd Selby features pictures of "Interesting People and their Creative Spaces". Todd Selby is a fashion/editorial/advertising photographer. He also does nice illustration and video work. The Selby contains a pretty extensive body of work, so don't be surprised if at least an hour of your day goes down the proverbial rabbit hole. Hey, it's worth it.

Nice work, Todd!

(click images to enlarge)

james penfold - librarian - williamsburg brooklyn

daniela kamiliotis - set and costume designer, fine artist, and vice president of womens collection ralph lauren - midtown new york city

alexander olch - director and clothing designer - new york

thomas dozol - photographer; and michael stipe - artist and musician - tribeca new york

dustin yellin - artist - red hook new york city

via ffffound.com

Austin Hifi at Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2009

2009-08-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

(photo of Denver quoted from: Alex Blinder on Flickr - Photo Sharing. Click to enlarge)

The Rocky Mountain Audiofest is on October 2nd, 3rd and 4th this year at The Marriott Denver Tech Center (in Denver, Colorado, natch.)

At the Rocky Mountain Audiofest (or RMAF) you can hear all kinds of great hifi gear and rub elbows with the designers and with other hifi-type folk.

Registering at the RMAF website gets you a three-day pass for $25. Online registration closes Sept. 30.

We're going to be on the fifth floor in room 573 and we'll be playing music on the Crimson Electronics 710 preamplifier and 640E amplifiers with the new Crimson R.M Music-Link interconnect and loudspeaker cables plus the Tocaro Model 40 single-driver loudspeakers and we'll also be playing the new Tocaro Model 45 loudspeakers (pictured below; click to enlarge.)

The Tocaro Model 45 are a large, full-range stand-mount loudspeaker with two full-range drive units per channel. The operating ranges of the drivers are controlled purely by mechanical means. That's right, there are no electronic crossovers. And the sound is stunning. More about the Tocaro Model 45 later.

Please do come by and see us if you're going to be at the RMAF!

Wartime Government Rationing Coupons

2009-08-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

I often stop by a blog called A Time to Get. It's got a nice assortment of stuff to read and stuff to look at.

They recently posted a nice bit about Government Rationing Coupons. You can read it HERE.

(click images to enlarge)

Via The Selvedge Yard

Nifty Car and Motorcycle Pics.

2009-08-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

Take a break, put up your feet and go check out some of the cars and bikes at LoudPop. Well worth your time!

(click images to enlarge)

1956 BMW Isetta 300 B/W Cabriolet Tropical

1971 Plymouth Barracuda 426 Hemi

Fiat Jolly

1938 Peugeot 402 Darl’Mat Special Sport Pourtout

Via Ffffound.com

Tocaro T-shirts are here!

2009-07-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

100% cotton American Apparel T-shirts. Black, Red and Yellow Tocaro Flag emblem on the front with a small flag on the back. We have the following sizes: Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, XX-Large and Girl Size. They're $25 including shipping in the Continental United States. Email us at creston@austinhifi.com or call us at (512) 236-9100.

Merce Cunningham: 1919 - 2009

2009-07-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

We'll miss you!

(Photo by me after a performance at Art Pace in San Antonio in 1998.)

Old Crimsons Never Die...

2009-07-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Brian Lloyd's Crimson Elektrik, circa 1981 (click to enlarge)

Crimson Electronics, circa 2009 (click to enlarge)

It's 1981. Ordinary People wins Best Picture. MTV begins broadcasting. Diana and Charles get married. Ronald Reagan is President and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. A man named Brian Lloyd purchases an amp and preamp that he will use well into the following century.

Crimson Electronics Founder and Chief Designer Brian Powell received this email in January of 2009:

Hello, Brian,

It’s taken me 28 years to get around to thanking you and all concerned for producing the Crimson Elektrik.

I purchased the Pre and Power Amp kits from Badger Sound Services based in Lytham St. Annes. I struggled to raise the cash to buy two CE-1004 boards (£46.04), the Power Amp Hardware Kit (£35.03) and the Power Supply CPS-3 (£19.75), a total of £100.82.

Then it was down to working overtime like the clappers to save for the Preamp Kit, the CPR-1S at £44.50 plus the Hardware Kit at £39.80 (a staggering £84.30!)

As you may have guessed, I still have the original receipts.

But when I fired the kit up for the first time... what joy!

She (my Crimson) has never once let me down in all that time, and still it seems I’m listening again for the very first time, through the past 28 years she has always been there, to give my joy in the good times and to bring me solace in the sad.

Although I still have all my vinyl albums, I changed to CD years ago, and the old girl just took it all in her stride as I knew she would.

My son is a dedicated Naim buff, and has a very esoteric setup, but he discovered his love of Hi-Fi through my Crimsons.

Your design of all those years ago is perhaps what should define Hi-Fi, a system that is not only sweet to listen to but becomes part of one’s life.

I hope you don’t mind my sharing my reminiscences with you, but I thought you might enjoy the moment, and as a special treat, I’ve included a snap of my beloved old girl.

Many thanks for all the joy you’ve given us,

Brian Lloyd

And thank you, too, Brian!

Artificial Owl: pictures from abandoned places

2009-07-25T14:03:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from a really terrific blog that features pictures of abandoned places. The blog is called Artificial Owl. Very nice work!

Shipwreck of the Eduard Bohlen, Conception Bay, Skeleton Coast, Namibia (click to enlarge)

North Shore, The Salton Sea, California, USA (click to enlarge)

Kawaminami Shipyard, Imari Harbour, Japan (click to enlarge)

Kaufdorf car junkyard, near Bern, Switzerland (click to enlarge)

Abandoned Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Michigan, USA (click to enlarge)

Abandoned Secret Underground Submarine Base, Balaklava, the Crimea, Ukraine (click to enlarge)

Prypiat, Ukraine: Chernobyl Disaster (click to enlarge)

(Via fffound.com)

Crimson R.M. Music-Link Audio Cables

2009-07-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Crimson R.M. Music-Link Audio Cable was released about a year ago by Crimson Electronics of Great Britain. Scores of prototypes were created before the cable was introduced, and we're happy to say, it's been worth all their hard work. Crimson R.M. Music-Link Audio Cable is the most tuneful and rhythmically accurate cable we've ever heard. It's also extremely quiet and transparent. And it's got the least amount of "grunge" of any cable we know of.

Although the cable is British, it's terminated here in the United States, and custom lengths and custom terminations are not a problem.

Crimson R.M. Music-Link Loudspeaker Cable (click to enlarge)

Crimson R.M. Music-Link Interconnect Cable (click to enlarge)

Crimson R.M. Music-Link Balanced Interconnect Cable (click to enlarge)

Here are some prices for standard lengths and terminations. Crimson R.M. Music-Link Audio Cable is available in custom lengths and terminations.

Loudspeaker Cable (with German-made M.C. banana plugs)

(all prices per pair)

4 feet: $ 437.60
6 feet: $ 486.40
8 feet: $ 535.20
10 feet: $ 584.00
12 feet: $ 632.80
15 feet: $ 706.00
20 feet: $ 828.00

Interconnect Cable (with ETI Bullet Plugs)

(all prices per pair)

0.5 meter: $ 320.00
1.0 meter: $ 360.00
1.5 meter: $ 400.00
2.0 meter: $ 440.00
2.5 meter: $ 480.00
3.0 meter: $ 520.00
5.0 meter: $ 680.00

Balanced Cable (with Neutrik XLR connectors)

(all prices per pair)

0.5 meter: $ 457.00
1.0 meter: $ 537.00
1.5 meter: $ 617.00
2.0 meter: $ 697.00
2.5 meter: $ 777.00
3.0 meter: $ 857.00
5.0 meter: $ 1177.00

Try a demo set of Crimson R.M. Music-Link Audio Cable

If you'd like to hear Crimson Audio Cables in your hifi system, call on one of the Crimson Audio Cable dealers listed below or contact us at creston@austinhifi.com or (512) 236-9100.

David Michael Audio
Royal Oak, Michigan
http://www.davidmichaelaudio.com/
(866) 961-4423

Don Better Audio
Cleveland, Ohio
http://www.donbetteraudio.com/
(216) 375-1393

Hifi Logic
Maplewood, New Jersey
http://www.hifilogic.com/
(973) 313-9080

Real Life Designs
Hamilton, New Jersey
http://www.reallifedesigns.com/
(888) 445-7533
(609) 689-1754

Venice Audio
Venice, California
http://www.veniceaudio.com
(310) 437-0515

Wellington Audio
West Palm Beach, Florida
http://www.wellingtonaudio.com
(561) 798-1059/ cell: (561) 389-3455

The Twelve-Dollar Power Cord

2009-07-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

We're always looking for a good $800 power cord to sell (who doesn't like to make money?) and the only criteria is that it has to sound better than the Twelve-Dollar Power Cord (made by Volex) that we currently sell. So far we've tried some pretty high-endy power cords but none of them have been as good as the lowly Twelve-Dollar Power Cord.

Hopefully, we'll find a High-Dollar Power Cord that sounds better so we can start making a decent living; until then, you can order the Twelve-Dollar Power Cord by e-mailing us or by calling us at (512) 236-9100.

The Temporary Soundmuseum Portable Turntables Collection

2009-07-23T12:44:00.001-07:00

The Emide Singles Turntable (click to enlarge)

This morning, while I was ~~wasting time~~ hard at work, I came across The Temporary Soundmuseum Portable Turntables Collection. It's a fun website that features "vinyl culture & sound art". There's a manifesto that's in German, but the basic idea seems to be that "With the fall of the Vinyls disappears also a special part of our culture" (translation by Babel Fish.)

The site doesn't tell us anything about the turntables; just the names and some nice photos. I think they're great fun to look at. Make sure you have a look at the rest of the site.

Here are a few more turntables from the collection:

The Philips Mignon (click to enlarge)

The Asco 30 Prinz (click to enlarge)

The Asco 30 Prinz (click to enlarge)

The General Electric Show -and-Tell (click to enlarge)

Recent Ebay Highlights: The McIntosh MPI-3

2009-07-22T11:19:00.001-07:00

(click to enlarge)

It's easily the coolest piece of hifi gear ever made: The McIntosh MPI-3 (Maximum Performance Indicator). It doesn't pass audio; it's just a scope. The one pictured above recently sold on Ebay for $510.00. I'd love to have one, but am waiting for one that's easy (read: cheap) to get. I see the MPI-4 more often than the MPI-3, but the display on the MPI-3 is much cooler. Apparently, the MPI-3 had tubes and the MPI-4 was solid-state (you could see the tube-warmth!) Anyway, the MPI-4 was considered an improvement as it was a dual-trace oscilloscope that could show either or both channels plus it displayed power level with a peak/hold feature. Whatever. It wasn't as cool. Antonio Ceretti has a picture of an MPI-4 so you can see what it looks like:

(click to enlarge)

It seems that the display tubes for both the MPI-3 and the MPI-4 are available on Ebay. Here's one for the MPI-3:

(click to enlarge)

Marantz offered tuners with scopes for a while. Here's a video of the scope in a Marantz 2110:

This is a pretty good approximation of the display in the MPI-3, except the MPI-3 display was green, not blue and the Marantz display is smaller than the on in the McIntosh. Anyone have any clue what the Marantz is displaying? Is it a stereo phase meter or something?

I've heard Technics had a tuner with a scope but I couldn't find anything on the internets about them.

How Compact Discs™ are made

2009-07-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how Compact Discs&trade are made?

What happened to Concert Sound?

2009-05-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

A bit about who we are and where we came from.

(click image to enlarge)

Concert Sound was a hifi retail shop in San Antonio, Texas founded in 1981 by Creston Funk and Mark Heaston. We began with a few brands like Mission, Thorens and Acoustat, but things really took off when we began to sell Linn and Naim sometime around 1982 (we continued to sell both Linn and Naim until the early 2000's.)

We continually searched for the best hifi gear in the world (Audio Note, ATC, etc.) and eventually found a small British company called Crimson Electronics. We decided that the products Crimson Electronics were making were so fantastic that we’d become the U.S. importer. Crimson Electronics led us to DNM Electronics and for a time we were the importer for DNM as well. (DNM Electronics are now imported by our good friend Tim Ryan at Simplifi Audio.)

Crimson Electronics also led us to Tocaro Loudspeakers from Germany.

So now we are the U.S. importers and retailers for Crimson Electronics, Tocaro Loudspeakers and Reson Phono Cartridges and Audio Gear, and we’re retailers for Harbeth Loudspeakers, Resolution Audio CD Players, ATC Loudspeakers, and Avantone Loudspeakers.

Then we moved to Austin and we decided that instead of having a storefront, we’d have a listening studio without regular retail hours, and that we’d have listening sessions on an appointment basis. By “appointment” we mean that we’d like you to give us a little lead-time before you’d like to come by. And by all means, just come by to listen. Don’t plan on buying something right away.

Okay, if you’ve really got some money burning a hole in your pocket, we’ll help. But seriously, the more people hear our stuff, the better. You’re not imposing on us if you just want to come by with some of your CDs or records and have a listen to some gear that you may not have heard before.

So, why don’t we have a retail storefront?

We had a retail storefront for over twenty years. The problem is that as soon as someone comes by for a serious listen, there’d be a zillion interruptions; the UPS guy would come by, someone would bring a broken VHS player and ask if we could fix it, then someone would come by and try to sell us stuff; you get the picture.

This way, it’s more relaxing. For you and for us. And besides, this way we can go swimming in the middle of the day sometimes.

But why the name change?

Back in 1981, Concert Sound seemed like a clever name. But honestly, we finally got tired of people calling to buy concert tickets or to rent sound systems for live music. Plus, we think Austin Hifi is a little easier to remember.

Dust to Digital and The Art of Field Recording Vol. I

2007-11-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Dust to Digital is a label out of Atlanta, Georgia. According to their website, Dust-to-Digital's mission is to produce high quality cultural artifacts, which combine rare, essential recordings with historic images and detailed texts describing the artists and their works.

The Art of Field Recording is a compendium of music compiled by Art and Margo Rosenbaum and is full of parlour tunes, church hymns, slide blues, chain gang songs, Southern gospel and creepy country ballads. Just my kind of stuff. Here's a little bit of video:

But Dust to Digital has other great fare, like a Tuvan folk song disc and a very cool String Bass Anthology.

Good people making good music available to the world. Good work.

Here's the Dust to Digital Website.

The JBL D44000 Paragon

2007-10-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Paragon image © Harman International
(click image to enlarge)

How about a standing ovation for the folks who created the Lansing Heritage Website?

They've got a ton of great stuff, including this bit about the Voice of the Theatre range.

One of the most fascinating speakers around is the JBL D44000 Paragon

Here's a quote from the Lansing Heritage Website about the Paragon:

A little known fact is that the Paragon was originally envisaged as a center channel speaker to be flanked by separate left and right speakers that would be similar in configuration to the Hartsfield. This was related to research conducted in the 1930's by Bell Labs that purported the most stable stereo image was achieved with a center channel speaker. However the cost and space requirements for such a system would be prohibitive and the concept was revised to be a standalone stereo system.

I always think that the final nail in the coffin of three-channel stereo was the popularity of the LP. But anyone who sells speakers will tell you that three are better than two.

I really suggest reading the whole article.

Okay, again, I realize it's a bit off-topic for us, but the über-cool photo pushed me over the edge. Who doesn't want a tan Barcelona chair on a fuzzy white carpet?

Lefty Frizzell

2007-10-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Lefty is one of my favorite Country and Western singers.

Smilin' Buck Trent, the guitar player in the TV clip, is still picking and still grinning.

I love it!

In the News: Vinyl will kill off the CD

2007-10-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

According to a recent Wired Magazine article vinyl is poised to kill off the CD.

I think this quote is funny:

Golden-eared audiophiles have long testified to vinyl's warmer, richer sound.

I don't have "golden ears" and I don't consider myself an audiophile, but I usually reserve the words "warm" and "rich" for things like Toll-House cookies.

And I vaguely remember hearing that the CD killed vinyl about twenty-five years ago.

I think it's a bit soon to call a winner in the CD/LP/MP3 game. A Spanish language CD store (of the Ritmo Latino chain) just opened a block from my house.

Alan Blumlein: Inventing Stereo Sound

2007-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Alan Blumlein invented a lot of things. Here's a list of his patents. from Dora Media Productions' website where there's also information about Robert Charles Alexander's excellent book about Alan Blumlein.

The book is titled The Inventor of Stereo/The Life and Works of Alan Dower Blumlein and you can order it here.

Alan Blumlein had a lot to do with the fact that most home hifi setups have two speakers. The story goes something like: Alan takes his wife to a movie where he puts together the idea that the sound should follow the actors across the screen. Alan called the idea "Binaural Sound". (We now think of "binaural sound" as a recording specially recorded for listening through headphones... I believe Western Electric coined the term "stereophonic".)

Alan Blumlein described a method of recording sound using two microphones with figure-of-eight patterns arranged at 90 degree angles and a method of playing back the resulting audio using two loudspeakers. If Mr. Blumlein were alive today, I would ask him if he intended for recordings made with the Blumlein Technique to be played back with the speakers placed 90 degrees to each other.

Here's a nice description of how the mics are set up with Blumlein Technique.

According to Chesky Records, all of their recordings are made using Blumlein Technique.

In the early days of stereo recording, some engineers (possibly including Harvey Fletcher at Bell Labs) favored three-channel recordings, but I would guess the eventual dominance of the phonograph record pushed things to favor two-channel recordings.

Here's the Patent Specification for Blumlein's directional sound recording technique (also from Dora Music's excellent webpage.) Note that it's from 1931!

Alan Blumlein also did significant work at EMI on H2S Radar. Sadly, Alan Blumlein was killed in the crash of a Handley Page Halifax aircraft (pictured below) that was involved in H2S Radar tests.

It's amazing that Blumlein was granted 128 patents, especially considering that he died just short of his fortieth birthday.

Richard Burwen and his 20,000-watt hifi system

2007-10-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

click image to enlarge

(photo from: Audio Magazine/scrounge.org)

click image to enlarge

(photo from Richard Burwen's website.)

Okay, this is pretty fascinating stuff.

I realize it's pretty far off-topic for our single driver speaker blog, but anyway...

Who is Richard Burwen?

Here's his bio.

Here's just a small blurb from his bio in case you skipped the link:

Dick got into a lot of really interesting projects. Among the more challenging projects were ultra-low drift chopper-stabilized DC data amplifiers, IC multipliers and function generators, magnetometers, and low-noise switching power amplifiers. He designed circuitry of the first transistorized blood cell counter, a seizure detector for epilepsy, photoelectric relays, high resolution CRT displays, early projection color TV, a military satellite spin detector, and magnetometers for ground use and aircraft. His spacecraft magnetometer circuits successfully measured the magnetic field of the moon from orbit.

The article about Richard Burwen's 20,000-watt hifi system comes from Wayne's Speaker Building Page. The article is excerpted from Audio magazine, April, 1976. pp. 44-56 and was written by Richard S. Burwen.

click image to enlarge

(photo from: Audio Magazine/scrounge.org)

Here's a blurb about Richard's 20,000-watt hifi system:

Each of the five speaker horns is 13 ft. deep and has about 64 sq. ft. of mouth area. [i.e. 8 foot x 8 foot] The horns are conical, in preference to exponential, in order to produce a gradual low frequency rolloff, instead of a sharp cutoff. As it turned out, due to reinforcement from the room, the average low frequency response on one third octave bands is flat down to 16 Hz without equalization.

Each speaker horn contains 30 Cerwin-Vega tweeters, a midrange horn with two JBL 2440 drivers, and two Empire 16 in. woofers. In addition, the left-front and right-front horns have two 24 in. Cerwin-Vega woofers, mounted on the doors. These woofers are equipped with feedback windings to linearize their acoustic output over their range.

and...

To drive these speakers there are a total of 17 Phase Linear 400 amplifiers [200 watts RMS/channel @ 8 ohms].... Each woofer, midrange horn, and set of 9 or 12 tweeters is driven from one 200 watt amplifier channel. With the electronic crossover at 50, 400 and 5,000 Hz ahead of the amplifier, the speakers can produce the same sound level that would be produced by a single 20,000 watt amplifier.... The crossover filters utilize UM201 modules to produce 6-, 12-, 18-, and 30-db/octave cutoffs for the various drivers. In addition, the crossover provides equalization to lat acoustic response.

click image to enlarge

(photo from: Audio Magazine/scrounge.org)

Here's a great picture of Richard with his first hifi in 1945:

click image to enlarge

(photo from Richard Burwen's website.)

...and here's his 2-watt amplifier with bass and treble controls, 1946.

click image to enlarge

(photo from Richard Burwen's website.)

You can follow this link to Richard Burwen's website. You'll notice that he's been keeping busy.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

2007-10-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

We've had the APOD link up for a while, but it's worth a more detailed mention.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day website
is "originated, written, coordinated, and edited since 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell".

And just as the name promises, there's a new astronomy-related picture every day.

The APOD Archive is a great place to get lost when you're supposed to be working. They've been putting up a new picture every day since June of 1995 so there's a lot to see.

Here are links to the above photos:

Jupiter

Death Valley

Great fun.

Credits: Jupiter: NASA, Johns Hopkins U. APL, SWRI

Death Valley: Dan Duriscoe, U.S. National Park Service

Support Real Stereo

2007-10-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

The folks over at TNT-Audio have started the Campaign for Real Stereo.

I'll support that. I only have two ears.

(That doesn't mean I won't be perfectly happy to sell you five speakers!)

NASA's Gold Record

2007-09-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Being a fan of LP records as well as spaceships, I've long been fascinated with the fact that the Voyager spacecraft have LP records on board, complete with instructions on how to play them.

But here's a recent article from the New York Times by Timothy Ferris who produced the LP.

He talks about how the record should last a billion years and how it almost didn't make it on board the spacecraft.

Really fascinating stuff.

(click image to enlarge)

There's Uranium 238 on the surface of the record so that someone, somewhere might be able to figure the age of the record.

Here's the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's official page on the Voyager record.

Jet Propulsion Lab's site also has some of the images that the disk contains.

It's a little eerie to look at the photos since we're sure to be cosmic dust by the time anyone finds the Voyager.

Cool.

Brutal Honesty in the Hi-Fi Business: Tim de Paravicini and tube warmth

2007-08-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Hi-Fi. It's short for "High Fidelity". If fidelity means "the degree of exactness with which something is reproduced" (as the Oxford American Dictionary says) then wouldn't the best hi-fi system be one that plays back the recording as faithfully as possible?

Well, that's what we think. Once the music is recorded, we want the experience of listening to the recording to be as much like "being there" as possible. We don't want our hi-fi system to add "warmth" or "color" or anything else. We don't think The Philadelphia Story would be better in color and we don't think The Godfather would be better if we watched it through a sheet of gauze, so why would we want our hi-fi to "warm up" the recording?

...and since we feel this way, we thought we'd share a great quote that we came across in an interview of Tim de Paravicini of E.A.R. We don't know Tim de Paravicini and we don't sell his equipment. We just think it's a great quote.

interviewer: You use vacuum tubes in many of your designs. Some people have said that tubes have euphonic even-order harmonic distortion. Do you rely on this tube nonlinearity to achieve the sound of your mods, or do you always run the tubes in their linear region?

Tim de Paravicini: I do not rely on tube nonlinearity. I don't want a sound in my machines. What comes out must sound the same as what went in.

The "warmth" in a lot of tube electronics is due to their dismal top end, the bad transformers they use, and the loading down of their high-impedance outputs. Because of the output transformer and the feedback used, many tube circuits have a partial bass instability that gives a bloated bass. Any warmth in the tube sound is a defect, but listeners don't want to know that.

I don't have to use tubes in my designs; I only do it for marketing reasons. I've got an exact equivalent in solid state. I can make either type do the same job, and I have no preference. People can't pick which is which. And electrons have no memory of where they've been! The end result is what counts.

Our hats are off to Mr. de Paravicini. More people like this in the hi-fi business, please!

Here's the link to the entire interview over at E.A.R.

Avantone Mixcubes

2007-08-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Let's say you've been reading up on single-driver speakers and are considering further investigation. Where do you start? If you go looking through the internet you'll likely discover a world of D.I.Y. speaker enclosures as tall as NBA players with drivers that are barely larger than a compact disc. Relax. All you wanna do is get your feet wet, right?

There's a little speaker called the Avantone Mixcube. I mentioned them in a previous post about the Auratone 5C. The Mixcubes are around $200 per pair. They're 93dB efficient so you can run them on just about anything.

The main thing is that we think they sound great. They really have that "single-driver musicality". This isn't a case of "spec a driver, slap it in a box and put your name on it". Ken Avant really worked with every aspect of this thing. And the presentation is great, too. A huge improvement over the Auratone 5C, with it's pasteboard/contact paper construction.

We know several people who have Best Buy-grade surround receivers who use Avantones with excellent results. They're great for movies and bring a terrific clarity to the dialogue.

I sometimes feel like we're shooting ourselves in the foot by recommending the Mixcubes. After all, we sell speakers that cost forty times as much. But really, they're like a "gateway drug". And in side-by-side comparisons, yes, the Tocaro 40s are worth the difference (shameless plugs abound!)

I'll warn you that there's a break-in time associated with the Mixcubes just so you don't get them out of the box and wonder what I'm talking about. During the first week or two of listening, they get a good deal better every day. This is not uncommon, in fact, I guess I don't really know of any loudspeaker that comes from the factory already broken in.

Did I mention that they have 1/4" Neoprene pads on the bottom? Or that they're shielded?

I can't recommend this little speaker enough. They're a bang-for-your-buck champ.

Here's the spec sheet from Avantone.

TV alert: Old, Weird America/Harry Smith

2007-07-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

We really don't watch much television, and most of what we do watch is on Ovation (the Arts Network, as they say.) A documentary about Harry Smith's Anthology of Folk Music will be on Ovation on July 15 and 16.

Here's the info from Ovation.

Harry Smith's Anthology of Folk Music is an amazing collection that we highly recommend.

Here's where you can get The Anthology of Folk Music.

photo of Harry Smith by Brian Graham

Your computer as a high-end playback device?

2007-07-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

I know a lot of folks have their music stored on a computer. I mean, hey, it's a whole new century and all that, right?

Here's what we sometimes encounter; someone has a nice hi-fi system in their house, maybe it's got a turntable and maybe it's got a CD player, maybe it's got both. But some time in the past couple of years or so their computer has become their primary playback device. And most of the time they'll have some small powered speakers connected to the computer. In most cases, they don't have the computer connected to the hi-fi; in some cases they do.

Does this sound like you? And would you like to know how to get the best sound out of your computer?

I think a lot of people are using iTunes. If you're not, chances are most of this applies to you anyway. Some of the terms might be different, though.

To begin with, there are some issues with the software that you might not be aware of.

iTunes seems to default to Advanced Audio Coding, or AAC. This is a way to "reorganize" the data in a "lossless" way in order to save space. Apple has made a pretty big deal about the new iTunes Plus which features AAC at 256 kbps instead of the usual 128 kbps. I say don't get excited. I downloaded both the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique" and David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" from the new iTunes Plus store and compared them to the commercially manufactured Compact Discs. The "real" manufactured Compact Discs sounded miles better.

So what's the better option? Buy the commercially manufactured Compact Disc and import it into iTunes. I know, that means you either have to go to the store or order online, but if you've read this far, I'll assume you actually want your setup to sound better. Besides, don't you want to support your local music retailer?

So get the CD. But now you have to change a preference in iTunes. Otherwise it'll be importing with the default AAC encoder which we're trying to avoid by not buying from the iTunes online store.

Open the Preferences pane and go to "Advanced" and then click on the button at the top that says "Importing". Now change the "Import Using..." pull-down menu to "AIFF Encoder" or "WAV encoder".

Here's a screenshot in case that was confusing:

Now, while you're in there, make sure that both the equalizer and the Sound Enhancer are turned off. The Sound Enhancer defaults to "on".

To disable the Sound Enhancer, go to the iTunes pull-down menu and open the Preferences pane. Now, at the top of that pane, click on "Playback". If Sound Enhancer is on, turn it off. I also say turn off the Sound Check option. Sound Check makes iTunes files play back at a more matched volume, but there's a problem with doing that; iTunes is capable of bit-perfect playback, but only if you don't reduce the output before your Digital to Analog Converter.

This means you also want to have the volume on the iTunes interface turned all the way up, as well as the main volume output control on your computer.

Here's a screenshot of the Sound Check preference:

Now you should check to see if the iTunes equalizer is enabled.

To access the equalizer, go to the top of the screen to the "View" menu and select "Show Equalizer". When the equalizer pops up, make sure the "ON" box is unchecked, like in the screenshot below:

One thing I should mention is that your library is gonna get big. Quick. AIFF and WAV files take up more room than AAC files. But this is good. They sound better and hard drive space is cheap so you can afford to pony up. But again, if you've read this far...

So now you're getting better files into iTunes. But you're still using the Digital to Analog Converter (or DAC) that came with your computer, right? That's the thing that some people call the "soundcard". It's the thing that the mini-jack is attached to on the inside. If it's the one that came with your computer, it's not a very good one. In fact, it's several rungs below the Digital to Analog Converter in any cheap DVD/CD player.

Mastering Guru Bob Katz says this:

Most computer-based digital audio cards have quite high jitter, which makes listening through them a variable experience. It is very difficult to design a computer-based card with a clean clock--due to ground and power contamination and the proximity of other clocks on the computer's motherboard.

What I suggest is a good, outboard DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) that's USB compatible. We recommend the Benchmark DAC1 usb. We don't sell them and we recommend making sure your computer will send digital audio out through the USB, but most modern computers will.

The DAC1 usb connects to your computer via USB and connects to your hi-fi just like a CD player would. Once it's connected to your computer, it'll show up in your sound control panel as an audio output option. It's got a volume control and even has two headphone outputs.

Look, we know that iTunes has made it easier for lots of people to access their music. And we think that's a great thing no matter what. And even if you still want to download music from iTunes, the outboard DAC will make the music better.

Hopefully all this isn't too confusing. If it is, let us know.

See you soon!

1921 Victor Talking Machine

2007-07-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Ethel Waters' "Moonglow" on a 1921 Victrola VV80.

I find it amazing how good these players sounded.

The Auratone 5C

2007-06-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

(This is an archived post from our old blog.)

Audio engineers and their ilk have known about these for years. They've been out of production for a while now. I think they're great-sounding little single-driver speakers. It seems audio engineers have had a love/hate relationship with them (hence the common nickname "Horrortone"). Some say they're used as a "limited-bandwidth reference speaker" while others simply say "crappy-reference monitor". But love 'em or hate 'em, many consider them indispensable. For a while, buying Auratones on Ebay meant paying several hundred dollars. Ken Avant at Avantone has helped put a stop to the insanity with the Avantone Mixcubes (thanks, Ken!).

The Auratones pictured at the top belong to Douglas Ferguson over at The Still Recording Studio here in Austin (thanks, Doug!). The other pair seem to belong to Quincy Jones.

The Auratones and the Avantones certainly do "that single-driver thing". We have yet to actually put a pair of Avantones up against the original Auratones. Perhaps we'll ask Doug next time we see him.

Here's a link to the Avantone Mixcubes.