Artificial Owl: pictures from abandoned places

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

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

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

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

(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

Ever wonder how Compact Discs&trade are made?

What happened to Concert Sound?

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.