Record Review: Three Pieces for Blues Band and Orchestra. A Most Unusual Piece. And I LIKE it!

May 24, 2019

#311

Gentle reader, 

I have never reviewed any music before. I grew up in a house filled with music and learned to love many genres as a result.

NOTE: If you are viewing this on a computer, clicking on any picture will open a second window over this one. You click through or use your right and left arrow keys to look at the photos. They will be larger than seen here. If you are viewing it on a device such as a phone or tablet, I do not know if that works the same way. 

I have acquired a large collection of recorded music over many decades. I have probably given away or donated as many as I have now in all those years. Some I regretted letting go and searched until I found another copy.

At last count it was over 2000 LPs, plus some 10" and a few 7" records. And over 1000 CDs (SACDs and DVD-Audio discs too) plus almost 100 cassettes. Long ago I had reel-to-reels as well. I'd love to have an Elcaset deck and some blank tapes to play with, but that's another story.

Here is the cover to which this article is written: 

Seiji Ozawa is a well known conductor of Japanese ancestry. Well regarded in the classical world with many recordings under his baton with many orchestras.

A recent trip to one of our favorite thrift stores led me to find this and several other classical LPs, all must have been from the same donor as they are all in exceptional condition. Oh, and a pristine copy of Herb Alpert's FOURSIDER too. I have a copy already and have offered it on eBay. rfcollectin on eBay

I would have bought this record based upon the Bernstein piece as I love his music.

Rather that going into explaining the music, composer and musicians, I scanned the liner notes, each is credited as to the author and source. 

Like many people, I saw the film version of West Side Story, but in my case it wasn't until last year. So the ending shocked me! I also did not know what the reviewer wrote below. Sometimes I can be a little thick. Romeo and Juliet, who knew?

Now to the review part. I have not listened to much Blues music. For one thing, based upon the music's name, it is likely to be sad or at least complaining about what life has thrown at the musician. Somewhat like Country music: Wife runs off, takes the dog AND his truck! Oh, the heartache!

Anyway, I had a coworker, he happened to be black and is named Andre Fox. Not only is that a cool name, he is very handsome, well built and has a deep masculine voice. On top of that, he plays a mean harmonica. I admire anyone who is good at something which I am not. Plus the sounds that can be made with so simple an instrument simply blows my mind.

Corky Siegel of the Siegel-Schwall Band, plays electric piano and harmonica. He is amazing. One might guess they were hearing a saxophone.  

Jim Schwall on guitar is also phenomenal. Al Radford makes the Bass sing and Shelly Plotkin does very well keeping the beat on drums. 

William Russo, as you have seen in the liner notes above, did a fantastic job of combining such diverse types of music into a cohesive unit that truly works.

There have been many examples of electric guitar and other non-classical instruments being combined with orchestras, just listen to an untold number of film scores. Hans Zimmer comes to mind.

As far as other recordings of music composed to combine two seemingly divergent types of music, the only other one (not from a movie or series) is the composition, performance and recording of Jon Lord's (of Deep Purple) composition: Concerto for Group and Orchestra performed at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold. The "group" being Deep Purple. This  1970 album I bought new and still have. Admittedly, it has been a long time since I played it. It did bring me a little fame, however.

I lived in Richmond, Virginia from 1974 to 1982. The local classical radio station was part of NPR as many are. On Sunday evenings, they had a comedy show produced and performed by two men. One weekly skit was "Picks of the Pizzicato". They invited listeners to submit their favorites. I submitted this album and was chosen to appear on that segment. In the music, I don't remember when, is a lengthy pizzicato portion. I introduced the music, they played the pizzicato portion and we chatted. I became friends with one of the guys. I also got a T shirt for Duke Geek's Sirloin Snake Pit restaurant. Not a real place. One of the character's names on the show which I still recall was called Bulbous Brisket. Funny guys.

But enough about me dragging you down my memory lane. I wholeheartedly recommend not only the featured record:

But also the Deep Purple one. Reading the liner notes for the latter just now looking for  and not finding pizzicato made me want to listen to it tonight. Which I will.

Thank you once again for reading my humble words and viewing my images. All of which technically belong to Deutsche Grammophon. Your kind words and comments are what keep me cranking out these stories.

Scott

May 24, 2019

#311

Tannoy C-88 Twin Tweeter Transplant Step By Step

May 22, 2019

#310

Gentle reader,

I had finally, after 40 plus years in the hobby of home entertainment, especially music reproduction, gotten THE sound that I was completely happy with. Really.

And here it is. You can't see much of the components, but long time readers of my blog know what it contains. Speakers are Klipsch KG4s and Dynaco A25XLs. I vowed to buy no further equipment unless it was a bargain that I could pass on to another hobbyist via eBay. Plus Spring cleaning showed us that we should stop filling our house with other peoples stuff. So, we generally stopped going to thrift stores. In my case, great audio finds were few and far between, anyway. 

NOTE: If you are viewing this on a computer, clicking on any picture will open a second window over this one. You click through or use your right and left arrow keys to look at the photos. They will be larger than seen here. If you are viewing it on a device such as a phone or tablet, I do not know if that works the same way. 

After a stop to pick up some prescriptions, I asked Nancy what she wanted to do. "Thrift store?" "Savers or Goodwill.? She chose Savers. It was a wise choice. There, I came across a pair of black tower speakers. They were Tannoy C-88 models and at $24.99, and fully functioning, I could not pass them by. Plus, I have never owned any Tannoy speakers. This is the same store where I found the above KG4s albeit, they were then only $9.99. Oh, and it was obvious that all four woofers had already been refoamed. SCORE!

They sounded great, or so I thought. I had swapped them into the positions held by the A25XLs. Nice robust, well rounded sound. Right until I switched to the KG4s. Whoa! Those are some highs! Where the hell are the highs from the C-88s? 

I brought up my concerns to the various vintage stereo/HiFi Facebook groups I belong to. There was NO information on these Tannoy models on the Internet. And Tannoy's site has no information on older models. My Orion Blue Book of Audio equipment listed them as being built in 1991 and retailing for $800US or around $1,550 in 2019 money. Too rich for my blood. But for 25 bucks? Sold!

One person, sorry that I cannot remember your name, came up with the suggestion that I try a tweeter from another speaker. Brilliant! I pulled one from one of my Cerwin-Vega! LS-12s. I removed the Tannoy driver and plugged in the C-V tweeter. THAT'S what I'm talking about! Serious highs.

I then tried the Tannoy tweeter in the C-V, dull highs. OK, I have eliminated the crossover as the problem.  

Parts Express have some Peerless by Tymphany DA25BG08-08 1" Aluminum Dome Tweeter 8 Ohm for $26 and change, great! And they are 3.54". So I ordered a pair. And waited. Nothing. So, I contacted them, a very nice woman informed me that I had to order a minimum of 1000. So, those were out. Oh, the four ohm and 6 ohm ones are available singly. But I skipped them.

The Tannoy tweeters measured 7 ohms resistance and were 3.54" across. A search on eBay yielded me these MTX branded tweeters that are in fact Peerless units and made in Denmark, the same country that made Dynaco speakers.

$41.95 for the pair. They are slightly wider than the Tannoy's but have a nominal resistance of 6.8 ohms. Nearly perfect.

The following FOUR images are from the eBay auction from which I purchased these tweeters. Seller ID is: PUREWAVE. A link to their items is below:

Items for sale by purewave | eBay 

They are their images, but since I have now advertised their eBay page and am tickled pink with these NOS (New Old Stock) Peerless tweeters, I highly recommend that you too check out PUREWAVE on eBay.

Well, will you look at that, Made in U.S.A., hah! A sticker does not make it so!

These two charts are part of the auction's information. Pretty flat frequency response.

They have a decibel output of 91.2 at one watt or 2.83 volts in an anechoic chamber. Since I don't know the Canadian made C-88's efficiency, I hope that these are a little more efficient.

As you can see, the new tweeters are larger, this is OK as you will observe how I tackled that below.

"ROAD THUNDER PRO" what were they thinking? Thunder is not a high frequency sound. I never had any desire to own any MTX equipment, but since I have never heard any, I cannot judge them either.

Sadly, Peerless did not mark the polarity on these tweeters. I hooked them up the same way the old ones were wired.

I have a perfectly good metal calipers with a precision dial on them downstairs in one of the toolboxes. I never use them. These are right here in a pewter cup on my desk with the two pairs of scissors and a utility knife. So I always use the plastic ones.

Old opening is 2 7/8 inches. New drivers need one that is at least 3 1/8 inches. A minimum of 1/4" has to be removed.

I needed something to use as a template. I was almost done with a roll of clear packing tape, so I wound what was left onto a new roll and voila! A template that was a little big, but would do.

I carefully centered the empty roll and drew around it with a blue Sharpie as seen below.

Cutout was to clear the tweeter's terminals. Had it not been there, a router could have been used.

The two woofers in the first speaker were marked in red ink as to their location and possibly for polarity as well.
I'm not sure about the gold stickers nor why they are there. Perhaps they did the refoaming job? If so, their reinstallation of the front gaskets leaves much to be desired.

Not sure what TR refers to. The tweeters are not marked as to where they were made.

The photo below shows how the factory insulation has fallen from where it was once installed. That will NOT do!

I generally do not like crossovers that are incorporated onto the terminal cup. But at least they are proper three-way binding/banana terminals. It would be tough to read those capacitors since they are glued into the coil.

Longer pair of wires go to the top woofer. Below is the other side of the crossover.

I removed the collapsed insulation and the crossover/terminal cup. Below shows the two ports and the way they curved the insulation at the bottom.

I shall do the same at the top and middle sections when I reinstall the pieces. Set up properly, the bass waves should be routed to the reflex ports.

This is the finest saber saw we have ever had. It too was a thrift store find. Variable speed, easy insertion and removal of blades, on-board blade storage too.

Ideally, I wanted to stay to the inside of my circular line.

Above is the insides of the second speaker. Just as jumbled as the other one, insulation-wise.

As it turns out, I am not that skilled with a saber saw. The new tweeters have no gasket material on them. So I came up with the idea of putting a layer of clear RTV silicone glue around the opening and letting it cure.

I picked screws that were smaller in diameter since I needed to install them at an angle away from the hole's opening.

Once tightened, they were perfect. The cured RTV glue is compressed by the new tweeter and keeps those bass back waves inside the cabinet and routed out the rear reflex ports as they are supposed to be. 

These are the best staple guns I have ever tried. Instead of being hinged at the top/front and squeezing the traditional way, they hinged these at the back and one can apply more pressure to fire the staples. Plus, they also can shoot nails. Bonus!

Above is the middle section of insulation as seen through the lower woofer hole. There is a brace from back of the cabinet to front by the tweeter hole. See the insulation's curve? I used lots of staples and added Elmer's glue between the layers of insulation to keep it all together and in place.

Above and below are looking towards the top of the cabinet through the upper woofer hole. Nice curves, right? Who doesn't like nice curves?

Below is showing the transition from the reinstalled middle insulation to the bottom portion which I never removed.

Factory cut slit for the wires to pass through to the drivers in the insulated chamber.

First one is done! I chose Michael Buble's CD Call Me Irresponsible as it sound's great and I know what I expect it to sound like. I switched the preamp to mono and swung the balance all the way to the left. Oh, yeah! That's the tweeter sound I was missing.

I don't know what the person that did the refoaming was thinking when they put the front gaskets back on. But, having grandkids, I'm a grilles-on guy anyway, so I can't see them.

Both grille frames were broken when I found the speakers. That was the first thing I fixed on their path to wholeness.

And here is the final results. Because of all the other work I did to restore them internally and having to wait for the RTV glue to cure, it took about five hours total. I am very happy with the results. Perhaps, now that the insulation is back where it's supposed to be, the bass sounds better as well. 

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is your kind words and encouragement that keeps me cranking them out.

Scott
May 22, 2019
#130

The Other Stereo. The One I Use Far More Often Than The Listening Room.

May 8, 2019

#309

Gentle reader,

I've been in a writing mood lately. My previous stereo post was this one:  Forty Three Plus Years Perfecting My Home Stereo System Dynaco to Dynaco Quality Cables

It dealt with photos showing just the Listening Room stereo system (mostly without speakers showing) and the changes I'd made over the years and captured on film or digitally.

NOTE: If you are viewing this on a computer, clicking on any picture will open a second window over this one. You click through or use your right and left arrow keys to look at the photos. They will be larger than seen here. If you are viewing it on a device such as a phone or tablet, I do not know if that works the same way. 

Now, I spend a lot of time, more so these last three years, sitting right where I am now, typing on the PC. Like you perhaps, I have more than one music system in the house. 

I've never been an audio equipment collector, having collected hundreds of film cameras taught me that unless I am using something, there is no point to having it just to have it. Thus, I sold off 95 percent of the collection. I am not poo-pooing your collection, that is your choice. Also we do not have the room to store big things like speakers and components.

That being said, I have usually had a complete stereo in this room we refer to as "the office". Originally, we were going to have two desks in here facing each other like on the old Dragnet TV series. That didn't happen. Now she has the room next door as her woman cave. 

This image from 2005 shows the walnut cabinet I made when I was 19 with help, and wood, from my girlfriend's father. It is made from white walnut, the trees that grow edible walnuts. This was 1975 or 76. Now, that shelf is fully occupied with a portion of my LP collection. And a cabinet rests on the top.

You can see the monitor and part of my desk and chair in the lower left corner of the image. So, that is where I am sitting right now. 

Still working since 1976, at the time of the photos, was the Dynaco PAT-5 I built as a kit.  That's a JVC turntable. Radio Shack APM-100 meters sit atop a Rotel RB-980BX power amp I found at a flea market and bought for $20 based upon the seller stating that it worked. It did. Below that is, of course, the long-sought-after-by-me, Dynaco Stereo 400 power amp. Atop the Dynaco FM-5 tuner in the middle, sits a Radio Shack APM-500 meter. A Technics cassette deck, a RCA CD changer and the Pioneer CD recorder my coworker gave me.

Long before I had heard about the infamous "White Van" speakers, I bought those black ones from an antiques store. They sounded OK to me. Atop those are the 1970's Dynaco A25 speakers which were my first ones in 1976. They were floor models and I found out DECADES later that one did not have SEAS drivers in it. Nope, they had exchanged them with some generic ones and stuffed the cabinet with fiberglass. So much for my "golden ears". I never heard a difference. Then one day, I heard a scratchiness from one woofer. I pried off (Dynaco glued on the grilles at the factory) the grille and that's when I realized Dixie HiFi had screwed me.

This picture was back in 2006. If you've read my previous article, you have seen this rack. Looks like the same cassette deck. Philips Magnavox CD changer and a TEAC equalizer plus the dual-mono Dynaco ST-120 amp are the other differences. What? Dual mono Dynaco? No way!

Here is a full height view of the rack. A much larger image file.

Didn't believe me about the dual-mono ST-120? Here's the insides of it. Heavy sucker!

The quality of some images is poor because I did not have large hard drives then. So they are small JPEG files. That is a Coustic brand equalizer.

My first 1990's Panor-era, Dynaco component sits atop the ST-400, a QD-1 Series II five channel home theater system. Above that is a speaker switch/meter combo that I made.

My PAT-5 was from the new-look era at Dynaco, silver instead of champagne gold and no longer beveled top and bottom of the faceplate. Wooden shelf I cobbled together did the trick.

Stacked only for the photograph. One should never put something atop a power amplifier, they get right warm.

2008 and I have gone to the Dark Side. Six, count 'em, six Denon components in those stacks. Also, then I have more records.

Denon DP-7F turntable to which I added larger feet. An Insignia HD-Radio tuner atop a Denon TU-600 tuner which rested upon a Denon PRA-1200 preamp. Beneath that is a Kenwood Basic M1 power amp. Next stack has a MXR equalizer with solid black walnut end caps. Below that is one of many Denon universal disc players I have had and next down is a Denon 3-head cassette deck and then a Denon CD player, model DCD-690.

I had stopped using the top of the shelf for the stereo and, as now, have a stack atop the top shelf of my desk. These are all Onkyo R1 models with my first OPPO universal player atop it. Tape deck is a TA-2120, tuner is T-401 and integrated amp is model number A-RV401.

Then, I came across PROTON. Believe it or not, this all-in-one AI-3000 unit sold for $1,300 back in 1988, it included two small speakers. That is over $2,850 today! CD, cassette, tuner and integrated amp all-in-one. Most of them I've seen and the second model which had a better CD player and larger transformer, lost their fold down door across the bottom. People must have bought them because there are plenty on the used market. I had three. Used, not new!

As I've mentioned in the past, my wife, that's her next to the "Flight Stimulator" poster, bought me a pair of BOSE 301s, the latest models, hoping I would stop using the large (15" woofers) speakers in the living room. I didn't, but once I did set them up somewhere else in the house, their sound surprised me. And still does.
I wrote an article about how I mounted them as you see them, in this room, many people have read it and followed my suggestions.

We're up to 2017 now, this is a Pioneer VSX-917V 7.1 channel receiver I found in a thrift store with another of the many Denon universal disc players. Look at how thick the manual is for the thing. One shouldn't place a heavy component atop another, and I did not use the 917 very long before passing it on to another owner.

The Yamaha RX-496 that I have been using for two years in here and the same Denon, which is no longer mine. The 496 was missing two knobs, but on eBay the day I bought it were the exact two knobs I needed. Paid more for them than the receiver.
Starting May 12th, that receiver will be on eBay starting at a bargain price. rfcollectin on eBay is my seller's page.

Here's the back of it. Super clean inside and out. Plays perfectly. I just replaced it with a filthy AX-500U I bought via eBay. I use an Insignia HD-Radio as a tuner and thus the receiver was not being used to it's full potential.

We have a number of cassettes from our pre-CD days, which I began playing when I had those PROTON AI-3000 units in here. So, I began looking at cassette decks. This Fisher is one of the few black ones that have VU meters. They made three that are almost identical with different model numbers.

It had been on eBay for sometime and not selling. I found out why when it arrived. This one was part of a set, integrated (100 WPC) amp, tuner and this deck that Fisher sold as a set. The latter two used AC power from the amp. 

That did not stop me! I have a big selection of "wall wart" transformers kept from electronics that failed over the years and one that is marked 16 VAC put out over 20 volts unloaded, it works perfectly.

Speaking of Fisher, I wanted a classic chrome and wood receiver. This 35 WPC model was a good price.

I cleaned it up inside and out and replaced the faceplate as it was scratched.

I also converted the tiny spring speaker terminals with this set of three-way binding/banana terminals. 
The cassette played through the Fisher, the universal player through the Yamaha.

Aside from the BOSE 301s, there are three other pairs of speakers in here. Crazy, right?

A pair of really nice Cerwin-Vega! LS-12s, the only CVs I've ever found in the wild, they and those on top which are directly beneath the BOSEs.

I completely overhauled a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7W speakers with new crossover kits via a seller that came up with the kits, woven Kevlar woofers from a pair of Optimus PRO-LX4 speakers and ribbon tweeters from Dayton Audio. The emblem on the grilles read: Limited Edition, and they are. 
Below them are a pair of LX4s with their Linaeum ribbon tweeters. The LX4s bass goes deeper, they are ported, but the 7Ws tweeters reach higher. I run them together for superb sound.

This is a panorama shot stitched together from four shots which is why the angles are so odd. Pretty cool, huh? I love Photoshop.

 

This is the stack (above) with the JAMO speaker switch I found on eBay. An excellent switch with three-way binding/banana terminals with inputs for TWO amps and outputs for four pairs of speakers. All are resistor matched so that all four can be used at once with no danger to the amp.
An Insignia HD-Radio which acts as a tuner  on the very top. One of two identical OPPO DV-980H universal players, the twin is in the listening room system. And as you can see, the Yamaha has all of it's knobs. 

Now we come to the present. The ugly but well functioning AX-500U integrated amp I mentioned. Below, you can see I have proper labels on the JAMO switch.

Just look how filthy inside this amp is! It works perfectly and there are no noisy controls, so I consider it patina. I cleaned the outside by alternating stainless steel cleaner and glass cleaner.

Back of the stack. I use good quality cabling in here as well as in the other systems in the house. The "U" jumpers are for use with an external processor such as an equalizer.

Something I bought had those two shorting plugs on it. Once I learned what they were for, I have used them in the Phono terminals ever since.

You may have been wondering where the speaker cables were going two pictures up? Well, now you can see. 
The cables are so heavy, they're all 10 gauge, that they will pull the speaker switch right off of the stack.
My wife saw this, uh, arrangement and shook her head, then turned around and left the room.
Hey, it does the trick and I am using a couple of camera straps that I just knew would come in handy someday. 






You can probably guess where I retired from by some of the photos in this shot, and it's not sports car racing. 35 years of what often felt like a sentence, working on subway cars. 
Don't get me wrong, it was a great job and thanks to God, I had a good paying job with great benefits and a pension. Sadly something most Americans do not and will not ever have.



I want to thank you for once again taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is your kind words and comments that keep me cranking the stories out.


Scott
May 8, 2019
#309