My various incarnations of home brew speakers

Over the past few years the putterer in me has surfaced, and I have played with building a few high efficiency horn designs. I have been mainly inspired by the German Avant Gardes, of course I can't afford them.

 The top three photos are one of my most recent efforts, a Fostex FE 208  full range 7'' driver with banana pulp paper and Planet 10 phase plugs mounted in a 24'' Atlas stadium horn. I recently swapped the Fostex out for some older full range JBL alnicos, the model number escapes me at the moment.

A lady that I worked for gave me the metal racks, actually for clothing displays in her accessory store. The top arms came right out, and these ended up looking pretty cool. The black backs are actually waste baskets! I obviously used these with a sub. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.........

  The bottom four pictures kind of started the whole thing, a pair of fibreglass planters from Home Depot that I painted and mounted some Altec  compression drivers on the back of. These are sitting on Altec Santana cabinets with JBL professional 15s, again the model number escapes me. An Apt 80 tweeter also mounted in the cabinet added sparkle. Eventually I mounted the Fostex drivers in these, and the whole system was biamped. Triodes on the tops, Chiro on the bottoms, professional two way crossover. this sounded very powerful, and was quite flexible.

   The problem was I couldn't stop fidgeting with it! Every record I changed the levels just a little, raised or lowered the crossover point by a few hz, just could never leave it alone!


I still have all or most of this stuff laying around if I ever want to pick up where I left off. Sound like Avant Gardes? Probably not, I have never heard them.


    Like I said, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.........

Internet Radio

Lately I have been waaayyyyyy  too interested in this! A lot of fun, distracting me from my vinyl. Thinkin' it sounds better than a lot of digital sources, but I am not really sure. All I know is it has been over a year since I fired up my McIntosh  MR-73 analog tuner! Not just because of this, I have limited most of my radio listening to the car. Also have Muzak piping from ceiling speakers at work, some of which appear to only have from 8000 hz on up working (blown? Partially?) 

 Have several channels saved, Jimi Hendrix, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, Eric Clapton, Insane Clown Posse, etc. Tubes benefit the sound of everything, and this is a good enough source that I can hear the difference. My upstairs system PC has a cool acid trip screensaver that kicks in (via Boxee), I usually get the downstairs up and running and shut the video off. Great for when I am not being all that analytical and just want to relax. Occasionally it will play something I do not own. Most of the choices are pretty appropriate for the genre. I get very few ads, think it is the platform I am running it on. If you can find a way to download Boxee to your computer (I don't think the regular website offers this for anything other than tablets or phones) the app is the best I have seen. no ads, cool acid trip screensaver, and a second volume control. This is all Kosher if you are running tubes and/or horns. 

Late breaking news.....

McIntosh was recently purchased by Fine Sounds of  Italy From D+M Holdings Co. 

 (Dutch, Denon and Marantz, Philips). 

The blogs ask, "Why could an American company not buy them?" 

This Italian concern purchased them from the Dutch (D+M), who purchased them from the Japanese (Clarion). 

These people also own Audio Research (also an American classic), Sumiko, Sonus Faber, and a couple of others companies.

All the owners along the way have respected Mac, let them continue, and have not wanted to change a thing!

Still American made in nearby Binghamton, not influenced any any parent company. 

Still an American classic regardless of who owns them......

Now that a high end group of enthusiasts (venture capital group) have purchased them, guessing they will continue to flourish....... 

Home Theater

   Probably nothing could be less interesting to the true audiophile than commingling video with the sound. Although I have always had a few Cds, Laser discs were basically my CDs in the eighties. The only way I could justify that overwhelming (underwhelming?) digital sound were if I had a picture to go with it. I only bought concerts, maybe a handful of movies. (I still have a shipload of Beta HiFi tapes, nothing currently to play them on).

  If I could name any one category of product I repeatedly have upgraded at Rowe it would be projectors. I became infatuated with the earliest Sharpvisions, having sold the original Advent projection sets at JB years earlier for $4000+ in 1982 $$!

Here was a reasonably priced consumer product that didn't weigh 400 lbs. and was relatively easy to setup and use. Therefore, when the first used one became available for $1500. I jumped on it. Wowed my friends and neighbors, huge, bright (at the time) picture, like looking through a screen door, it was so pixelated! Over the course of the years, I think I have had no fewer than 10 projectors, at least seven of them purchased from Rowe.

Somewhere in the middle  there were a couple of CRT projectors, I still have this Sony in the closet,   I bought it from an outfit in California. A tractor trailer pulled up in front of the house, unloaded this on a skid, and it was mine! Probably weighs 150lbs. 

Have had it listed on Craigslist for a couple of years, still looking for that "special someone" to buy it.

At some point, I graduated from Laserdisc to DVD, and of course I rejected them just like CD. How could something that much smaller be better?  They got better along the way, and now I own probably 100 mostly concert DVDs.

 Had fun at the same time with the automation thing. X10 modules, motorized 100" screen, "Astro Ventilation" (a phrase I coined from the Chevies my dad sold years ago before cars had AC), this was a window fan in the ceiling to suck the cigarette smoke out through a grate I had mounted, all controlled by the remote, which does RF as well as IR. 

Suspended ceilings give you all kinds of options. If you mess up, get another ceiling tile.

Got a remote fetish, I have gone through two Philips Iprontos, and I still use one today. $1600.back in the day, these can be had for a song, and I won't even go into all the cool aspects of them.

To end this entry without alienating all of you audio dudes, let me digress that I have finally gotten into Blu Ray- had a Google TV capable of this a couple of years ago, but it was so bad I didn't even bother to buy any discs! Finally have 1080P HD on my projector,the best sound (for video) ever,

Bought a Mitsubishi projector from (guess who) a week ago along with the  Sony Blu ray player.

Video and Digital are fine, as long as you approach it like you are Amish. The early adopters should stick to analog. Plus, the price always comes down, right? Unlike quality analog where the price always goes up. 

Even watch an occasional movie......

Hey, Joe- Where ya goin with that (soldering) gun in your hand?

Mentioned my friend Joe a few times, well kept repair guy secret in Rochester. Used to do the service work for most of the dealers in the area  when they were open.

He started many years ago with with a retail shop in Geneva, NY with his brother in law John W.  (whom I worked with at JB). Remember helping them out when they needed a Yamaha receiver or whatever back then. Knew John first.

 John grew state of the art reefer as a hobby, gave me a bud in a baby food jar 26 years ago that looked like a centerfold for High Times magazine!
And, well- that is not really what this blog is about. Suffice it to say- I was pretty impressed 26 years ago with John.

  Anyway, Joe made me promise not to use his last name, the name of his business, phone number,email, or GPS coordinates. Says he has all the business he can handle!

 I know, he has had a Dayton Wright SPA preamp of mine for about two years now. He is the kind of guy who when he sets his mind to something refuses to give up. Power supply problems, buzzing, humming. I gave him my input, "It is humming because it doesn't know the words!"  Didn't seem to help. Still has it.

  Not much he can't fix, tube amp expert, and someone that truly appreciates quality vintage equipment. Got my Ming Da amps running when they showed up from China DOA.

  He currently shares office space with his wife Judy, who runs a successful cruise travel agency. The other problem is that they win so many free cruises that you can go weeks without talking to him. "Drop off the blown Advent in two weeks, we're going to Luxemburg".

 Apologize in advance for the blurry pictures, got a little sneaky with the Iphone there today. He doesn't know exactly what I am doing here. Think he needs more space? Give me your input. Some of this is repairs, some equipment he owns, some he is selling. He has sold stuff for me in the past. One of the best "goto" guys in Rochester. For $100, I will sell him out. He can fix Tandberg, B+O, older Levinson. I will give you his phone number, and he will never speak to me again. Worth it, he still has my Dayton Wright preamp.