Kutztown Radio Show Spring 2023

 

Tish and I were delighted to have our dear friend Tony, organizer of the annual November Hi-Fi Show event in Manila, as our house guest this past week. Even if he presents the latest in high end audio, his hifi set up is quite eclectic and chosen by ear. It consists of bespoke SE-DHT amps, horn speakers using classic Altec drivers, a grease bearing Garrard 301 + contemporary components for digital streaming and headphone listening. He makes it a point to also feature local DIYers in his annual hifi event by subsidizing their demo rooms. 

Thus, the Kutztown Radio Show is very much his kind of scene too! 

Tubes galore!

From novals (9-pin), directly heated triodes

...to 110-year-old tubes

I'm not familiar with this pair of Hartley speakers.🤔 Interesting, nonetheless!

Presenting the Electro-Voice 30W super woofer and...

...the proud new owner.😉

15" Altec 602A Duplex with an intact cone but burnt out 3000B tweeter😔

Altec Flamenco + a large format 288-8K (K = Ferrite) driver

4 x Russco idler driven turntables + a pair of Altec 511 horns with 808 (802 motor + Symbiotik diaphragm) drivers

A pair of Russcos housed in a mixing console

A belt-driven Rek O Kut

Bogen B61 (Lenco L70) x 2 with original boxes at $200/each

A restored Fairchild Model 530 transcription turntable

A nice McIntosh MR67 tube FM tuner

A very clean McIntosh MC225 PP7591 stereo amplifier 

What's this guy staring at?🤔

Ooooh 😲..that's a Western Electric 86C amplifier.👍👏

Feast your eyes on this Holy Grail! 

(Please disregard the Sovtek 300Bs.😆)

After a long day of digging for tubes, transformers and miscellaneous parts, it was time to refresh and recharge with beer 'n burgers at Kutztown Tavern. 🍻😊

More crate digging, this time for LPs

 

at Young Ones Records in downtown Kutztown

Instead of heading back directly to the Philly 'burbs...

We took a slight detour to BEK HiFi and Double Decker Records in Allentown PA.

A glimpse of DeVore Fidelity speakers

Lotsa LPs!

Looking forward to the next event. 

Hopefully the rest of the gang can tag along too!🍷

Japanese Idler-Driven Turntable Part 3: Lafayette PK245

 

Page 12 of the 1958 Lafayette Radio Catalog

This is a Lafayette branded turntable manufactured by Teac of Japan in the late 50s. The drive system is an innovative implementation of the basic Rek O Kut L34/37 Rondine Jr. design.

PK245 + Musicmaster Model 12 + GE VRII

I got this unit with pulverized motor mounts.

Since the original motor mounts are no longer available, I had to improvise by using rubber grommets... 

...and 1/2" x 0.72" 302 stainless steel springs 😊 from Grainger. IIRC, it was part number 1NDJ1.🤔

!!!UPDATE!!!

After further listening tests, I determined that the rubber shock mounts used in the Gray Research turntable were better suited to this design. They can be sourced from Surplus Sales of Nebraska, part number RPS 426-0001.

PK245 + Musicmaster Model 12 + GE VRII 

 The main bearing isn't as substantial compared to the Rek O Kut.

However, the captive bearing is highly polished and the threaded bottom cap houses a hardened gun metal blue thrust pad.

I used SAE 30 non-detergent oil for the main bearing and "Blue" 3-In-One for motor lubrication.

The aluminum platter is a little over 3 Lbs.

This hysteresis motor is similar to the unit fitted to the NEAT P58H. Please click here for full details on servicing that motor and etc. 

The pictures below highlight features unique to the PK245.

Top shell motor bearing reassembly sequence

The bottom shell motor bearing reassembly is exactly like the top shell except for the motor shaft terminating with a 3mm ball bearing on a thrust pad as shown above.

Motor wiring schematic

PK245 + Musicmaster Model 12 + Denon DL102

Gary at The Voice of Music refurbished the idler wheels above.

Idler wheel components

Reassembly sequence

Top = 78 rpm idler wheel + arm

Bottom = 16/33/45 rpm idler wheel + arm

Idler wheel reassembly sequence

60 Hz pulley dimensions + click here for more details regarding motor pulley alignment.

PK245 + Grace G540L + Ortofon SPU#1s

Happy tinkering and listening!

Warming up the Denon DL102

Ever since I acquired a Denon DL102 for my first dedicated mono hifi set up, I found it sounding rather distant and a bit frosty compared to the GE RPX and VRII. 

Since Denon recommends a 1000 ohm load for flattest response, I tried soldering a 1k ohm resistor in parallel with the 47k input (47,000 x 1000/47000 + 1000  = 980 ohms) of my variable EQ phono preamp. Unfortunately, the sound became even more glacial.

I could have been basking in warmth by now (without losing stereo LP compatibility) if I saved up for an Ortofon SPU mono but the DL102 body fits a Gray Research or clone tonearm slide perfectly. Besides, I would rather add more stereo SPUs to my cache.😉

Since I've been using 1:1 line transformers as digital sound processing devices at the output of my CD players for ages, I decided to try the same trick by wiring the Altec 15356 and UTC A20 with a mild step up - 150:600 and 125:500, respectively. Even if both primaries reflected significantly less than Denon's recommended 1000 ohms, what I heard encouraged me to continue to experiment. 

Although I'm not anal retentive about impedance matching, I was curious too see if the sound would improve by using transformers that reflect at least twice the 240 ohm internal impedance of the Denon DL102. I managed to procure the three transformers above: to the left is allegedly a Tamura 600:3k, then I tapped the McMartin MT-4's 10k:60k winding, and at the center is a permalloy 10k:40k, which sells for about $50/shipped from Chinese sellers on AliExpress and eBay. 

 

In the context of my mono hifi set up, the McMartin MT-4 was a bit too warm for my taste. However, even if I upload videos merely for the visual spectacle, the permalloy (above) and Tamura (below) transformers are lush enough for me.😉

But as usual in this hobby, YMMV. 

Happy Listening!😊

Altec 405A

This ain't no April fool's joke!😆

Since the mid-60s (scroll down to pdf page 31), stateside audio experimenters have been trying to squeeze the last ounce of performance from the Coral/Sony "Holey" and Foster/Fostex FE103/Realistic 40-1197 family of 4" drivers. Meanwhile, Japanese aficionados like Old Joe (above), whom I follow on YouTube, kept snapping up Anaheim-manufactured Altec 405As in multiple quantities to stuff into their mini A7 VOTT projects. 

Because of the dearth of units left in the States and my indifference towards engaging in a bidding war versus fellow Asian hobbyists, I patiently hunted them for 20+ years via other channels.

Altec 405A specs

The 405A is a 4"  60-15,000 Hz wide range driver with a sensitivity rating of 92dB/4ft/1W. It's equipped with a massive Indox magnet that's almost the same diameter as its cone.

IMHO and experience, Altec cabinet plans always deliver sonically. Aside from a full understanding of the physics of sound, their engineers used their ears as the final arbiter in a design brief. To me, that trumps any design completely derived from a mathematical formula or computer simulation. So I asked my buddy @ Hommage Audio to fashion a Bonsai pair of Altec 614-style boxes based on the above dimensions.

Interior stuffed with Dacron

For sentimental reasons, I have a pair Realistic Minimus 8s on my test bench. I always thought they were above average, although not extraordinarily special. Same deal with the "Holey Frame" drivers I pulled out of a Sony TC500A RTR machine. To my ears, both FE103 derivatives have an upper midrange resonance, which require an EQ/contour network to make them more listenable.

614 style 405A cabinet

I found the 5.25" Realistic 40-1354A more impressive in spite of its narrow band whizzer honk. Back in the 90s, I played with it in a ported box similar in size to the above Altec 405A cabinet, as well as in a TQWT. Both speaker projects came from the book Designing, Building, and Testing Your Own Speaker System by David B. Weems.

Silbatone box + 755C and 405A in a 0.4 cubic foot ducted port box

Spoiled by years of exposure to Altec 755As and 755Cs in open baffles or 2 cf boxes, and more recently, in Silbatone cabinets, I considered this Altec 405A + Bonsai 614 style enclosure project as a mere novelty experiment.

 

As soon as I hooked them up to my near-field hifi system, I was pleasantly surprised that they play like their bigger brothers, albeit at a reduced scale. 

It's physically impossible for the 4" cone of the 405A to extend much below 90 Hz, but the roll off is gentle and there's enough harmonics to suggest bass lines. I hear a slight trace of peakiness in the presence region. For my taste though, an EQ filter isn't necessary. 

Although the Altec 405A can't replace the Altec 755C (much less the 755A) in my near-field set up, its midrange depth, micro dynamics, detail resolution and overall tonal balance makes it worthy of the Altec badge!👍😊

Musicmaster Model 12 (Gray clone) Tip + GE VRII Hack

Canon P + Canon 50mm f1.8 
Foma 100 in Rodinal 1+50

After many decades of collecting and using classic audio equipment and film cameras, I've learned to accept that sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but most of the time I break even. And the only reason there is that possibility of breaking even is because I learned to DIY.

This tonearm came with a KS Musicmaster Model 25B12GST idler-driven turntable, which I thought I could resuscitate. Alas, the turntable was beyond saving because a lot of important parts were missing. The tonearm had no head shell slide and the cartridge pin contact points + wiring harness were gone. For many years this tonearm was boxed up along with other parts units sitting in storage.

One day I had an epiphany - will the Karmadon head shell slide fit? 

 I'm happy to report that the two types of head shell slides that my buddy, Sergiy, manufactures for his Gray Research tonearm clone work on this Japanese clone as well as on my original Gray Research 108C. Above left is a solid shell and on the right is a shell with a hole to accommodate the triple play feature of the General Electric RPX and VRII mono cartridges. 

Despite the carnage brought upon the Ukrainians by a deranged autocrat, my Karmadon head shells arrived in less than two weeks. We really have to admire and support these people!

I rewired the tonearm and blu-tacked 4 pennies to make up for the lost hardware.

A blob of 600,000 cSt silicone fluid was injected into the uni-pivot bearing cup.

Since the Karmadon head shell slide is lighter than the original, I used all three copper weights Sergiy provided, added 2 x 5 centavo coins + the GE VRII cartridge = 25 grams. 

I misplaced my VRII cartridge pins 😞...but after a bit of head scratching, I hacked two tube pins from a dead octal based tube and soldered them to the signal wires.😊

Voila!👍

For more viscous damped tonearm set up information, please click here!

 Even with my 20+ years of experience using this tonearm, it took me a while to dial-in the proper weight compensation due to the missing hardware + adapted head shell slide. Getting a viscous damped tonearm to function properly isn't for the faint of heart and requires patience. If you don't possess these virtues, I suggest you don't consider using one. But I must say the results are well worth it!😊

Musicmaster Model 12 + GE VRII

Let's listen to a few monaural hifi tunes!

🎶🎻🎹🎷