In late 2023, Serge Rogozyansky of Karmadon posted his exquisitely crafted Ortofon-inspired 12" tonearm on Facebook. Being an aficionado of bespoked pieces, I was smitten! When I mentioned it to Tish, her immediate reaction was, "You already have too many turntables and tonearms!"😉
Due to an upcoming visit to the Philippines, I had to curb my enthusiasm.
I ordered the Intact Audio speaker autoformer with a -6dB to -15.5 dB/0.5dB attenuation range based on the fact that my Altec 802 drivers are about 12dB more sensitive than my 99 dB/1W/1M Altec 414A woofers. Other than that, I went into this project hoping that Google would be my friend, only to find out it wasn't!😉
Since I use external crossovers for my Altec 753C, disconnecting (and reconnecting for comparison purposes) the Altec 32C/802 horn/compression driver is a breeze. The 753C-style cabinets essentially serve as bass bins in which the 414A woofers operating in wide range mode (unfiltered) + the 20275 diaphragmed 802 compression drivers mounted on the Lycan3R WP12024 horns are perched on top!
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| photo by Susan Melkisethian |
This past weekend, Tish and I attended a wonderful celebration of my dear friend Steve Melkisethian's life (1950-2024)!
Over two decades ago, I ventured into single channel music reproduction to trace the roots of high fidelity. From that whole experience, I developed an aesthetic quest for a certain purity and honesty in sound, which runs parallel with my other hobby of black and white film photography! Sadly, I had to leave that particular mono set up in the attic in 2017.
This ca. 1969 Kenwood turntable adapted the Thorens TD124 drive system sans eddy current speed control.
Whenever I find them at reasonable prices, I re-acquire audio components I owned and enjoyed in the 80s. I started my quest with the Grace G707 tonearm, a TDA1541-equipped Magnavox CDB 473 CD player and the dynakit stereo 35 PP EL84 power amp. I also tried to rekindle my affection for the BBC LS3/5A monitor and my MC SUT collection now includes a pair of Sony HA-T10s. Meanwhile, I've been hunting for an AR XA turntable and a first generation NAD 3020 to complete my journey back in time.
