November 2018 Hifi Show

To all readers based in Manila, please mark your calendars.

Don't miss a guaranteed good time. 👍👍👍

Here's a preview of what I will miss. 😢

G.I.P. Laboratory + Harana Audio Collaboration

Joey of Harana Audio and Shinichi Suzuki of G.I.P. Laboratory

GIP 597A

GIP 555

GIP 815 in Harana Audio V-Vent cabinets

Harana Audio Workshop

Suzuki-san inspecting the electronics - Wavelength Audio SE45 with Magnequest Cobalt OPTs driving the horns and SE300B with Tamura Permalloy OPTs driving the bass, signal source = DEQX HPD5

Suzuki-san is listening

Approved👍👍👌👌

Time for lunch!

Oh wait a moment...

let's have some Beethoven Moonlight Sonata as an appetizer 😁

Visit GIP Labs in room 646 and Harana/GIP next door, 647. 

Cheers to Suzuki-san and Joey.🍻

Kutztown Radio Show September 21-22, 2018

All pictures were taken with a Fuji X-E1 camera + Canon 28mm f3.5 LTM lens.

I wasn't able to attend as many hamfests/radio shows this past summer. So I made sure I went to Kutztown.  

This speaker caught my attention as something I've encountered in a vintage magazine in the past. Since there was no one manning the booth, I went on...

A pair of University Lowboys + an EV Aristocrat

Nice Gates CB77, but I couldn't afford it 😞

Belt-driven Rek-O-Kut

Scott 299, LT110B FM tuner, Fisher KX100, etc.

Fisher PP EL84 mono block

My bud Larry always has a live demo set-up.

Sonographe SD-1: mid-80s Philips 14-bit oversampling chassis with twin TDA1540 DACs, audio section tweaked by conrad-johnson, nice piece but check out that asking price 😲

Tubes galore!

I scored a TDA1543 equipped Magnavox CD player from this booth. 

Lots of 70s-80s Hi-Fi equipment 

Used CD prices are at an all-time low 😃

The speaker I spotted earlier kept haunting me. I just had to give it a new home. My gut feel was right - it's a Stewart Hegeman-designed omni-directional speaker. 😎

Noguchi Transformer Co. Ltd, Closing

Noguchi Transformer Co. Ltd announced that they are closing on September 29, 2018.😞😞😞

Located at the basement of Tokyo Radio Department Store in Akihabara, I was first exposed to their existence in the early 90s through their ads in MJ Audio Technology and Stereo Sound Tube Kingdom magazines. 

MJ 11-1994 

Back in the 90s they ran 2-page ads for Tamura, Tango and their in-house manufactured transformers.

Hashimoto

I was glad to see their store when I visited Tokyo in November 2015. They still had a good stock of Hashimoto, some Tamura and a comprehensive line of their house brand transformers. 

Noguchi + Tamura 

I am speculating that just like everywhere else in the world, the Japanese market for DIY/vacuum tube/single-ended triode amps is also shrinking. This explains why these manufacturers are closing shop, 😞 not to mention the fierce competition from China.

"mid-price" Finemet OPT ad in MJ 12/2015

  

The Noguchi Finemet models represented their finest quality output transformers.

Even if I stretched my budget a bit, it was a good call that I added a pair of PMF-10WS and PMF-15WS + a single Finemet FM3WS-H and a pair of Finemet FM6WS to my collection. 🙂

Sayonara!

!!UPDATE!!

As posted by "dan" in the comments section below, the entire line of Noguchi is now represented by General Transformer in the same location at Tokyo Radio Department Store in Akihabra.