Octal EAR 834P phono preamp

During my visit to NYC earlier this summer, my buddy Ding loaned me his home-brewed octal version of the EAR 834P phono preamp using 3 x 6SL7 octal tubes. Powering the preamp is a General Radio 1201-B tube regulated power supply.

Ding is not into boutique parts. Instead, he used carbon film resistors, mylar coupling capacitors and electrolytic caps gathered from Hamfests and surplus stores. Proper grounding and parts placement ensured a very quiet phono stage.

Traditional tube phono stages like the classic Dyna PAS 3 and Marantz 7 employed active RIAA EQ networks inserted in the negative feedback loop from the final stage to the input stage. In the 834P, Tim de Paravicini used active RIAA EQ with a clever twist - the EQ network is fed from the cathode follower output back to the second stage only. IMO, the benefits of this topology are: a 1st stage unimpeded by negative feedback, low noise and low output impedance.

I've been enjoying this phono stage so much that I'm inspired to build my own version. Good job, Ding!

Shippensburg Music Festival 2016

From 1999-2008, I spent three weeks of July making music with these wonderful musicians at the Luhrs Center. It was great to be back!

Vidcaps of rehearsals 

1st week

R. Strauss - Metamorphosen

2nd week

Schubert Symphony No. 9 - Finale

3rd week

Verdi - La Traviata

Capital Audiofest 2016

 Here's my Vintage/DIY centric point of view of the July 8-10, 2016 event at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, MD.

EMIA

Custom turntable and tonearm

2 x 300B amps per channel 

using high nickel content iron 

wound and designed by Dave Slagle

Bi-amped stacked QUAD ESLs

DejaVu Audio

Mint Garrard 301 + Ortofon tonearm + Koetsu Rosewood 

in a custom plinth

Custom tube preamp and amp by Aldo D'Urso using vintage Western Electric tubes, iron, paper in oil caps and carbon composition resistors.

Speaker system by Aldo D'Urso 

Altec 803A woofers, 60s vintage Japanese horns + Jensen RP302 super tweeters.

Aldo D'Urso and Vu Hoang

DC Audio DIY

Joe Roberts' Garrard 301 + Schick 12" tonearm

in a custom plinth

Joe Roberts' Altec 756B in 2.5 cubic foot sealed cabinets on retro mid-century modern hairpin legged stands. Highs are augmented by Fountek ribbon tweeters through paper in oil caps and transformer attenuators. Hey Joe, you need Altec 3000s tweets there instead ;)

Custom GM70 monoblock amplifiers with hefty Tamura output transformers by David McGown

David McGown (center)

DCAudioDIY set up

Roscoe Primrose 

Head honcho of DCAudioDIY Forum

Lots of LPs!

Yours truly with Herb Reichert and Joe Roberts ;)

more pics

Leica Store SoHo NYC

While strolling around SoHo NYC,  we stumbled upon this Leica store. This guy looked so familiar, I had an inkling he was the one who sold me my Leica M6 at Tamarkin waaay back in '96! I was right! Nice seeing you again, Craig!

PNoy 2010-2016

PNoy at the November 2012 Hi-Fi Show 

I am glad the bulk of time I spent in Manila was during your term. I know you tried your very best. I just wish more Filipinos cooperated with your vision of a better Philippines. 

Thank you very much, Mr. President!!! 

(Re)building a Hi-Fi Room

ca. 2006

Eight years ago I vacated this space, not knowing that I would be back someday...

Late Spring 2016

Altec 861 cabinet

Among those that didn't make it into the 20 foot container in 2008 was a pair of Altec 861 cabinets loaded with generic 15" drivers. I used one temporarily to get some sounds going in the room while I figured out how to repurpose the other cabinet.

Amplification

Grommes LJ2

 This sweet "Little Jewel" PP6V6 integrated mono amp fired up with no problems after almost 8 years of silence.

Rek O Kut B12GH + Velvet Touch

My hand-carried Velvet Touch tonearm "blu-tacked" on a ROK B12GH and mounted on a state-of-the-art crate plinth. 

After a thorough cleaning and re-lubrication of the main bearing, Papst motor and replacement of motor mounts, the dreaded motor vibration is still felt on the tonearm finger lift. I have to send the idler wheel to Terry Witt for a rebuild and plan on building a heavy plinth.

Unlike the fussy Rek O Kut, this Pioneer PL6U is running quietly on its original lightweight plinth after I replaced the 3 perished rubber motor mounts with rubber grommets + light cleaning and re-lubrication. It sounds great with a $40 Stanton 500 cartridge!  

Pioneer PL6U

Line-level sources

KLH Model Twenty One

Classic Hi-Fi FM table radio found in a bicycle shop. 

Western Electric 111C
+
UTC A20

Stereo > Mono transformer mixer for the iPod Nano

Hi Eff Speaker

Since the Altec 861 (aka Madrid) share a similar internal volume with the Altec 614, I went to Lowe's to get 3/4" plywood cut to the size of the front panel. Using a Harbor Freight Router + Jasper Jig 200, I cut a hole for a rear mounted Altec 414A and a rectangular 2" x 7" port to mimic an Altec 614.

Altec 2-way

Altec 861 loaded with an Altec 414A running full range augmented on top by an Emilar EH800 horn or Altec 32A horn with an Emilar EA175-16 compression driver.

Work in progress...